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The article mentions that he'd go home for dinner, up until his wife died. The hotel pool was apparently also where he did his "job": being a deal-making middle

The article mentions that he'd go home for dinner, up until his wife died. The hotel pool was apparently also where he did his "job": being a deal-making middleman for a 2% cut, per a later description in the article. His job, or at least his former jobs, paid well enough to have a home in Beverly Hills, drive a gold lexus, and wear beautiful suits every day. So they weren't necessarily estranged - he just worked long days every day that afforded a very nice lifestyle.

kristianp 2y ago
Of course when they bought their house it would have cost mere 10s of thousands. You can see why there's an attraction to owning your own house.
- dexterdog 2y ago
  If you live in a place that doesn't have oppresive taxes and the real estate market maintains an unrealistic growth rate.
  - walthamstow 2y ago
    You have described London. There are no taxes on owning a property at all, the growth rate has slowed somewhat since the 00s heyday but it's still going up.
    - walthamstow 2y ago
      Prices are going up, that is, not the rate. A classic economics faux pas!
- kamaal 2y ago
  Owning a home is always good no matter what the finance influencers tell you. In fact, earlier the better. Its not even the buying vs renting thing, renting is bad, you don't get to own anything at the end of the journey, and often the kind of things you have to put up with to save rent, or avoid getting homeless in case of of a job loss or other life crisis is just worth your mental health. Most of your life is spent paying up for the landlords ownership. People often arrive at the scene when most of the options are gone years back, and they wish they bought at the price that existed back then. Get disappointed and lawyer through the arguments to justify renting a home.
  - yieldcrv 2y ago
    its not renting vs owning that's the problem, its renting vs mortgage where mortgage is improperly considered synonymous with ownership. but that's because its so rare to be able to own the home near the places you can rent. so sure, renting vs buying a home in cash will give the cash ownership a leg up. but then it shifts over to people that would love to espouse about the 'time value of money' and leverage, where putting all the cash down is suboptimal vs a mortgage. the % increase of the home value isn't amplified when using cash up front either. so lets optimize this further, renting vs mortgage with the option to pay it off at any moment is always better. but nobody has that cash, so we're back at square one. if you HAVE to do a mortgage, then its likely that renting will be a better deal for you for over 10 years straight, before the mortgage pays dividends.
    - eru 2y ago
      > if you HAVE to do a mortgage, then its likely that renting will be a better deal for you for over 10 years straight, before the mortgage pays dividends. How do mortgages pay dividends? In any case, it's all about opportunity costs, and yields. To give an extreme example: if the house costs 100x the yearly rent, you are probably better off putting your money in the stock market instead of buying the property, and paying your rent from the returns on the stocks.
      - kamaal 2y ago
        Having to pay rent likely makes retiring early, or even retiring itself impossible. Somethings like marriage, kids, buying home just have be done in life as early as you can. Note money is just a number at the end. The idea is not to have max($money), rather max($free_time, $health). Optimise for $free_time and $health, and then you have a very different life strategy to work towards.
        eru 2y ago
        You are still ignoring opportunity costs. If you have $x, you can buy a house and save on $y rent. But you could also buy eg bonds, and make $z return per year. If z > y, going for the bonds is better. Free time and health don't even come into the picture here. [0] (Of course, taxes and regulations can make this more complicated. And there are systematic and idiosyncratic risks to take into account.) It's not automatic that buying owner-occupied property is always the best way to invest your wealth. [0] Well, I assume renting is better for your health: I was significantly less stressed about all the water damage that we had about two years ago, because I knew it was ultimately my landlord's problem, not mine. But the overall effect is likely to be rather minor, and it can go either way, as some people get a mental health benefit out of knowing that they own their home.
- DANmode 2y ago
  You can see why there's an attraction to visiting the casino, as well.
kamaal 2y ago
>>he just worked long days every day that afforded a very nice lifestyle. Some people do work jobs where affluence and a nice lifestyle are kind of baked into it. I do know quite a few people who travel for work often, they stay in luxury hotels, business class travel, great food and fun opportunities at a often basis. You need to get lucky with the job you do.

kristianp 2y ago

Of course when they bought their house it would have cost mere 10s of thousands. You can see why there's an attraction to owning your own house.

dexterdog 2y ago
If you live in a place that doesn't have oppresive taxes and the real estate market maintains an unrealistic growth rate.
- walthamstow 2y ago
  You have described London. There are no taxes on owning a property at all, the growth rate has slowed somewhat since the 00s heyday but it's still going up.
  - walthamstow 2y ago
    Prices are going up, that is, not the rate. A classic economics faux pas!
kamaal 2y ago
Owning a home is always good no matter what the finance influencers tell you. In fact, earlier the better. Its not even the buying vs renting thing, renting is bad, you don't get to own anything at the end of the journey, and often the kind of things you have to put up with to save rent, or avoid getting homeless in case of of a job loss or other life crisis is just worth your mental health. Most of your life is spent paying up for the landlords ownership. People often arrive at the scene when most of the options are gone years back, and they wish they bought at the price that existed back then. Get disappointed and lawyer through the arguments to justify renting a home.
- yieldcrv 2y ago
  its not renting vs owning that's the problem, its renting vs mortgage where mortgage is improperly considered synonymous with ownership. but that's because its so rare to be able to own the home near the places you can rent. so sure, renting vs buying a home in cash will give the cash ownership a leg up. but then it shifts over to people that would love to espouse about the 'time value of money' and leverage, where putting all the cash down is suboptimal vs a mortgage. the % increase of the home value isn't amplified when using cash up front either. so lets optimize this further, renting vs mortgage with the option to pay it off at any moment is always better. but nobody has that cash, so we're back at square one. if you HAVE to do a mortgage, then its likely that renting will be a better deal for you for over 10 years straight, before the mortgage pays dividends.
  - eru 2y ago
    > if you HAVE to do a mortgage, then its likely that renting will be a better deal for you for over 10 years straight, before the mortgage pays dividends. How do mortgages pay dividends? In any case, it's all about opportunity costs, and yields. To give an extreme example: if the house costs 100x the yearly rent, you are probably better off putting your money in the stock market instead of buying the property, and paying your rent from the returns on the stocks.
    - kamaal 2y ago
      Having to pay rent likely makes retiring early, or even retiring itself impossible. Somethings like marriage, kids, buying home just have be done in life as early as you can. Note money is just a number at the end. The idea is not to have max($money), rather max($free_time, $health). Optimise for $free_time and $health, and then you have a very different life strategy to work towards.
      - eru 2y ago
        You are still ignoring opportunity costs. If you have $x, you can buy a house and save on $y rent. But you could also buy eg bonds, and make $z return per year. If z > y, going for the bonds is better. Free time and health don't even come into the picture here. [0] (Of course, taxes and regulations can make this more complicated. And there are systematic and idiosyncratic risks to take into account.) It's not automatic that buying owner-occupied property is always the best way to invest your wealth. [0] Well, I assume renting is better for your health: I was significantly less stressed about all the water damage that we had about two years ago, because I knew it was ultimately my landlord's problem, not mine. But the overall effect is likely to be rather minor, and it can go either way, as some people get a mental health benefit out of knowing that they own their home.
DANmode 2y ago
You can see why there's an attraction to visiting the casino, as well.

kamaal 2y ago

>>he just worked long days every day that afforded a very nice lifestyle. Some people do work jobs where affluence and a nice lifestyle are kind of baked into it. I do know quite a few people who travel for work often, they stay in luxury hotels, business class travel, great food and fun opportunities at a often basis. You need to get lucky with the job you do.