What do you do for a living?

[SupraTR]

I will rent till I die. Being able to hop from city to city, not on the hook for repairs, not hunkered down/tied to a piece of land I don't want, is where it's at for me. I get some people want to like.. live in the same place forever, but the cost of housing repairs, the unpredictable housing market of the last 20 years, and the total hellscape of the Fed's hand on the interest rates make this a no-brainer.

I'm well aware that I'm "throwing away equity" or whatever the pro-real-estate-as-primary-dwelling zealots preach, but I have plenty of other real estate investments. Just fucking kill me if I live in the same city for more than a handful of years. Could I own my primary dwelling and rent it out if I want to move? Sure, but that's a fucking headache in it's own right. I tried this once in my mid-twenties. Disaster.

There are plenty of ways to turn wealth into more wealth that isn't owning land. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But hey- everyone has their own thing.

You're 100% on the nose there and this just highlights my whole "everyone has different financial priorities/income potential" point. While eventually "owning" may be best for most there are certainly trade-offs especially in this rate environment and long-term I would not be surprised to see a larger trend towards people renting their whole lives. Your ability to move at will is a huge benefit and sounds like you place a lot of value on that. While I've theoretically made a ton in terms of equity growth on my home since we were lucky when we bought back back in 2015, now I've got the problem you're avoiding in that I'm not willing to part with my 2.75% mortgage rate so we can't move even though I'd like to (well could move but again...tradeoffs).

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[Kolme]

I will rent till I die. Being able to hop from city to city, not on the hook for repairs, not hunkered down/tied to a piece of land I don't want, is where it's at for me. I get some people want to like.. live in the same place forever, but the cost of housing repairs, the unpredictable housing market of the last 20 years, and the total hellscape of the Fed's hand on the interest rates make this a no-brainer.

I'm well aware that I'm "throwing away equity" or whatever the pro-real-estate-as-primary-dwelling zealots preach, but I have plenty of other real estate investments. Just fucking kill me if I live in the same city for more than a handful of years. Could I own my primary dwelling and rent it out if I want to move? Sure, but that's a fucking headache in it's own right. I tried this once in my mid-twenties. Disaster.

There are plenty of ways to turn wealth into more wealth that isn't owning land. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But hey- everyone has their own thing.

In this day and age I think you can make a good argument for renting. 20 years ago, not so much. We’re building our home right now, but it is in noooo waaayy a financially motivated move. It would be much more financially beneficial to stay in our townhome - hell the taxes alone for the new home are over half a years rent alone. But for us, we want/need (but mostly want) the space.

 

[nosavingthrow]

I will rent till I die. Being able to hop from city to city, not on the hook for repairs, not hunkered down/tied to a piece of land I don't want, is where it's at for me. I get some people want to like.. live in the same place forever, but the cost of housing repairs, the unpredictable housing market of the last 20 years, and the total hellscape of the Fed's hand on the interest rates make this a no-brainer.

I'm well aware that I'm "throwing away equity" or whatever the pro-real-estate-as-primary-dwelling zealots preach, but I have plenty of other real estate investments. Just fucking kill me if I live in the same city for more than a handful of years. Could I own my primary dwelling and rent it out if I want to move? Sure, but that's a fucking headache in it's own right. I tried this once in my mid-twenties. Disaster.

There are plenty of ways to turn wealth into more wealth that isn't owning land. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But hey- everyone has their own thing.

Legit. IMO the "buy a house, build equity" advice is fine "default" advice for folks who are likely to live a very "default" life... aka build a career in one place, get married, settle down, have kids, eventually buy an RV or whatever.. etc.

If you KNOW want you want (freedom to roam, etc) then buying a house to live in doesn't really make sense, and you are obviously smart enough to know how to invest money in other ways.

There is also a subset of folks out there who will tell you to save and invest every penny for the first 55 or 60 years of your life, eat nothing but top ramen and drive a 20 year old clapped out shitbox so you can then "have fun" once you retire. I think assuming you'll be able to "have fun" the same way you could have when you were 30 or 40 isn't a great assumption to make. Not saying you can't! But it isn't a given.

 

[Evolution]

I am on the side of you guys are crazy to rent. If I was to rent a house similar to mine, rent would be double what my house payment currently is. No thanks. Plus, I could sell my house right now and pocket a few hundred thou. Ya, I am going to stick to that.

 

[zrk]

I am on the side of you guys are crazy to rent. If I was to rent a house similar to mine, rent would be double what my house payment currently is. No thanks. Plus, I could sell my house right now and pocket a few hundred thou. Ya, I am going to stick to that.

