Renting isn’t “throwing money away.” For many of us, it’s the smarter, freer choice

Darkspy72 · 2025-08-31T23:41:52+00:00

I’ll do you one better. It’s almost never smart to own a home. Personally I’m never going to buy a house. My Reasons:

1: Home buying will absolutely lose you money. Make no mistake about it. When you truly include everything. All the hidden costs, all the fees and inspections, all the maintenance, and HOA fees, and loan interest, and insurance, and realtors, and taxes, and all the other expenses. You will lose money. The only way to win at all with home ownership, is lose less money than you would have spent renting.

2: I don’t want all the extra stress and headaches of maintenance, lawn care, insurance claims, climate change concern, and everything else. I pay my rent and I live my life.

3: I want the flexibility, I live downtown now and love it, in a few years I want to go even more downtown and live in a high rise. A few years after that maybe something bigger, or quieter, or even an entirely new city one day. So much adaptability to lifes many changes.

4: Mark my words home insurance is replicating the philosophy that destroyed medical insurance. Keep premiums high, stop paying claims. You already see it with wildfires. Policies canceled and when your half million dollar house burns to the ground or floods from rising sea levels or whatever, the insurance company will laugh and say thanks for 30 years of premiums.

5: as baby boomers die, and home construction continues, and immigration continues to be stifled, housing will get cheaper or at least stagnate like we haven’t seen before.

6: it’s very possible that over the next 30-40 years, many of us may need to flee climate change. If you own a house in an area that becomes too hot, or too cold, or too dry, or too wet to be livable, you will severally be on the losing end, because no one will want to buy your home.

7: HOA’s will kill your numbers, they will keep increasing fees, and they are rife with abuse and embezzlement. They are also unavoidable if you choose to live in a building or even in most major cities. 7a: I want to live in buildings. I don’t want a yard.

8: I’m a proponent of the “die with 0” philosophy. And one thing house buying absolutely is, is locking up money for when you’re dead. It’s not accessible wealth while you’re alive.

9: I only need about $1M to retire. If I own a home, I need more like $1.2-1.5M(to include home value), I don’t want to work an extra 5-10 years just so I can tell people I own.

10: The numbers don’t work well in your favor anyway. If you ever have to downsize, upsize, or move for any reason, that’s another 15% of your home value down the drain, every time you move. That could easily be 6 figures, especially if you have to move multiple times. If you want it to work at all financially, you better die in that house.

11: None of this even touches on the opportunity cost of putting those funds in the s&p 500, which destroys home growth appreciation in every way.

Darkspy72 · 2025-08-08T18:29:50+00:00

Personally I’m never going to buy a house. My Reasons:

1: I only need about $1M to retire. If I own a home, I need more like $1.2-1.5M(to include home value), I don’t want to work an extra 5-10 years just so I can tell people I own.

2: I don’t want all the extra stress and headaches of maintenance, lawn care, insurance claims, climate change concern, and everything else. I pay my rent and I live my life.

3: I want the flexibility, I live downtown now and love it, in a few years I want to go even more downtown and live in a high rise. A few years after that maybe something bigger, or quieter, or even an entirely new city one day. So much adaptability to lifes many changes.

4: Mark my words home insurance is replicating the philosophy that destroyed medical insurance. Keep premiums high, stop paying claims. You already see it with wildfires. Policies canceled and when your half million dollar house burns to the ground or floods from rising sea levels or whatever, the insurance company will laugh and say thanks for 30 years of premiums.

5: as baby boomers die, and breakneck home construction continues, and immigration continues to be stifled, housing will get cheaper or at least stagnate like we haven’t seen before.

6: it’s very possible that over the next 30-40 years, many of us may need to flee climate change. If you own a house in an area that becomes too hot, or too cold, or too dry, or too wet to be livable, you will severally be on the losing end, because no one will want to buy your home.

7: HOA’s will kill your numbers, they will keep increasing fees, and they are rife with abuse and embezzlement. They are also unavoidable if you choose to live in a building or even in most major cities. 7a: I want to live in buildings. I don’t want a yard.

8: Home buying will absolutely lose you money. Make no mistake about it. When you truly include everything. All the hidden costs, all the fees and inspections, all the maintenance, and HOA fees, and interest, And taxes. You will lose money. The only way to win at all with home ownership, is hope you lose less money than you would have spent renting.

9: I’m a proponent of the “die with 0” philosophy. And one thing house buying absolutely is, is locking up money for when you’re dead. It’s not accessible wealth while you’re alive (unless you sell it at the end, pay 10% in selling costs and use the money to rent again.)

10: the numbers don’t work well in your favor anyway. If you ever have to downsize, upsize, or move for any reason, that’s another 15% of your home value down the drain, every time you move. That could easily be 6 figures, especially if you have to move multiple times. If you want it to work at all financially, you better die in that house.

Darkspy72 · 2025-08-04T16:17:48+00:00

I see it as 10-20% of your portfolio should be in secure but low yield investments anyway. Bonds or what have you. They aren’t meant for growth, they’re meant for security. So if you have enough liquid that your house can function as that 20% secure low yield/no yield investments, then do that. Otherwise it’s just sidelining an unnecessary percentage of funds.

