Monthly Archives: April 2019

Love, The Renters

Reading Time: 2 minutes

We recently moved from the Cleveland area to Columbus.  We had lived in the Cleveland area for about seven years and somewhat reluctantly purchased a house during that period.  Mostly because we couldn’t find another rental house that met our needs for a reasonable price.

Note: Now that I’ve managed and paid for a full kitchen remodel and an entire exterior basement excavation, as well as paid egregious realtor fees, my definition of a  “reasonable price” has evolved.

The Columbus move was performed in fairly short order.  So we decided to rent for a number of reasons, including we were not that familiar with the area and purchasing a house would be one more complexity.

We found a single family house for rent by a couple where the husband has been working in Chicago and the wife was going to join him for a year.  Their youngest child had just graduated from a nearby college.

It’s a really nice situation.  Very nice house. Lovely neighborhood with lots of kids.  Good schools (although that’s the topic of another post). Walkable to a neat, historic downtown area.  Nearby parks and bike trails. Central to lots of things and within an acceptable commuting radius for me. (Neighbor cycles and owns a sprinter van – at my station in life – this is my definition of a friend with benefits)

Plus, renting right now is one less thing to worry about.  I’ve got enough responsibilities at work and at home. Mrs. SFTE is fine too – probably better than me –  mostly on the basis of Columbus, Ohio is likely not a forever place for us. And a home is a possession that ties you down.

However.

An interesting pattern has emerged.  We’ve become “The Renters.” That’s how we’re introduced around the neighborhood.  

Mrs. SFTE picked up on it first.  She would grumble, we have a last name, it’s the SFTE’s

It’s an interesting sociological study.  Apparently, not owning a house, is enough of a fact pattern to define us.  Or maybe said differently, owning a house in our current neighborhood seems to be a major part of the self-identity of our neighbors.

It’s fine.  We’re taking it in stride.  

Lowering Your Property Value One Month at a Time

I’m going to have t-shirts made next.

P.S. Given the changes the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act brought to deductions for state and local taxes, this might of actually been a financially beneficial move for us, although inadvertent. We didn’t have any mortgage interest expense. Ask me about my definition of “renting” money.

Influential Reads – March 2019

Reading Time: < 1 minute

March 2019

Rough month for reading.  I’ve had some work stuff going on that’s seriously reduced both my time to read and my desire to read.

Updated stats through March:

Saved ArticlesBooks
JanuaryN/A2
February901
March390

Here are my most influential reads from March – in no particular order:

  1. Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
  2. Seriously, stop throwing away your old clothes
  3. Finding the Right Mix of Visionaries and Optimizers
  4. Not Caring: A Unique and Powerful Skill
  5. Why Wall Street is betting on business software
  6. The lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are aiming at Realtors and their 6% fee
  7. The Deep Uncertainty of Meaningful Work
  8. The Aggregation of Marginal Gains
  9. 45 Steps to Success
  10. How the Tech Giants Make Their Billions

Note: This is based on when I read the article, not necessarily when it was first published.  Unfortunately, my backlog of things I would like to read always seems to dwarf the amount of time I can devote to reading.