To Rent or Mortgage Part 1
To Rent or Mortgage Part 2
To Rent or Mortgage Part 3
To Rent or Mortgage (A Third Way) Part 4

This post won’t necessarily about choosing between renting or mortgaging, but instead a third way that I have tried to drum up over the last little while which incorporates both. For the longest time I have been trying to understand what community means and the effects and sacrifices that should happen as a result of true community. I’m starting to realize that community takes on all forms, shapes and sizes and looks so different depending on the individuals that are part of it. Some communities are more shallow or deeper than others and some have different vices than others. So my idea I think would only work with a community of people that were sold out to each other on a number of levels, including financially, spiritually and emotionally. This is hard to come by, and usually the only time you see this happen is in communes (at least that I know of) but I’m hoping that it can exist without living in communes.

So imagine if I decided to rent for $550 a month, total expenses with insurance, cars, food and everything else was $1200 a month to live. Let’s say I’m making $2200 a month net pay. Now most people would say that I have enough money coming in that I could purchase a house and make the payments without a lot to worry about. However, what if instead of buying a house for myself I started paying off someone else’s in my community’s mortgage payments (personX). So $1000 a month more is going on personX mortgage which means that the mortgage would be paid of faster than double what it normally would be paid off. So if someone has 12 years left on their mortgage it can now be paid off in about 5 years. So now you have personX who has this extra money left over after five years and then they would be committed to helping someone pay off their mortgage for a minimum of that seven years (whatever was left on their mortgage.) So then we move to personY and now you have personX’s payments, my payments and personY’s payments all on the same mortgage which would pay it off even faster. And the cycle would continue until everyone in the community is debt free. Then the community’s money could go towards helping people outside their community survive, live or be debt free.

An idea like this has quite a bit of problems, and most of them are in the fact that we are dealing with humans. What happens when you get someone who is part of the community that wants help paying off his half a million dollar mortgage because he thinks he ‘needs’ a house that big? What happens when someone makes a bad decision with their money? How do you decide whose debt gets paid off next and how do you not hurt the people’s feelings when they aren’t chosen to be next? These of course are all normal problems that would suffice when you are dealing with money, but I think you could work around them if you have a group of people who cares about each other enough. Doing something like this reminds us that we are to share and take care of one another instead of just worrying about ourselves and our own equity.

There are only a few ways something like this could start. The first way is that someone has to take the first hit. Meaning if I want this to start maybe I should just stay renting at this great low price and then send all the access to personX’s mortgage so you can get someone else on board who can help you take it further. The second way I thought about doing it is if you could get ten people to give $100 a month and all of that goes to one person’s mortgage and then when that’s person’s is paid off they would start taking their extra money and putting it on whoever is next. The key to remember in something like this is it’s based on the idea that we don’t own anything, we are only stewards. My community is just as important as I am, and is just as much my responsibility as they are to themselves. Unfortunately we’ve been so pulled apart from each other and told the lie of independence that it freaks us out whenever we think about using our resources for someone else’s good. But this of course is our call isn’t it. To use what God has given us to bless those around us. So what do you think, do you think something like this could work? Would you ever be interested in doing it with your community?

To Rent or Mortgage Part 1
To Rent or Mortgage Part 2
To Rent or Mortgage Part 3
To Rent or Mortgage (A Third Way) Part 4

I’ve had a few comments on my latest posts on renting or mortgaging. Here is the overall picture I’m getting and probably where I stand with all this.

1. I’m starting to think that having debt is one thing and having a mortgage on a house is another. My Uncle Doug left this comment, “If you own a house and have enough equity in it to sell and pay off your mortgage, then is it really debt.” That is the question I was asking and I think it is a lot different than getting a loan for school, cars, renovations or anything else. There is however the small risk of the housing market crashing, like we’ve seen in the USA lately, where you could owe more than your house is worth. So getting a mortgage doesn’t feel like I’m jumping into something I can’t afford because its not like I wouldn’t have the equity of the house to even out how much I owe on it.

