Greetings to all you wealth-building enthusiasts out there!
We are in the homestretch of the New Year.
New Year’s Eve 2022 is a mere two days away.
Let your 2023 resolutions start to take shape and begin shortly. However, let us have a few moments of reflection over the last year shall we.
A recently elected Congressman, Maxwell Alejandro Frost, had a rent application rejected weeks ahead of being sworn in. He is unable to afford an apartment in Washington DC, as the median rent is $2,395, due to his bad credit.
Frost had to quit his job to be a full-time candidate. Seven days a week, 10-12 hours a day. He is couch surfing with friends until he can again have access to a livable wage after driving for Uber did not leave him enough to pay all of his bills. Thus, the reason for his bad credit.
He is far from alone in this situation. In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) couldn’t find an apartment in DC. She didn’t have the money.
At the height of COVID, more than 100 members of Congress are sleeping in their taxpayer-funded Congressional offices in 2020.
Let us provide some context here.
While rank and file members of the U.S. Congress make a decent salary ($174,000 a year), they don’t receive a per diem. Meaning they have to pay for everything out of their own pockets while some, other members do receive a per diem that can be used for housing. If you think this is unfair or strange, consider that for most of the period between 1789 and 1855, the only compensation senators and representatives received was a $6 per diem.
The fact that housing has become so unaffordable is just insane. I wrote a blog post about how I used a Roth IRA to buy property. However, not everyone has access to these means. Especially, if you have no retirement accounts to begin with.
Many officials were screaming poverty at the time they were seen working in their offices by day and converting them into bedrooms at night.
When the rent becomes so high that those helping write the laws are sleeping on couches, we need to address the matter of housing affordability.
Why not have communal living spaces? Similar to college dorms. This is far better than sleeping on a cot in your office.
What about building micro apartments? Enough space for a bed, couch, bathroom, small kitchen, and closet in about 500-600 square feet.
There has to be some affordable solutions out there. I had to do some thinking outside the box to start buying property with my Roth. Maybe that is what we need. Some out of the box solutions for long-term housing problems.