He just wanted to focus on paying his mortgage and covering his bills.
My brother seemed like the happiest man alive when he finally bought his own home. All of us other siblings have been homeowners for about a decade. Well, he is the younger sibling, so everybody will give him a break of course. Anyway, I think I was the only one to tell him that he needed to do something about his ancient dial thermostat. That thing had to have been in this house from the day it was built with no replacement ever. That’s how old it seemed and his house was built in the 50s. The only things that seemed to be newer were the roof and the HVAC system. I mean, the HVAC wasn’t brand new, but it wasn’t over 7 years old. I told my brother to compliment his HVAC system, why not install a new smart thermostat. My brother laughed and told me there was no way he was spending anymore money. He basically said he was broke. I argued that he could save on his energy bills with a smart thermostat but he still insisted it was something he could not afford. He just wanted to focus on paying his mortgage and covering his bills. I finally ended up buying him a smart thermostat and helped him install the thing. He was very grateful and then he was telling me about how much his energy bills have gone down. After a year, he paid me back for the thermostat and said he saved so much money, he felt bad if he didn’t pay me back. I told him it was a gift, but he insisted I take the money.