[kamaal]

>>I have a really really hard time feeling bad for people who bought homes in the bay area in ~1980. They won the lottery.

>>On the other hand, the person who moved to SF in 1980 and decided to rent, I feel bad for them.

Instead of punishing people for being successful. The latter people should ponder on their foolishness, instead of blaming other people for being more intelligent.

Last time I check making good decisions about one's future is not a vice.

[jrock08]

If only home ownership weren't correlated with generational wealth. Then we'd have a meritocracy, and you could dismiss people renting as bad decision makers. In the real world, people rent because they can't afford to buy a home.

[kamaal]

>>In the real world, people rent because they can't afford to buy a home.

In real world, you can always bootstrap your way to a decent nest egg, whether its a retirement fund or a home. It takes time, and it takes hard work. But is very possible and a lot of people do it.

If you can't, then evaluate your spending patterns seriously. I haven't met any person yet who didn't have wasteful expenditure that couldn't be eliminated.

More often than not its not the means/resources, its lack of resourcefulness. People in general don't have the motivation to take steps towards solving a difficult problem, and the discipline to suffer through a grind and see it through to the end. This of course is a very different problem, the responsibility of which starts and ends at a individual alone.

[SolaceQuantum]

>I haven't met any person yet who didn't have wasteful expenditure that couldn't be eliminated

People who are poor or improvised deserve to live a life that also allows them to have something enjoyable, including hobbies. It shouldn't beconsidered a lack of discipline that an impoverished person could maybe enjoy their life once in a while. It's depressing how much one can expect a life of misery of they're poor.

[st3v3r]

"In real world, you can always bootstrap your way to a decent nest egg"

No, not really. Especially given housing prices now.

[kamaal]

There is a always a house at some location X you can buy now, which will be unaffordable 20 years from now.

[guard-of-terra]

What if it happens to be far far away from where your career proceeds?

You have now to choose between growing your house value or nurturing your career.

[st3v3r]

However, that location X is not always feasible to move to and work from. So it's worthless to discuss all location X. Instead, you should be focusing on locations Y, which are.