Did You Know You're a Millionaire?

Due to the recent housing boom, little did you know that there were a number of millionaires living on your very same block. No possible way right? Wrong. How could that be because you have been living at the very exact house for years and you have grown to know your neighbors very well and surely they don't make a substantially enough money to be millionaires unless they hit the lotto jackpot so how can they all be millionaires? The answer is easy, equity!

Let's think about, before the housing boom came along those who purchased their homes probably bought the house for $175,000. Fast forward 10 years or so during the housing boom and the house is now worth $700,000 and let's say you were on a 15 year loan because back then interest rates were at a low of 4% so you're only left with 5 years until your loan is paid off. In equity alone, you have $525,000 and let's say you went to Vegas and hit the jackpot so you decided to pay off the rest of your loan so now you are free of debt and much closer to having millionaire status.

The other half of your million comes from all your assets. Your cars, TVs, furniture, computers, antiques, vintage goods, stocks, bonds, everything! It all adds up when you think about it because everything has value and only god knows how many items you have collected over the years so that's just piles and piles of goods piling up every year. It's just a matter of liquidating all of your material goods into real money. Still don't believe me? Go ahead and calculate values for every single item in your house and see how much you get. The answer will surprise you.

So why don't we all feel like millionaires? Because being a millionaire isn't what it used to be due to inflation caused by the housing market but that didn't stop people from trying to live the life by pulling equity out of their homes like an ATM and to later find out that they were digging themselves a hole so I guess you can say the millionaires of today are drowning in debt. So before you go rushing off to spend money that you don't have, you must know that living a modest life is rich enough the Jones next door just filed for bankruptcy and lost everything.