I bought myself a drum this weekend

[Callomas Savoc]

Oh ho ho but it is not what you think.

http://panicked.org/sa/redcarpet.jpg

Romanian 75 round drum magazine. Drumsticks not included, but excellent percussion nonetheless.

This thing was a PAIN IN THE BUTT to get to work. I had to actually take a dremel tool to my WASR-10 and grind out the metal around the magazine interface. From there, I took the drum apart, cleaned out some grease and grime, and spent two hours trying to figure out how to get the mechanism to work.

In the end, it finally paid off :)

[Jaime Tomahawk]

I swear your every bit as insanely over the top for gun love as I am for motorsport.

That's not a bad thing I add

[Callomas Savoc]

It gets a bit troublesome. I really need to back off a little from it all. I'm already limiting myself to buying no more than one gun per year, so I can hopefully take it easy on my purchases.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

*coffcoff* House payment *coffcoff*

Neat.

[Sanis Prent]

Yeah, there's stuff like that to save money for.

Among other things.

[Morgan Evanar]

That drum is pretty thumpin'.

[Jaime Tomahawk]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
*coffcoff* House payment *coffcoff*

Neat.

That's not a payment, thats part of a 30 year enslavement.

Dont fool yourselve people, houses or apartments are NOT an investment. They are a money pit.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

So we should all live under the stars or in tents?

Hmm, I hadn't considered the nomadic life as a sound investment opportunity before...

[Byl Laprovik]

Well the good thing is that real estate can really only appreciate in value here. Cost of living in the 205 is very very very cheap.

[Jaime Tomahawk]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
So we should all live under the stars or in tents?

Hmm, I hadn't considered the nomadic life as a sound investment opportunity before...

The sound you are now hearing is the point sailing overhead.


Originally posted by Byl Laprovik
Well the good thing is that real estate can really only appreciate in value here. Cost of living in the 205 is very very very cheap.

I'm afraid that when you really work the sums out, your house has to appreciate at over 20% a year to make a cent on a house just on the raw loan. Then you add the maintenance cost, the wear and tear etc.....

Now my house did appreicate at a spectaclar rate and we made 120,000 on it on the sale without really trying. But did we really make any money on it? The answer is no.

Houses are not assets, they are not income producing, they are not retirement nest egg sinkholes. Rent and get real investments, put the deposit to something that will make yourself real money.

If I ever buy again, I'll be doing it in cash. But there's a lot of real investing to do before that happens.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Don't listen to him! He's not American!

;)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It doesn't matter to me whether a house is a money pit or not. The sentimental value alone is enough. It's a place to make memories, and because I've had to move around so much in my life I've learned to appreciate that. I'd gladly pay a mortgage to give my children what I didn't have.

[Pierce Tondry]

I'm afraid that when you really work the sums out, your house has to appreciate at over 20% a year to make a cent on a house just on the raw loan. Then you add the maintenance cost, the wear and tear etc.....

Now my house did appreicate at a spectaclar rate and we made 120,000 on it on the sale without really trying. But did we really make any money on it? The answer is no.

Houses are not assets, they are not income producing, they are not retirement nest egg sinkholes. Rent and get real investments, put the deposit to something that will make yourself real money.

If I ever buy again, I'll be doing it in cash. But there's a lot of real investing to do before that happens.

The housing market is a curious thing. The amount of habitable land will not significantly increase in our lifetimes, thus property values for land will tend to appreciate especially as populations rise. That, more than anything else, is what drives home values.

Also, liquidity on housing assets is much easier to come by these days than previously, at least in the US. (don't know what catches there are in Aussieland) Buying a house and taking out a mortgage to finance improvements to the property is a very sound investment because then you have made money while at the same time improving your own abode. The whole thing is a lot less risky than many other investments too, which is why it's attractive.

A neat trick I want to do at least once in my lifetime is to purchase a car on a credit card and then pay off the card immediately. When I can pull that off, then I know I've arrived. :)