Renting vs. Buying

Thursday, September 25, 2003
I had all these things I wanted to talk about before but forgot all of them. Oh well.

Today's topic is renting vs buying. The age old question that doesn't seem to have an answer. Are you one of those people who believe that renting an apartment is like throwing you money out the window? I use to be one of those people but I'm recently converted. Let me explain why.

Renting has MANY advantages. Chief among those

1. It's less expensive
2. You don't have to do your own repairs
3. You have freedom to move

You really can't underestimate the last two. I would eventually like to own my own home. I'm the type of guy that would be very much into fixing up my own home and being able to decorate the way I want to. However, when I thought about it I realized that I'm definitely not in the position to buy a house. It's not that I can't afford it, I probably could if I tried, but it really doesn't make any sense for me to. Here's why.

I have no idea what I'm going to be doing or where I will be in the next 5 years. At this age, I think it is really important to keep you options open. Buying a house locks you down for at least the next 5 years. It is pointless to buy a house only to sell it within 3 years because for the first 3 years you are paying mostly the interest and very little of the principle. If you do need to move you basically burned even more money by just handing it over to the bank, the real estate agents (Don't forget closing cost which can run Thousands of dollars), and insurance agents.

What if I get a great job offer in Seattle? The nice thing about my situation right now is that I could take it without much though. Not only do I not have a family but I don't have a house I have to sell. Freedom has its price, and for now, it is well worth it.

Ahead of my time

Thursday, September 18, 2003
If you follow my blog you know that the two most popular searches are for "Should College Athletes get Paid" and for "Hard Drive Wrong Size"

Well today it was announced that there is going to be a lawsuit against Hard Drive manufacturers for the misleading practice of overstating the capacity of their hard drives. I of course complained about this months ago when I got my new hard drive and I found there to be significantly less capacity than I expected.

State of Women's Sports

Tuesday, September 16, 2003
The WUSA (Women's Soccer League) announced today that it will be closing up shop. They made the announcement because support of the league has dropped significantly sine its inception in 1999.

On several different radio shows today I have heard commentary how this is just terrible for sports, how it sets women back, how corporate America should sponsor these leagues, blah blah blah. I personally don't care if the WUSA, WNBA, and every other Women's pro sports team goes under. For that matter, I don't really care if the MLS (Men's Soccer League) closes either. I just don't particularly care about these particular leagues.

The fair-minded side of me wants to come out and say how bad it is that the Women's leagues don't really get a fair shake. How, if people would just give it a chance, we might really see something. That it is good for little girls everywhere to see women playing sports. But the rational, free-market side of me thinks that these leagues should not be alive if they can't sustain enough revenue.

I think that the reason it bothers me so much that people complain that we need these leagues is that people aren't putting their money where their mouths are. If it doesn't bother women that these leagues aren't surviving should it really bother anyone. Last time I checked, Women make up 50% of the population. For the most part, women have the same earning potential as men. Women obviously don't prioritize sports the way men do, or at the very least don't really care to pay to see other women play sports. If women really cared about seeing the advancement of women's sports than they would start attending games and buy merchandise. That isn't happening so if women don't care about other women how do they expect men to?

I heard an argument today that the reason corporate America doesn't sponsor women's sports like they do men's is because there are 50 year old men sitting in the CEO's office. What a load of S#!T. Do you think there is a CEO on this planet who, if he believed sponsoring a women's leagues would make him millions of dollars , wouldn't jump on that chance? Of course not. CEO's have jobs to make money, not neglect something because they are in the 'Old Boys Club' . This is a ludicrous as the WNBA threatening to go on strike. That's another story for another day.