Thursday, March 27, 2008

In Need of a Food Bank


Hat tip "Sweet Cashback."
CNN article
A former loan processor, Guerrero knows all about that, although so far she has been able keep her house.
She used her tax refund to help pay many of her bills for the first two months, but now that money's gone.
She says she's now in a middle-class "no-man's-land."
"It just happened so fast. It happened in a matter of -- what -- two months," she said.
She's eager to get back to work and to hold onto her home until the market turns. But for this single mom, every day it becomes harder to hang on.
----
For the record the Dawgs are frequent and substantial contributors to the Ventura County Food Bank.

$2500/mo I/O loan and she can't afford that but she wants to wait it out for a price rebound? Get this woman a gift certificate to U-Haul and a craigslist printout for jobs in Fort Worth, TX.

33 comments:

1.44MB said...

Firstly - I love the bit where she says she took off her Tiffany band and left the Coach purse in her car while begging for food.

lawnmower man said...

Quick question from the Casey peanut gallery: does anyone know what became of SDCIA Jeff?

w said...

My advice...stop payments, start fasting, work out, lose a lot of weight and then start searching for a husband.

Property Flopper said...

W -

Ouch! Accurate, but still... ouch!

Property Flopper said...

I too, would like to know what happened with SDCIA Jeff. I suspect he lost everything (including wife / kids) and ended up back at Taco Bell, but that's just speculation.

Anybody know?

Rob Dawg said...

SDCIA Jeff was exposed as a complete fraud. He wasn't as claimed and actually had a degree and stuff.

Property Flopper said...

Back on topic - So, this woman is making $70k / year and has so little savings that she blew through it in 2 months? Are we supposed to feel sorry for her?

The Tiffany band and Coach purse are very tell-tale signs, living WAY beyond her means.

Akubi said...

I really don't understand why so many Americans don't stash away enough savings in the event of an emergency/layoff - especially if they have kids. At 70K she should have been able to do that.
Of course these are generally people with interest only mortgages too. What are they thinking?
No, it doesn't look like she needs the food bank, but her kids might.

Akubi said...

@Property Flopper,
I didn't see your quite similar comment when I posted. No, I don’t feel sorry for her.
Generally, I always try to keep 6 months of liquid assets available in the event of a job loss, but these days I’m wondering if it might be wise to keep enough for a year. While I have never had a problem getting a job, the economy is such a mess these days, it seems anything could happen.
I’m curious how much others set aside – in terms of months you can get by without working as opposed to actual amounts since there’s so many variables as far as region, family size, etc.

Sweet Cashback said...

Oh man, I didn't even get to all the gold nuggets towards the end of the article. I got seriously sick after the $2500 mortgage part....

1.44MB said...

on topic: I suspect this one would eat her kids if it allowed her to keep the house / pergranteel fixtures. I'm honestly flabbergasted by her shamelessness - she let a volunteer at foodbank pay her utility bill? wtf?

on jeff topic: he's probably pumping up goldspring shares on some other message board.

completely off topic: can I get murst as well or is it now terribly gauche to play that game?

WeWantTheFunk said...

She is truly the New Dumb. Even if she were still employed at her old salary, 2/3 of her income would go towards paying that lovely interest-only loan. I see a balloon lurking in her future, too.

At least she's well-nourished; she's got enough saved up in that way to get through at least some of the coming tough times.

Bill in NC said...

Why not spend it on a house and bling-bling?

I saved a huge amount of cash in case dad died - mom, in a decent but doesn't-take-Medicaid $200 a day nursing home for the last 7 years of her life, only had alimony as her income.

Now I feel like a chump for saving, at least in U.S. dollars, as they're worth much less than just a few years ago.

As that "Lost Decade" artcle notes, the U.S. stock market hasn't been the place to be either.

Sure, commodities are hot now - but largely because that's where the hot money fled to after stock and real estate bubble crashes - not a tiger I want to ride in the face of a recession.

Anonymous said...

Of course pawning that ring and bag to buy food never occurred to her. That's okay, it's not my $ she's mooching.

Akubi said...

I just watched the video and am thoroughly disgusted with that woman and her Tiffany bracelet and Coach bag BS.
Unbelievable.
She reminds me of my irresponsible, lazy, ignorant and entitled stepsister my parents have supported her entire life.
Patricia Guerrero mom is renting her own house and living with her so is therefore probably available to take care of the kids so she can go out and get some kind of job – any f-ing job. She could become a dog walker or something. Unemployment is still relatively low, but she probably feels too good for most of them even though I’d assume she didn’t get past an associate's degree at some community college and/or a few seminars at Nouveau Riche “University”.
It sure doesn’t encourage one to give to food banks or Billary's crazy subprime solution involving the expert advice of Greenspan. Does Guerrero have a blog? That would be fun if comments were enabled.

Rob Dawg said...

The reality still hasn't even touched her bubble world yet. She cannot hold on to my house like that. She cannot afford it and I will not allow her to steal it from me. First she leaves the house and then she pawns the crap and taps all her remaining assets and then we can talk. You don't offer false hopes to terminal cases, it's cruel and causes them to make wrong decisions.

Lou Minatti said...

She's divorcing hubby. Even during good economic times this frequently busts both parties.

Nice house. Nice scenery, up there in the mountains. I like the granite countertops and top-of-the-line kitchen accessories. It's a lot nicer than my dump that I could pay off tomorrow.

