Home buying thread

Seananigans said:

Even considering (spending the mental capital) not paying off the mortgage is fucktarded… I seriously don’t understand the “min-max” financial mindset. Money is the goal to the exclusion of literally all else? Yeah your life must be amazing.

I imagine them as someone who would min-max a wizard to 18 int but 3 str. Yeah ok I bet it’s absolutely amazing having a carrying capacity of 13lbs. Tell me about all the cool things you can do.

Agonizing over that sort of decision is a mindset that is completely alien to me.

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People who are good with money are always min-maxxing, and always optimizing for various results. It isn't agonizing at all. It is about achieving the best outcomes for your goals. This is a vast generality of course, and there are extremes all over the place. This isn't necessarily about money being the end all to the be all, either. For some people it is, for others money is just a means to an end.

I'm pretty well off, and still approach certain financial decisions with a great deal of thought...because it is intrinsic to my nature, not because I need to save a buck. For instance, I still consider Total Cost of Ownership when I purchase a vehicle even though I don't need to. I still primarily buy used cars even though I don't need to. I bought a new vehicle a few years ago, got a smoking deal. It was my 3rd new vehicle, and not a fancy one at that. Mid-range trim, non luxury model. My lifetime losses on vehicles (not including write-off, maintenance and wear items) isn't even $10k...and I've had some nice hardware.

Houses are the same. I've made a lot of money on every house I have owned, save for my first big one, which IIRC I lost 5-10k on overall.

I do all this through min-maxxing money.

It beats the hell out of crossed fingers, a pile of worthless lotto tickets, and walking around banks at night with a divining rod.