Everyone Got Rich on Paper. Now No One Can Touch It.

Marcin Drozdz

Mar 17 • General discussion

You refinanced in 2021 at 2.5%.

Locked in a payment so low it now feels like a mistake no one bothered to fix.

Fast forward to today.

Your home is worth more.

On paper, you’ve got a few hundred thousand dollars in equity.

So naturally, you think:

“Maybe I should use some of that.”

You go to the bank.

And they say:

“Sure. At 6.5%.”

That’s the moment it clicks.

You run the numbers.

And realize:

Accessing your own money now costs 2–3x more than it did before.

So you do what most people are doing.

Nothing.

You don’t sell.

You don’t refinance.

You don’t pull equity out.

You stay exactly where you are.

You’re not stuck because you’re broke.

You’re stuck because you’re illiquid.

On paper, you’re wealthier than ever.

But in reality, you can’t use it without taking a worse deal.

So you wait.

And when millions of people do the same thing…

The economy doesn’t crash.

It just slows.

Because the economy doesn’t run on net worth.

It runs on transactions.

When you act:

Homes get sold

Loans get written

Equity gets deployed

Businesses get funded

People get paid.

Jobs get created.

When you don’t:

All of that pauses.

This is why rates actually matter.

Not just because they make housing “affordable.”

But because they make it make sense again to:

Refinance

Sell

Invest

Deploy capital

They make you liquid again.

And here’s where this gets interesting.

The exact same thing is happening with your investments.

Capital is still there.

But it’s getting stuck:

Behind bad financing

Behind delayed exits

Behind deals that need perfect timing

That changes the game.

You’re not just picking good deals anymore.

You’re deciding how long your capital might be trapped.

A deal can look great on paper…

But if it depends on transactions happening quickly:

It’s more fragile than it looks.

The better question now isn’t:

“What’s the return?”

It’s:

“How liquid is this if things stay slow?”

Everyone got rich on paper.

But paper doesn’t compound.

Liquidity does.

How has your strategy shifted in this market?

Are you prioritizing liquidity, cash flow, or still underwriting for upside

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