Sunday, January 27, 2008

You can't tell who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.

I live in a very picturesque neighborhood. It's has a very wholesome quality -- all the homes are modest sized, and the lawns are flawlessly maintained--although most of them have snowmen on them now. This is an archetypal American neighborhood, but since it's in Edina, the cheapest houses are like $500, 000. Since I rent, I'm walking the same sidewalks for a fraction of the price.

When driving home to my apartment, I usually duck into these back streets to avoid traffic. There's been a couple homes for sale on these two blocks for the last 5 months; some say "PRICE REDUCED!"

Today I drove past 3 more new homes for sale on those same two blocks.

Today's lesson: Just because somebody has lots of nice things doesn't mean that they actually have black numbers in the bank. In fact, that is becoming the exception to the rule-- particularly in our generation. Most of us are up to our eyeballs in debt.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Totally. I keep having to remind myself of this fact every time the "keep up with the Joneses" feeling comes over me. I have to remember that a) I can't necessarily afford [shiny new thing] and b) that other person might not be able to affort [shiny new thing] either. Also c) [shiny new thing] won't necessarily make me any happier.

Thinking it and making it happen said...

I'm glad I don't know the Joneses, they sound like complete assholes.

Erin said...

I'm quite fond of paying $330 a month for rent. I know how good I have it. And besides, most of the Jones peoples are total douchebags.