I’m one of those people, and I freely admit to being “stupid” from a purely financial perspective. My point of purchase was far enough back that my mortgage is a lot less than my rent would be, but the fact remains that I have foregone banking a lot of equity. Not too smart, eh?
However, if you’ll read my prior post I did qualify my remarks by including the “if you can afford it”, and “if the emoptional payoff is worth it to you” clauses. For me, both apply. I’m self-employed in a cyclical business and not having a large housing expense provides me with enough emotional payoff to make it worth my while to not play on the property ladder. Different strokes.
The difference between me and a lot of our trolls is that I don’t spend any amount of time gloating about how smart I am, how much money I’ve “made”, or telling people they’re idiots for not following my example. From a purely financial standpoint I’ve made a bad decision, but I fully understood all the ups and downs of that decision before I made it. I fully own my decision and I’m happy with it. I don’t look for outside validation and I don’t constantly whine about how decisions made by other people are hurting me.
But you’re right – it isn’t people like me who set the trends. All the action occurs on the margins, meaning those who have to sell and those who have to buy. Everyone else is just along for the ride.
