Steve’s Blog

Recently we celebrated the anniversary of our nation’s freedom. On July 4th, 1776, our nation was established with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which began with the following words that still sound awesome more than 200 years later: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are [...]

This morning, I was browsing the web and saw a link to CNN’s “Home Affordability Calculator”, which they tout as a tool to allow you to see how much home you could comfortably afford based on your income. Their methodology for the numbers they provide you is advertised as the following: “To arrive at an “affordable” home price, we followed the guidelines of most lenders. In general, that means your total debt payments should be no more than 36% of your gross income. Once you enter your monthly debt (including credit cards, student loan and car payments), we come up with a maximum monthly home payment you could handle while staying under that threshold. Why do lenders use this guideline? It’s been [...]

In 2007, I walked into the lot of Brandon Honda looking for a price on a used Honda S2000. I was in love with the car, and the salesperson who saw me walk onto the lot must have sensed it. “Great car! We can get you into a used one with about 60,000 miles for around $20,000” he said cheerfully. My heart sunk. $20,000 for a car? My max budget was $15,000. When I told the salesman so, he laughed at me. No way, he said. No way I will ever find an S2000, even used, for less than 20k in decent condition. Those cars were way too popular, and way too expensive. I was out of my mind. Being laughed at [...]