Travel AF. I'd so eat every delicious thing in every prefecture of Japan.
After that I guess I'd use my money to try to solve something like affordable housing.
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Discussion
Where would you like to go besides Japan?
I would love to see the whole world. I have the goal of visiting every exchange student my family has hosted in their home countries by 2032. I do like having a home base though. Even if it’s a sailboat and I’m circumnavigating the globe. Wouldn’t mind having a little beach cottage, and owning a bookstore/cafe “Biblioholic’s Bite” within walking distance. My dog would love to be a shop dog. She’d be less stoked to live aboard a sailboat.
South Korea, and I think I'd probably list my itinerary based on how different the destination country to USA. At a glance Asian countries feel the most different overall. Also as someone who moved to another country I can say most touristic timelines are very limited to actually properly experience a country. You can't say you've experienced a country w/o having experienced how day to day life works for a citizen, not a tourist, which's quite different. Like being familiarized w/ all of their grocery stores for example, IMO, the kind of things that take time to internalize the country.
I was so jealous of a family that was posted to South Korea when I was a kid. I so wanted to go. I like slow travel as well. Not typically a fan of touristy areas.
Which regional YouTubers do you follow if any? For Japan I follow Abroad in Japan, for Korea, mostly Cari Cakes.
https://nostr.build/av/a072b226df22aa2a1c812f0ffa6c584449426e7b40444e2f32bbe1a709298a9a.mp4
Not currently following any regional YouTube accounts.
I’ve seen some affordable housing solutions that just really muck things up. I have lots of thoughts on the topic. If I start it might be an hour+ diatribe. But if someone really wanted to put their money where their mouth is they would have to be an innovative developer and increase supply in markets where there is an affordability crisis.
Oh I'm definitely not talking about kind of solutions like cramming people into shipping container houses that're very inefficient to convert. Just good old multi story apartments that're not being built partly because of the single family housing zones and etc. Definitely a lengthily topic. I know examples of much much poorer countries doing it, having abundant housing development, so I know it's quite within reach of USA to do it as well w/ policy changes.
You’re right policy changes are needed.
I’m a fan of mixed use neighborhoods, use conversion of existing buildings and building infill instead of cities consistently expanding outwards. I also think economically diverse neighborhoods benefit society as a whole. There are cities that have accomplished this better than others.
I cringe at bulldozed acres and planned communities with look alike houses and nary a mature tree in sight. It is possible to build communities without clear cutting and using the same 2-3 house plans.
I think there is an affordability crisis because the banks have promoted to base concepts. One, housing is an investment in personal wealth, and two, that increase in personal wealth is proportional to the market value of your property. The 30 year mortgage is the worst thing thing that ever happened to personal wealth, and housing can be an investment practically only if the investment is a second property where the first is owned entirely. The market value of your primary residence is of little consequence because that value cannot be practically realized. You need a place to live, and few people go from a mansion to a shack to capitalize on the sale/purchase difference.
The 30 year mortgage makes sense in a specific practical use case. You buy a starter home, then use the equity from that property to transition to a larger family home, once empty nesters you transition back to a smaller home and use the equity you built over the years to help fund your retirement or have a home you own in it’s entirety. This assumes that you had a fixed rate mortgage and property values continued to rise over the years.
Pushing one size fits all financial advice is problematic. As is assuming that everyone wants the same life.
It would be nice if it had worked that way. Realistically the the plentiful large amounts of money created a market for overpriced housing, each level buying to the extent their credit and circumstance would allow. This made all of the housing unaffordable for wage earners who don’t want to opt for a mortgage and unreasonable for everyone else, unless you are a fool betting on perpetual growth, and even if that growth continues, what is it fueled by? The evidence for my case is the increasing number of lower middle class people living as tenants, and working class joining the ranks of people raising families in automobiles or tents. I don’t blame the stupid people, I blame the banks for unscrupulous lending practices. The 30 year mortgage is necessary unfortunately, but that necessity doesn’t make it a good idea. Eventually the housing market will price enough people out, making them homeless and they will forcibly take properties over. It’s already happening in poorer metropolitan areas like Detroit.
The problem of housing costs outpacing wage growth is a real concern.
Detroit had a lot of flight from the city into the suburbs. Issues with the automobile industry affecting the economic health of the city. Houses were abandoned because no buyers existed. Having people return, fix up houses and do urban infill is beneficial for the city. Detroit is a perfect example of the dangers of being a one industry economy. Poor policy choices bringing a city to the utter brink. San Francisco should take note of what not to do.
Interesting perspective. I’m not talking about having people return and fix up houses. I’m talking about people returning and squatting in houses they cannot afford to rent or buy. You honestly think that issues with automobile industrials caused the housing collapse? GM received government cheese to right their boat, have you checked Ford stock lately? Corporations and their profit margins along with cheap global labor are to blame. AI and automated manufacturing are going to make this measurably worse. What is the answer? UBI? Depopulation? We can’t all be royalty, princess. I can’t help but see your opinions as a rendition of “if the peasants can’t afford bread, let them eat cake. “
Far from a princess. I was speaking specifically about the situation in Detroit, the causes of which go back to the 1960’s. The housing crisis did have an effect on Detroit. From my understanding it was more like a layer of snow on a snowball that had been rolling downhill for quite some time.
Lol. Just a good natured jab. I’m concerned that there are lots of snowballs all starting to roll downhill. Great analogy. I travel extensively in the US and I see the socioeconomic ladder eroding from the bottom up. I know there are few easy answers if any at all, but every conversation is a little piece of the big picture. I appreciate our dialogue.
I too see a lot of snowballs rolling downhill and have for some time.
I’m willing to go into more detail on contributing factors in Detroit if you’d like. I don’t feel like taking the time to go down that rabbit hole if you’re not interested.
I am interested. I think the mode of failure can always be discerned with in depth analysis. Let’s take a trip down the Detroit rabbit hole. 🐇
I was writing a very long post. Went to double check a fact and fell down a rabbit hole of conflicting facts and timelines that need reconciling to have a chance of coming up with a cohesive timeline. Ah history.
I will quickly say everyone can agree that the exodus of the white middle class from Detroit to the suburbs in the 1960’s that was hastened even more by the 1967 riots was the inflection point of Detroit’s downward spiral. But trying to unravel where the snowball started keeps leading me further back in time.
My power has gone out due to bad storms. So this will have to wait until I don’t need to conserve power on my devices.
I think the practical necessity of the 30 year mortgage is exactly that: pushing one size fits all financial instruments. Everyone needs housing.