So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[GHT]

But what a nasty, intolerant, cutthroat, opinionated, polarized, partisan world it is.

The first forum that I saw was that of the BBC. It was a dance orientated place, or supposedly. Spawned by the popularity of Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing With The Stars, it was a hotbed of fevered abuse, profanities were common place and insults abound.

The result of that experience made me extremely wary of forums, I was lurking here for probably a year or more before joining in. The Lounge's international membership and it's diverse subject matter makes for an interesting and enjoyable experience, (pre-pop up adverts,) and the moderators mostly let it be a: "Live & let live," experience. So far, I haven't been tempted to sign up anywhere else, especially not on any MG Cars forums. How parochial those type of forums can be.

 

[Touchofevil]

The little desiccant packets in pill bottles. They get in the way of me getting my pills out of the little opening of the bottle. I understand why they are in the bottle. I do not understand why they do not affix them to the underside of the lid or the bottom of the bottle.

 

[Turnip]

Ja, wir haben Currygurken. Würden Sie gerne einige?

Nein danke, diese Söderbaum-Gurken sind nicht jedermanns Sache…

 

[Hercule]

I've always removed them and thrown them away.

 

[Zombie_61]

Nein danke, diese Söderbaum-Gurken sind nicht jedermanns Sache…

 

[Trenchfriend]

I had luck. The lower Curry cucumbers were much better. Not so evil sweet! Next time, I will stir the dip first.

 

[tonyb]

Phony “handwriting” fonts on phony ruled yellow paper from phonies addressing me in a phony too-friendly tone in their phony mass mailings.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That type of real-estate-speculator pitch fills me with blind rage, to the point where I wrote an "open letter to all real estate agents" to the local paper, declaring my intention to live in my house until I die in it and advising them that I have no interest, whatsoever, in any of their blockbusting, gentrifiying parasitical offers. They published it, but alas, with some editing.

 

[Harp]

That type of real-estate-speculator pitch fills me with blind rage... I have no interest, whatsoever, in any of their blockbusting, gentrifiying parasitical offers...

As Bernard Baruch sagely observed: "All of life is a speculation."

Real property can be forcefully transferred/sold through foreclosure, municipal or state tax claim,
eminent domain and various other adjudicatory procedure however the owner of otherwise unencumbered
real property equity can decline any speculative offer and file complaint for unreasonable harrassment.
I once resorted to a threat to take such action to cease harrassment.
Of course, real property is subject to legitimate speculation properly understood.

 

[Touchofevil]

Phony “handwriting” fonts on phony ruled yellow paper from phonies addressing me in a phony too-friendly tone in their phony mass mailings.

View attachment 353111

Hey friend…Nope, I am not your friend. It is especially annoying when they use the phony handwriting on the envelope. Sometimes it gets me and then I am annoyed. It makes me happy to rip the letter and envelope in half.

 

[Touchofevil]

Forgetting what I was going to write about that was so annoying because I stopped to read a few entries in this thread.

 

[tonyb]

… It is especially annoying when they use the phony handwriting on the envelope. Sometimes it gets me and then I am annoyed. It makes me happy to rip the letter and envelope in half.

Oh yeah, the phony handwriting was on the envelope as well. I feel like a chump for even opening it.

 

[Fifty150]

Everything important comes in e-mail. Bank statements are online. Bills are paid by electronic bank transfer. Only junk mail comes in the mail. I removed the mail box. I was in my driveway when the postman walked the block. He asked me what to do with the mail since I don't have a box for him to put it in. I told him to just have the post office stamp "return to sender" and return it. He looks at me, and says, "it's all junk mail, we can't return catalogs and advertising". I said, "what makes you think I want the junk mail?"

 

[tonyb]

Real estate values around here have escalated dramatically over the past year or so. I’d call it absurd if it weren’t that buyers are paying the prices. Low mortgage interest rates and high rental prices are fueling it. When a modest three-bedroom house is renting for something approaching three G’s a month, a $2500 a month mortgage payment for a comparable crib seems the smarter option. I’m just thankful not to be in such a position.