2. There are a few benefits I see to renting. One is that you are paying less a month. I’d be paying about 1/3 more a month if I was to own. However, that 1/3 I’m sure events itself out after I own the house and I’m not making any sort of mortgage payments a month as opposed to renting where I’d be doing it for the rest of my life. The second benefit I see is the limited attachment I have to a specific place or area. When I rent I don’t have to worry about selling my house and I’m not tied down to any place. However, the negative side of that is that I’m not constrained to one place which means I don’t have that place that I call home where I’m investing in a specific community for a long period of time which is something that I want to do. The third benefit I see to renting is the ease of living. I don’t have to do repairs, fix my roof or leaks, I don’t have to cut the grass (but I do because I get $50 a month taken off rent), or pay land tax. A lot of the expensive and time consuming responsibilities of owning are gone which frees me up to do other things that I love.
3. We’ve been looking at buildings for theStory lately. I’m starting to realize that we could save almost $1000 a month on some buildings if we bought it instead of renting (not even including how much goes into equity instead of the landlords pocket). So that is softening me up to the idea of owning.

4. A large part of my discomfort with mortgaging is the obsession I see in the generation older than me (generalization) with paying off their mortgages and saving up for retirement and well basically an obsession with money and things that money can buy. So my initial reaction is to retaliate because I don’t want to be like that so I think I need to do everything opposite. This of course is a bad reaction sometimes and isn’t a good response to negative behavior. Instead I should see the negatives of a decision and the positives and then work to eliminate the bad and work towards the good and not necessarily throw the baby out with the bathwater.
5. In the end I think I will probably end up getting a mortgage for these reasons. For starters, financially it makes a lot of sense. I’ll be paying fairly the same amount every month (give or take a few hundred) but in one or two decades I’ll have some money to show for it that can be used for all sorts of great things which I’ll probably and hopefully want to do with it. Second, I love the idea of planting my roots in a community and investing my time, money and resources into it. I want to know my neighbours and I want to be there for the long haul. Third, I want to have the freedom to do what I want with it. I want to be able to have extra rooms to give to those in need or friends that are visiting. I want to be able to tear down a wall if it means bigger living room to hang out in. I want to be able to make it other people’s homes also and not just my own. I want it to be used for God’s ideas in the community that I’m in.

So with that said, I’ll probably get a mortgage. I still have one more idea though. I’ll post it next. I don’t know if it will work, or if anyone else would ever be on board, but it’s an idea I’ve been running through my head for a long time now, something I haven’t heard of before within a community. I’ll get to that soon.

To Rent or Mortgage Part 1
To Rent or Mortgage Part 2
To Rent or Mortgage Part 3
To Rent or Mortgage (A Third Way) Part 4

There were a few comments left on my last post which got me thinking about a few other things This isn’t so much of a financial battle for me as it is a spiritual one. It’s hard for me to decide to ‘plan for the future’ when sometimes I think I don’t have a lot of room for that in my worldview. I don’t know how I feel about RRSP’s, savings bonds, investing in myself for later, personal equity and other things in that nature. I don’t want to demonize any of them, that isn’t my point, I do however want to tread lightly because I’ve seen firsthand what these types of decisions can do to someone, and while they are probably unaware of their present state it isn’t exactly that direction that I want to head towards.

Why would I invest in myself when there is people in need all around me? People say to invest now so I can give more later, but that doesn’t seem or feel right at all. Jesus didn’t seem to withhold giving someone to something because he wanted to keep it for himself so he could have lots and then decide to give it away at a later time. Then the question arises with what happens when I have kids? Shouldn’t I plan and save for their future so I don’t leave them out to dry? Or do I teach and train them how to survive and make wise decisions and teach them strong morals in how to look at money instead, or both/and?

I’ve had a few people mention to me the parable of the talents as a valid reason to get a mortgage or to save up for the future. I don’t think that the parable of the talents has anything to do at all with how we use money today and investing it into a bank account. In fact I’d be more inclined to read the parable of the talents as a reason for not getting a mortgage. The parable is all about using what they’ve been given wisely and in the time granted instead of sitting on it because of fear or what may happen. Here is a cool article on the parable of the talents that will send your head spinning. I’m just not convinced that this is the best argument for preparing for the future.

Jaci posted an interesting comment about ‘taking’ houses from lower income families by moving into the poorer neighbourhoods. Not sure where I stand with that one. I can understand it if all the Christians were taking up the subsidized housing in a city, but that argument really could be said about anything then. Why shop at Dollerama if we are taking cheap necessities away from those that need it? I’d be interested to hear if there was any examples of cities or areas where Christians were moving into them and grabbing them up before people in hard financial positions were able to attain them.

