STEEL PENCIL NEWS REVIEW

JULY 8, 2026

VOLUME 155

TWO STAPLES OF AMERICAN LIFESTYLE ARE GETTING MORE DIFFICULT TO ATTAIN.

The two staples I’m referring to are a home and a car. The prices of both have gone through the roof. OK, let’s discuss the price of a home first, in my opinion, I think this is the most important purchase you will make in your lifetime. If you pay attention to the housing market and buy and sell at the right time you will always come out on top. Barring any unusual circumstances of course. Over the course of my lifetime, I have made thousands of dollars buying and selling homes, then the last home I bought in California was a loser, I lost 90K and it was all my fault. I bought it new and waited too long to put it on the market waiting on my job to open up in another state. My new employer called and said we are ready for you; in the meantime the housing market had taken a serious nosedive. I had no choice I had to sell, and I took a beating. Over the next ten years the new house I purchased when I moved paid me back in spades. But man, that was a painful experience.

This is my advice if you want to own a home. Start early, buy something down and dirty cheap, even if you have to do a lot of repairs yourself to bring it up to par. You may have to live in a questionable area at first, but trust me, it will pay off. When I was 21 years old I was a union steel worker in Oklahoma. Not on the construction sites but in a shop so the pay wasn’t that great. Then a slight recession hit and I got laid off. Then I caught a break, my friends dad was a boss in my union and he sent me out on a construction job 200 miles from home. I rented a small house and spent as little money as possible to survive. Sent most of my check home to the bank every week. After five weeks of living as cheap as possible I had saved enough money to make a down payment on a small four room house in my hometown. When I was called back to work, I was able to make the purchase. I paid $7,000.00 for the house. 7K in 1961 is equivalent to $78,500.00 in today’s money. So 7K doesn’t sound like much, but it was a very scary purchase for me at the time.

I found out very quickly that once you buy the first house, they start making money for you, and you can move up to a better house pretty easily and quickly. I bought and sold thirteen homed during my lifetime, I did very well except for the last one in California. You would think I would have been smart enough to avoid that pitfall, but I got trapped by circumstances.

Yes, homes are over the top expensive today, but you can still get in the market, but you have to dance with a few ugly partners along the way. You have to be willing to drive a lackluster car and live in a dirt-cheap house to get to the gold at the end of the rainbow. It takes time, it takes sacrifice, there were times when I worked two jobs, and my wife worked as well, but in the end it paid off. It wasn’t any easier to do in 1961 even though the prices seem really low, but I was only making $2.35 per hour. That’s $94.00 a week. But I had the percentages in my favor my house payment was $56.00 per month. My house payment was roughly 15% of my monthly gross income. We actually had enough money to buy a very nice three-year-old car.

THE UBIQUITOUS AUTOMOBILE

The second item of major investment for the young family. Unless you live in an urban area where mass transit if dependable and cheap, you are probably going to need at least one unit of personal transportation. I absolutely refuse to live in a metro area; I hate the environment and the number of other human beings I would be exposed to on a daily basis. I’m getting worse about that as I age. I’m beginning to understand that hermit thing.

Automobiles have always been a status symbol, this was true almost from the very beginning. A very successful man wanted to be seen in a car that reflected his status in the world. Why do you think Mercedes Benz puts that big round emblem on the front their cars? That’s so everyone knows you’re doing well when they see you coming. It makes you want to buy their product so you can look rich.

Young people today, for the most part, have had a lot of life’s luxuries during their growing up years. Their parents made sure they had nice homes and all of the latest stuff so they could feel equal to their peers. What these youngsters don’t realize, is all of those little trinkets their parents provided are trivial in the real world. If they want the good stuff themselves, it’s a bit of a long road to get there, and they don’t want to wait. While living at home, they got to dress with all the lates fashions, wear the bling, and drive a nice car. All of this while not working. Once you step out of your parents house, you step into a cold unrelenting world. Too much debt to keep up the appearance, and they’re gonna crash and burn.

While a car may be a necessity for most people, it doesn’t have to be a Mercedes, it can be a 2003 Buick and still get you to your destination in reasonable comfort and safety. You may not look like a You Tube influencer, but hey, you’re working in the warehouse for Amazon.

So back to my original point of why it’s so important to buy a home. A luxury car can wait, a home is way more important. There will be plenty of time to obtain a fancy car once you’re a solid homeowner, building wealth every single day. A car doesn’t build wealth it destroys it.

THE BOTTOM LINE

I have lived in my present home, for 21 years, and my neighborhood has several rental houses. During this time I have seen several young families live by the plan I outlined above and become homeowners themselves. I watched them struggle to keep their cars running, the husband and wife both held down jobs while raising kids. They skipped most of the luxuries most take for granted. But hey, they’re no longer renters, and they are on their way to capture their part of the American Dream. Folks, it’s never changed, it’s always been about determination, hard work and sacrifice. If you’re not willing to do that, you’re probably going to vote for someone like Mamdani

I’LL BE BACK, STAND BY

Lazy people become Communists, they don’t want to do the hard work, they want to sit on their behinds and get handouts. When the lazy person hears everyone is going to be equal, they think they are going to live like the rich folk. In reality it’s the reverse of that, the rich people are going to have their toys confiscated and live like poor folk. In other words, everyone is going to be poor except the Party leaders that stole everyone’s wealth for themselves.

Stay safe, stay vigilant, stay free. Don’t ever let this country become a socialist hell hole.

VERITAS VINCIT ~ LIVE FREE OR DIE