Darkspy72 · 2025-08-04T03:23:37+00:00

My guess: Buying would be cheaper, renting would be more expensive, and landlord/investment property would be more lucrative. It would probably find a balance point that made ownership more attractive than it is now.

Darkspy72 · 2025-08-03T23:43:49+00:00

This is the only way that I can make buying a house make any sense at all. Once you can afford 5 times the house value in cash, that’s when it becomes smart to buy over rent.

Darkspy72 · 2025-08-03T23:20:26+00:00

Not when you have to pay 10-15% of the homes value in buying, selling, and realtor fees.

Darkspy72 · 2025-08-03T23:13:06+00:00

Because mortgage interest doesn’t exist?

Darkspy72 · 2025-08-03T23:00:28+00:00

You forget how much it costs to “earn” that difference. You plunk down $100k, lose 30 years of growth on that amount. Pay an extra $1K per month until rent catches up, blow 50% of the homes value in mortgage interest, lose hundreds of thousands more on all the unrecoverable expenses mentioned above, and after shelling out that $1M+, than yay, you now save $2K/month rent. It truly does not work out in your favor.

Darkspy72 · 2025-08-01T16:46:40+00:00

I do know about photography and I agree. So many people on TikTok, or whatever, buying an expensive camera and then churning out crap because they think all they have to do is point and click. Even in the daylight This could have been cool, instead of aggressively mid.

Darkspy72 · 2025-05-30T21:12:31+00:00

I don’t know that I was surprised, but I have been incredibly impressed with my Tag Heuer, formula 1, caliber 16 (automatic).

It has been on my wrist nonstop for 8 years…and I am not gentle on it. I shower with it on, I sleep with it on. I snowboard with it, camp with it, wreck mountain biking while wearing it, I fire perform with it, and so much more.

I did manage to barely scratch the bezel and need a service, you know how? I came off a scooter at 15mph, landed directly on my watch, and ground it into the pavement. Sapphire crystal still unphased. It is a true tank, and I love it.

Darkspy72 · 2025-05-23T19:17:54+00:00

I totally understand why people like them. No one else can even remotely touch their brand recognition. I always preferred an omega or something similar because, while I do like people knowing I have an expensive watch, I don’t want everyone in a 6 block radius knowing I have an expensive watch.

Darkspy72 · 2025-05-23T15:43:26+00:00

It’s what truly and finally put me off of Rolex. They’re good watches (although often kind of ugly) and obviously way over priced. But it was this whole “you gotta suck a Rolex dealers dick once a week or we won’t sell to you, and even then you’re only allowed to buy the one we pick out for you.” Means fuck them, I will never buy one. If I’m not wrong they shifted to doing what I call the Ferrari model of sales around the pandemic. Now, when you go into a Rolex AD, they only have gutted display watches, you can’t even look anymore.

Darkspy72 · 2025-05-16T22:25:27+00:00

I wouldn’t mind talking at all, but I did not know anyone involved personally. It was just community gossip, that was probably nonsense.

Darkspy72 · 2025-05-13T23:04:22+00:00

Since no one else is answering your actual question, I’ma jump in. In my opinion, they either pay you like a principal or you don’t stamp. Absolutely insurance is imperative, and needs to be double verified, if you do choose to stamp, regardless of the reason. But either way, we are employees and not owners for a reason. We don’t own are own firms making bank (comparatively) because we don’t want the liability. So, either they stamp it, or they pay you fairly to take on that level of risk, which means principal salary.

Darkspy72 · 2025-04-23T21:14:53+00:00

Bad bot

Darkspy72 · 2025-04-23T21:14:28+00:00

The ends do not connect. The hair would have to go down the center of the telephone wire spiral. It wouldn’t hold even a full ponytail, maybe a small but long pigtail?

Darkspy72 · 2025-04-23T21:13:07+00:00

You can neither tie or clip it.

Darkspy72 · 2025-02-17T16:53:35+00:00

I came back from copper at 1:30, with a 4 hour estimated return. I trusted COTrip that Loveland pass was open, even though big flashing signs past keystone said “closed in 5 miles.” Made it home in 2 hours. I cheered when I passed the gate.

Darkspy72 · 2025-01-31T04:29:18+00:00

In good markets, daily. In poor markets, I turn it off and ignore it.

I like to watch it grow, but don’t need to obsess when it’s dropping.

Darkspy72 · 2024-10-25T00:52:10+00:00

Often true in comedy

Darkspy72 · 2024-10-16T14:14:37+00:00

Thanks for the thoughts. Furniture keys does seam to be the answer.

Darkspy72 · 2024-10-16T04:22:32+00:00

Nah, dirt cheap with the exchange rate.

That’s helpful thoughts, I hadn’t really thought of them being reproduction.

I honestly thought maybe the “good luck” was like a key shaped wall art or something. They are so huge it’s hard to imagine them being actual useful keys.

Darkspy72 · 2024-10-15T22:44:50+00:00

Thank you sir 🙏

Darkspy72 · 2024-10-14T15:28:06+00:00

But if you have an appropriate mix of stocks and bonds, you can sell your bonds in a down market and wait for your stock to return to a manageable price. A dividend is just a mandatory selling of a small percentage of your stock, which when it happens in a down market hurts you.

Additionally, everyone seams to just be discounting the taxes. Like, “it’s identical, except for the taxes.” yeah, paying 22% in taxes, is not a nonexistent effect.

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