By James Altucher
Many people have said to me in the past month, “I’m going to buy a home.” Or, “What do you think of the idea of me buying a home?” I like the second batch of people. They are my friends and it seems like they are sincerely asking for my advice. And I’m going to give it to them. Whether they meant it or not.
I have some stories about owning a home. One of them is here: “What It Feels Like to be Rich” where I describe my complete path into utter depravity and insanity. The other one is still too personal. Its filled with about as much pain as I can fit onto a page. Oh, I have a third one also from when I was growing up. But I don’t want to upset anyone in my family so I’ll leave it out. Oh, I have a fourth story that I just forgot about until this very second. But enough about me. Lets get right to it.
There are many reasons to not buy a home: [By the way, I also put this in the category of Advice I want to tell my daughters, including my other article: 10 reasons not to send your kids to college.]
Financial:
A) Cash Gone. You have to write a big fat check for a downpayment. “But its an investment,” you might say to me. Historically this isn’t true. Housing returned 0.4% per year from from 1890 to 2004. And that’s just housing prices. It forgets all the other stuff I’m going to mention below. Suffice to say, when you write that check, you’re never going to see that money again. Because even when you sell the house later you’re just going to take that money and put it into another downpayment. So if you buy a $400,000 home, just say goodbye to $100,000 that you worked hard for. You can put a little sign on the front lawn: “$100,000 R.I.P.”
Read the rest here.
Absolutely agree!
ReplyDeleteI'll add another reason not to own a house:
If; for whatever reason, you should lose your home (hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, etc) - would you really care? Sure, you might get some or all of the money back (if you had insurance), but do you really need all that headache that comes from dealing with insurance, etc.
Or would it be easier just find another place to live without any worries?
When will Altucher's writing cease to be tedious exercises in nattering about symptom, posting shocking photos, and parroting cliches like "cash is king" while keeping his tongue in his cheek?
ReplyDeleteLet's focus on important questions:
(1) Does Progressivism need banking cartels or government borrowing to finance Progressivism's taxfeeding?
(2) Do warmongers need government borrowing or banking cartels to finance miltarism?
(3) Is the welfare state an ally of the warfare state?
(4) Are the warfare state and the welfare state the allies of the crony capitalism state?
(5) Can the warfare state, the welfare state, or the crony capitalism state survive without nationalized money? without government's banking cartels? without government borrowing?
LET'S FIND OUT. Abolish government borrowing, governmnent's banking cartels, and nationalized money.
(7) Are cops, too, with the taxfeeers, and the warmongers, and the crony capitalists? In other words, is the purpose of copcraft to protect and to serve the organized crime state?
LET'S FIND OUT.
(8) Are lawyers gonna dislike the transformation against the organzied crime state? the laws of which they swear an oath to uphold?
LET'S FIND OUT.
(9) Will the transformation provide Altucher with enough FRNs to bathe in them for a lifetime?
I hope so.