I make a habit of driving around the immediate area and looking up on my iPhone the listings for the houses with the real estate agents’ signs planted out front. A house on an adjacent block is now listed for $45K more than it sold for earlier this year. It will likely sell for more than list. The place three doors down went for more than a $100K over what was paid for it late in ’19.

So yeah, a person not feeling up to fixing up his joint and listing it and paying agent fees and all that might be tempted by the mass mailings with the phony handwriting. He’ll almost certainly get a whole lot less for it that way, but still a whole lot more than he paid for it.

 

[Fifty150]

Owning real estate is what separates the classes. It's a step to building and preserving generational wealth. Most people may be able to figure out that what they pay in rent, could be paid to own their own home. The major obstruction to the dream is lack of capital. A lot of people simply don't have the money for a down payment. And most of the people who do not have enough money for a down payment, can't qualify for the financing. In some cases, based on their income, some people may never be able to save enough money for a down payment.

If someone is able to save 10% of their salary, they will have 1 year's salary after saving 10 years? And what would that be worth in 10 years of inflation? The circumstance changes mathematically when you have 2 people, with 2 incomes, sharing expenses. And of course, it all varies depending on what your income level is, and what your standard of living is.

What really ticks me off is that I will be forever trapped in the cycle of poverty, as one of the havenots.

 

[Turnip]

What really ticks me off is that some folks can’t behave in restaurants. It starts with them discussing what all the cutlery on the table might mean or if the doctor just forgot something from his last surgery.

And as soon as the first course is served it sounds from their table like a horse eating sugar cubes in a pigpen where someone just filled up the troughs…and won’t stop for the next 90min…

 

[tonyb]

Owning real estate is what separates the classes. It's a step to building and preserving generational wealth. Most people may be able to figure out that what they pay in rent, could be paid to own their own home. The major obstruction to the dream is lack of capital. A lot of people simply don't have the money for a down payment. And most of the people who do not have enough money for a down payment, can't qualify for the financing. In some cases, based on their income, some people may never be able to save enough money for a down payment.

If someone is able to save 10% of their salary, they will have 1 year's salary after saving 10 years? And what would that be worth in 10 years of inflation? The circumstance changes mathematically when you have 2 people, with 2 incomes, sharing expenses. And of course, it all varies depending on what your income level is, and what your standard of living is.

What really ticks me off is that I will be forever trapped in the cycle of poverty, as one of the havenots.

Which is why reverse mortgages are another way wealth trickles up.

I don’t fault the people who really need the scratch for taking out a reverse mortgage. My favorite neighbors have one. They’re several years older than me and on a limited income. The reverse mortgage leaves them with enough scratch to keep the house and the grounds in great shape and to own a couple of late-model cars. And they don’t live in fear of the first of the month. But, as one of them told me, their offspring know not to expect much of an inheritance.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I never owned a house solo until I was in my fifties -- I'd rented it for ten years before I bought it -- and the only reason I bought it was because I couldn't afford to live in this town anymore if I'd had to pay prevailing market prices for rent, which are steadily forcing the people who actually do the work here to live twenty miles away, while smug retirees enjoy "the matchless view and cultural benefits of this fine community." A no-down-payment USDA loan made it possible for me to buy, at a mortgage payment nearly $300 a month less than what I'd have to pay for an equivalent rental. and the price was kept down by the existence of an operating junkyard directly behind the house. But now that the junkyard is gone, speculators and investors have invaded the neighborhood. The mail constantly brings letters like this, and one reason I let my rose bush grow wild and thorny over my front door is to keep the real-estate parasites from knocking on it. They still find a way to stick their business cards in the door, though.

I have no illusions that I'll live to pay it off, and other than the theatre kids, I don't have any family to leave it to when I go. But I'll be damned if I'll give the flippers the satisfaction of pushing me out.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Here, the phony "handwritten" notes are usually treated as comic relief: they always list offers far below what the market will bear. We laugh about how my wife can finally cash in and run off with some twenty- something guy, leaving me to fend for myself at a rescue mission. She usually adds: "As if you're getting off that easily..."

 

[GHT]

Phony “handwriting” fonts on phony ruled yellow paper from phonies addressing me in a phony too-friendly tone in their phony mass mailings.

View attachment 353111

There you go Tony. A real pen with real ink, written by your's truly.