A rigged game is something that is fixed in
a dishonest way to guarantee a desired outcome.
Here
are some examples of rigged games:
- Credit Cards - The national average is
15% interest.
- Buying a new car - The average car payment is $485
over 86 months. Cars lose an average of 40% of its value in the first 4
years.
- Leasing a car - A term that many won't know about
is residual value (how
much it will be worth when the lease ends). For example, the lender may
figure that a car selling for $30,000 today will be
worth $15,000 4 years from now, and will calculate monthly
payments to cover that loss in value.
- 30 year mortgages - You can save over $85,000 in
interest alone just by switching to a 15 year fixed rate (example used: 3%
interest on a 200K house).
- Personal Mortgage Insurance (PMI) - There simply is no need for it if
you can be patient and put 20% down on your house.
- Out of State Tuition - Average price is about $16,000 per semester for an out-of-state
public university. That is about $9,000 more per semester for in-state
universities.
- FICO scores - You could have an income of over
a million dollars this year with no debt and have a FICO score of 0. This
is not a true measurement of wealth.
- Waiting on Social Security - Those who are starting out in the
work force simply put away $100 a month in growth stock mutual funds with
a long track record with returns in the 12% range will retire as
millionaires. It is that simple. If you can't put $100 away right now, can
you do $80? $60? Just start putting something away.
Resist the foolish
choice. Be patient. Challenge the status quo. Ask the question do I really need
to play this game? Is there a different game I can play? Do not accept or comply
with the idea that you need to have something. We are all smart and very
capable people.
