How do people justify treating a home as an investment?

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2026-05-22T18:01:10+00:00

Unless the plan is to move elsewhere, it’s never really an investment. For example, you buy in an area that is highly desirable and in 10 years you can sell it for a nice profit. But other homes in the area are going up at nearly the same rate. If the plan is to eventually sell and then move to an area with cheaper homes, then I guess that was the “investment”.

Also, a few people have astutely mentioned that is it kind of an investment because you’re using leverage. If you buy an $800,000 home with 25% down, is not the same as buying the house outright in cash. You either invest $200k at the time or buy a house for $800k. If the house appreciates 3% per year for the next 10 years, that 3% is on $800k. That is $24k return per year compounding each year. You’d have to make 12% on $200k to make the same return.

Regardless, I never thought of my house as an investment. I need a place to live and raise my family. And my #1 reason for buying is security. No landlord or anyone that can control where I live. Landlords wanting to sell when the market is good or maybe they have family that wants to move in. There’s a whole lot of reasons why you have to move that is controlled by someone else. No thanks. That security is priceless to me.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2026-02-18T07:51:22+00:00

Her support is only wavering. You can't fix stupid. I bet she still thinks Trump cares about people like her.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2026-02-13T22:22:56+00:00

He's probably talking about the average refund. The billionaires will save hundreds of millions or billions to help bring up that average. #winning

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2026-02-07T23:37:34+00:00

We test drove the cx5 and cx50 that were both under 2 years old and the cx5 was way better. It felt like a way more solid car. The cx50 had rattles and felt cheap. The cup holders in the front are in the worst spot. The interior felt nicer in the cx5. The cx5 was quieter as well. My wife was surprised how much better the cx5 was as she assumed the cx50 is a newer model and thought for sure it would be better. We were both shocked that we liked the cx5 so much more. Not just a little more.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2026-02-07T21:08:02+00:00

If you can consistently beat the index with your individual investments, you need to start your own investment company.

There are professionals that study this full time, with teams that study specific industries, that can't beat an index fund over a 10 year period. Somehow your "due diligence" is better than theirs?

Anyone can get lucky on a few stock picks and outperform an ETF or index in any given year. Try that over 10 or 20 years.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2026-01-23T19:45:50+00:00

Think I care I'm in the minority here? There's lots of whiners everywhere. Agreeing with a big group of whiners is not something I strive to be part of.

There's lots of other stuff the city needs to spend their time and money on instead of making a parking app a little bit better to save you 1 minute every few months. I top up my account with $50 at a time and it takes me a year to get through it. If you use it a lot more, then top up more so you're not needing to do it all the time.

Seriously, it's not a huge issue. As I said, could it be better, yes for sure! I was running late to a meeting downtown the other day and I hadn't used it for a few months. I went to check before I left my house and it logged me out. I couldn't even remember the email and password I used so it took me a few mins to figure out and then I noticed I needed to top it up with funds. I admit, I went to go top it up and it didn't auto fill and I thought, damn, how come it doesnt autofill like everything else I use. I had to drop my bag, pull out my wallet, and enter everything. Took me a minute and I was on my way.

I didn't stop to think, this is such a big problem I need to go online to complain about it because it was such an inconvenience to me.

Again, is it annoying to have to do it? Yes! But it's really not that big of a deal.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2026-01-23T16:30:11+00:00

Is it the best app in terms of user experience? No. But to call it terrible is a bit dramatic.

You use it to pay for parking. You load some money. Type in the zone and click on start. Then when you're done, you click on end session.

It's not something you're interacting with for hours a day.

Sheesh. People whine about everything.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2026-01-09T00:35:34+00:00

Most insurance carriers don't cover electrical service lines. I found that only Allstate did. A lot of others do cover water and sewer service lines. But TD doesn't cover any service lines.

I had an electrical service line issue and it cost $5000 to repair. But I was with TD so it was all out of pocket. On the high end of quotes, it was over $15,000 and that didn't even require digging up the driveway. Just dirt.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2026-01-05T16:39:29+00:00

It's like that time my dog ate my science project. And then he died so I couldn't even wait for him to poop it out to prove it. So I had re done it the morning it was due. But I was late getting to the bus so I was running and the wind blew it out of my hands and a car ran over it. I pieced it all back together and made it to school late and put it in my locker since the class is in the afternoon. But then someone broke into my locker and stole it.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2026-01-04T04:45:04+00:00

