I know how you all are, and I bet you think I’m about to erupt with a tirade against “rent-to-own” companies. Perhaps one that screwed me over somehow. As if I shouldn’t take it personally when one or more businesses meet in a smoke filled room with representatives of several layers of government and they are calculate with precise mathematical certainty the exact percentage of take home wages I can spare without leading me to become eligible for welfare ( white males need not apply unless smoking crack- a built in time restraint factor ). “Well, Mr. X, it seems that Jim has $23.13 a week that is being spent in non-sustainability related activities or non-durable goods. I propose that we either modify his child support payments or impose another round of food price inflation, at least in the inter-mountain region”. This pronouncement is met with cries of glee and tremors of barely suppressed sexual excitement, as now all members can both justify building the second indoor heated pool in their vacation estates AND take pleasure in my financial servitude. Alas, no. I did business with a rent to own company exactly once in my life. In the mid eighties while stationed at the adjacent Air Force ( Mirror Lenses US Air Force Style Sunglasses With Case
) base to my Army unit, the pencil dick Wing Nuts decided that the south gate would no longer be open around the clock. One then had to exit through the north gate to report for duty for the morning shift. This was the long way around and not feasible for walking. So I got a moped ( Bravo Leike 150cc Street Moped E.P.A/C.A.R.B Approved
) on a rent to own agreement. Well, very soon after that I found that the moped payment interfered with beer drinking money. I gave the shop back the moped and snuck under the south gate to continue commuting on foot ( not an easy task in dress uniform ). I don’t even remember what the payments were. I didn’t feel ripped off, nor was the equipment defective. I just took it as a rental agreement rather than a rent to own agreement. They did seem a bit put out at my thoughtlessness in the matter.*
Rent-to-own is only necessary if you are a total idiot with money and want to pay four times retail. In today’s rent to own article, I’m speaking of your dwelling. Most people have been trained to think of rent or mortgage as a question of affordability. What % of my paycheck can I afford? Will the spouse have to work to put the spawn in a good school? Will my Social Security check be enough to pay the rent? How long will I need to have roommates before I can shack up with a dweeb with a good job? Most of us think about how much we can afford for rent, rather than rent being a necessary evil we need to do away with as soon as possible. Even my readers here think it a necessary evil. You want to be close to a good paying job or the wife demands it. Well, I’ve covered that before. If you stay in a craphole of a city to earn an extra twenty grand, yet that amount goes to a higher cost of living and commuting, what have you gained? Just more stress. If you are playing the middle class ( Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class - And What We Can Do about It (BK Currents (Paperback))
) game to appease the wife, you will both eventually become homeless. But, hey, before that you had a really nice house. Some of my readers are simple amused at my antics, having left the grid decades ago. To them I’m a new preacher singing to the choir of old professionals. But that is only a few of you. Most just put up with rent ( or a mortgage, which is rent to the bank or Home Depot [ a house is a lifetime maintenance cost ] ). Whatever happened to the norm, which was either rent to own or squat and build?*
Renting should not be a lifestyle choice. It should be a step towards ownership. And, no, a thirty year mortgage is not ownership. It is servitude towards the bank, and then, generally around retirement, it is an unending rebuilding project. The only thing more costly than a mortgage is a string of ex-wives. I’m not saying you can occupy a dwelling without performing maintenance, rather that a gum and glue, sheetrock and warped 2x4 and particle board siding home is a very expensive way to live. You can build a much cheaper, much lower upkeep home yourself, without a mortgage ( Mortgage Ripoffs and Money Savers: An Industry Insider Explains How to Save Thousands on Your Mortgage or Re-Finance
).*
Your first step is to lower your current rent. Get a roommate, rent a room, or move to a smaller unit. Take those savings and invest them. Either a used trailer or construction supplies or land payments. Then, you move to the land and live in temporary shelter ( KING CANOPY Temporary Shelter
) while you build a better dwelling. Your out of pocket cost stays the same, but in exchange for a bit of discomfort you gain a rent free life. Let’s say you are single and living in an apartment for $600 a month. You rent out the other half and save up $300 a month until you buy a used trailer. You move that trailer into a park for $300 a month, and save the other $300 towards a piece of junk land ( Junk Land
). Once on the land, you quickly modernize your off grid ( Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America
) living. Say you spend the extra $100 to commute to your old job. You take the $500 and buy solar panels, water tanks, build an insulated shell around the trailer, etc. Within a year or two, you move from a $600 rent in town to a zero rent in the country. If you have a family, you can do the same, with everyone motivated to hurry up and move out of the trailer. A $1200 a month mortgage is a great burden. So you rent out one of the rooms or the converted garage at $300 a month, cancel the cable and the cell phones. You have an extra $500 a month. In three months you have a used trailer ( plus an extra $3600 if you blew off paying the mortgage, but we’ll just call that moving money ). You start paying on a piece of junk land at $100 a month ( it doesn’t matter if it’s overpriced with financing- you will only hold a note for six months to a year ).*
Move out to the land. Even if you gave up your old job and took a pay cut of 50%, you still have $600 a month to put towards shelter. Take the $500 a month and the first month build on two additional rooms to the trailer, one for the girls and one for the boys. The parents stay in the trailer. Peace is fragile, but not impossible. Move at the end of winter to avoid cabin fever ( Cabin Fever
). You now have nine months to go before you need a better insulated, bigger shelter. Month two through nine you have four grand to build a cabin. If you do it right, it should be enough. The thing won’t be big, but it will weather well. Adobe, earth bags, a crude straw bale ( Serious Straw Bale: A Home Construction Guide for All Climates (Real Goods Solar Living Book)
) or a shelter from the book “$50 and up underground home” ( The Fifty Dollar and Up Underground House Book
) should all fall in that budget. A small home is self financed, cheaper to heat, easier to maintain and a sharp stick in the eye of the beast. The wife may or may not like it. The kids, their soft flabby pasty asses conditioned to X-Box and Twinkies will at first hate it but grow to love it as they get outdoors and build forts or torture frogs or go camping in the nearby hills. Month ten through twelve to twenty four you accelerate payments on the land to get it free and clear. Max, two years to freedom.*
Easy as pie, with minimal discomfort. Rent a year or two, then own. You have seven to eight months to go to the end of next winter, start planning. You may thank me later.
END
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