[ire]

This article was a good read...he lays out how he ended up in a big house and foreclosure. The sad part is that I have many friends like his wife, who just spend with disregard for where the money to cover the payments will come from.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17foreclosure-t.html?pagewanted=1

 

[BurlyShirley]

I have been trying to be less judgmental, but Im sorry here, this article should be titled "Im a complete jackass".

How can you be a financial analyst/writer for such a major publication, dealing SPECIFICALLY with the subprime mortgage fiasco, and get yourself into this kind of a situation? This guy earned a $120,000K salary a year to understand this stuff, and obviously he didn't. He really ought to be fired or at least barred from writing from an authoritative perspective on this topic, as he has clearly demonstrated a complete lack of credibility

No pity here sorry. It's one thing if you're an average joe, a victim of predatory lending practices because you don't understand the ins and outs of mortgage financing, but this "My wife spent too much money" crap is the worst excuse of all time. I wonder how his marriage will do now after he just threw his wife under the bus in a national publication ?

 

[Silver]

To be fair, he was an economics writer, not a financial writer. There is a difference.

Economics writers are the ones that tell you things like, "Losing your job is actually good for the economy because it allows you to get a higher paying one! And if there aren't any, the market will sprinkle magic pixie dust and make it happen!"

 

[drkenan]

That's a pretty depressing and stressful read.

 

[amishmatt]

I hope he loses his house and his marriage. What an ass.

 

[manimal]

no pity.

 

[ire]

He is an a**, but it was interesting to read how someone would get into that situation. His loan guy was crafty...I can't believe some of that stuff was legal.

 

[Westy]

The only people I know who are in tough economic situations have high incomes. One guy has a $150K income and just got forclosed. The other guy burnt through his ginormous trust fund and is having to sell other properties/cars at a loss to pay the taxes and upkeep on his 2 million dollar home. My friends who have suffered layoffs have all had solid backup plans.

 

[sanjuro]

I read the whole article last week, and I thought to myself, if they had rented a crappy house on his $33k-a-year budget (after alimony), they would be in fine financial shape today.

Instead, he figured he was a "New York Times" reporter, so he had to live in an hi-falutin home to impress his second wife.

 

[jonKranked]

Remember the episode of south park where they kept playing parody trailers of Rob Schneider movies? The one at the end that goes "Rob Schneider Derp Dee Derp..."? For some reason, while reading this article that came into my mind. But I was putting myself in this guys shoes trying to imagine what was going through his mind. All I could think was "Sub-prime mortgages derp dee derp! Tum ta teedily Tum ta derr. Until one day, the derka derka derka derr..."

 

[ohio]

This is the market correcting itself. Sometimes I feel like the invisible hand is the paternalistic will of jeebus.

 

[dante]

Not sure, but this could very well be more of an emotional issue that came with the divorce, new marriage, new wife, new life together, etc, and *wanting* all of the creature comforts that he/she had had previously. Add to that the fact that the wife was a stay-at-home-mom for the past 20 years and may not have had to care about what things cost (when she was with her previous husband), and it was just a disaster waiting to happen.

The worst part is that they started going into debt when they had $2400 takehome after paying the mortgage... Now, I know kids are expensive, but they probably could have survived on that if they'd budgeted correctly. You can pay for heat, electricity, water and food with that. You *can't* pay $2800 in Christmas presents, clothing, airplane tickets, etc.

 

[ohio]

The worst part is that they started going into debt when they had $2400 takehome after paying the mortgage... Now, I know kids are expensive, but they probably could have survived on that if they'd budgeted correctly.

Probably?

I had a friend doing all of those things AND housing her family (of 4) on that much in NYC.

These ****tards deserve to lose their home. I'm almost pissed that this asshat will be able to shovel himself out of debt with his book deal, except it means one less person defaulting.