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Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

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Re: Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

#141

Post by vonseel »

durnygbur wrote: post #104
Barrin92 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Renting anything really isn't a bad move. There's not much upside to owning something that depreciates in value. Instead of buying a sofa for 2000$ renting one for 50 and putting the rest of your money into some productive financial asset is actually perfectly reasonable.

After 4 years you paid for the sofa 2400$, "rest of your money" is -400$, sofa doesn't belong to you, and in case of scummy renter you own money for damage repairs and cleaning. Ready for legal litigation?

Very good point even if only because I was too lazy to do the math in my head.

$2000 is a lot for a sofa, and if I understand correctly is what people spend if they want a sofa for a long time and not just a cheap IKEA sofa to throw out after the dog / kids ruin it in 2 years. If someone’s spending this much on a sofa, I hope they expect to keep it 10 years and should be buying not making payments!

Re: Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

#142

Post by vonseel »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #109
Barrin92 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of the exercise is to invest the money you didn't pay into something that earns you money. If you put the 1950 bucks you didn't spend into stock, you're making money. And in case of damages and repairs, if you own the sofa, you're always sitting on the damages. Homeowners for example routinely spend thousands of dollars per year on their houses, whereas renters (generally), have repairs covered by the landl…

As a regular middle-class person, how do you put $1950 in stock to make more than $400 in 5 years risk-free and time/effort-free?

Apparently, you buy Apple, Tesla, or Netflix, and get lucky because you chose to invest during a wild expansion like we’ve seen since the early 2010s.

I’m not sure what you do when you’re in a down market. Last time I lost a lot of money because I was dumb.

Re: Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

#143

Post by mehrdadn »

Veen wrote: post #139
maccard wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little skeptical of this - I know for car leases this is true, but is there really a market for 2 year old ex-rental sofas?

These days I tend to buy big furniture items — sofas and the like — second hand. I can't afford really high-end quality furniture new, but, if you're careful, you can find well-made furniture at low prices in charity stores. My house is furnished with a mix of crappy Ikea stuff and very nice second-hand furniture; I much prefer the latter.

> if you're careful, you can find well-made furniture at low prices in charity stores. My house is furnished with a mix of crappy Ikea stuff and very nice second-hand furniture; I much prefer the latter.

But this illustrates exactly the problem. "If you're careful" -- meaning you wouldn't want the average one you see. Meaning there's going to be considerably more waste when people have to buy second-hand than if they just kept their own that much longer.

Re: Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

#144

Post by mehrdadn »

seem_2211 wrote: post #52
Retra wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I moved frequently I bought an inflatable bed or cot. I didn't buy a king sized bed and throw it out every two years. That's insane.

I think the answer is there are different options for different people - some people (like yourself) are happy buying an inflatable bed and sleeping on that. Others would prefer to rent a king sized bed. I don't think one is necessarily right or wrong. Choice is a good thing!

I think the distinction of interest in the parent comment wasn't inflatable vs. king sized, the distinction was throwing away king sized every 2 years vs., well, not doing that.

Re: Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

#145

Post by Xelbair »

chrisco255 wrote: post #26

Renting an apartment vs owning a house is not necessarily a bad financial move. Depends on a number of factors. For instance, if you anticipate moving within a certain time frame, between closing costs, mortgage fees, commission, etc...it can cost more to own in the first 3-5 years, especially if prices are stagnant. Also, there are hidden costs of home ownership not necessarily factored in for, like repairs, mainten…

I completly disagree.

When you are owning a house or apartment - each payment of mortgage builds your own equity. This is not the case with renting, plus when you actually own it and have to move - you can also rent it.

Also, rent over here costs almost as much as mortgage(or in some cases - even more) - the only issue is the down payment - so the investment bit is very off.

Re: Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

#146

Post by literallycancer »

yibg wrote: post #79
bitcoinmoney wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

400k/year doing what?

There are lots of stories (and also some info) on engineers working at FAANG making ~$400k a year or up. Granted these are not your typical engineering jobs, but they do exist and in not so insignificant numbers; say it's 1% of engineers (made up number). I am curious though as to the distribution of freelance / contract rates. Is $200 / hour also 1% of engineers? More? Less? Financially for the same person what's ac…

$200/hour definitely isn't the top 1%. On the other hand you could work at FAANG and run a company as a side project, you could use some of your connections there to get interesting contracts.

Re: Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

#147

Post by gtsteve »

Veen wrote: post #137
gtsteve wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the UK. It's cheaper to buy than rent almost everywhere but I never minded that. The main thing that moved me to buy was because the protection for renters is nowhere near as good. I moved on average every 18 months for 10 years because the landlord decided they wanted to sell the place or just wanted me out so they could increase the rent. One landlord didn't even bother with that and just asked if I'd be…

> If you complain about something being broken, they might fix it or just evict you with 2 months notice. This is why you shouldn't agree to a rolling tenancy. When the initial tenancy period is over, negotiate for a year or two. Most landlords, in my experience, don't want their houses sitting empty so they're happy to have you on the hook for a year. Although, it depends where you live: I work remotely so I tend to…

Yes but often you have no choice but to agree. When I've tried to negotiate in the past the response was for them to say "thanks but no thanks" and wait for someone else. Given this is London it moves very quickly and another tenant will be along soon.

Re: Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

#148

Post by Veen »

mehrdadn wrote: post #143
Veen wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days I tend to buy big furniture items — sofas and the like — second hand. I can't afford really high-end quality furniture new, but, if you're careful, you can find well-made furniture at low prices in charity stores. My house is furnished with a mix of crappy Ikea stuff and very nice second-hand furniture; I much prefer the latter.

> if you're careful, you can find well-made furniture at low prices in charity stores. My house is furnished with a mix of crappy Ikea stuff and very nice second-hand furniture; I much prefer the latter. But this illustrates exactly the problem. "If you're careful" -- meaning you wouldn't want the average one you see. Meaning there's going to be considerably more waste when people have to buy second-hand than if they…

I wouldn't want the "average" new sofa either, especially not in a price bracket I consider reasonable.

I agree that it would be more efficient if people kept their sofas for a decade, but they don't, and me buying the sofas they don't want is a better option than them ending up on a trash heap. Plus, I'll probably keep them for ten years. I buy high-end furniture second-hand so I can do exactly that, rather than getting a new Ikea piece of junk that falls apart in a couple of years.

I suppose the ideal scenario would be for manufacturers not to make rubbish and for people to be able to afford good furniture that lasts for decades, but we don't live in that world.

Re: Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

#149

Post by Aeolun »

Xelbair wrote: post #145
chrisco255 wrote: post #26

Renting an apartment vs owning a house is not necessarily a bad financial move. Depends on a number of factors. For instance, if you anticipate moving within a certain time frame, between closing costs, mortgage fees, commission, etc...it can cost more to own in the first 3-5 years, especially if prices are stagnant. Also, there are hidden costs of home ownership not necessarily factored in for, like repairs, mainten…

I completly disagree. When you are owning a house or apartment - each payment of mortgage builds your own equity. This is not the case with renting, plus when you actually own it and have to move - you can also rent it. Also, rent over here costs almost as much as mortgage(or in some cases - even more) - the only issue is the down payment - so the investment bit is very off.

I think it’s very natural that rent costs as much as, or a bit more than mortgage.

Re: Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

#150

Post by Aeolun »

mapleoin wrote: post #126
scirocco wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Buy land, they're not making it anymore" - Mark Twain

The problem is we've started deleting it now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise

This is perfect. It’ll make my land worth that much more!

Just have to be careful to only buy land 2.4m above sea level.

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