Hey, wait. This CNN piece is supposed to make me feel sorry for her so taxpayers like me will bail her out. Someone please explain why I should feel guilty?

w said...

property flopper - :)

Akubi - We bought our first house in our early twenties when we were at the beginning of our career wage scale. About 25% of gross income. We had no savings but back then it was not much more than rent. We saved and moved up and kept ~18 months of payments in the bank. ALWAYS plan on worst case scenario when making budgets. I have no mercy for people who live on the edge and have decent income. I bet we all have like 50 stories of people we know who were overly optimistic.

Anonymous said...

People were once too proud to beg, even when they really needed help quite badly. Now they just roll up in the Lexus and load up without giving it a second thought. Sickening.

Akubi said...

@w,
Wow, 18 months of liquid savings?

Can we even trust anything FDIC insures these days?
I'm becoming so paranoid these days I think those Berkeley conspiracy enthusiasts I disdained may have been right.

segfault said...

The headline I read this morning was that Barrack Osama wants a $30 bn bailout. Pity, I liked the guy up until I read that.

It was slightly counterintuitive to me to read that studies show that people lose their homes to foreclosure before they lose their cars to repossession. But, transportation is a necessity. Housing can be obtained from sympathetic relatives.

Akubi said...

@segfault,
Let me know if you find a more fiscally conservative candidate.

P.S. His last name is Obama.

Rob Dawg said...

Mitt Romney was fiscally responsible which about the most you can expect these days.

Lou Minatti said...

P.S. His last name is Obama.

And his middle name is Hussein, which he used to proudly mention up until he ran for president. Now you can't say Barack Hussein Obama without being called rude names.

You can say Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
You can say Lyndon Baines Johnson.

But don't say Barack Hussein Obama!

Akubi said...

@Dawg,
I was referring to current candidates and that guy creeped me out anyway.

@Lou,
Like Luba Hussein Hegre?

Unknown said...

WHAT??? no fucking way!!!!

I saw this story yesterday, but didn't bother with the video.

I thought you guys were joking when you mentioned the Tiffany bracelet and the purse.. it sounded like the exaggerated mocking that makes this place so awesome.

But she actually said it???

I hope she gets shipped to Mexico. Southern Mexico. Para aprender lo que es amar a Dios en tierra ajena.

Unbelievable.

H Simpson said...

Read about this clueless b*tch and then you wonder why the mortgage folks complain that they are being blackballed at every other type of job they apply for.

Seems pretty clear logic to me why HR managers are steering clear of these folks. So busy fixating on their own life they do not see reality like the rest of us. Someone buy them a cup of java to smell, and I don't mean some Starbuck triple latte crap.


By the way, Mitt was OK in Mass as Gov as it regards budgets, but the crap hit the fan yesterday.

That "healthcare for all" he instituted before stepping down.
Well the ink is barely dry and the state is already in the hole for billion bucks. Watch out what you ask/vote for this fall.

h.
ps Those b*tches from NY that took the place of the Orange County b*tches on TV. I am getting aggrevated to the point I want AlQueda to gas them, and I live downwind of them.
Oh how I pray their money was in Bear Sterns. Watch them doing tricks for the Governor (past and present) to pay for the tennis club dues and fuel for the Escalade.

mcmiller said...

Makes me sick. That woman complaining the system let her down by not giving her food stamps. She and her industry @#$%ed the system to earn their salaries, now their complaining it's not there to help them. I told my wife the reason we were shopping for a 1000 square foot home was because idiots who can't afford them bought all the 2000 sqf ones. In 2005 I gave her the option of buying or waiting until the idiots had to face reality. In retrospec I wish we had waited. I knew the correction was going to be bad, but not this bad.

Don't bail these people out, let them burn.

Fred said...

If you look in the comments section of the housing bubble blog, someone appears to have looked up stats on this one. Paid 150, owes 600 - spent 450k in 4 years. If this is true, CNN should be obligated to include some of these facts

Rob Dawg said...

No doubt she invested heavily in candy bars and cake. Thanks Fred.

Akubi said...

I think this is the comment Fred is referring to:
Here’s a little more information about Patricia Guerrero’s financial situation from public records (LA County Assessor and Recorder):

The 2,948 square foot house on a quarter acre lot was built in 1948.

She and her estranged husband Ray acquired the house, apparently from HIS PARENTS Israel and Esther Guerrero, in August 2002, at which time the debt load on the property was about $157,000.

Ray and Patricia took out a conventional fixed-rate first trust deed on the property on 8/14/2002 for $202,000.

I’ll spare you all the gory details of their various refinancings and equity loans, but the present note from 8/21/2006 is for $649,999.

So, it looks like they bought the place for a sweetheart deal and proceeded to jack themselves up to the tune of about $450,000 over a period of just 4 years.


Unbelievable.

BroccoliEater said...

If she was approving her own loans it'd explain why she got laid off.

My husband and I were at approximately her income level when we got our mortgage. We weren't approved for nearly that much, and chose to take far less than approved for. I don't know how she swings a $2500 mortgage payment on 70K. That alone is 43% of her gross, and its *interest only*. Who the hell aws doing the math when this got approved, *her*??

Someone tell this woman that making 70K doesn't mean you deserve Coach bags and Tiffany bracelets. She and Casey should hook up.

Allison May said...

Hardship stories - you think 70K owing $2500 interest only is bad...

Check out the forums on loansafe.org

They don't know why the banks won't just lower the loan amount by the same amount as the values have dropped.

Nanny state is here....