Oddbean

Dunno. I worked for it, saved, bought car. Saved and bought the house I could afford. Only credit card I ever had was when I was working in countries with civil wars and stuff going on in case I needed a quick flight out. Never used a credit card and haven't had one for 25 years. I do get that credit can be useful and did have to take a small student loan but it is possible much of the credit based dynamic is less relevant in a more stable price environment under hard money. Dunno. Not an economist so I might be full of shot!

You saved enough money to buy a house in cash? Either you have a very high-paying job or live in a country with very low living costs. Most people living paycheck to paycheck wouldn’t be able to afford that

Agreed. But then people being pushed to buy houses with credit is what flooded real estate market with cheap liquidity over decades and caused over pricing. Yes, I worked my ass of to get to decent pay, didn't spend frivolously, saved and invested and bought in cash a small house surrounded by empty houses as they were all dominantly second homes. Then just started saving again till could move on. Cars always used, never new. Always took saved funds as budget limit and spent 80% on the vehicle, leaving 20% for the repairs I new were going to happen. Seemed logical. I have lived debt free my entire life. Maybe my perspective is wrong but if you don't earn enough, find a way to make more. Everyone being pulled into this whole credit based system seems to just flood economy in cheap credit, reduces value of money and drives up prices. Much of the time, it's also really obviously stupid. I met a chap at a friends birthday and he said he was always stressed. Really successful high earning program manager but had 1.5m mortgage. He was just miserable because trying to live way beyond means. We all make our choices

Not really, most people don’t have a choice. Either they pay exorbitant rent or get a mortgage. Not many people can afford to pay high rent and still save for a house, while the price of homes continues to rise further and further out of reach. If they get a low enough mortgage, maybe they’ll end up with a nice nest egg in the end.

I think that's the current catch-22. Maybe am not seeing things correctly but this definitely depends on generation. We have been living for decades in this financialized world where the creation of money through debt has created the dynamic where everything is poured into housing which has driven up the cost to nose bleed levels. I certainly feel for younger people trying to get onto the market now and we need to change the damned system so that, as Jeff Booth says, housing goes back to utility value and is more available to all. The insanity of the mortgage availability driven housing boom is causing problems for many. I remember being a student in London and trying to persuade my father to buy a 5 bedroom house in Camden for 95,000 pounds because i thought the market would go nuts. I didn't really understand the dynamics at that age but just had a feeling. He never bought it but it was worth over 1.5m just 5 years later. As far as I can tell, that's just stupid based on easy credit being sloshed around the system. I can't say I know what the fix is but I do think easy credit simply makes everything harder for all in the long run

exactly. My thing was simply work and put everything in to custodied gold for saving. It was the only option at the time really. At least there's an alternative. The pain being felt won't get better for a while and I also think governments likely to consider that some sort of wealth effect feeling will pacify so make mortgages easier which will then drive it all further until many countries start looking like Australia for real estate. I think we both come from same point of view, I am just talking from a perspective from the past. I was brought up in pretty poor relative poverty so I do get it, and I certainly feel for people, which is why I spend shit loads of time just trying to orange pill people and attempt to focus on the less well off parts of the community am in, but fuck me it's a lot of work with very low conversion rate so far.