3 ms·

That's your choice, and it's fine, and I'm not going to criticise it, but just suggest that sometimes (not always, and depends on what you consider "better") it

by vidarh 3y ago

That's your choice, and it's fine, and I'm not going to criticise it, but just suggest that sometimes (not always, and depends on what you consider "better") it's possible to cater for both the day to day case and those edge cases better if you make your starting choices more around your day to day needs. E.g. maybe your parents staying specifically in your house is too important for you to give up, but for those whose actual need might well be to want to spent holiday time or the occasional long weekend etc. with family or friends, many places you can finance a lot of trips and big fancy AirBnbs for all of you together for the savings from a smaller mortgage. For some it might similarly be even more of a highlight to throw the parties in a lavish rented location or fancy restaurant (but again: it might not be; if part of your enjoyment is to host at your home, that's your choice). Depending on how frequently you need that truck, you might be better of renting/signing up to a car-sharing service. Sometimes people genuinely want to be able to handle the very specific edge case and that's fine. But often people also just haven't considered the cost of buying for the edge cases vs. the cost of renting on occasion and what it might allow. I wouldn't want to suggest you shouldn't make decisions that takes your edge cases into account, but I find to me at least that there are often alternative ways of addressing edge cases than people's "defaults".

WesolyKubeczek 3y ago
> but for those whose actual need might well be to want to And the authority for the people to decide their “actual” needs should be who exactly?
- vidarh 3y ago
  I took great care to multiple times make clear that the choice is yours, that your needs might not be suited for this, and that whatever works for you is fine. Exactly what made you think I was implying the person to decide what works for you should be anyone but you?
  - lukas099 3y ago
    It is crazy how hard people try to read straw men into what other people say sometimes.
- mavhc 3y ago
  You can buy whatever you want, just pay the externalities, you shouldn't get to use the atmosphere as a free sewer
ozim 3y ago
I don’t know how you calculate things but airbnb/hotel/rental car prices - are priced that it never makes sense I did calculations couple of times. It only makes sense to rent something if you don’t have any of your own options. Getting bigger mortgage and having your family once a year instead of paying for a hotel gets you ahead really quick. TCO of a bigger car is not that much bigger to match having a smaller car and then renting out a bigger once in a while. Unless it is like once in 10 years.
- vidarh 3y ago
  Adding a room to my house where I live would add about $4k/year in mortgage costs. If you have your family staying over often, you'd easily exceed that in AirBnb's, sure. For me, my family is a 2 hours international flight away, so they're around rarely enough that $4k exceeds what I spend. The point is not that this is always the right choice, but that you should do the maths for your specific circumstances before you decide. Similarly, with respect to a car, if the only alternative was a smaller car maybe I'd have chosen that, but my average total transport costs over the last 10 years is about 1/10th of the average UK car costs when factoring in occasional months with hundreds spent on Uber. That works for me, because I live somewhere with excellent public transport and don't need to use even that much. It won't work for someone who don't have my life or my transport options. That's fine. That was my entire point: Do the numbers. And that also includes for people who think they're saving by holding back.
  - d1sxeyes 3y ago
    It's also critical to remember in this discussion that that $4K is not gone. Generally speaking, you'll pay less in mortgage costs than the value of the house by the time the mortgage is paid off. That means that you benefit from both the option to host people and the added equity which you could release later in life if you need that cash, or you can leave for your descendents. At least, as a rule of thumb, property value gains tend to exceed mortgage interest paid. It's not universally true, but generally you'll at least recoup a significant proportion of what you paid.
    - 3y ago

by vidarh 3y ago

WesolyKubeczek 3y ago

> but for those whose actual need might well be to want to And the authority for the people to decide their “actual” needs should be who exactly?

vidarh 3y ago
I took great care to multiple times make clear that the choice is yours, that your needs might not be suited for this, and that whatever works for you is fine. Exactly what made you think I was implying the person to decide what works for you should be anyone but you?
- lukas099 3y ago
  It is crazy how hard people try to read straw men into what other people say sometimes.
mavhc 3y ago
You can buy whatever you want, just pay the externalities, you shouldn't get to use the atmosphere as a free sewer

ozim 3y ago

I don’t know how you calculate things but airbnb/hotel/rental car prices - are priced that it never makes sense I did calculations couple of times. It only makes sense to rent something if you don’t have any of your own options. Getting bigger mortgage and having your family once a year instead of paying for a hotel gets you ahead really quick. TCO of a bigger car is not that much bigger to match having a smaller car and then renting out a bigger once in a while. Unless it is like once in 10 years.

vidarh 3y ago
Adding a room to my house where I live would add about $4k/year in mortgage costs. If you have your family staying over often, you'd easily exceed that in AirBnb's, sure. For me, my family is a 2 hours international flight away, so they're around rarely enough that $4k exceeds what I spend. The point is not that this is always the right choice, but that you should do the maths for your specific circumstances before you decide. Similarly, with respect to a car, if the only alternative was a smaller car maybe I'd have chosen that, but my average total transport costs over the last 10 years is about 1/10th of the average UK car costs when factoring in occasional months with hundreds spent on Uber. That works for me, because I live somewhere with excellent public transport and don't need to use even that much. It won't work for someone who don't have my life or my transport options. That's fine. That was my entire point: Do the numbers. And that also includes for people who think they're saving by holding back.
- d1sxeyes 3y ago
  It's also critical to remember in this discussion that that $4K is not gone. Generally speaking, you'll pay less in mortgage costs than the value of the house by the time the mortgage is paid off. That means that you benefit from both the option to host people and the added equity which you could release later in life if you need that cash, or you can leave for your descendents. At least, as a rule of thumb, property value gains tend to exceed mortgage interest paid. It's not universally true, but generally you'll at least recoup a significant proportion of what you paid.
  - 3y ago