Working on Saturday

When I was a child my father never worked on Saturday, or better, if he did is was considered overtime and it was sweet.

I am working today and for the past year if there was work to be had on a saturday or sunday, I took it. Part of this is because over the past few years I have somehow been ripped off by fat men and addicts more than I care to admit, but the other part is, I like to work and the traffic on weekends always seems easier to handle.

In some ways I think this sort of take work where it is anthem is becoming an everyday philosophy. More and more people are doing what they can to hold things together and if that means a part time job, accepting accounts that might not have seems so glamorous a few years ago or working on weekends, so be it.

What has changed? Cash machine houses as far as I can tell. For may years I was aware that neighbors, family and friends were using their home equity lines of credit to do what they want. Some went to Europe for an extended holiday, some rebuilt bathrooms or some other part of their homes (increasing the equity, ka-ching) and some just continued to spend more than they could afford. One neighbor I became aware of did this, he purchased new suits, carpeting and a lot of other "stuff" on quite a few credit cards, then he had his house re-appraised, used the new and higher value to get a new loan and take out home equity that not only paid off the high interest credit cards, but also allowed him to cash out tens of thousands of dollars so he could purchase a new car, invest in the runaway stock market and turn his garage into a playroom, with a huge screen TV.

He did this three times. Each time the pattern was the same, over-spend on credit cards, use home equity lines of credit to pay them off, then use the cards again when he squandered the cash out money on some worthless speculation. This was a guy who made a good living, but he constantly spent more money that he brought in. In the end, he sold his house for even more than his latest cash out had allowed, so not only did he walk away debt free, but he lived to fight again.

The problem is many many people were living this lifestyle. While he was in a position to bail at just the right time, luck really, he is no financial genius, many people were not so lucky. That means there are families way over the heads in debt for purchases and spending they can never pay back, living in homes that are way overvalued and mortgaged to the hilt. There will be no easy way out for people holding a half million dollar mortgage on a home worth half as much.

For anyone who has ever speculated on stocks, and I know many people who have, what we often saw was us know-nothings purchasing stocks at almost their high, we made money on paper those first few months, but when the stocks prices started to float downward, even past our buy-in point, we all held on, thinking this is one of those stocks that will always regain its past glory. The sad lesson is that most of this sort of investment led to great loses, because even professional stock traders are generally boobs, but they play with other peoples money. When those of us with little knowledge got into the game, we were the fresh bait suckers who the pros used to build massive portfolios on.

The same happened to home owners. My dad never took a penny from our house. He died owning it. Not owing a cent. If there is a lesson to be learned over the past few bubble bursting moments in our financial history, it is that there never was and never will be a pain free investment that is for everyone, including greedy idiots, like myself and my neighbor, family, friends and just about everyone.