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Learn from Mistakes
By Daphne | March 4, 2008
The mortgage lenders are tightening their belts not only in the U.S. but also in the U.K. People all over the world have made money mistakes. Every day we can learn something and make a change in our lives for the better.
My lesson that I learned this week is not to try to toast a bagel in the oven using the broiler. I watched and there is thin line between toasted dark and on fire when you are broiling something already dry. Because of my broiler mishap, I have decided to stick with the toaster.
Also, yesterday evening I was having a glass of wine and spilled a glass of Tannat on my beige carpeting. It cleaned up well but the glass broke. As much as I would like to have some nice glassware, I am clumsy and would never buy any expensive glasses for my home because I know that I would break them. Some things are meant to last and glasses in my hands are not meant to last.
Overinflated home prices and easy lending are things that were not meant to last. Not here or in the U.K. The article from the BBC mirrors our own credit problems. A mortgage for more than the price of the house is silly, just as silly as me trying to broil a bagel or buying expensive glassware, knowing that neither may end very well.
All the latest surveys have pointed to a slowdown in the housing market.
The UK’s biggest building society Nationwide says prices have fallen for four months in a row.
It put the rate of annual rate of house price inflation at 2.7% in February, down from 4.2% in January and the lowest since November 2005.
Welcome to the club. I will not try to broil a bagel again soon and will not buy expensive glassware when I become a millionaire. By examining the credit crunch here and seeing the beginning of a housing fallout in the U.K. wouldn’t anyone learn that taking out a mortgage for more than the price of the home is not a good idea?
I hope the world learns from the US about easy credit and its follies. Unfortunately, I think that some may be learning as we are… after the fact or too late.
If a person or credit lender tries to offer you a certain amount of money, just because you are offered a large amount of money, it doesn’t mean that you have to use it all. If you have no money and are offered a large loan on a meager salary, run unless you have great willpower and can use a modest amount of what you are loaned. THIS IS A LOAN, not free money. If someone gave me thousands of dollars to use and I didn’t have to repay it that’s one thing but loans must be repaid. The allure of having so much to spend is too tempting and like a siren calling a sailor is luring many people to their financial deaths.
Topics: March 2008 |