I'm not a tenant any more

[simont]

Yesterday was the official end date of my tenancy at my previous flat. Therefore, today is the first day in just over ten years during which I am not renting any kind of living space.

For the last year or two I've been feeling almost oppressed by the knowledge that a sizable chunk of my monthly income was being effectively poured down the drain, or at least contributing to someone else's capital assets rather than my own. It's been a constant feeling of guilt and discomfort, pressing down on the back of my neck. In response to that feeling (and a number of other factors too, of course, but that feeling of oppression was a major one) I have spent nearly a year working towards this day. So I had expected to feel at least slightly triumphant, or relieved, or at the very least marginally less oppressed.

But, unfortunately, I still just feel as if I've got a pages-long list of things to do in the new house. In twenty-five years I will have a capital asset which I otherwise wouldn't have had, but right now I've just exchanged one lot of oppressive guilt for another. Ah well.

Comments

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

An economist will tell you that there's no difference between renting the house and renting the money. They are, of course, wrong.

[deliberateblank.livejournal.com]

Well, aside from the fact that a mortgage company won't insist on entering the property every three months to tell you off for not hoovering, won't refuse to fix the boiler then tell you off for getting it done yourself, won't insist on the cheapest and/or ugliest materials for any maintenance that needs doing, won't randomly give your keys to strangers without warning you, won't be able to kick you out at two months notice if they feel like it...

[pm215]

Yes, it's kind of depressing the way the total amount owed goes down so very very slowly... There's a reason it's proverbially referred to as the "bloody mortgage" :-)

[(Anonymous)]

If you have taken out a fairly standard mortgage, you have a capital asset now. It is just that your personal balance sheet has recently had added a large asset and a large liability.

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

When I was living with crazyscot, sometimes when the mortgage statement came in he'd point at the wall and say "Now I own *that* brick too!"

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

You need to buy some guilt offsets.

[xaosenkosmos.livejournal.com]

A friend recently pointed out that all houses come with a new hobby. You'll spend about 8 months and a ton of money deeply involved in this hobby, then it's another few years (and even more money) casually involved. Then, if things go well, you coast.

Personally, i'm still waiting for the line to switch on NYT's "Is it Better to Buy or Rent?" (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/2007_BUYRENT_GRAPHIC.html) calculator. Working (and playing) in Silicon Valley is great; it's just too bad about paying to live here...

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

A sizeable chunk of my income is going to deborah_c's capital assets, which makes me feel quite good about it :)