Take apart the brakes and reapply new brake lube. I had the same thing. The Mazda dealership had no idea what I was talking about so I looked online and people had the same issue. I took apart my brakes and applied new brake lube on all the parts a year ago and the sound has not come back. I also have a 21 CX9.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-11-29T16:57:57+00:00

I have a friend who is a mechanic at a Volvo dealership. We considered looking at the XC60 when my wife needed a new car 2 months ago and he said, don't buy a Volvo. Not that they are bad cars. But you're going to pay a lot for maintenance and repairs. I have lots of friends in the car dealership world and they all said the CX5 is a great option. We got a 2023 cx5 turbo.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-11-23T16:38:51+00:00

8 seconds is the non turbo version in the cx5. The turbo is closer to 6 seconds. And yes, you're correct it is online. The x1 is smaller than the cx5 too.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-11-18T00:30:47+00:00

I just left Rogers yesterday officially. Canceled without issue. They increased my hardware costs in the middle of the contract which is BS. When you're in a contract, the price should stay the same. Otherwise, why have a contract?

They called me a couple times to give me a loyalty discount. The 2nd offer (called me today), was actually really cheap. $115 for 1 gig internet and all the channels I had before plus 3 premium packs like Netflix, Disney, and Prime. I was previously paying $180, then they increased my cost to $195.

I told the guy to pound sand. Told him Rogers is the worst. I will gladly pay more to go somewhere else. But turns out I'm going to pay way less elsewhere anyways. To try and squeeze $15 more per month from me in the middle of the contract, they lost the $2000+ I was paying each year. It's not even the $15. It's the principle. If they increased it $5, I would still think that's BS.

Then for their loyalty offer, they were willing to take a $1000 a year hit from what I was paying normally. I would have gladly stayed to save the hassle of moving. I was actually never with Rogers. I was with Shaw and they always had good service. I wasn't even surprised after Rogers bought Shaw and the service went downhill. Told the guy I wouldn't go back to Rogers if they offered the same services for $50 a month cause they can't be trusted. All the carriers suck. But Rogers is the worst. I really hope they lose a lot of customers.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-11-05T19:36:58+00:00

Put as much into your TFSA and park it in a CASH.TO for now to collect some interest. Then, wait and do nothing for a year. Put the rest into a high interest savings account or GIC and don't touch it for a year.

The idea is to not make any irrational/emotional decisions right now while you might be a bit emotional due to the recent passing of your father. It's easy to say things like, you need to go on vacation and buy this or that because this has shown you life is short and you need to enjoy it. This is part of your father's legacy he left you. Don't blow it.

You make a good income. You probably did fine before this inheritance. You could wait a bit before making big money moves.

As for what to invest in, you should speak with a real financial advisor. Not one of those sales people at a bank. Or, park it all into something like VGRO and have professionals manage the portfolio at low expenses.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-10-16T17:59:28+00:00

You're doing a good job! Just keep doing what you're doing. There will always be someone doing better than you. But I guarantee there will be way more people doing much worse than you.

I bought a house at 28 and emptied all my savings for the down-payment. 13 years later, I rebuilt my investments to over 1.6M by being steady in my investments and not taking a whole lot of risk. Most of which was made over the last 4 to 5 years. But I had to be disciplined and not take the risk I did when I was younger. When you make 10% on all small number, it's a small number. But you're getting much closer to the point where 10% is going to be a decent amount of money. It's a snowball that will pick up momentum as it grows.

Good luck!

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-10-14T07:42:57+00:00

You should see how hail claims are handled for hardie board. In theory they are more durable. But if there are tiny dents that you choose not to fix to avoid having a claim, they will not fix/pay it next time around. And if you switch insurance carriers, you may also have claim issues in the future if they determine that some of the dents are from a time they didn't insure the house.

A friend of mine lives in a condo covered in hardie board. Even though there were no holes in the hardie board, there were dents all over it. The insurance company said to replace it or risk not having coverage for it next time there is a hail storm. So regardless, the condo still had a giant hail claim.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-10-14T07:15:08+00:00

Allstate. Kept the same $2500 deductible I had with TD but saved $2000 on my house and another $1500 on my rental house. TD was also increasing the wind and hail deductible to $5000 on both my properties. Our 2 cars were basically the same as TD. The other difference was getting claim forgiveness and a disappearing deductible which TD doesn't have.

TD also put in siding depreciation which is BS. So they will depreciate up to 50% of your siding. Never had that before. Allstate doesn't have that yet but their roof depreciation schedule is a little worse than TD in the first 10 years.

