John Williams of Shadow Stats: “This is End of the World Type Stuff”

Thanks for writing!

I think you have several options here. First, let’s get a bit of background info clarified. You’re in this house for ~$100k and currently living in it? If you were to rent it out, what are your plans? Let’s say everything carries on just fine for the next several years with no major inflation, events, etc. What would you be doing in the meantime?

Several scenarios could be put into play – you could use the rent $ to get into some land or an old farm house. Secondly, if you can get into something a bit cheaper per month, apply excess rent $ to debt reduction if possible (or the purchase of precious metals and tangibles!). This would set you up to not only own land/rural property/farmhouse, but you are still in ownership of a house. Just because the dollar tanks, doesn’t mean there won’t be a need for housing, for yourself, family, or traditional renters.

You might not get the exact amount in return, but think of the potential that the house represents. If things got REALLY bad, you can use it as collateral to an extent. Perhaps you could rent it out in exchange for manual labor on your rural property, or barter for it, etc. If the dollar truly….TRULY crashes, then your mortgage will be of little consequence in my opinion. If you were sitting in a multi-million dollar house, the bank might come after you, but for a $100k house, they will likely not even bother with you. There are currently millions of homes in foreclosure for over 2 years and things are still pretty decent. So, that’s a few scenarios to consider.

Lastly, and personally, I would keep the home. Is it in decent condition? Do you like it? Does it fit your needs? Do you and your fiance have another house already? Or do you plan to sell/rent this one and BUY a different one? Would renting it out + potential repairs/renter damage provide you with any positive income?

With that information, I could probably help you a bit more, but sometimes, yes, we do have to take our losses and walk away.

Cheers,
Kevin Hayden