Do you have any sympathy for older people still renting?

Without knowing their personal circumstances no.

 

People do what works for them. What emotion others put on it and in what circumstances that emotion is justified is totally pointless. People will always do what is best for them.

 

I guess the human emotions always do come into it for me. Life is a funny thing when you could be riding so high and the next minute you can be down on your luck due to break down in marriage, job loss, ill health or tragedy to your personal life.

 

Some of the things you put outside your control are actually under your control (mindset).

A failed business, well you controlled the business and its actions. If you didn't take corrective actions then it is your fault the business went under. Needed more sales either you were not competitive enough, you didn't know your target market, didn't have a USP etc... These are things you control.

In some ways divorce is something you control, if you stop giving attention, changed who you were (or didn't and they got fed up with your stubbornness). There was something there to begin with and if it was a gold digger well that's your fault for not seeing what everyone else was seeing and saying behind your back.

But yes I would have more sympathy for a person who tried and didn't succeed then someone who didn't try at all.

 

Well one of my work colleagues sat next to me today on one of our 100 coffee breaks ...call him Frank, 61yo , being a renter now for 26 years,since he moved to the City, never married , over 130k in Super( never paid into it personally).told me he has a bit over 40k in savings.
He asked me about Country properties and his desire to buy one to retire.

Frank cant get the old age pension until 67 so another 6 years but his health isnt good, bad knees because i imagine his large weight.

Frank always thought thr good times would last i guess because the 15 or so years i have worked with him he was travelling a lot during his annual holidays to Las Vegas etc for his Star Wars Star Trek theme shows .
He is a mad science fiction fan and would take 2 x annual holidays a year to overseas conventions .
He has every piece of Star Wars memoribillia you can think of in his rented 1 bedroom flat in Suburban Sydney .
Never ever brought his own lunch to work he bought everyday .

He was in a bit depressed talking to me and im not surprised he has very little even though he has been to every Country of the World something many if us hasnt done.

I dont feel sorry for him ... He never planned i guess... But i do feel sorry for the new generation of 20 year olds who are now coming into a job market whuch is risky and eventually no penalty rates and bisses who can fire you at a drop of a hat as well as being a slave to a mortgage for the rest of their lives ! Especially here in Sydney !!!!!
I think most of us are lucky we had the opportunity to work overtime etc and get in and the right time to buy our homes .
Frank... My work colleague... Well he's left it too late i guess .

 

I dont feel too sorry for the 'new generation' of 20s entering the workforce..the conditions you describe are whats there in a lot of 'competing' countries eg US and this is forces of glabalisation is a way eg why should i as business owner do businessin aus when i can get more flexibility at a lower risk and cost elsewhere type argument. They will have to adjust..and i am confident they will.

 

In the words of a great muso "the rich get richer, the poor get the picture".

(If he is 61 {born 1955} then he'd be eligible for the pension fron 66-66.5 yrs}

 

That Star Wars memorabilia is probably worth heaps.
Marg

 

And in one bad decision it can all go so wrong. A deceased estate I am working on at the moment. Husband dead in a single vehicle accident last year- but by then he and his wife (major health issues of a non self inflicted type) both in their 60s were renting. Their family home- 40 years worth of work was sold to meet demand from the bank and in the space of 2 years it had gone from an ok retirement to poverty.

He took a risk and purchased a business in which he was deceived but the major client contract fell over for reasons that were no fault of his or for that matter easily foreseeable. End result a lot of debt and not much income. He kept it going for his staff as long as he could but shut shop. Was a broken man doing 14 hour shifts to catch up.
Julius Caesar used to refer to the "fortunes of war" and I like that expression as it hints at the vagaries and vicissitudes of life. If there were a more hardworking and deserving person for a comfortable retirement I'm hard pressed to think of them. No lavish lifestyle, a superb work ethic and an honest bloke.

I have a bucket load of sympathy for him and his family and I will be doing my work at a reduced rate to get his widow some dignity in retirement. Bad business on my part but I am still saddened by the loss of this gentleman.
So yes I have sympathy.

 

He could still buy in the country and live a nice life.

 

Purely on the basis that they're renting? No, I'm not going to feel bad for them.
However if it's due to the fact that life has dealt them a bad hand, then yes, I would feel bad for them.

But then renting isn't necessarily a bad thing, from memory, I owned five houses before I ever owned a home.

 

I have a friend who enjoys renting as he is able to move all around the world with his work.
Says the variety keeps him interested.
He is worth squillions as well.....shares and consulting business.

I knew another guy when I was working iron ore in the 80's - electrician, great income, nothing to show for it after 15 years except a cheap block of land and a worn out Landcruiser.
I paid off two houses......

 

A school of thought is that money doesn't equal wealth, life experiences etc.. So no I don't look at people nearing retirement and think "you don't have 2 cents to rub together". That person may be the most enriched person on the planet. Not likely but it stands to reason..

 

put it this way, lets say he put all the money he had spent on these star wars things into a no interest savings account, execpt for cpi,

at the end of his career he might have $200k in this account

my point is that he got $200k worth of benefit over his life, its not as if he didnt get any benefit and still ended up with nothing.

he made a choice and his consequeneces are his current situations,

youd have a different tone if for example, this star wars fan was healthy at 65 years old, yet his best friend skimped on everyhting and decided to eat instant noodles his whole life but had $200k cash in his account but had terminal cancer from eating like a hermit and a week to live,

you d probably be saying geez I wish If i knew I was going to die early i shouldnt have spent so much energy saving!

 

for me generally if they have chosen to live for the moment and have nothing at the end, then not an ounce of sympathy

if however theyve had a sick child or a medical problem , or a failed business, I am very sympathetic

 

• Home ownership is over rated in Australia and (your favorite superlative adjective) on this forum.
• Someone's personal affairs are not for me to judge

 

Yes I do feel sorry for them.
Yes for some of them it was their own fault.
But I still feel sorry for them.
Some are not really smart, struggle intellectually/vocationally - not just negligent/lazy and those are the ones I really feel sorry for.

 

It isnt quite as black and white as this...

not every failed business is the fault of the owner, not every divorce is the fault of either or both of the parties.

I've personally seen someone nearly lose his business that was built from nothing and growing really well all due to a predatory
and highly immoral outside party, it required major action by a few of us to avoid. in this case the outside party woild have lost in court but by that time the business wouldve been ruined. this is just one example of many, the idea that we are all 100% in charge of what
happens is a fallacy, bad things can and do happen that we can't prevent but of course we can do our best to minimise the chance of it happening or the impact if it does.

 

I am renting at the moment and love it. I would seriously consider doing so in my old age.

I used to rent and own at the same time. I rented a holiday unit on the gold coast long term as a weekender. My rent back then was $400 a week, the unit was worth $750k, the complex had some decent special levy's going on so BC was well over the $100 a week.

After I build the next house, once the kids move out I would probably rent again. I would rent a large unit in the city and buy an investment elsewhere. If you do the numbers on rent vs mortgage, BC,rates and CG on a unit in the CBD, if you didn't have negative gearing as was PPOR then it would be hard to come down on the buy side (but prob only if offset with an investment elsewhere)