Foreclosure has allowed them to stabilize the family business. Go to Outback occasionally for a steak. Take their gas-guzzling airboat out for the weekend. Visit the Hard Rock Casino.
“Instead of the house dragging us down, it’s become a life raft,” said Mr. Pemberton, who stopped paying the mortgage on their house here last summer. “It’s really been a blessing.”"
Ugh. I couldn't imagine feeling relieved in this situation. Wouldn't you constantly be waiting for the other shoe to drop? What about that nagging feeling that something is just morally amiss? No matter how much you try to justify it - can you get around the fact that you agreed to the terms of repayment?
Maybe I would have a better time sympathizing with these folks if they were paying what they could afford toward their outstanding mortgages... Such as the man at the end of the article who says he went to his bank and said "I can afford $1300." He isn't paying $1300 though - he hasn't paid ANYTHING since 2008.
Of course there's probably legal advice at work here.. I'm sure there's some idea that paying anything at all toward the debt is acknowledging the debt -- and it sounds like these guys are operating on the crazy notion that they owe the bank nothing.
We've always wondered how other couples with families and mortgaged homes could afford boats and jet skis and new cars and Disneyworld vacations while we were budgeting for food. At least we now have a working theory.
1 comment:
"Morally amiss"--yes, that pretty much hits the nail on the head. I think what they're doing is irresponsible.
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