If the Social Security fund was invested in the stock market...?

[bvar22]

22. I wittnessed the immediate aftermath of Katrina. I saw many, many square MILES

of homes, rich & poor, completely destroyed, along with their entire contents.
For the first couple of weeks, it was like an After the Apocalypse movie.
This was after the latest round of refinancing and unexplained, magical increases in "Property Values" as the bubble was close to bursting.

After Katrina, I realized that The Banks were holding Square Miles of worthless paper.
I still believe Katrina, and the destruction of square miles of highly mortgaged property was the start of the Property Value Bubble Collapse and the Banking Crisis of 2007.

After a good but unfinished career in a technical field, my job was outsourced. I was paying high rent (Minneapolis) and, due to aging (56 at the time) and the beginning of some health problems, became unemployable in anything beyond minimum wage, no benefits jobs.

My wife & I made a radical decision at the time.
In 2006, we sold EVERYTHING,
cashed in IRAs early and paid the penalties,
found inexpensive Bubble Proof pristine property in the Arkansas Mtns.
bought the property outright, moved there,
and started growing healthy food, healthy Honey Bees, and healthy free range chickens.

We live with no mortgage or other payments for anything, drive old cars (I'm a good mechanic among other things), build everything ourselves, and participate in a surprisingly active rural Black Market...cash only. We avoid buying anything NEW whenever possible.
If we need something, we either make it ourselves, or buy salvage or 2nd hand and make it work.
Wall Street can Live or Die without our money or concern.

Our yearly goal is to continue reducing our Carbon Footprint even further,
produce more, "consume" less, and become more involved with local Humanitarian Issues.

So far, so good.
In October, we will have been here in the Hard Wood forests of very rural, pristine Arkansas for 10 years.

This is not for everybody.
We have no dependents, strong backs, enjoy this work,
and have a very compatible Skill Set that makes this easy for us most of the time.
I opted for early Social Security at 62.

---bvar22 and Starkraven
Living Well on a LOW taxable income
and stuff we learned in the 60s.