All Forum Posts by: Jason Shaffner

Josh and All,

Congratulations. Only forty days ago I was congratulating you for hitting 8k. Wow.

I too would like to thank the mods, Rehab702, John Corey, MikeOH, loki and all the others who have taken the time to pass on their knowledge and experience here.

Jason

Mach and Dick,

Yeah, forgot about Ahhnold. John Corzine (Gov of NJ) also declines his salary. Of course, he was the CEO of Goldman Sachs so he has a fair amount of pocket change. I have little problem with either Arnold or Corzine because they have practical real world experience.

Mach ... as to your question about Hillary ... I don't dislike her because she is a Liberal Dem ... I dislike her because she is fraud. She is a socialist of the lowest order who gravitated to that line of thought without ANY real world experience of her own. If Bill Clinton had not been President ... Hillary would be a two bit laywer somewhere. As such, her last name is the only reason she is in the running this time. I have to believe that most people are really just re-electing Bill Clinton.

Cash,

I too am very dismayed by GWB. I also agree with you that a large percentage of our Congress is beholden to either of the two extreme sides of the political spectrum. Here in PA we have a clean sweep initiative going that is attempting to do just that ... clean out all of the incumbants and start over. Got rid of a lot of them two years ago ... and a whole bunch more are going on Tuesday.

Jason

Dick,

I can give you two good examples as to why this theory falls apart. Ted Kennedy and Jay Rockefeller. Both serve in their positions for free in the sense that they donate their entire salary to charity. Both are incompetent and blatantly socialist.

I can also give you two positive examples. Mike Bloomberg and Mitt Romney. Both serve is their respective positions for free for the same reason. I find both to be straightforward and competent.

As I am typing this, I notice that this is very partisan, but it was not meant to be that way. I just couldn't think of any Dems who work for free who are useful or any other Repubs who work for free period.

Not sure how we would do it, but we need to get the money out of elections. Because right now a select few are basically buying their way into the game and the rest of us can only sit and watch.

Jason

A round of applause for them. The vast majority of the country can only look at that level of financial freedom and wonder what it's like.

I like how the CFP said that they are doing well but they could be doing more. Makes the article somewhat disheartening.

As to REI ... what's the saying ... "horses for courses". They are doing well with the "low and slow" method. They have the somewhat rare combination of frugality, a moderately high income and no mortgage. The first and the last can help almost anyone acquire a fair amount of wealth. The second one can go either way. Plenty of high income earners are broke.

Welcome to BP from a fellow Pennsylvanian.

Looking forward to having you add to this great community.

Good Luck,

Jason

I'm a family guy now so I have a 2006 Honda Odyssey and a 2000 Subaru Outback Wagon. I just sold a 1994 Ford Ranger that I used for hauling. Had it since it was six months old ... on my way back from the moon with it ... 335,000 miles. All original hard parts. I'm looking for a two or three year old crew cab dually to replace it.

Prior to the family thing I had a few cool cars. 1987 Buick Grand National (heavily mod'd) ... 1993 GMC Typhoon (heavily mod'd) ... a 1981 Z28 that I pro-streeted and 1987 Ford Ranger that I did the same way. I have owned eighteen cars in my short 36 years and I look back now at the money that I spent and I just shake my head, knowing what I know now.

Good Luck,

Jason

As Jon said ... its different in every state.

In addition to that ... lenders have been relaxed about their standards here as of late. I have met owners with a NOD who are five months behind on their payments even though that particular lender typically forecloses in three months. Too much volume I guess. Trying to come up with a better solution than foreclosure maybe.

Good Luck,

Jason

Rich,

Excellent work on the sale. Keep your fingers in your ears and good luck with the move and your future investing.

Good Luck,

Jason

I've been to I don't know how many auctions and I have always wondered about the 'plant' thing. We had a heavy run of sheriff sales here about three years ago due to facility (sewer, water etc) upgrades around York College. A lot of retired types lost their homes. Those auctions were attended by three types of people. The watchers. like juzam said, were the people just coming to see what was going on. The mid level guys like myself who were there to bid on the rehabs and old stuff up to a certain price ceiling (usually 70% of ARV). Then there were the pros. They are the builders, full time investors and professional reps (for attorneys and doctors and lawyers and so on) who bought just about everything. They simply pushed the bid up to where the rest of us stopped bidding. They also were the singular bidders on the high end homes due to the start price. I have seen a few buy-to-own types, but not very many.

It also depends on attendance. Not so much with real estate as they tend to be well attended around here, but I have been to automotive, heavy equipment and boat auctions where there are three or four bidders for dozens of items up for bid. Those are impossible to predict and you just have to go to every auction you can to get one like that.

Good Luck,

Jason

Nice picture loki.