Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Thoughts from a DINK

by Guest
According to Investopedia, Joyce and I are DINKS.

Dual Income, No Kids - DINKS - A household in which there are two incomes and no children (either both partners are working or one has two incomes). DINKS are often the target of marketing efforts for luxury items such as expensive cars and vacations.

Joyce would probably take issue with the "no kids" label, after all, we have Pargo! And I'm not so sure about the second part of that description either. We only pull in north of 200k and almost none of that gets wasted on luxury items. We live a happy, simple, and frugal life. Regardless though, with no mortgage and no two-legged kids, we don't get much sympathy from Uncle Sam.

As she posted earlier, we spent a good bit of our Thanksgiving break getting rid of junk and clearing things out. The first thing to go was her Gocco printing contraption. After our wedding, Joyce started browsing some wedding sites and got all caught up in the whole Gocco craze. While I think the device would've been handy before the wedding, she really didn't have much use for it now. So we packed it all up and shipped it out to a bride-to-be in California for a few bucks. And when Black Friday came around, instead of going out to buy more junk, we turned our attention to the stuff clogging up our little apartment.

So why am I wasting time going over these seemingly pointless bits of information? Who cares about our penny pinching, zero debt lifestyle? Well, apparently, we are doing everything WRONG! Financial freedom is bad. According to Uncle Sam, we should be up to our eyeballs in debt. Every action the US government has done in the past few weeks, if not decades, have encouraged people to spend money they don't even have. So let me vent for a bit...

"We must stabilize home prices before the economy can recover."
-I don't know how many times I've heard that stupid statement. The basic laws of supply and demand dictate prices. Messing around with this natural system is a big mistake. And besides, what the hell is wrong with affordable housing!? Who wouldn't rather pay $300k for a house instead of $600k? I'm positive Joyce and I are not the only ones who avoided the stupid housing bubble and am sitting on the sidelines with cash in hand to buy a fairly priced piece of property.

"We must help homeowners from losing their homes."
-WTF is this all about? One, the term "homeowner" is completely invalid. A real homeowner wouldn't need any help because they would actually already OWN their home. The ones that are in trouble are "mortgage-owners." Two, screw those people for buying something they couldn't afford and for signing documents they were too greedy to read over. Three, screw the lenders/bankers that gave these mortgage-owners the money to buy crap they couldn't afford. All these dumbasses did was drive up home prices to dizzying levels.

I guess I could go on and on but what's the point. We should just go out and take advantage of all the credit that the government (I mean, taxpayers) have infused into the financial system. It looks like we really can afford that million dollar house down the street after all! Besides, if anything goes wrong, someone will be around to bail us out anyways. sigh...There is a lesson to be learned here, but I can't seem to see it anymore.

posted by sugarlens

filed under

10 your words:

  1. then why, oh why, did you guys vote for a democrat? (sigh)They are the ones for big government, pushing the repulicans in congress to come to consensus with them for the financial and now auto bail outs. With this kind of mentality, no business is ever going to be afraid to fail b/c govt is there to bail them out. It's disenpowering for the ppl too to believe that the govt should take care of them.
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  2. Good post babes, couldn't have said it better myself.

    I just don't understand how people can spend money that they don't have.

    I remember watching Suze Orman and hearing her give this advice to the audience..."From now on, make sure every penny you spend is a penny you have." Oh my god, I learned this when I was 2 yo.

    PS. It was nice to throw out four boxes of junk. I am all about simple living.
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  3. elu, you are sorely misinformed and have no clue of what you speak of. go grab eddie and educate yourselves before you start talking politics with me. the financial bailout was pushed by wealthy folks on wall street with connections inside the beltway. you're blind if you actually think it was designed to help the average joe. it was only sold that way to the public. and if you haven't noticed, america is now a socialist country with citizens bearing all the costs but receiving none of the benefits, all under a republican watch.

    and the labels "democrat" and "republican" hold no meaning anymore. republican used to mean small government, but all it means now is religion, war, and money. I'm all for the last part, but don't care much for the first two. and you've been away from DC too long to miss the fact that republicans are spending all our money with gov contractors like Lockheed, Northrup, Booz, General Dynamics, etc to "make us safer".

    so yes, democrats wanna throw money at stupid people and stupid companies that deserve to lose their shirts. but is that any different from what the republicans have been doing with our money? last I checked, Bin Laden is still free. either way, folks like me don't get anything from either party.

    regardless, do some research and look over financial data, geopolitics, and basic history before spewing mindless comments about voting for this or that. just know this, the kid in your belly will be paying for the crap that policies under a republican administration have laid in front of him/her for the rest of their life. and I'm not just talking about money here, they may end up paying with something much more valuable than that.

    so do your kid a favor and take a long hard look at the world we live in today and learn to think beyond what your tax bracket allows you to see.
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  4. Chill out, Luke. How did you get all that from the few sentences I wrote? I never said the bailout was to help average joes. If it wasn’t clear, all I was saying is that the majority of Republicans in congress would rather see the auto companies file Chapter 11 than use tax payer’s money. The airlines companies did file bankruptcy and came back leaner and meaner, now making profits. It was the Republicans that held out on bailing the financial industries.

