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Not if you look for a new place near renewal time, and then simply walk away if your current landlord tries that nonsense. I get it.... Not a good option in certain parts of the world, but it is in America. Last place the whole family lived together, the landlord was fond of saying he could easily rent the place out for thousands of dollars more if we moved out. Well, got to the point that my dad got sick of his mouth. So, we moved out. Found out from the landlord's business partner (different business) that he did jack up the rates. And, no one bit!
Get you a couple of large buckets at Home Depot. 😉
Tactical victories can be had, but that doesn't change the fact that landlords are pass-through entities and renters pay property taxes and market rates routinely adjust to reflect increased assessments.
When Mrs Fixer and I got married the housing bubble was still expanding and instead of paying way too much for a house we rented for a lot less than a mortgage would have been. When the bubble finally burst we bought a house for half what one would've cost during the peak. So yeah, I paid for rent for a time, but paid about 1/2 of what a mortgage payment would've been then when we bought we paid less for the mortgage than we'd been paying for rent.
My timing was fortuitous - bought in 2008 - before prior to the corporate relocation wave in the DFW area and also prior to the financial crisis tightening up lending requirements.
After the fiasco with my student loan, I vowed never to borrow for any reason ever again. Sure, I have credit cards for convenience, but the balances always get paid in full at the end of the month. I don't like owing people money. If you can't pay, which was the case with my student loan, eventually the debt becomes multiples of what you borrowed. Student loans are actually the worst kind of debt other than loan sharks. $8,400 principal eventually turned into over $1 million to pay it off, at least according to one of the collection agencies my loan got assigned to.
No savings or retirement accounts? I was so tired of being poor when I was young that I saved virtually every penny once I started working. I HATED going to work. I vowed I never want to be forced to do a job I hate ever again, so I saved money as a cushion against that. Having money means you can be more picky about what you do for a living.
Exactly. They want to collect lots of interest. Or even better, they want you to miss payments entirely so they can get collection fees in addition to interest. Just like the student loan system. They want people to default on their loans because that's where the real money starts for them.
That makes two of us. I never needed to own a vehicle but that's the last thing I would borrow money for. A vehicle doesn't even qualify as an asset. Sure, in theory it's worth something if you sell it, but get in a bad collision and the value could drop to zero just like that. It's like having a pile of gold that someone can steal at any time.
Yep. I tell people how about just delaying your gratification a bit by not borrowing to buy stuff. When you do buy it with cash, put aside whatever you're now saving on interest for your next big purchase. Or better yet just keep that money aside for a rainy day. I recall an old saying about not spending all your prosperity at once because it won't last.
Making credit easier was the single worst thing we ever did. Prices rising far faster than inflation meant the idea of saving up to buy a house no longer worked. How could you save when prices were going up each year by more than the amount you could save? If prices were stable relative to inflation at least you know if you set aside, say, 10% of the price of a home, in 10 years you'll be able to buy with cash.
Not having children is an even smarter decision by far. I tell people if you do get married, don't have any children. If you get divorced, you may or may not have to give your former wife alimony. Sometimes if she makes more she'll have to give YOU alimony. But if there are kids, forget it. Alimony and child support at least until the youngest one graduates college.
The increased property taxes generally get passed through in the form of higher rent. There are a lot of major downsides to renting:
I discussed a lot of this in another thread but for me even finding a person I'd have wanted to marry seemed like an impossible hill to climb, never mind the rest. I'm just THAT picky when it comes to the opposite sex. In many ways I'm kind of like that ex of yours, content to have less and never really earn much money. So children would have been out of the question, even if I wanted them. Just couldn't afford them unless she was a high earner. I never really did like or want kids though. I decided this by grade school. Nothing I've seen since has changed my mind about it. I saw myself as lots of things in life, but "father" was never really one of them. I'm not even sure I would have been a good husband, never mind a parent. Most likely my wife would have been mostly supporting me, or she would have had rich parents supporting both of us. In the latter case I might not have been totally averse to the idea of having children. I just didn't want to work a bunch of extra years having to support them. But if I didn't need to work, could spend lots of time with them doing fun things, maybe I'd have been open to it. If neither of us had to work, even better. Work schedules, money problems, and paying for kids are what seems to ruin a lot of marriages which otherwise might have been great.
That's going to depend very much on the local market and how you weigh 'equivalent'. In 2008 I bought a house and my out the door every month (mortgage+taxes+insurance) for a 3/2.5 was less than renting a 1 bedroom apartment whose main 'extra' was an attached garage. While the timing cannot be replicated, the general situation in the DFW metro hasn't much changed. In more expensive metros - ala NYC, LA, SFO, Seattle, etc - the table stakes of buying a home are markedly greater thus the choice to rent simpler.
I don't have to imagine - that's been my entire adult life and it's normal for me. Circumstances were what they were and I effectively spent my 20s and 30s living alone. Now that I'm in my 40s it's too late and my SO doesn't want children anyway. Upside is the finances are far easier, downside is the prospect of spending twilight years alone. Thus it goes.
A blessing to some. Namely those who don't get thrown into Rest Homes when they're elderly and completely forgotten about. But have those now adult children take care of them. As far as the children themselves, look around you. Take an honest look at this disgusting, diseased-mentality world the way it truly is. Actual nut-jobs are not only allowed to run free but prosper! They get elected to positions of power! Unless it was unplanned and an accident, why would anybody bring children into this morally bankrupt cesspool of a world that currently exists?
And that in a nutshell is one reason (among many others) I never even wanted kids. Even best case if the marriage works, you raise the kids to adulthood, you're working your behind off to support them. Seriously, putting in 40 or 50 hours a week used to leave the tank empty. I certainly had nothing left after work. Even weekends were mostly spent recovering from the work week. What good is a family you're too tired to enjoy? As I said earlier, maybe if I married into wealth, neither of us needed to work, I might not have been completely averse to having children. Even then, for many of the same reasons you mention with the state of the world, I still might not be sold. But at least if I had them, I'd have the time and energy to actually enjoy them.
I noticed that even in HS. Some girls would have great boyfriends I just couldn't find fault with, then one day they just decide to break up. The weird thing in many cases the guy they broke up for was often less in every category-looks, brains, personality. I guess guys do that also, but it seems to be more prevalent among females. I guess many like a "project guy", instead of someone who doesn't need fixing up. Of course, as they get older, many are happy to marry the latter, but then treat him pretty much like an ATM.
While on that subject I recall never registering for the Selective Service in college. My reason wasn't that I wouldn't have fought for my country if it came to that, but rather that women weren't required to register also. They enjoy the same freedoms men do. If it comes down to that, they should be drafted to fight also. And yes put on the front line if that's appropriate for them.
