I joined the army before I was 18. I saved money while I was in Baghdad. My first house was 40k in 2006. I live in a small town in the middle of corn and soy fields. I have a union job. My wife and I are good about not blowing money. I put $20 bucks a week into different savings accounts to help pay for big expenses.
I bought a house when I was in college. It was a shitty 900 square foot 2 bedroom for 40k. My mortgage was $109 a month. After I graduated and moved away, I tried two rent to own contracts. First one was a disaster. They paid for a few months and then after a couple of court appearances, they got evicted and owe me several thousand dollars.
The second contract was "successful." It was a professor of mine that went through a nasty divorce and had credit problems. Dude took the full term to pay me off even though I suggested that he take a loan in an attempt to rebuild their credit. Nope. Just gave me money each month.
Three months after paying me off, he left the house and moved into on campus housing for adults. Let someone buy it at a tax sale or something.
I don't get it. I know I'm probably more aligned with boomers than I am with my millennials, but why wouldn't you want to own your house that you've been paying for? Renting is nice because it's not your problem if something breaks, but the vast majority of rental owners are shitty and are going to fix things the cheapest way possible.
I was in the same boat, but for not nearly that same amount of money. After I talked to a lawyer I realized it was going to cost me more to recover the money so it wasn't worth it.
Libel - letter
Slander - spoken
Defamation - something else.
Libel needs to be written and published.
Slander needs to be said and broadcast.
And depending on who it's against, there are different levels of evidence needed. Like if you are a public figure, the person doing it needs to be doing it with the expressed purpose of injuring you name/actual malice.
I'm also in a small town and used a local bank.