Irvine Housing Blog

My wife and I are in the same boat - we use CCs for everything. I think for some people, a casino chip isnt really money. For me, I still see $5 on the table whether its a chip or cash.

There are many benefits of using a CC instead of a debit card/cash. They are only benefits if you do not feel like its free money. If you’re the type of person that doesnt ‘feel’ the money leaving you, then CCs are not for you.

The best way to use credit cards effectively is to PAY YOUR BALANCE OFF EVERY SINGLE PAY PERIOD! I cannot believe people would have balances on their credit cards at all unless the APR percentage on the credit card is less than the APR that you’re getting on your CD minus the potential tax hit on that CD.

IR posted some time ago that he has a program which automatically puts the posts up early in the morning.  He could have written it at noon the prior day.

And he had a ton of people telling him it would burst, both because of his stupid books on housing and his role as alleged economist at the National Association of Realtors.

I drive up Newport Blvd. to the 55 every day and it seems I’m seeing more “For Lease” signs on that street (and elsewhere too).  Just yesterday I noticed the used gym equipment place is all empty and there is an Italian botique clothing store a couple doors down that is having a going-out-of-business sale.

This time it really is “different”, I’m afraid.

“but I haven’t witnessed any slowdown in the Irvine-area economy.”

No offense, but as far as Costa Mesa is concerned I think you aren’t paying attention or you are in denial. CM Yardhouse has always been packed. Less than an hour on a Friday night is slow for that place. I would like to offer counter-examples in Costa Mesa:

1) Curiously, you picked the Yard House as an example, almost the only place left in Triangle Square. Go around the corner: virtually *all* the shops in that mall are closed, even the underground place that was once Ralphs and then Whole Foods. Except for Sutra, which AFAIK could be a money laundering operation. The Edwards there is practically empty.

2) Next door, Pasta Connection traffic is quite slow (oh, that’s right they actually closed it down now; it’s now replaced by an empty retail building). The paint store on that corner is shut down too, with no new tenant.

3) Two or three auto dealerships on Harbor are shut down, as are numerous other retail places along Harbor.

4) Virtually all the boutique mortgage shops in Costa Mesa have closed. Most of those places have not found new tenants.

5) A bunch of furniture joints have closed up. Some moved to the South Coast Furnishings outlet mall in north Costa Mesa. You want to see a ghost town? Go to that place at peak hours (e.g. Saturday afternoon). Half their stores never found a tenant. Some of the other half have closed since opening the place (Wickes, Banner Mattress).

6) Check out the old Mobil gas + shop + car wash place on Baker and Fairview. Used to be a busy place, washing cars, filling the tank, etc. Now it’s completely closed, as is the Mobil + garage that was on Harber + Gisler. The big car wash joint on Harbor is still open AFAIK, but there are almost no cars there anymore.

7) My own job in CM has witnessed a large drop in business, followed by layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts.

8) I have spoken to CM police - they tell me car repossessions in the city are way up. I also know people who’ve recently been burglarized for the first time.

9) In the last 6 months, I have seen three families (two of them in the Wilson & Harbor shopping center) dumpster-diving at night for recyclables. I had not seen that for many years prior to last year.

I won’t speak to Irvine, but if you spend much time in CM (as I do), you will quickly recognize that business is very slow all over the city. All the lunch shops where I used to have to stand in line have no line now, a few are just closed. I know some business owners in CM and they all say the same thing.

I have my doubts that Irvine businesses haven’t seen a dramatic slowdown, too.

Credit card companies charge retailers a fee on all transactions…around 2%.

Guess who really ends up paying this 2% on all transactions?......

... the reality is you the consumer pay the 2% fee, because part of the price of all consumer goods includes this fee…. it’s all a big scam.

Without credit cards you spend less, and things cost less….

Hmmmm..  wait just a minute…

IR just made a point, and I made a counterpoint… with others.

No pontification, no remedial course, just some notes.

No remedial course offered, irvinemommy. IR told us how he uses his cards and we’ve told him how we used ours.
I will admit I am a child of poverty so free money was never, ever available in our house. Now that I am very secure monetarily, I still make Mr. Lincoln squeal when it comes time to pay bills and budget. It’s just in my monetary genetic makeup, debt is BAD, savings are GOOD. I don’t confuse the word credit with goodness, ever. Credit cards = debt and like the old saw about crime… if you can’t pay the bill, don’t charge the item.

> I live within my means as the Good Book instructs.  Too bad I have to pay for those that didn’t.

I assume you mean you’re paying as a taxpayer who funds the bailouts through taxation and inflation. Because if you pay no service charge, annual fee, or interest rate, you are enjoying free money thanks to those who run balances, pay extreme late fees, and pay annual fees. Credit-card float is a form of indebtedness; if you’re enjoying it interest-free, then good for you, but it’s the mass of the utterly indebted who purchase that pleasure for you.

I’m amazed to hear that any health care institution is scaling back construction. It seems that every hospital I visit is a construction zone, from my earliest memories of visiting an ill relative in 1970 to my last trip for a drug test. Hospitals are worse than colleges and universities for the noise, dust, back-up truck beeping, and girders of fresh construction.

Hospital is to construction site as SUV is to cell phone.