Every week I find a few great articles I feel are especially valuable. Following are this week’s best. I hope you find them as useful as I did.
This week’s favorites include can you still become wealthy in an expensive neighborhood, real estate performs well even through recessions, the difference between being rich and being wealthy, what if the mansion next door is making your house look bad, and how to never run out of money in retirement.
Happy reading!
The pressure to keep up with the Joneses is very expensive. Once you move to that upscale neighborhood you will need upscale furniture, cars, clothes, vacations, and there will be a push for your kids to attend private school because every nice neighborhood is in a “bad school district.” The White Coat Investor shares some advice on what to do to continue to Build Wealth While Living in an Expensive Neighborhood. Let’s stop worrying about where our peers are living and think about what is best for our own family. The Joneses are likely broke, so don’t follow in their footsteps.
Many people are talking about why now is not the right time to buy real estate. The problem is, this statement is shared every year, with “but this time it’s different” frequently tagged on. Now is always the right time to buy rental real estate! Market timing is not a winning game. Origin Investments makes the point that It Can Pay to Invest in Private Real Estate Through a Recession. I have owned my real estate through multiple recessions and it is still going strong. I even published a direct comparison between my real estate investments and my stock investments. Through time the cash flow continues to increase. Check out my thoughts in The Doctors Guide to Real Estate Investing for Busy Professionals and you will see how our property has grown throughout time.
Many of us dream of becoming rich, but being wealthy is a better dream. What is the difference between rich and wealthy? Of Dollars and Data discusses that very thing in Rich vs Wealthy: Summarizing the Differences. My take on being rich vs wealthy is, you can either look like a millionaire (rich) or become a millionaire (wealthy) but you usually can’t do both.
Keeping up with the Joneses is a bad road to follow. Not only do the Joneses have more expensive stuff than you, but the Joneses are broke. You don’t want to set your sights on becoming broke. Accidentally Retired discusses what goes through our heads every time we walk by The Mansion Next Door. Maybe we shouldn’t be comparing our stuff to what our neighbors have. In fact, this concept has been discussed for thousands of years and it’s one of the ten biggest rules of life: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors stuff.
One of my biggest fears as I pondered retiring was running out of money before I die. I think this is very common when we dream of making the move into retirement. Passive Income MD shares thoughts from The White Coat Investor on the concept of Never Running out of Money in Retirement. It is now six years after I retired and I am finally convinced that I will never run out of money.
I hope you enjoy these articles as much as I did. I look forward to updating you again next week with a few more articles I find especially interesting. If you read an especially good article, send me the link so I can share it with others.
I took several professional courses in interior decorating just to pursue a hobby. You would be surprised at how poorly furnished most of these suburban mansions are. I rarely see “upscale” furniture in them. And most have very poor taste .I marvel at why people who are supposedly rich don’t hire a designer.
I’m glad I live in a New England state where the public schools are good, especially so in the nicer suburbs so not a lot of pressure there to go to private schools. You don’t have to join a country club either. If someone doesn’t want to associate with me because I’m not a country club member and I don’t drive a Mercedes so be it. Those people aren’t true friend potential anyway. They only want you for what you can do for them anyway. They will drop you like a hot potato whenever it suits them.
Kim, glad you were able to find something outside of work to become a hobby. We all need a fun outlet.