If you want to say give it to children with cancer or disabled war vets I’m with you but most of the “poor” are poor because they don’t want to work menial jobs, expect handouts and continually breed creating more poor moochers for the working class to be taxed more to “help”.

As far as ownership, just because you do pay water and taxes doesn’t reflect ownership. If you own your car, you still have to pay insurance, gas and maintenance.

There will always be that type of thing – that doesn’t reflect ownership though.

In terms of tax deductions, you can still get a good tax deduction by donating to charities etc. Why not take the interest you would’ve paid and give it to an organization that can help the poor?

Food for thought. Thanks for weighing in!

Trent from The Simple Dollar had a recent post about a woman who’s savings was wiped out by her husband’s medical/insurance problem so a healthy emergency fund is better for peace of mind than paying off the mortgage early.

This is a topic I am struggling with right now–we purchased our home last September. I have to say, after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, I feel like I know the answer; it’s a bit of a compromise, as I still do not want to pay my house twice over on interest, but it leans more towards investing the extra money each month. I have a 30 year fixed rate at 5.5%, and so I will put a few hundred dollars extra per month to ensure it will be paid off in 15 years, and then the rest of our abundance we will invest.

To retire you need to have a nest egg that creates enough money on its own cover your expenses. If you get your expenses down really low, the next egg doesn’t have to be as big.