{"id":49,"date":"2008-02-17T19:56:45","date_gmt":"2008-02-18T02:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=49"},"modified":"2008-02-17T19:59:15","modified_gmt":"2008-02-18T02:59:15","slug":"home-ownership-part-ii-advantages-and-disadvantages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=49","title":{"rendered":"Home ownership (part II):  Advantages and Disadvantages"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<p>Advantages:<\/p>\n\t<ul>\n\t<li>It is better than coming home to a rental.  There is a sense of increased comfort when everything is yours and you know that if you don&#8217;t like the way the kitchen is&#8230;you can tear it out and make it how you like.  (Not that I&#8217;m likely to do that, but the <em>thought<\/em> is comfortable.)<\/li>\n\t<li>Women <strong>LOVE<\/strong> houses.  It is almost orgasmic for them to talk about a home, to talk about &#8220;fixing it up&#8221;, to add to it, even just to look at a home.  When you own a home, you are instantly more attractive.  Unlike the argument with penis size&#8230;.bigger is <em>definitely<\/em> better when it comes to house size.  I think there is some kind of nesting gene in women that make them coo over houses.<\/li>\n\t<li>Also, since I rented a piece of someone&#8217;s house previously, as a homeowner I now know I won&#8217;t disturb anyone if I want to perform ancient rituals, practice witchcraft, walk around dressed up as a zebra, or anything else that might strike my fancy.  The freedom is nice&#8230;but as they say:  Freedom is not free.<\/li>\n\t<\/ul>\n\t<p>Disadvantages:<\/p>\n\t<ul>\n\t<li>It ain&#8217;t free.  Spending money is a huge stressor.  It doesn&#8217;t even matter if you can afford it.  The act of spending money itself, when you know you work so hard for it, is stressful.  I think this is a man thing as women seem much better about spending money when they know they can afford it&#8230;since many are even able to spend stress free when they <em>can&#8217;t<\/em> afford it.<\/li>\n\t<li>It is a time vacuum.  It is never &#8220;fixed&#8221;.  A home is always under improvement.  There is always something else you can do, until you&#8217;ve done it all&#8230;at which point what you originally did is out of fashion and so you must upgrade again, but unlike this season&#8217;s new clothing&#8230;home improvements are expensive.<\/li>\n\t<li>It requires a new set of skills.  I am not a plumber, electrician, carpenter, engineer, brick-layer, etc.  Whoever said there are no more blue-collar jobs&#8230;think again.  I know we&#8217;ll never outsource these jobs to India.  Also, I can do some of my own work&#8230;which I&#8217;ve done.  Replacing my toilet I thought:  &#8220;I save alot of money doing it myself&#8230;but is it worth it if I leave on vacation, the seal breaks, and floods the second floor?&#8221;.<\/li>\n\t<li>The asset itself is a stressor.  Like a stock, its value can fluctuate&#8230;and as your biggest asset, it is stressful to think about losing it.  What if I lost my job?  What if my home were swept away in a flood (floods aren&#8217;t covered by homeowner&#8217;s insurance)?  What if my policy is crap or I don&#8217;t have the right things covered?  What if the entire housing market tanks (which we might see)?  What if alien&#8217;s attack (is that covered)?<\/li>\n\t<li>It will not make you any happier (not many things do).  When you add up the items I&#8217;ve outlined above (and the ones I can&#8217;t think of right now), I bet I&#8217;m LESS happy with a home.  You quickly acclimate to the fact that its your own place and you can walk around naked it you want.  The freedom and comfort is nice&#8230;but again, does it outweigh the added stress?  On the flip side, I will also acclimate to the stress eventually, and it will seem like its not even there.  At least at that point I&#8217;ll have a house out of the deal.  I remember when I first got out of graduate school all my student loan debt really got to me&#8230;to think about owing <em>that<\/em> much money when I didn&#8217;t even have a job.  Now I don&#8217;t care.  That debt will be with me until I&#8217;m retired.<\/li>\n\t<li>A home is a warehouse.  It stores inventory and YOU stock it.  Just like a business, sitting inventory eats into your bottom line.  It will nickel and dime you to death when you originally stock up on home wares:  Dishes, vacuum cleaners, sets of linens, sets of trash cans, lamps, tools, towel racks, night stands, etc, etc.  People say to me about this observation:  &#8220;Yeah, but you do it once and then you always have it.&#8221;  My thought, &#8220;So what?  You can say the same thing about herpes.&#8221;<\/li>\n\t<\/ul>\n\t<p>Maybe next time I&#8217;ll write about &#8220;eating out versus buying groceries&#8221;.  It is a myth that it is cheaper to eat at home.  I can demonstrate it mathematically.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Advantages: It is better than coming home to a rental. There is a sense of increased comfort when everything is yours and you know that if you don&#8217;t like the way the kitchen is&#8230;you can tear it out and make it how you like. (Not that I&#8217;m likely to do that, but the thought is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[38],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3IMYj-N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=31","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":0},"title":"Home ownership: Does it make sense?","author":"kellio","date":"November 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Or more to the point: does it make sense for me? In a word, No. I'll explain why: A 150 to 200k dollar mortgage ends up between $1000 and $1200 bucks a month. Then you add on internet, gas, power, maintenance, cable, insurance, etc, etc, etc. The price is getting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Inside My Head&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Inside My Head","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":313,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=313","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":1},"title":"Is Racism Ok?  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If you do not think 2007 is going to shape up too well....then please\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Resolutions\"","block_context":{"text":"Resolutions","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?tag=resolutions"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":479,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=479","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":3},"title":"Capitalism, Jobs, and Supply Side Economics:  Companies are not in business to hire people.  They are in business to make money.","author":"kellio","date":"September 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The supply side argument goes that if companies (and the rich) have more money (through incentives, lower tax rates, etc.), they will use that extra money to invest and create jobs. This argument is silly. \u00a0Republicans have been making this argument since Reagan, and perhaps they really believe it...but it\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=479#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=59","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":4},"title":"These are the days of our lives&#8230;","author":"kellio","date":"March 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I have not done much to speak of lately.\u00a0 Most days are the same, just a little bit different. 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