4 ms·

I pay $30 per week in rent and maybe $30 in utility a week, after renting an apartment, and sub-letting with the owner's permission the other rooms. That's like

by meric 11y ago

I pay $30 per week in rent and maybe $30 in utility a week, after renting an apartment, and sub-letting with the owner's permission the other rooms. That's like $300 a month. Your figures are way off. I started with $5000 in late-2012, and 3.5 years later, I have lower six figures investments. That's enough to buy a house in some parts of the country. So I don't get why I have to wait 30 years to buy a house if I wanted to. I'm guessing you own property with a mortgage tying you down financially and are trying to justify why you did so. I can quit today and live for 7 years doing absolutely nothing. Can you?

bane 11y ago
You seem to not understand what "equivalent" means. Renting a room in an apartment is not the equivalent of buying (or renting) a house. > So I don't get why I have to wait 30 years to buy a house if I wanted to. Why don't you? Then continue to just live in one bedroom of that house and rent the rest out to make more investment income? It doesn't make sense that you aren't? In fact it sounds pretty stupid that you aren't: in one swoop you secure infinite-term housing and you can get other people to cover all of your cost of living. > I'm guessing you own property with a mortgage tying you down financially and are trying to justify why you did so. No not really. There's a bit left, but I can finish paying it out from savings pretty easily. It's not worth it because my interest rate makes borrowing the money essentially "free". >I can quit today and live for 7 years doing absolutely nothing. Can you? Sure, I can liquidate my assets and pretty easily retire for the rest of my life to a few places my wife and I have scouted out in nice parts of the world. It wouldn't be lavish, but it would be fine. If we're clever, we'll instead probably just rent our current house out to somebody like yourself and use the (rent - maintenance - taxes) to take out a mortgage on the same property we're thinking of buying outright for retirement and just live on the passive income forever. We'll thank the renters for funding our retirement with a gift basket full of cheap wine and summer sausages once a year. The mortgage on the place we're eyeing is not in the U.S. and current runs ~$600/mo. The rent on my house right now would run around $3k-3.5k/mo. In 30 years the rent on my house would run around $6k (keeping with expected inflation). The mortgage on the property we bought would still be $600. Feel free to do the math. I and my wife expect to live another 40-50 years if that puts the value of property ownership into perspective for you.

by meric 11y ago

bane 11y ago

You seem to not understand what "equivalent" means. Renting a room in an apartment is not the equivalent of buying (or renting) a house. > So I don't get why I have to wait 30 years to buy a house if I wanted to. Why don't you? Then continue to just live in one bedroom of that house and rent the rest out to make more investment income? It doesn't make sense that you aren't? In fact it sounds pretty stupid that you aren't: in one swoop you secure infinite-term housing and you can get other people to cover all of your cost of living. > I'm guessing you own property with a mortgage tying you down financially and are trying to justify why you did so. No not really. There's a bit left, but I can finish paying it out from savings pretty easily. It's not worth it because my interest rate makes borrowing the money essentially "free". >I can quit today and live for 7 years doing absolutely nothing. Can you? Sure, I can liquidate my assets and pretty easily retire for the rest of my life to a few places my wife and I have scouted out in nice parts of the world. It wouldn't be lavish, but it would be fine. If we're clever, we'll instead probably just rent our current house out to somebody like yourself and use the (rent - maintenance - taxes) to take out a mortgage on the same property we're thinking of buying outright for retirement and just live on the passive income forever. We'll thank the renters for funding our retirement with a gift basket full of cheap wine and summer sausages once a year. The mortgage on the place we're eyeing is not in the U.S. and current runs ~$600/mo. The rent on my house right now would run around $3k-3.5k/mo. In 30 years the rent on my house would run around $6k (keeping with expected inflation). The mortgage on the property we bought would still be $600. Feel free to do the math. I and my wife expect to live another 40-50 years if that puts the value of property ownership into perspective for you.