April 03, 2005

Temperature-49.6 C -57.3 F
Windchill-71.40 C -96.40 F
Wind 16.6 kts Grid 359
Barometer 681.7 mb (10563. ft)
Breakfast: Biscuits and Gravy
Dinner: Left Overs

I have been reading a book about owning a home mortgage free. It is pretty amazing seeing how little the case studies spend on their homes. I am also surprised the majority of the worlds people own their own homes and only the North American middle class enslave themselves with mortgages. Meaning they spend 50% of their annual salary paying for housing and spend 5 months earning the money to pay their taxes, leaving the average family about 3 months of income to spend for recreation, food and other incidentals. I have begun to believe we have all been sold a lie. Growing up we are told work hard and buy a house and trade up every 3 to 5 years, the American dream. After doing the math it appears the only people getting the dream d are the banks, leaving the rest of us to work jobs we don’t like to give our money to Uncle Sam and the bank.
The author set up his own community of owner builders and sold the property to people wanting to become part of the mortgage free. They usually build small homes that are environmentally friendly and when they get stuck with some detail of the construction their neighbors having already gone through the process are able to provide their knowledge. Some couples were as young as 25 years old and they were able to start the process with as little at $9,000. I can’t imagine the opportunities these people have in regards to their lifestyles. The book is very inspiring.

Shameless Commerce:
I learned last week that a picture of me holding a product called Sinufix is going to be used in their latest international advertising campaign. I used the product the last time I was here and they gave me some for free this time. I find it helps keep my sinus moist and it keeps them from bleeding due to the dryness, cold and altitude fluctuations.