This morning as I was getting ready for work on beautiful Sunset Beach, I watched a segment on one of our local television channels featuring a lady who had been married for over 40 years. The feature went on about how they had loved each other and how they had traveled and enjoyed their life never expecting any significant change. Her problems started when her husband was diagnosed with dementia, snd she reached a point where she could no longer care for him. She placed him in a facility which was costing her several thousand dollars per month out of pocket. (I have said in earlier blogs...medicare nor medicaid pay unless there is an injury requiring rehab or end of life care.) Her solution to resolve the issue was to divorce him, but she would still be his wife, but now she doesn't have to pay. This is a current trend, according to the news. Recommendation...be sure to hire a good attorney.
When I was at work, I read the Raleigh News and Observer and there was an article about free dental clinics being held throughout the area. Again, a pregnant woman was featured who just thought it was so wonderful that she could get all that dental work for free. She went on to say that she had a couple of children at home and with one on the way, her plumber husband couldn't afford dental care. (What did it cost you the last time you called a plumber?) People were lining up at midnight, according to the reporter, for this free dental care.
Before I retired from teaching, my class was reading the paper and in response to an article, we were having a discussion about two hospital...one public...one private. I saw it as a wonderful opportunity to encourage them to stay in school and plan for additional training so they could afford health insurance to go to private care rather than a public facility. We all came to the conclusion that the best doctors were at the "For profit", not the free "Non-profit" ones. Of course, that led to a discussion of medicaid. I made the mistake of saying that medicaid was set up for the poor...Wow! You should have seen how upset a group of them were. Several jerked out their cards and said, "I'm not poor. I live in a nice house, drive nice cars, etc. My family lives well." They had no problems explaining why they get all the entitlements...you just have to learn how to manipulate the system. One even told me, you don't want to have a child by the same man because the judge will let him pay less in child support but if the child is by a different Father, I get more money...she was pregnant for the 2nd time in the 10th grade.
Why is this a topic? People are poor for a reason...they make poor choices. They drop out of school, they get pregnant, they squander their money, etc. The lady who divorced her sick husband. Guess who is now paying his $7,000 a month bill for the next 5-10 years. The woman who already had 2 children and pregnant with the 3rd but she couldn't afford a dentist. She can continue having children because in NC, we have programs to cover these children all the way to 18. Does she have to be responsible?
How does all this apply to real estate? These two stories are repeated throughout our country, and we are drowning in debt. Why do we want to encourage low to no down payments, extensions to tax credits, and low FICO scores to get people into home so when they have a crisis, they walk away. What happened to saving enough money to make your down payment? What happened to having a savings account with enough money to tide you over during that rainy day. It may be good for my business today but what about tomorrow...so do I feel sorry for people, sure I do. Do I feel sorry enough to want to take my tax dollars to help...only once. Everyone is entitled to make a mistake; however, the poor seem to make the same mistakes over and over and over.
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