There are lots of folks who, if you give them the slightest opportunity, will blather on and on about the joys of owning your own home. They will throw out specious arguments like what a great investment it is. But this statement is pure nonsense as you can't spend a dollar that is packed with all of your earthly belongs including your rare LP collection of Barry Manilow recordings. They will then try to counter by telling you that you get all sorts of tax breaks. Again this is the prattle of a cretin. Spending $1000 to get $1 back still leaves me $999 in the hole. I think a child of three could even understand these economics. Finally, they will try to tell you that money that goes into a mortgage is not lost like money that goes to a landlord. My response? You're a quarter short of a nickel! For every two dollars that I pay in mortgage, half goes to pay the interest on the loan. Then there is the joy of insurance, property taxes, home upkeep fees, llama surcharges, etc, etc, etc. Plus you had better set aside huge piles of cash to pay for the unexpected. Such as new heating and air conditioning units that either die without 30 days written notice or are so ineffectual that it is actually comical.
The above photos show the before and after of the work the HVAC crew did in my house recently. I took a photo of the workers as they were carting away a wheelbarrel filled with what was once my hard-earned cash. They were singing and whistling like the seven dwarfs as they left my property. The memories were too raw on this one, so I will save that picture for another post. As I was laying in the fetal position on the floor trying to recover, I could swear that I heard the shingles up on the roof whispering in clipped and hushed tones something about a revolt. I am going to need a bigger wheelbarrow for that one.
