Let me sell you a home
I guess it's because it's just part of our nature. We are fickle, we change our minds, we believe one thing and next thing you know, if we are honest with ourselves that is, believe something different entirely. You see, there was a time I believed in the Utopian american dream, this idea that if you work hard, if you apply yourself, play by the rules, buy the home, get married, have babies, everything would be fine and you would most definitely find happiness on the other side of that rainbow. But these days, I'm nowhere near those ideals, nor do I find them to be true anymore.
I guess that is kind of why I could not sell homes, why I can't really bring myself to sell then anymore. I mean, I'm basically telling someone to believe in something that I don't. If I'm to be honest here, I'm not claiming i know the truth here, I just know my truth, what I believe, and when I would see someone on the brink of taking the plunge, getting into debt, putting a financial noose around their necks to keep up with the Joneses, I just want to tell them STOP.
A friend of mine who does lending asked me the other day why I'm not jumping at the opportunities these days, why I've lost the sharpness to my teeth. The answer is somewhat pathetic, for him that is, and me telling him that I don't believe in the system just sounds like his friend @meno is finally losing his mind, and I don't blame him.
Who is to say a few years down the road I wont look at these choices, at these crazy little steps I've been taking to leave the system and regret them. It's possible, and I'm somewhat at peace with that notion. The way I see it, I owe nothing to anyone but myself on those who I chose to love, the key operational word here being choice.
So, when I leave, when I sell this home, when I give up on the idea of owning more and more properties because that is how you make it, but instead focus on simpler things, on seeing the world, on spending time with people I love, even if all we got to share is a beer and a smile. I think the notion that I've lost my mind will be cemented in my old friends, but if I'm lucky, with time, they will begin to see what I've been talking about, or maybe not... Who knows?
Owning a home, what a pretty concept, a delusion in my view. Don't pay taxes one year and see what happens, it doesn't matter if you paid for 20 years, it doesn't matter if you've invested your life into improving it, but yes, you "own it", that is what they tell you.
All that happens my friends is that you, the buyer, get turned into a security for the bank, the very thing the SEC regulates so heavily, the reason why so many cryptocurrencies will be shutdown, yes, that!
I know, I'm losing my mind a little bit, should I say I'm sorry? ;)
A decade ago I discovered that coordinated treachery and fraud hopelessly infested the market for real property. This was a redpill I was almost incapable of digesting. I was not unaware of fraud and rapine, but the collusive nature and ubiquitous penetration of the perps rendering the market actually impossible of security was a blackpill.
After some (long) time to absorb and parse, I seem to have regrouped a bit, and my current pursuit of 'wealth' is basically centered on people, not things. My focus is not on acquisition, even of friends, but of beneficial impact on those people I am blessed to interact with.
So far, despite financial challenges, I do not regret doing good things for good people and disregarding my own personal wealth. When I die excess funds I accumulated in life will be dispersed to others, who did not earn them. While we can pretend that a will can effect our choice in who receives those funds, this is naive, and impossible to ensure. In fact, probate is at the option of courts, and the endemic corruption I have been forced to acknowledge invalidates any expectation that I have much ability to secure my assets in life, much less have any control after my death.
Therefore, simply being able to support my physical needs during my life is all that is required, or advisable. My sons have received financial encomiums from my life's work already, and no others are worthy of my accumulating assets to provide them, beyond my carpentry legacy and work to speak the truth.
It seems you are coming to grips with the basic reality I was forced to recognize at the cost of great cognitive dissonance and existential grief, and if you can undertake this without the psychic shattering that was necessary for me, you will avoid much trauma that I have not.
May the good you do return to you a thousand fold.
Thanks!
You remind me of myself when I first found out that all of the food I was eating was full of toxic junk. Once you "see the light" there is no going back. It's like the red pill of the matrix.
I used to be an accountant in California doing all the things "normal" people do and plodding along. I had a 401k and IRA's and stocks and on and on. But I gave all that up and spent it on a quest to help other people get healthy like I did.
Eight years later, I write to you living a poverty stricken life in Malaysia where I still work on this crazy task. But I would not go back to my old so-called comfortable life even if I could. Facing reality is not easy, but at least I am glad I can see it.
you are making your own path, and i think thats admirable.
Thank you. I try to keep the faith :)
I hear you buddy. And though that dream is not ours I figure if I can "own" many homes and provide housing then I can live the dream of seeing the world, enjoy time with family and friends, etc.
But yeah, I agree man and as you saw from my post the other day I won't let people get in a bad spot even if they want to chase that "dream."
Oh, it resonated with me... hence why I shared it too
I too have felt similar as of late but being too vested is tough to adjust as that is the plan for most of those who control that system. However, I still I feel I have a grip and will battle to turn it around! I have faith in my ability to make the system work for me instead of vice versa. Time will tell if I too am being too utopian about it!
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While I hope fervently that you do effect your goals per your efforts, I recommend recognizing that you cannot control others, or external events, and compose a 'plan B' in the event that such things impact your life's work. Having no fallback position caused me no little distress when being all in failed to produce tolerable results.
The concept of Samsara, or attachment to worldly expectations, in Buddhism, is an essential reality check that may prevent extreme distress should the world fail you. It is useful to know that you are profitable to you even if the world deprives you of worldly goods.
We are not the sum of our possessions, but of our actions. Take care to act in ways your principles will find admirable regardless of the outcomes of your actions. Regret for acting counter to our principles is a bitter pill indeed, particularly when the expected benefits of those actions aren't forthcoming.
I think you're thinking the right way. There is not just a direct path in life that everyone should take. It's also impossible to be a 'homeowner' sadly. In my opinion, you need to find something you really care about (not something society tells you to care about) and put all of your effort into that. It could be a job, a talent, a hobby, or an outcome that you're looking for and if you really focus on it, it will more than likely erase some of what you're feeling. I think later you can revisit these thoughts in a different way. Just my opinion here, don't trust every stranger you meet on the internet, lol. The quest for more is not always satisfying because eventually you want more.
solid advice man, I mean it... the best advice a stranger on the internet can give ;)
Thanks, I'm in a similar situation myself. Find something important to you and stick with it for a few months at least, I think you'll get to where you want to be. Under-thinking(made up word) and overthinking never help. Also, a good stranger is hard to find, lol.
Excellent rant there my friend! Top notch :) I've found myself at that crossroads many times in my life and..yea I've pretty much always chosen the "crazy" path. And when I haven't... sooner or later it's backfired on me. In my experience you have to go with what you know to be true inside of yourself. Any other option, no matter how promising it looks on the surface, turns out to be a false lead...
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I am still yet to have this sense of how it feels to own a
I'll buy one @meno :) :)
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I hear ya, I live in Midwest where prices pretty stable, but yeah the system can be messed up, foreclosure laws very by state too...predatory banking bullshit
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