the tyranny of rent

[lab_nomad]

I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos about this lifestyle, especially Bob's. He is so awesome! One of my goals is to meet him in person. 

Anyway, one thing that gets mentioned a lot is the high cost of rent. And I've been thinking a lot about that lately. One thing that pisses me off is the focus on the person who doesn't have a lot of money leftover at the end of the month. Then the blame game starts. "You eat out too much." "You need to stop buying so much X." With X being the tools and materials for a hobby that the person criticizing does not share and therefore doesn't understand why you need them. No one, except for a handful of people, even thinks about criticizing the landlords and the mortgage lenders. 

Certainly, people differ in their ability to handle money, to make a budget and stick to it, etc. It's probably personality driven. But when half of their income right off the bat is going to rent, that leaves them with less money to even attempt to handle properly. Why is rent so flippin' high? I'm just so pissed off that I've been working for decades and have little to show for it b/c I've had to give away so much of my money just to have a place to store my stuff and lay my head down. It's ridiculous!

I bought a house three years ago, and my coworkers told me their mortgage ended up being less than what they were paying in rent. Well, mine is more! I had to live more than 30 miles away from town to get something I could afford, but I now realize that I really can't afford it. I don't like housework. I don't like yard work. I work 8 hours, and when I come home, I don't want to have to worry about how the grass is getting too high, and the dishes have been piling up in the sink, etc. 

I'm currently on assignment (traveling lab tech), and when I go back home, I'm going to put my house on the market and buy a van. There is so much crap to deal with in a sticks and bricks place. You work all day and then come home and work some more, and then you look up in 20 years and there's nothing to show for it, other than meaninglessness, depression, job burnout, etc. 

And don't even get me started on income tax. As a single person, I get taxed to a ridiculous degree. That's a rant for another day. But right now, all I've got to say is, DOWN WITH RENT!

 

[Freelander]

Tell us how you really feel.


I agree 100% with you, I am considering selling my house because I'm tired of mowing the grass and all the upkeep involved. I'm just not ready to sell yet, but within 2 years I probably will.

 

[RoamerRV428]

Rant and vent out all your frustrations, hell yea we all feel those!! Darn near all of us!!

it sucks rocks for sure. money system and have and have nots and profit and greed and conspiracy and global corporation control and more......it is a laughable monster joke of this 'civilized society' for sure.

I feel ya on it all!

 

[ckelly78z]

No one, except for a handful of people, even thinks about criticizing the landlords and the mortgage lenders. 

But right now, all I've got to say is, DOWN WITH RENT!

So you are against capitalism, and believe they should offer this service for free ?

 

[gsfish]

Other side of the coin. I've a friend that has several rental properties, they all have mortgages, insurance and taxes that he is obligated to pay. He told me that two of his "renters" haven't paid in 7 months and there is nothing he can do to evict because of Covid protections for renters. He is stuck in the middle.

I'm fortunate to have a 'homestead' that is paid off and a base for anything that comes along that I want to do.

Guy

 

[bullfrog]

I know you all will consider me a progressive socialist but you need to consider where I come from when I say in this country which has achieved so much by working so hard and trying to out do others in order to have more things that really don’t add to the quality of life for the majority of people. I feel there should be boundaries that prevent a few people from taking so much it causes others not to be able to achieve a minimum standard of living. A large portion of the people in this country are learning what I learned at a young age what living in and being financially bound in a company owned coal mining town with company script can be like. The company didn’t want you to become educated, they wanted workers. The company didn’t want you to retire and keeping you healthy wasn’t really part of their business plan. They didn’t care what the area would be like after they got the coal out of the ground as they would move on several generations later. Fortunes were made and they were not happy because they had tasted power and had had government messing with their power to make more money so they invested in government locally at first and nationally very quickly. What we have in the world now is the result. Am I against capitalism no but when it unbalances the system to a point it financially enslaved people and doesn’t improve the quality of life for all people, yes, yes I definitely am.

 

[Camper]

My van is paid for..... I own it.

No one owns rent.... it owns you.

 

[user 423]

.....don't even get me started on income tax. As a single person, I get taxed to a ridiculous degree. That's a rant for another day.

Your tax bill would be even higher without a mortgage interest deduction.

How about finding a housemate to help with the mortgage and all the chores? That can help a lot with all the hassles of home ownership. Finding a good one won't be easy though.

So what is the expensive hobby?  

 

[Cammalu]

I’m a landlord.

I have to pay the mortgages and taxes and upkeep. If the renters don’t pay then I can’t pay either. I keep the rent pretty low and keep the properties very, very well. They have a nice clean place to live and all my renters have been very thankful and I have a very low turn over.

If rents are so high in your area maybe you need to rethink the area. $500 a month will get you a small house on 3/4 acre from me but it would still be a major drag for you because I do expect renters to keep the place up, mow the lawn, etc., something you don’t like to do. I think you need to get an RV or van for sure but you’d still have upkeep. It’s more expensive for me to keep up this RV than it ever was for my house. My fault I need a more simple RV I guess.

 

[bullfrog]

I keep telling people less is more, while ending up with more myself! Cammalu we are just very sick people with too many needs! Lol!!!

