During the part about the Harley and the gold band it is worded almost as if those purchases happened recently. I don't think they did; I think they happened be

During the part about the Harley and the gold band it is worded almost as if those purchases happened recently. I don't think they did; I think they happened before the downgrade when they thought times were good because it later says the Harley sat for months before a buyer was found - so it's sold off now. The house and kids situation is similar as well. Obviously the kids all happened prior to this situation when they felt they were moving up in the world. You can't just un-have kids when things get tough later! The house deal sounded like it was in progress when the downgrade came. Now they're effectively trapped there. You can't just sell a house immediately after buying and expect to break even - they'd likely end up taking a loss selling the house (especially if the real estate market there is still dropping). (Of course it's important to consider if the loss of selling now offsets the loss of paying a higher mortgage payment while you wait for things to recover.) If they had canceled the in-progress house deal at the last minute, they'd probably have been liable for some fees or perhaps even a lawsuit from the seller. (I've lived in my house just over 2 years and will be selling it soon due to a job and location change and we'll be lucky to even break even - and we paid a lot extra on principal each month while the times were good!) EDIT: I missed that the house they bought was actually his parents! Deals with family screws with people's sense of priorities, for sure.. :)