“Inflation Held Steady at 2.7% in July” (WSJ). We secured a 3.125% mortgage for our house early in 2022. Thus, the real interest rate on the money we borrowed is 0.425%. That’s a cheerful thought! We could take the money that we borrowed for the house and put it into a money market right now and get a 1% annual profit! Mark Zuckerberg could pay a mortgage for his $110 million compound for less than $40,000 per month in real terms. (Of course, it is still smarter to rent because property tax, maintenance, etc. are ruinous and the mental load of maintaining a house is better spent on productive activities.)
Here’s how state-sponsored NPR reports on the inflation that the Wall Street Journal describes as “steady”. It’s all doom and gloom thanks to the evil dictator who is taking away the state sponsorship that NPR claims they don’t get.
I started watching deck repair videos on YouTube when we got a bill for $500/ft deck repairs.
I don’t know how much money I’ve lost or gained by not having a mortgage, renting for a number of years then buying with cash. My real goal was to give my Ivy League finance/banking-bro chums as little money as I could. I suspect they still got a fortune from me–“I know a guy who invented an instrument to monetize that.”
Most of the engineering students I knew from Columbia went into the creative finance arts, go figure. I wish those admissions slots had gone to more of us real nerds, so our shit wouldn’t be falling apart around us.