 

[Cammalu]

I saw a chart recently but I can’t find it now that showed who paid what percentage by income level and what years. I could be wrong but I believe the percentages started dropping dramatically for the very rich around the time of Regan. Or maybe it was income levels which showed huge increases for the rich and big decreases for people with modest incomes. I can’t recall exactly but I’m going to try to find it. Basically what it showed was that the poor were getting WAY poorer because of an extremely low wage and the rich getting WAY richer because of that

 

[user 423]

Yeah,Reagan and trickle-down.

If you look at the tax rates for the very rich back in the 50's-60's, they were way higher than what they are today.

It's not just income taxes that get us. There are all kinds of little taxes that nickel/dime us and the poor can end up paying a higher overall tax percentage.

 

[Cammalu]

I keep telling people less is more, while ending up with more myself! Cammalu we are just very sick people with too many needs! Lol!!!

I ended up with a big RV for health reasons. My husband was sleeping in a recliner in my Class B plus because he can’t lay flat. My back is also very bad now due to being hurt in a botched operation.

We needed a space where we could have adjustable beds like in a hospital. The only way we could do that is to have space for a king size bed and put two adjustable twin beds in that space. You have to have a big RV to do that.

At one time I had a simple little Fiberglass camper that was about ten foot long. I could tow it around my property with a tiny four wheeler or even move it by hand. I sure miss being able to have something like that.

 

[Cammalu]

Lab nomad a condo might work for you. No grass mowing or outside upkeep. Still have to do the dishes though. Maybe a dishwasher?

 

[Freelander]

I saw a chart recently but I can’t find it now that showed who paid what percentage by income level and what years. I could be wrong but I believe the percentages started dropping dramatically for the very rich around the time of Regan. Or maybe it was income levels which showed huge increases for the rich and big decreases for people with modest incomes. I can’t recall exactly but I’m going to try to find it. Basically what it showed was that the poor were getting WAY poorer because of an extremely low wage and the rich getting WAY richer because of that

Reagan had it right when he said Corporations don't pay taxes, they collect taxes, meaning they you raise taxes for Corporations, they raise prices and pass those taxes down for us to pay.

 

[lab_nomad]

Your tax bill would be even higher without a mortgage interest deduction.

How about finding a housemate to help with the mortgage and all the chores? That can help a lot with all the hassles of home ownership. Finding a good one won't be easy though.

So what is the expensive hobby?  

Well, I'm planning on vanliving in the near future, part-time at first, and then as I get older transitiion into full-time vanliving.

I don't want a roommate. I think that's one reason I'm suited to vandwelling. I like being alone (with my dogs) more than being around just about any person.

And if I don't want to come home after working 8 hours to do more work (house and yard), I sure as heck don't want to have to deal with people of various, sometimes challenging personalities for 8 hours only to come home and deal with yet another person. 

The hobbies (knitting, sewing, spinning) aren't expensive per se and can be done cheaply (although a spinning wheel can set you back), but my point is that if someone complains about not having enough money, and they have the audacity to spend ANY MONEY AT ALL on a non-essential, they will get blasted for it. I'm not a smoker, but smokers will often get blasted for that. Yes, smoking is an expensive addiction, but it's nowhere near the cost of your rent/mortgage.

I just think we've accepted as a society that you should pay a large chunk of your salary in housing costs. If a person has money problems, people will look at every other aspect of their budget that's not housing. It's like the thing that should never be questioned. I love how van dwellers are questioning the necessity for rent/mortgage/sticks and bricks.

 

[lab_nomad]

If rents are so high in your area maybe you need to rethink the area. 

 
There are always exceptions to the income/housing ratio. Some areas have low wages and ridiculously high housing prices. Some areas have high wages and low housing prices. But most of the time, if you live where housing is low, wages are low. If housing costs more, wages are higher.

 

[WanderingRose]

Back in the day, when I was first out of school and looking for an apartment, the rule of thumb was that you should lay out 25% of take home pay for rent.

My apartments until I married and had a child were one room efficiencies, because that was all I could afford.

I don’t know what rents are running now, but my experience with my own kids starting out was that they decide what they want and not what they can afford.

Took some talking, and a commitment not to bail them out of poor decisions, but they got on their feet and stayed there.

When they had money issues, and both experienced that learning curve of living within their means, I would sit down with them and help them figure out what non essentials could be eliminated, how to stretch grocery dollars, etc.

As a single parent, we had a number of extremely, extremely difficult years, then always had to watch expenses even when I made more money, which is the way of life for most of us who are not wealthy.

Managing scarce resources is always about what is essential and what is not.  Anyone who complains to me about not having enough money, my response is to offer to look at their budget and see what can be eliminated.

If one doesn’t want to deal with a yard and outdoor maintenance, you hire it out or live in an apartment building, but sheltering oneself is generally seen as a routine task and responsibility of adulthood.

 

[43oswegatchie]

So you don't like housework and you don't like yard work, but you buy a house anyway that you can't really afford? I don't quite understand your frustrations. Seems like your choices need to be scrutinized more thoroughly.

 

[43oswegatchie]

And I agree that in many cases, the cost of shelter is high in America. But your situation doesn't really address the problem. It goes back to bad choices, which is the source of many of the problems, but certainly not all of them.