[baybal2]

>in the UK they will literally give you money to buy your first house, the government is so committed to the your-house-is-your-bank philosophy

No wonder, banks were lobbying the state for generations. House is a purchase like any other, having to pay your tax money for somebody's else default on his McMansion is stupid.

I myself have zero reservations about renting till I kick the bucket. My dumbest decision in life was to listen to parents who were coaxing me day and night for a few years into buying a house in my hellhole hometown in Russia with like 75% of my lifetime savings. Yes, I spent ~$80k just to make my parents to fuck off. That was when I was 23, in 2014.

To some extend, I admit, the decision had in part an intention to teach them a lesson, of what a disservice they were making me with their "expert advise," but I could not have imagined just how wrong the things can go...

[restalis]

Wow! First, is Vladivostok that bad to be called "a hellhole" (that is, if you're referring to it, of course), and second, if it was only to make your parents shut up, couldn't you somehow done it with much, much less (say, a village house somewhere)?

[baybal2]

My hometown is Blagoveschensk, a city much more further inland than Vladivostok.