I read where there is a fledgling movement underway in North Dakota to entirely do away with property taxes. 'Course, the pesky 'ol issue of how to replace the loss of revenue remains (and no, they haven't found THAT much oil!). One quote I heard did make sense, however. A guy said. "Even if my house were paid for, I'd still have those taxes. We're always renters, never homeowners."
Interesting... Case in point, my brother has a large house, a true McMansion, and his monthly taxes are more than my rent. True, he and his wife have 5-times the space to ramble around in than K and I do, but so what? How much space to you need to eat, sleep, read the paper, and watch TV? I can understand a bit larger home during those years you're raising a family, but those years do have an expiration date.
We as a society seem intent on living in larger and larger houses, I guess because we need the space for the more and more stuff we buy. It's just a vicious circle. And if we one day decide we'll "downsize", that's when we realize all that stuff we've spent a lifetime collecting will have to be discarded, something most of us are unwilling to do.
My advice? Learn early on to buck the trend and live modest. Instead of impressing your friends with your "stuff", impress them with photos of your world travels for example. Travels you could afford because you didn't buy all that "stuff".
You'll now excuse me while I leave my Apple computer, turn off my big screen TV, and go sit in my overstuffed leather chair and read my Kindle. Have a good day everyone. ;)
S
I think that trend is starting to reverse, partly due to the recession, but you are right on.
ReplyDeleteI call getting rid of stuff "Addition by subtraction." Mrs. C does not agree. She is a border-line horder.
Cranky
Fun post. Mrs. C. and I cut back when we moved the last time and gave up the big house. Now we travel and try not to accumulate too many souvenirs along the way. But our penchant for collecting things is something we must always fight.
ReplyDeleteMike & I have always lived in small spaces (except for that time we rented a three bedroom townhouse - yowza at the space in that thing!), but we still have too much stuff. The problem is that (a) Mike is REALLY good at organizing so that there's room for more stuff and, (b) he's really NOT good at letting old stuff go. Well, I'm sure I'm just as bad.
ReplyDeleteI've always dreamed that when we win the lottery we'd get a house with enough space for everything we want to do - offices for each of us, exercise room, craft room... But the problem with that is that we like being able to talk to each other while we do things. I would miss him if he was always in another room. So I guess living small suits us :)
I have a big old office/music space and stay in here most of the day....The rest of my house you can keep....
ReplyDeleteMy first house was 980 square feet - really too small for four people. Once my ex-husband (who had the annoying habit of spreading out himself and his stuff everywhere) left, it was just perfect for me and my two kids.
ReplyDeleteOur current house is larger than what we really need, but it was the smallest house available at the time in the area where we wanted to be. We do have company occasionally, so two guest bedrooms do come in handy.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to just live in an RV. Of course, it would be a very modern RV with cable and internet service... ;-)
You have the right idea, Scott. We're going through that in the near future. I think. Yeah, sure we are. Really.
ReplyDeleteIt is far tougher in reality (for me/us anyhow) than you make it sound. I have been doing it for years now, bur I still have a 3 bedroom house full of 'stuff'.
ReplyDeleteLittle by little though, I/we have been chipping away at it. I have gotten to the place where I have quit collecting much in the way of souvenirs when I/we travel now. But I still have souvenirs from the forties, fifties and sixties to dispose of.