Well its been sometime, hasn’t it.
I bet you thought that I’d got bored and gone away to new and more interesting things.
Well you thought wrong!
In fact I’ve been busy moving house, decorating, laying floors, and all those other knee destroying things that go with having a bank as your landlord.
After 9 months in the new place what do I have:
- Less free time than ever.
- Bad Knees.
- Tennis elbow.
- A current account balance in free fall.
Why do people buy houses? Its a supreme act of idiocy dammit!
Security I hear you say. Bullshit! A landlord is more likely to listen to your entreaties than a bank manager who knows exactly how deeply in the financial shit you are, and can look at your financial status with a clickety click of the keyboard.
Investment I hear you say. Bullshit! If I invest my hard earned cash in unit trusts, I get at least 9% pa. If I invest in a house, I pay 5% pa + repairs on the house + insurance in case the damn thing burns down. I wont even go into the costs of mad women with credit cards furnishing new houses here, as it may severely damage my bedroom rights.
Why do we buy houses then? Well I think its some instinct that comes from the time when there were no bank managers, and the size of your cave was used to attract crumpet. (Incidentally I think cars as an investment are just as stupid, but I’ll go into that later.)
Oh well, do as I say, not as I do,
It all goes to show I’m as big a prick as the next man….
Congrats on the new house and good luck with all the work involved in setting it up. I’m having enough trouble getting everything set up in my new apartment I can only imagine the troubles involved in a house, not to mention the mortgage and everything. Good to see you blogging again!
Comment by Justin — August 3, 2007 @ 8:51 am
This is unrelated, but for some reason I always think of you when I’m at an appliance store and see one of these:
http://www.smeguk.com/Catalogue/Product/FAB28UJ4.aspx . I think it’s just the company name in general, reminds me of an old British TV show I used to watch.
Comment by Justin — August 3, 2007 @ 8:53 am
Do as I say, not as I do. I would be retired by now if it weren’t for having banks as the landlord. Don’t know how we let ourselves get talked into it.
Comment by Rand — August 3, 2007 @ 9:15 am
Congrats on the place, here in American people buy for tax reasons otherwise no one would do it. I pay $1300 a month of which I take 1/3 off for taxes leaving me with a payment of less than $900 for a four bedroom house. Rent for this house would be about $1200 with a landlord who could kick me out whenever he decided to sell. So tax breaks and security are the two reasons people buy here, I’m not sure if that would hold true for Europe. I do know people there who had to move when they retired because their rent had gone steadily up through the years (house payments stay the same). I do know people here who work on their places constantly, we only do house upgrades in the winter when it is raining so we actually have a life. If you have to choose between investing in stock and bonds or real estate every accountant I know (including myself) will advise against real estate because the growth is much slower. Now that you have the cave be sure to get the BMW to go with it.
Comment by Sandy — August 7, 2007 @ 12:41 am