    How else do you suggest I call them besides by their party names? And for the record, I am not a republican. I voted for Kerry and I will vote for Warner if he ever runs for president. Neither does our tax bracket have to do with anything. What are you saying? That we are or may be in the high tax bracket one day so I am for Republicans? If that’s what you meant than you are mistaken. I will never be the lucky 3% of whatever percentage of the population that is rich, still, I don’t believe in re-distribution of wealth. It’s the theory behind that that bothers me. What about socialism? The US does have a system to take care of its elderly and sick, it’s just that you and I don’t get any benefits. Socialism is not that great either. If it is then the hospital I am working at wouldn’t have that many patients from socialist countries seeking health care here. For the sake of equality, some liberal, socialist countries would rather have their patients’ conditions get worse or die before they get treated. Canada is bankrupt too, their people are all paying high taxes for all those programs they support. Young people now may be taught that big business are bad, just wait until they get a load of big government.

    Since we are on this subject, regarding the post on 11/05 from the Onion, Obama wasn’t given the least desirable job in the entire country. He fought for and won that job. Why are people so protective? Is it because they are afraid the media will turn on him, like they trashed Bush, when they found out he is not the messiah they think he is? I am willing to give anyone a chance and maybe it is a good thing that McCain didn’t win b/c now the world can’t blame Bush/Hitler/McCain for everything that goes wrong in the world. All these deregulation started before Bush, and the democrat majority in congress had power for at least the last two years. Why couldn’t they have done anything?

    Please don’t think I am blind. I watch news and think for myself, just like you. And the news/media, by the way, is liberal. Even if those reporting try to be biased they can’t help but have their opinion. The majority of people that go into journalism tend to be liberals.

    I do have better things to think about now, like the kid in my belly, thank you. And more pressing now, trying to squeeze in one more vacation before they life we know is over. So peace~
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  5. My issue with your initial comment is due to the fact that you brought politics into an economic problem completely unrelated to liberals or conservatives. It was about greedy people spending money they didn't have and expecting others to bail them out. So using some bizarre logic, you equated not voting for McCain/Palin to supporting bailouts?? What bothers me even more is your skewed view of the health system. I recall a statement by your husband that America does have universal health care, people just need to show up in an emergency room for treatment. For something like that to come out of a medical doctor is completely asinine. I'm fully aware of the EMTALA and for anyone to call that universal healthcare is just sad. So yes, I have placed you guys into a particular box and will respond accordingly whenever I'm on the receiving end of some misguided comments.

    I'm all for contrarian views as they help to expand my perspectives. But only if they're based on sound logic or facts.
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  6. Umm, I never called that health system. That was in response to your comment about the US being socialist country without having any benefits. I was referring to medicare/aid/social security,which probably won't be there when we retire. I don't think you know Eddy enough to know when he's kidding. Trust me, he knows better. They are just sick of ppl abusing the ER, coming in and out from drug overdose. Just saying, if 'sicko' is true and universal health is so great, why are so many Canadians coming to Cleveland for healthcare? They are our top three intl patients.
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  7. Tourism StatisticsDec 4, 2008 09:20 PM
    you just don't get it do you. like I said before, your skewed view of healthcare is getting in the way of logic. my reference to socialism was in regards to privatized profits and socialized losses, you know, the point of my post on the whole financial situation. but you went on to think of it in terms of your little world, which is healthcare. so the same way you dragged politics into this, you dragged healthcare in as well, which makes zero sense. but since you've brought it up, lets try to bring some enlightenment.

    so lets use some common sense and examine why Canadians are the number one foreign patients in Cleveland. could it be because of the geographic proximity? or how about the fact that Canadians are the #1 visitors to America? so with more Canadians than any other nationality visiting the US, it only makes sense statistically that they would pay more visits to US hospitals than other visitors. and guess who's second, Mexico. so by some simple logic, I would assume that the #1 international patients for hospitals around Texas would be Mexicans.

    now lets look at Mexico itself. Americans are the #1 international tourists in Mexico. So it would make sense that Mexican hospitals would receive more American patients than from any other country. using your logic, that would mean that Americans would rather goto Mexico for healthcare or that their system is better than ours. the same can be said about Canada. Americans are the #1 international visitors to Canada. so you can bet that Canadian hospitals see more Americans than any other nationalities. does that mean Americans would rather goto Canada for healthcare? but you just said Canadians would rather come down here.

