Comments on: BEING SHAPED BY THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

By: Mary Jane Schaefer

Mary Jane Schaefer — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:35:16 +0000

My sister and I deliberately did not get education certificates that would enable us to teach in high school. We were determined not to teach. How much of this was rebellion and how much of this was that we knew what we didn’t want I can’t say. But, some people LOVE teaching, truly love it and feel they’re making a great contribution to the world. I think that it’s a great profession for some people who can really make a difference. I just didn’t have it in me.

By: Mary Jane Schaefer

Mary Jane Schaefer — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:32:56 +0000

There are so many problems with renting out a house: having a good tenant tends to mitigate most of them. But you also have to SERVICE the damned place. So, instead of having one house in which things always need to be fixed, you have TWO. There’s my laziness showing. I had suggested to Mr. Schaefer that we might want to buy a house in Rowayton during this real estate depression, but we’d have to take a loss on our stocks, so it wouldn’t really pay. Then, of course, we’d have the problem of owning two houses. See above.

By: Annalisa

Annalisa — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:28:20 +0000

I remember you also said your father bought land and houses instead of putting money into stocks. My college friend Amanda’s father owned a second house and rented it out on a regular basis. I don’t know what his reasoning was behind it (that is, if he had a similar view to your father’s), but it struck me as unusual. I had another friend in Darien whose family rented out a second home, but that’s it. I wonder if people in my generation will ever consider buying a second home and renting it out, or if that notion is going the way of the dodo.