new morning wrote: > You still don't get the most fundamental concept > of finance: the time value of money. > This is amazing! You're saying that some people take out home loans and without understanding the most fundamental concept of finance? That must be why a lot of folks took out A.R.M.s.
I'm not a very smart person but I took Business Math two years ago at my school and learned all about an amortization table. This is not rocket science by any means. But what is amazing to me is that this is the first thread on a TM newsforum that I've read, in seven years, where a TMer even suggested that they were a homeowner. Here we've got Uncle Tantra renting shacks over in France and Spain, and folks up in Fairfield renting trailer houses, but nobody seems to have progressed to a point where they can afford to own their own home? What's wrong with this picture? Doesn't anyone on these groups have a retirement plan or at least a savings plan? Apparently, Barry doesn't even pay into U.S. Social Security anymore. Shemp seems to be in a good place financialy and Steve Perino claimed to have purchaed a house out in Cedar Park - I'm sure there are a few others, so I may be talking out my ass here. Go figure. >From what I've read, the faculty at MUM get paid only a few thousand dallars a year, with Bevan making the lowest salary of just about any college president in the U.S. I wouldn't be surprised if not a single MUM faculty own their own home. The retirement plan for MUM faculty, if there is one, would problabe pay them all of $300 a month after working there for 20 years. One thing that I've noticed about TMers from the first few years of my involvement with the TMO is that a lot of TMers just aren't very interested in making any money, except to charge poor students and then sending the money to the Marshy's relatives in India. It must be pretty scary for some people when they realize that after believing they would get enlightened in 5-7 years, that all they'll get is a bed at a government nursing home, after living in a trailer house for ten years, just so they could enjoy the good vibes in Fairfield. Call me a materialist if you want to, but I just feel better knowing that I have a few bucks in the bank to fall back on in my old age. My question is: what is it about the TM program that makes it so that so many people are so broke after having practiced the program for so many years? Wouldn't it have been more sensible to have continued school, graduated, got a good job, saved some money and THEN spend 6 months at a TTC, or a few years working for the TMO? I guess I just don't get it. I guess my point is: why is it that people like the Marshy and Mukta and Sai and Osho and Trungpa make all these millions of dollars, but most of their followers are mere paupers? I must be screwed up! I'll probably die without reaching enlightenment and my grand kids will get all my money and spend it on games and TV sets or give it all to some "spiritual teacher" like the Sogyal. > Money has a cost. Its like you are renting money. the > "rent" on 120,000 at 6% interest = (6% /12)* 120,000 = > $600 / month. that is not arbitrary. Its the monthly > cost on the money you loaned. You can pay as much > byond that as you like to pay down the principal. > > You can pay back as much principal as you want AFTER > you pay the "rent (aka interest)due on the loan each > month. If you want to pay the principal down -- and > reduce subsequent interest payments, pay 2600 > each month. $600 which you owe for renting $120,000 > and 2000 principal pay down. After a year of doing that, > you would have 96,000 principal due, and your interest > would fall to .5% x 96,000 = $480. > > Study the spreadsheet a little. Look at column D and > how the interst is calculated each month. its 6%/12 * > the remaning principal each month. > > There is NOTHING arbitrary about this arrangment. If > you want your loan structured so that interest and > principal are equal, then (for a 30 year loan) you > would have an interst deficit each month. Just like > past rent due, you eventually have to pay it. > > How is that done? The unpaid interest is added to your > principal. So you reduce interest by say $400 each mnth > by paying equal principal and you now owe $400 in past > interest due. That will be added to your principal. You > ahve gained nothing except some extra paper work. > > If you don't like how banks structure their loans, if > you really feel its a rip off -- why be ripped off (even > ifs only all in your mind). Why not just rent? > > You either rent property, or you rent money to buy > property. And in the first case, your landlord rents > the money for the property. And part of your rent is > paying him back for his rent on the money to buy > the house you rent.
