Today, I’ve complete on the sale of the first house I bought, in August of 2006, near peak housing market, 18 months/2 years before the GFC. At the time I was doing the “graduate job” with a “good pension”, barely able to make mortgage payments, single, just about making ends meet, living the treadmill life.
“Better get on the housing ladder”, “better than paying rent to someone else”, “good to have a home of your own”, is what everyone said. But what have i learnt? That mortgage put me in chains that could have locked me into a careers that wasn’t interesting or went anywhere, but I needed to stay there to pay the mortgage.
Looking back, I moved on and ended up having someone else paying the mortgage since, but with expenses this wasn’t some sort of golden ticket as every rent payment was taxed, every annoying tenant requested little job to be fixed cost money, property maintenance costs are real!!! The compound annual increase of the house over the years, without accounting for mortgage interest or expenses, has been something like 1.7%, nowhere near keeping up with official ( fake)inflation figures.
Real estate is a consumable, it is not a store of value, if you can, buy where you want to live or rent where you want to live, spending as little as possible and choose a better store of value.
Be safe out there freaks, educate the ones you love, don’t let them believe what may have worked in the past. People may not want to listen and say “you can’t live in your Bitcoin”, but it is likely a much better store of value, won’t lock you into a specific location and won’t need a new boiler (or some to help a tenant test the smoke alarm). It might also free you and your family from the chains and stress of a 25 (or 40 in my case) year mortgage, and the impact that could have on you and them.
It was not all negative, living by myself (well, me and my dog), having the responsibility to make it through, the kick up the ass that something had to change, and having “my own place” were definitely positive but also critical to getting where I am today. My advice, don’t be distracted by those who “made money” from changes in monetary policy. It is your house, your life, not part of your investment portfolio.
Saving in #bitcoin not bricks. Love you guys. Enjoying my final moments in the house, although now officially trespassing!!!!
This is house my creature comforts were like when I moved in. Was already prepping for lift as a bitcoiner, I had a chair, but it was a very very cheap on.