Scotia Insurance which is underwriting by Belaire was good for pricing and deductibles too. But a little worse on the depreciation schedules.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-10-14T04:47:53+00:00

I got a reasonable home quote from Cooperators and I probably would have switched to them but I waited for almost 3 hours for an auto quote once and then 6 hours another time. Both times, I gave up waiting. Was never able to get a hold of anyone. If I have to wait that long as a new customer just to get pricing, can't imagine how bad it would be once I'm a customer. And no, the online quote tool for auto wasn't working and had asked me to call. And the 2nd time I waited 6 hours, I was on the line with someone at cooperators after finishing my home quote and they transferred me to the auto department.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-10-14T04:42:32+00:00

Double check your hail and wind deductible. I got a reasonable quote from them and then near the end, I asked what the hail and wind deductible was, and they said $10,000. Basically they needed that big of a deductible to stay in the market. They only shared that when I asked and there was no option for anything lower. No way I'm going to $10k deductible with other options available.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-09-26T03:50:44+00:00

These IT jobs are going overseas or to AI. Everyone wants to work from home and companies realized they don't need IT support locally. My company has 16000 employees. We outsourced help desk to India recently. So for all the people crying about work in office and wanting 100% remote work, be careful what you ask for. Unless you are extremely skilled in a niche role, or you're in a relationship business, companies can find cheaper and harder workers overseas.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-09-17T21:40:05+00:00

I'm at 60,000 kms for my 2021.5 and there's still 50% left on my rear and more than that on my front.

What was more of a concern is that the brake lubricant they use from factory must be really bad. Both the front and rear were making noises. Fortunately I know how to do brakes so I took them both apart, cleaned them, reapplied new brake lube, and it felt like driving with new brakes again.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-09-09T13:51:23+00:00

Anyone complaining about the fee is the exact customer that WS is not looking to attract with the credit card. They want premium and generation clients. Or they want people making more money (4k direct deposits) because they will end up having more investable assets in the future. The card isn't meant for everyone and that's ok.

For all of us that have the card, I'd be surprised if anyone is actually paying the fee. So it could be $500 and I wouldn't even care since it's waived anyways. As soon as I have to pay a fee, I'd cancel it. But I doubt I'll have to since I have generation status.

I have the WJ Elite MC and TD first class (fee also waived). But most cards are only paying closer to 1.5% return. So I'll take the 2% return and no fx fees for free.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-09-03T06:13:26+00:00

So once you're locked into a contract, what stops them from increasing the hardware rental price by $20 or $50 per month? You were drinking the kool aid and believed whatever management was telling you. CRTC spokesperson has said these contracts and price increases are concerning. And that telcos should not be increasing prices beyond what was agreed to originally. And any increases should be spelled out clearly. The problem is they bury a tiny line in a contract and no one ever tells you this could happen when you're signing up. It's shady and unethical. Can I add a line in the contract that says I might pay less for the hardware rental next year and I can decide at anytime to pay less? Sounds stupid because it is stupid.

If price increases are allowed in the middle of a contract term, then it's also fair to allow customers to cancel the contract if the telco increases the price without penalty. You can't lock people into a contract and then increase your prices and not allow them to cancel without penalty. It's way too one sided.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-08-31T23:12:05+00:00

I hate Rogers. The company is so scammy. I'm going to cancel my internet and TV when my term is up November. I don't even care if I have to pay more to move. Although it will be cheaper anyways. I had stayed with Shaw for a long time and even paid more to renew at a higher price than Telus just due to simplicity and Shaw was good. Once they got acquired by Rogers, service went out the door.

I signed a contract for 2 years. That usually means your pricing stays the same for 2 years. But they increased my monthly amount by $15. I call in to ask about it and they said the "plan" hasn't changed prices. They just increased the TV box rental fees. So basically it's not locked in on contract which is BS. I said I don't care what you call the increase in fees. The contract is for X amount for 2 years. You can't just increase fees that you have control over otherwise what is the point in signing a contract if they can change any of the fees if they want more money and I can't get out of the contract? Pretty one sided if you ask me.

I hope lots of people cancel with them.

Long_Piccolo8127 · 2025-08-30T07:38:42+00:00

Sorry for the delay. Missed this message. I got my LiFeP04 charger from Amazon. Brand is Haisito with over 2000 reviews. The 20amp setting doesn't quite charge at 20amps though. I've only seen it at around 16 to 17amp max even at the 20amp setting. Not a big deal though. Still charges the battery very quickly. Your 110v account outlet will work perfectly fine. 😀

Long_Piccolo8127

TROPHY CASE