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Nickled and Dimed

As much as I hated to do it, we had to mortgage our property. Alan desperately needs a building out here for storage and a workshop, and we just didn't have the reserves to pay for the permits and concrete and steel beams with cash. We signed the closing documents Friday evening.

This whole process has me thinking.

Over the summer we sold our other house and had to wipe out our savings to cover the difference between our loan and the sale price. We did the responsible thing because we the bank gave us the loan in good faith, and it was just the right thing to do.

Then we found out that we had to pay additional interest and paid the bank more than the loan value (even though we had already paid down the principal). We're supposed to get this back when we deduct the mortgage insurance on our taxes.

That just makes me angry because we could have just as easily walked away from the loan. We still would have had our new place AND the money in our savings account.

But we don't.

So now I've been through the whole process of getting our place appraised and surveyed and foundation certified. I spent an hour at the tax collector's office trying to correct a mistake the title company made when we bought the place last year. What should have been a super easy loan was a royal pain in the butt.

That stuff I can deal with. Here's what I cannot accept.

  • I had to pay $1000 for a survey that should have cost less than $500.
  • The appraiser had to come back out to take additional pictures of our place and charged us $50 to do that.
  • The title company wants $150 to correct the mistake the previous title company made. I can do this for half that.
  • I paid a ridiculous amount of money for a title company that didn't even have the documents in the proper order and made me sign duplicates of EVERY FREAKIN' FORM!
  • My taxes are more than double what they were last year because we held on to our other home and refused to break the law by having two homestead exemptions.
  • In the middle of this, Alan was hit by a guy who ran a red light and is fighting with that guy's insurance company who says Alan could have done something to avoid the accident (like swerve to the right into the line of cars sitting at the light).
I just don't understand what happened to decency in this world. I feel like I try to do the right thing, but it doesn't seem to matter. How can I hold my head up and say to my students, "Choose what's right"? Does anyone really care about it anymore?

I try to live my life responsibly, but what's the point? The will of the irresponsible is forced on me. Whether it's my taxes or insurance or parents who refuse to teach their children the proper way to act, everything seems to be backward.

Where does it stop?

Sigh.

Comments

Christy said…
I feel ya, girl. Sometimes I feel like the only person out there who factors responsibility into the decisions I make. And it seems futile.
Diana said…
Al,
Keep choosing to do the right thing. You will be blessed. Make sure you put that emotion to work at the polls today..vote against the guy who gives handouts!
frabjouspoet said…
THANKS! Sometimes I need that reminder.
Diana said…
Al, actually I have been thinking about the choice that you guys made and it has helped me to be a better person, and given me hope to continue to do the right thing...even when I am at the edge of not doing the right thing--God bless!

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