理财：你做过最浪费钱的事是什么

What has been the biggest wasteof your money over your lifetime? SHAPE  \* MERGEFORMAT Jeff Sturm, Amateur economistAnswered Jan 6Continue ReadingThank you for the A2A! That’s easy toanswer—when my family was young we bought a large home on a 30-year mortgage.At the time we considered only monthly payments to determine whether a car orhome was affordable along with our other bills and monthly income.We were naive. The home was mortgaged forabout $250,000, but if we’d kept the mortgage for 30 years we would have paidover $750,000—three times the value of the home!I had bought into advice from family andfriends that buying a home was the path to wealth—it was an appreciating assetand would serve as a long-term investment. Although once the recession hit,home values dropped, my payments increased (on an adjustable rate) while myincome dropped. I realized I certainly wasn’t getting rich, but someone elsemust be.Eventually we could no longer meet ourmonthly bills. We tried to renegotiate debt. We scheduled bills for laterpayment, often past due. We wanted to make sure we could still meet our monthlymortgage obligation, above all.At our lowest point the gas to our home wasshut off, and we used a camp stove to heat water for cooking and bathing.Eventually we were also late on a mortgage payment. We tried every tactic tonegotiate with the company servicing our loan but they would not budge.Eventually the bank took back our home too.That’s how we almost ended up homeless. Wemoved into a very small home and make land contract payments to the owner.Today we own the new home outright.In hindsight I realize we were house poor. Wesacrificed our lifestyle and savings for a home we could not afford. After thatexperience, I would probably never again accept another mortgage with anadjustable rate. I would also apply for a 15-year loan instead of a 30-yearmortgage, even if that meant a smaller home.And besides the unfavorable mortgage terms,the house was large, cost far more to heat (up to $600/month in winters!),property taxes were high, and insurance was higher. I now wonder why we wantedsuch a large home at all.