    in case you still don't get it, I'm telling you that your logic is totally flawed and doesn't hold up to basic facts. gather some data and do some simple research before coming to conclusions that fit your view of the world.

    as for character, actions and words are all I need to start forming opinions. my judgment may not be 100% accurate, but until I see something contrary to alter my current opinions, I will continue to view someone in the same light. and so far, I haven't noticed anything that tells me to reevaluate my positions.
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  8. Let me tell you how my bizarre logic works. The bottom line is, unless I am wrong, from different posts the economy seems to be your biggest concern. My simple logic is this, if someone’s top priority is social issues then maybe he/she should vote for democrat. They are for welfare, pro-choice, gay rights and such. That’s all good and whatever but election is not won on those issues. If the economy is a bigger concern, then republicans are fiscally more conservative. They don’t want to spend millions on programs that don’t work and don’t want to bail out companies. Sure, they are more pro-military, and religious but you can’t pick and chose. Whether you care or not, I am telling you that is why I voted b/c I don’t want to pay more taxes for programs that don’t benefit me. To me, you seem conflicted. Excuse me if I offend you with that comment. I know there could a million other reasons and I don’t know where you stand. Okay, I brought politics and whatever into your article but it’s already past that. I hope you follow my flawed logic.
    You don’t need to explain how you form your opinions b/c I don’t care to change them. Also I don’t judge you but thanks for putting us in a special box. Isn’t it “asinine” of you to think that Eddy doesn’t know about healthcare when he works day in and day out in the hospital? Sorry, it’s not just the crack heads but the uninsured that comes in to the ER, if you like paying for them with your tax dollars then I applaud you. What “skewed” view on healthcare do I have? For the sake of arguing I typed something but it’s hardly a view. The other top 2 international patients come from the middle East and Puerto Rico. It started with your socialist country comment, which I thought was silly, b/c we are such a capitalist country. This will be my last comment. Take care.
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  9. Like I said from the very beginning, if you're gonna respond, please make sure you know what you're talking about or have some solid reasonings behind your conclusions, otherwise, you're just wasting my time and not contributing anything to the topic.

    Here's a parallel to your husband's oh so horrible experiences in the ER that may broaden your perspective.

    -People without kids still have their tax dollars go towards public schools. Even if they did and their kids go through the system, their tax dollars would continue to fund public schools. Worst of all, K-12 education in the US isn't anything to be proud of compared to other developed countries, so we're all essentially paying for crap. Yet, the public school system is open to the rich or poor, to the hardworking and to the slackers. If one prefers "better education" they are more than welcome to pay for that. Society deems education as important enough that the costs should be shared by all. But is reading, writing, arithmetic, music, and sports more important than basic health?

    It is asinine to be working in healthcare and to complain about the occasions where you have to service those that cannot pay. Especially since we're not talking about private practice here, your husband gets paid the same regardless of who he treats. And if money is the prime issue, there are many other professions out there that pay better than medicine with a lot less effort.

    Your husband may spend his days in a hospital, but that doesn't make the views you guys have any more valid than the janitors that work in the same building. So no, it's not asinine of me to call bullshit when I smell it, and boy is there a lot of it here. There's a whole big world out there, one just needs to consider it before opening their mouths and burying themselves under their own words.
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  10. garbage day yourselfDec 6, 2008 01:38 PM
    OMG, you are so full of it. Have you consider that maybe you are the one that doesn't know what he is talking about and should consider before speaking with such assurance? The uninsured are not always the ones that can't pay. Believe it or not, there are people that could afford but don't get insurance. Of the 46 million so called uninsured that Hillary likes to use, do you realize that a HUGE percentage of them are illegals and those that chose not to get insurance? A couple of months ago CNN featured a couple with decent dual salary that chose not to get insurance for their son. A simple blood work could cost $50~$100 and some even more. You don't know how the un-deserving poor are breaking the health care system. Stop speaking for Eddy, you hardly know him. I personally don't like ppl that cheat the system. Yes, there is a lot of shit that goes around but it's abuse. I know domestic patients that abuse the health system. Even my intl patients from China, I just found out, are using the Clinic with my forged letters to get their visa to the US and never showing up for appts yet still somewhere in the US. I will be happy to coorperate with INS to deport all of them. Regarding your education example, so Canada has a two-tier health system but you know there are opponents to that as well? With govt monopoly and no competetion, how do you know you are getting the best? If anything should be mandated it should be that everyone gets insurance. They did it for car insurance.
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