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Hey I'm not trying to be snarky, but I'm trying to understand your point of view. You didn't "give" 40k to your landlord. You paid him for the use of his prope
by jimmywanger 10y ago
Hey I'm not trying to be snarky, but I'm trying to understand your point of view.
You didn't "give" 40k to your landlord. You paid him for the use of his property, which presumably gave you shelter, kept you warm, gave you a place to park your car and keep your stuff, and he would fix anything that went wrong.
That, to me, would like be me kicking myself for "giving" a hotel a couple hundred dollars for a room for a couple of days.
A house provides you with shelter and warmth, and presumably provides these things to your family. You're paying money to take advantage of these things. Why is renting so much different from buying?
- ScottBurson 10y agoOne might add, the amount of a mortgage payment that goes toward interest -- which is most of it at the beginning, and the fraction comes down only slowly -- is just as "wasted" as rent would have been.
- jimmywanger 10y agoWell, the interest part of the mortgage payment is tax deductible, so that offsets things somewhat. Not 100%, but somewhat. Basically the amount you're paying in interest is tax-deductible, but you're not building equity.
- dionidium 10y agoThis benefit is often overestated (especially in discussions focused on the parts of the country with the highest housing costs (which is to say, places unlike Texas)). This guy was paying $800/mo for rent, so presumably he'd be looking at mortgages near that cost. If so, he'd almost certainly just take the standard deduction.