Sure, but then you gotta buy another house, right? And in a seller's market, you're going to get half of what you have. That === trapped. Unless of course, you take the few hundred k, and rent .

Like I said above, it's different for everyone. Homeownership, as @nosavingthrow mentioned is good for people that want to stay in one place.

Another point, for me, to rent: I live in cities. I spent a decade in NYC, and I'm currently in Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, and Portland are on my list. I can pay 2500-3000 a month to rent a nice place or buy a piece of shit 1br in a shit building for that kind of mortgage payment. A 3k/month mortgage payment is about a 300, MAYBE 400k dollar house. To even live in a decent home in a city, you need to spend 3x that.

I'm very comfortable with the investments I've made over the decades where being able to pocket 'a few hundred thousand but then I'm homeless' doesn't really get my dick hard, ya know.

Everyone's different, everyone's financial outlook is different. I'm cool with renting, but I'm not 'anti-homeownership' at all. Just be happy and have fun before we all just die and it's over.

 

[Evolution]

Sure, but then you gotta buy another house, right? And in a seller's market, you're going to get half of what you have. That === trapped. Unless of course, you take the few hundred k, and rent .

Nah, I would just move back in with the parents and live in their back house (rent free) until the market settles down. Then buy a house outright with the cash I made by selling my house plus the money I save every month from not owning a house. Win win.

 

[Mason]

Let’s try to keep this thread on track. I know most of you here are well versed investors with savvy business strategy. But this isn’t a crash course on establishing wealth.

hoping to allow others with < 100k year jobs to be welcomed into the conversation without worrying about being told their unwise financially.

 

[ColonelAdama]

It's definitely interesting how people financially justify things. I'm mainly shocked by the people who are making under six figures, still renting, and then go out and buy a $60k+ sports car with minimal downpayment. While they can make the payments they completely miss the opportunity cost in them not investing excess cash flow and/or saving for a downpayment on the house. I feel like these also tend to be the people who buy a car and then 2 years later are in another new car so its a vicious cycle. But also if you're going to keep it for 10 years then maybe the opportunity cost while young is worth it to them especially if they have the future income potential to offset.

I think there are lots of us that don't pay cash though. I'm also in the boat of putting 20k down and financing the rest and despite great credit that worked out to be a bit over 7% (literally picked it up this week). All cash would have required selling my daily and some investments and with a 2.75% mortgage I'd rather just pay the car off in 2 years and have the liquidity available in the meantime if I want to do something like a major remodel on the house. But I say all that in my early(ish) 30's. Five or ten years down the road this more than likely swings to an all cash purchase.

Long winded way of saying (I can nerd out on this stuff if you can't tell...) I'm shocked by some people's financial decisions, but everyone's financial situation and priorities can significantly differ.

I think you are spot on here. I understand the appeal of renting, but I held off on getting my nice car until I had my house, which I purchased in 2021. Since then, its gone up nearly 30% in value. It's hard to beat that from an investment perspective. I'm sure it will go back down in the coming year or 2, but I still got in at 3% interest so it ends up cheaper monthly than my tiny apartment was. My savings from this decision accumulated quickly and made the Supra an easy buy for me this year.

Also agreed that it is shocking to see people willing to spend 30% of their take-home on a car Not intended to gatekeep people from a Supra, but I also don't want to see fellow enthusiasts get themselves into trouble.

 

[supbrraa]

PA

 

[zrk]

Nah, I would just move back in with the parents and live in their back house (rent free) until the market settles down. Then buy a house outright with the cash I made by selling my house plus the money I save every month from not owning a house. Win win.

I'd definitely be homeless before I moved into even the same state as my parents. So.. not gonna do that. lol.

spend 30% of their take-home

Yeah- this is... oof.

 

[zrk]

hoping to allow others with < 100k year jobs to be welcomed into the conversation without worrying about being told their unwise financially.

You're young, you'll be fine.

 

[calmeda1]

hoping to allow others with < 100k year jobs to be welcomed into the conversation without worrying about being told their unwise financially.

I'm 25 with a salary under 100. Main reason I can afford the car:

?Double income, no kids?

 

[DarkZupra]

Im actually a just a sentient AI, sent to the past to protect John Connor from Chat GPT-2090.

 

[Kolme]

Also agreed that it is shocking to see people willing to spend 30% of their take-home on a car Not intended to gatekeep people from a Supra, but I also don't want to see fellow enthusiasts get themselves into trouble.

I mean let’s be realistic, we’ve all looked at a Lamborghini and done the math to see if we could make the finances work. Just to… you know… know. Lol

 

[Rhane]

IT @ a big 3 oem. Just accepted the same type of role at another oem that aligns more with what I drive currently

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