<story><title>The Rise of Renting in the U.S</title><url>http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/02/the-rise-of-renting-in-the-us/462948/?platform=hootsuite</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lowglow</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve sorta turned my back on the standard american dream. Racing to new areas of growth, working to build someone else&amp;#x27;s dream, getting paid well immediately for performance, paying high rent, etc to afford the image of success, and making friends that participate in this same high ambition culture. Instead of making markets, markets start making you. All the rules, and &amp;quot;norms&amp;quot; we&amp;#x27;ve collected around ourselves to participate are just foolish.&lt;p&gt;I ended up just buying and crashing in a van, exiting that mode of being, and am much happier because of it. Now I get to save money, research and build what I want when I want, and generally am very much less stressed. I&amp;#x27;m no longer beholden to a landlord, or feel like I must participate in activities that just serve to entertain but not enlighten. I can spend the day at the beach just reading if I wish.&lt;p&gt;You start to look at time as something that you can control again, and you start seeing how much life truly is a gift, and that life itself should be nurtured and cherished. There is also a sense of independence and DIY that comes along with the lifestyle that feels like I&amp;#x27;m leveling up in good ways.&lt;p&gt;Will this mode change for me? Sure. Change is inevitable. But for now I&amp;#x27;ve found more peace and focus than I have in a long time. I&amp;#x27;m now able to concentrate on longer stretches of time that hold bigger ideas, and then asking myself how I might use that time to start refocusing my energy making new markets.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dcw303</author><text>Australia has cloned the great American dream as well. When I lived in Sydney, real estate was all anybody ever talked about. Are you renting? Oh, too bad. Got to get on the property ladder, y&amp;#x27;know. Yeah, my commute&amp;#x27;s about an hour and a half, if there&amp;#x27;s no trouble on the M5. I toughed it out on an oppressive mortage for thirty years out in the sticks, why can&amp;#x27;t you? Kids these days want it all. etc, etc.&lt;p&gt;Coming to Tokyo was great. Sure, people still ask where you live, but the proximity to the train station is more important than how many bedrooms&amp;#x2F;entertainment centers are in your McMansion. The only time I&amp;#x27;ve been asked if I own or rent is when relatives came to stay. I don&amp;#x27;t know if it&amp;#x27;s the after effect of the property bubble bursting, because the cheap construction materials means housing stock is not built to last, because good inner city locations are still too expensive to buy (despite said bubble bursting) so everyone rents, or just a culture that does not place much social cachet on property ownership. But it suits me.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Rise of Renting in the U.S</title><url>http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/02/the-rise-of-renting-in-the-us/462948/?platform=hootsuite</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lowglow</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve sorta turned my back on the standard american dream. Racing to new areas of growth, working to build someone else&amp;#x27;s dream, getting paid well immediately for performance, paying high rent, etc to afford the image of success, and making friends that participate in this same high ambition culture. Instead of making markets, markets start making you. All the rules, and &amp;quot;norms&amp;quot; we&amp;#x27;ve collected around ourselves to participate are just foolish.&lt;p&gt;I ended up just buying and crashing in a van, exiting that mode of being, and am much happier because of it. Now I get to save money, research and build what I want when I want, and generally am very much less stressed. I&amp;#x27;m no longer beholden to a landlord, or feel like I must participate in activities that just serve to entertain but not enlighten. I can spend the day at the beach just reading if I wish.&lt;p&gt;You start to look at time as something that you can control again, and you start seeing how much life truly is a gift, and that life itself should be nurtured and cherished. There is also a sense of independence and DIY that comes along with the lifestyle that feels like I&amp;#x27;m leveling up in good ways.&lt;p&gt;Will this mode change for me? Sure. Change is inevitable. But for now I&amp;#x27;ve found more peace and focus than I have in a long time. I&amp;#x27;m now able to concentrate on longer stretches of time that hold bigger ideas, and then asking myself how I might use that time to start refocusing my energy making new markets.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>taurath</author><text>This is a big generational thing. My brother and I have been there as our parents moved us out to the country to buy a big house, my dad work his life away for a bigco only to be laid off 3 years before his retirement, and now they sit in their house with a lot of stuff and very few hobbies and not much of a social group. We&amp;#x27;ve seen how far striving can take you, and the real cost of the sacrifices you make for possessions. Both of us orient ourselves towards experiences over possessions. He and his wife are joining the peace corps and I am working on my skillset to become a remote contractor so I can travel (while saving up as much as I can living with roommates).</text></comment>