On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:24:03 -0500, Eisboch wrote:


When we bought the first house in Jupiter one of my native neighbors
tried to get me into speculative investing. This was just before the end
of the explosion of house values. He was living high off the hog
flipping houses but was maxed out on his bank's willingness to extend
further credit. He wanted me to fund some additional investments,
promising huge returns.

Sounds like a responsible banker, that I'm guessing is still in
business. Back in the late '80s, there was a builder I did some work
with. Anyway, he wanted to build a few houses, but the market was
getting quite tight. He went to over thirty banks trying to get a loan.
They all rejected him. I kept telling him, that maybe they were telling
him something, and he should listen. But being stubborn, he persisted
until he found one that was willing. He crashed and burned.


Being the conservative and economically stupid person I am, I passed.
Good thing. In less than a year the housing market crashed and he was
stuck upside down in several investments.

Eisboch