What goods should you buy and what should you rent?

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

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Hades said:
I have always been a big proponent of owning a car too. But with the huge incoming changes over the next decade I think I would only want to own a cheap used car. I wouldn't want to buy a new one. So renting for new cars looks a better option than buying one to me right now.
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This fully depends on whether your car will or will not depreciate. If it's 15 years old, it's done its depreciation really so you don't have to worry about it. If it's brand new, you're about to lose a chunk as you drive away. Then, if you insist on having a new car, you rent it. I'm sure even people with loads of disposable cash who can buy cars brand new don't bother, for the most part.
 

Panos

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mrochester said:
I find the spread of subscription business models feels very insidious. It seems designed to entrap customers and to extract more money out of them.

On that basis, what goods do you believe you should own and not rent and vice versa?

Here are some of the common ones I believe you should own:

Home
Car
Computer software
Music
Films

Here are some of the common ones I think you should rent:

Internet connection
Mobile plan
VPN connection
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You cannot own those items you have in the "rent" category. So kinda mute.

As for Home & Car it depends. For many leasing a car is the best option. Because in 3y time a £20K car would have lost over half it's value even more so if you clock 90,000 miles on it. While lease for the same car will set you back ~£8000 not £10-13,000 and I assume you buy it outright and not through a loan/finance which is even worse factor.

Home. You do not own your home until you have no mortgage. And if you outright buy a home, what guarantees you that you won't need to move because your job closed or things changes eg divorce?
I loved my home in Lincolnshire. Managed to hold to it 10y after separating with my ex wife. However after 2011 the company was working for since 2003 went bust. (was losing £500m by that time). The next job was further away, requiring 16,000 miles p.a commuting on a road that was gridlocked. That one in 2015 moved to Denmark due to the threats for a EU referendum. So had to become contractor to go even further, to be able to do 30000 miles commuting p.a. Also had to rent a second house when the contract after that was even further (180 miles distance). All these compound over 10y period and you sell the house, to settle the last financial part of the divorce because you had enough.

Otherwise would have settle for jobs nearby that the offering salary was less than the 2008 salary I was earning. And that is the problem. Do you plan to be income stagnated until pension because of your house you bought 10 years ago?

I saw it in UK with all my friends, losing their jobs or getting stuck and been miserable because they couldn't move from eg Leeds to Manchester or Bristol for more money. So had to pick jobs at the same salary they had several years ago. Until moved up and then back down again.

Hence I will not own a house ever again in UK or anywhere the road gets me and why I would stick to contracting also.
 

Firestar_3x

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dirtychinchilla said:
This fully depends on whether your car will or will not depreciate. If it's 15 years old, it's done its depreciation really so you don't have to worry about it. If it's brand new, you're about to lose a chunk as you drive away. Then, if you insist on having a new car, you rent it. I'm sure even people with loads of disposable cash who can buy cars brand new don't bother, for the most part.
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How does renting a car Shield you from depreciation, the lease company is not a charity, someone has to pay for the depreciation and that is built into the monthly payment + profit on top.
 

dirtychinchilla

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Firestar_3x said:
How does renting a car Shield you from depreciation, the lease company is not a charity, someone has to pay for the depreciation and that is built into the monthly payment + profit on top.
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Well it limits your risk. Yes you lose money on the depreciation, but at some point you return the car and limit the damage. That's my thinking anyone. Having said that, I don't honestly believe the finances stack up and I had to switch my brain off when I leased my car.
 

The_Arbiter

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dirtychinchilla said:
The rule of thumb is normally if it appreciates, buy it. If it depreciates, rent it.

To the guy that thinks Netflix needs ten more years, you obviously haven't been using Netflix.
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Agree to disagree. Used Netflix for 4-6months, in the end i was spending more time searching for something to watch than watching, as i got bored of watching something that turned out i didn't like. An hour spare before bed? I'll just go youtube, forum, or read.
 

Theophany

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Look at total cost of ownership and work on that basis. If it's on a depreciation curve, ideally rent the depreciation and get out before it bottoms out.

I honestly don't get why people in the UK are so enamoured with home ownership. It may appreciate but it's dependent on the greater fool theory whilst the country's wealth is heavily stilted in favour of a demographic on death's door.
 

FishLicker

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The_Arbiter said:
Agree to disagree. Used Netflix for 4-6months, in the end i was spending more time searching for something to watch than watching, as i got bored of watching something that turned out i didn't like. An hour spare before bed? I'll just go youtube, forum, or read.
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I'm a bit late to the this thread but I agree with you. I don't end up using it as much as I thought because I often spend too much time actually researching what to watch, then when I do find something, I often find I don't like it anyway and have wasted my time.

Almost certainly going to cancel it this month. Like you I'd rather hop on to YouTube or read.
 

Semple

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mrochester said:
Here are some of the common ones I believe you should own:

Computer software
Music
Films
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Just to be pedantic, you'll never "own" computer software/music/films, you effectively purchase a lifetime licence to consume said media in the format that it was sold in - this last part is important, as buying a CD to rip the music from to play on your bluetooth speaker is technically a no-on/quite a grey area.
 

Semple

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UTmaniac said:
Yet aren't we technically renting games bought through Steam?
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In theory yes, despite paying for it in the same manner as physical media (albeit without the physical medium it comes on). If Steam went bust tomorrow, all the £££ you've paid for games would likely be lost*.

* in this circumstance you may find that developers/publishers would upload their game files to another platform, and providing you have some form of proof of purchase. They may allow you play the game on another platform. But ultimately that's likely to be at their discretion, i'll be amazed if there's anything in Steams/publishers T&Cs that say if Steams service vanishes, that they're still liable for providing you with the service.
 
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