Quoted: Quoted: well, according to some, he is a brave businessman who took a well considered and sober risk in the spirit of noble american nation building.   I'm not sure where the hostility comes from here. Yea--the guy lied and doesn't deserve a lot of sympathy for that--but he wanted to take a swing at real estate speculating, and he did that. He probably won't turn more than he owes now, but he just might come pretty close to breaking even. (this won't cover the money he's already lost, I realize...) Speculating is not in itself dishonorable--lots of people do it. If you're getting paid for having money in anything, you are essentially speculating. The stock market, your bank savings account, your 401K. (-your bank may well be lending money to people like him-) In many instances running a business is being in debt 45% of the time, breaking even even 50% of the time, and making a profit 5% of the time. The last 5% is the hardest to reach, but you rarely get to it without trying.   ~

He did more than lie. He broke the law.  This "speculator" is stealing from all of us, because we the consumers and taxpayers will bail out the lending industry when the smoke clears.  He's nothing but a two-bit criminal.  His next step should be to watch Office Space for some free legal advice on what to do in federal pound me in the ass prison.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Greed is always the problem. The Bible says ".....the LOVE of money is the root of all evil......"   millions of poor people chanting crap like this can't be wrong.   I am sick of this "rich people are evil" mentality.  Love of Money is not the root of evil.  Jealousy and laziness of stupid fucks who can't figure out how to make a buck is the root of evil.  It is the root of communism, it is the root of socialism, it is the core of everything that is wrong with the world. How many jobs have YOU created?  How many homes have YOU provided?  How many mouths have YOU fed?  I am pretty sure it is nowhere the amount that Trump, Gates, et al have, hell, I am small time and I probably have provided more than you.   All you whiney little brats complaining about your landlords and how much you hate them, yet you are the one stupid enough to be paying someone else's mortgage payment.  You bitch about your boss's or owners of the company you work for but he is the one paying for you to sit on your ass and post on ARFCOM all day.   I can't believe the entitlement mentality that you assholes have here.  You run around thinking "I am better than him, why does he have all the cool stuff and money?" It is because he took a risk and it paid off.  it is because he was probably too stupid to listen to whiney little bitches who told him it would not work and it paid off.  Who is more of an idiot, this guy who messed up flipping houses, or you, sitting in your apartment and never taking a chance?   My Dad laughed when he was offered the two properties across the street for 10k each. He called the neighbor an IDiot for buying them.   HE cried when they sold for 100k each just a few years later.  Who is the Moron? I have been through this a dozen times with my family and friends and tenants.  My family think I an crazy to buy rentals(like driving to work and working 40 hours a week isn't?), my friends don't think it will work, and my tenants hate me because I am their age and more successful than then and they cannot fathom that I bought their home for what they spend on coffee, cigs, and beer in a year (and then wonder why they are poor). ??? did you read the article? this kid is a self-serving dimwitted liar who bought a bunch of houses literally at random and then further completely mismanaged the personal debt situation resulting in a complete and total failure. the only thing you could use this story for is an example of exactly what NOT to do. And you figure we're supposed to applaud his brave spirit of adventure. this fucker didn't build a transcontinental railroad, he tried to get rich quick in a crazy, once in a lifetime bubble real estate market after it already cooled off. voluntarily jobless bubble market speculators who commit fraud on bank loan applications and run up $50k in credit card debt are not exactly the guys who made america great. hooray for him , what a guy, our hero

I read  the article, I never said this guy was a hero, and I know he did everything wrong, yada yada yada.  What I was addressing is the whole "money is evil" thing, or did you not read that?  I did not quote the article, I did not say anything positive about this guy other than he tried.  

I am concerned that, instead of  seeing what this guy did wrong and learning from his mistakes, people are calling the whole pursuit of wealth evil.  Your entire argument has nothing to do with the point I was making.  

Quoted: I am concerned that, instead of  seeing what this guy did wrong and learning from his mistakes, people are calling the whole pursuit of wealth evil.  Your entire argument has nothing to do with the point I was making.

I thnk most people who are calling this guy and idiot and lamenting his particular form of "greed" are not criticizing the pursuit of wealth in general, but the stupid and uninformed naive pursuit of wealth that idiots like this guy (and many "day traders" in the 90s, and all sorts of people who pay money for 'seminars' on real estate and stock buying) because they want the "quick buck" without having to make the investment of time, effort and knowledge.

I think there's a definite distinction between the two.  One pursuit of wealth (yours) is rational and responsible, with an understranding of the risk involved - and the other (his) is irrational and irresponseible, with a naive lack of understanding of the risk-reward tradeoff.

Quoted: What I was addressing is the whole "money is evil" thing, or did you not read that?

But the problem is the passage says love of money is the root of all evil, not money.  What is condemned in the passage - and in the rest of the Bible - is selfishness.  There are plenty of wealthy people who are commended in the Bible.  Heck, Joseph was the number 2 guy in Egypt back when it was the world power.  He had more than a little money.  Abraham, Moses, Solomon, David, and a host of others were well off.  What the Bible condemns is the selfishness represented by a "love" of money, i.e. the person who is only out to make a fast buck without regards to who he hurts in the process.

In that sense, the Bible's condemnation fits the person in the article to a tee.  He didn't just go out and try to make money, he committed fraud in order to do it.  Now some of ya'll may not care because the person defrauded was a bank, and they're big and rich and evil, but fraud is theft, and theft is wrong.  The guy took what did not belong to him in order to make a fast buck.  Now he and his family are suffering all kinds of evil.  Love of money is the root of all evil.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Let me get this straight - he was making $35K a year, then quit his job to start working for his own company. His company makes no $ so he decides to buy 7 houses? What a fucking idiot. I wonder what his wife is thinking. Since she married him in the middle of all this, and since she's studying acccounting instead of WORKING when neither of them have an income,  I'd say she's in the same ballpark.

Not at all.  I think she is a brilliant woman who is going to divorce him, take half of the houses, and stick him with the mortgages and bills thanks to our corrupt feminazi judicial system.