Well my main hurdle is, that I don’t have any income right now. I’ve had 4 jobs in the last 10 years after finishing university, none of which lasted longer than 15 months, due to recurring health issues.
If also never lived in the same place for more than 4 years. (except my parent’s house)
So even if a bank would give me a loan, my confidence that I could manage to pay that off is pretty low. Which is kind of a sad state to find yourself in, in your late 30s.
I learned some of the math in uni for my engineering degree, but that was focussed on enterprises, where it makes sense if you generate revenue and get a return of investment to pay off the loan for that investment. I probably need to switch perspective, to actually appreciate it as a tool for cutting expenses in my daily life. If the day comes, where that won’t be purely hypothetical.
But still, I think that only applies to stuff like housing, where you have recurring cost, that could be lower (even if it’s just in the long run) or maybe a car, that you need to get to a job, where it basically enables you to make more money. I don’t see any other cases, where it really makes sense to pay interest on anything.
It’s all about your perspective and what you can handle. Housing is a great example. Do you pay for rent for 30 years while you save up to buy a house outright with no mortgage (but having paid rent that entire time on top of paying for the house) afterwards, or do you get the house now and pay the bank a percentage while you also get to live in the house.
The math seems bad when you look at one item, like paying interest seems like a lot. Until you realize the alternatives worse, like paying rent for 30 years and at the end you have nothing. At the end of the mortgage, you have a home.
It’s the same no matter what you decide to take financing on. Personally I agree, I only do it for house and car (although we were very clear about what terms we wanted for the car), and beyond that not much. I have a credit card I pay off every month to keep my credit score high. Beyond that, I never take financing from places.
Well my main hurdle is, that I don’t have any income right now. I’ve had 4 jobs in the last 10 years after finishing university, none of which lasted longer than 15 months, due to recurring health issues.
If also never lived in the same place for more than 4 years. (except my parent’s house)
So even if a bank would give me a loan, my confidence that I could manage to pay that off is pretty low. Which is kind of a sad state to find yourself in, in your late 30s.
I learned some of the math in uni for my engineering degree, but that was focussed on enterprises, where it makes sense if you generate revenue and get a return of investment to pay off the loan for that investment. I probably need to switch perspective, to actually appreciate it as a tool for cutting expenses in my daily life. If the day comes, where that won’t be purely hypothetical.
But still, I think that only applies to stuff like housing, where you have recurring cost, that could be lower (even if it’s just in the long run) or maybe a car, that you need to get to a job, where it basically enables you to make more money. I don’t see any other cases, where it really makes sense to pay interest on anything.
It’s all about your perspective and what you can handle. Housing is a great example. Do you pay for rent for 30 years while you save up to buy a house outright with no mortgage (but having paid rent that entire time on top of paying for the house) afterwards, or do you get the house now and pay the bank a percentage while you also get to live in the house.
The math seems bad when you look at one item, like paying interest seems like a lot. Until you realize the alternatives worse, like paying rent for 30 years and at the end you have nothing. At the end of the mortgage, you have a home.
It’s the same no matter what you decide to take financing on. Personally I agree, I only do it for house and car (although we were very clear about what terms we wanted for the car), and beyond that not much. I have a credit card I pay off every month to keep my credit score high. Beyond that, I never take financing from places.