When it comes down to it, my uneasiness isn’t with saving money, or preparing for the future. All of those can be good and healthy things in the right context I think. I think the biggest thing that doesn’t sit right with me is getting debt. Achieving something I haven’t paid for and working towards paying it off over the course of fifteen years. Is debt/mortgages a healthy thing? Are they just the epitome of our culture that gives us what we want when we want it without ever learning to save. Or can they be good things? It’s not like the Bible says nothing about debt. Debt seemed to be a regular part of their lives (even though they have a seven year solutions to it). Is it OK for debt to be part of my life? Is it ok to get something before I can afford it? Any more thoughts?

To Rent or Mortgage Part 1
To Rent or Mortgage Part 2
To Rent or Mortgage Part 3
To Rent or Mortgage (A Third Way) Part 4

I have struggled passionately with this over the last year or so. Getting married, making more money, paying utilities all play into the raging question if I should get a mortgage or if I should just stay renting. It is a long struggle, and for some reason most people that I have talked to seem to have their mind made up on what the best decision is.

Up front mortgaging looks like the best move. You get a nice house right away. You are investing money into yourself instead of a landlord or throwing it into the garbage as some people put it. Houses haven’t really gone down much in value; they usually retain their value more than any other asset you can buy. So purchasing a house isn’t like purchasing a car, because you can resell it usually for what you bought it for. Building equity into yourself has a lot of advantages for the future. You are able to just buy bigger and more things as you get older (that could be selfishly or selflessly depending on who you are).

However, I think there are strong arguments out there for me to just stay renting also. For starters renting is risk free. If the market crashes or if something goes wrong, I haven’t lost anything because my money isn’t in my home. Renting also frees you up to leave quicker and easier, yes you could sell your house if you were mortgaging but nothing beats the ease of just leaving your rental and leaving the problems to the landlords. I don’t have any responsibility for repairs, land tax or resale. These are all things that bring stress into lives and people and bog people down. Rent is significantly cheaper also a month, because I’m not paying land tax, repairs and it’s just a cheaper payment a month, I have a lot more money free per month than I would if I owned a home.

Spiritually speaking, getting a mortgage scares me. Part of me feels like I’m joining the ranks of good intentioned humans out there that are able to get something they can’t afford because we live in the west. I can live in the luxury of something I haven’t yet earned and can live with that debt for 10 years or 25 years. I’ve seen too many people live lives of stress and pain because of their debts and living beyond their means. So by getting a mortgage am I somehow saying that I’m invincible? The temptations to get a bigger house in two years won’t affect me. The temptation to constantly buy bigger things on my house’s equity won’t affect me. How do I know this isn’t just a slippery slope of consumerism and materialism? Something I would be a less prone too if I just rented and lived month to month. I’ve been told to just trust God and get a mortgage. I feel sometimes that it would be trusting God more not to get one and live day to day. Is investing for retirement even a right option? Why am I worrying at 23 for when I am 60? Aren’t we told not to worry about tomorrow let alone in 40 years? Am I being selfish just saving and saving and saving every penny I get for some special day in the future? What happens when kids work into the equation? What if they want to go to school? Is it wrong to want to pay for them to go?

I want to be smart with my money. I want to make an impact and do amazing things with it. I want to be able to use my money to get others out of debt and to help anyone in need whenever I see it. I could have an extra $500 a month sitting around if I rent to do that. Or I could put it all into a home now and in ten years have a heck of a lot more to be able to do that plus the deep pockets to make financial decisions that could bless people in the future. I don’t want to be like those that I have seen that live to pay off their debts, and then live to put money into RRSP’s and then live to spend it after. So honestly, what would you do? Rent or Mortgage? Why? What’s the cons of both to you? Pros?

The idea and the word community has become sort of a buzz word in my life in the past year or two lately. Everything is about building community and I want to have meaningful community; not just a place to show up on Sunday. In fact the best way to evangelism is in community and the church’s mission should exist within a community. It’s been used so much I reacted against it, like I always do to that which is overused in my life. Now there are a few ideas of community that I’m struggling with.

For starters, can or does a community exist if it is one person giving and giving and a few others taking and taking. For instance, can an emotional stable person be in community with emotional needy people; where everything that happens is one way. Is that a community? Is that demeaning to assume that a certain type of person can’t ‘give’ anything of value to a community? There are all kinds of people that I think of in my head who I think that when I’m around them that means I’m giving and serving lots and they are receiving and being served the entire time. Can a community exist with that ideal? You all know who I’m talking about. Is that called a community, or is that just called something else? Can a community exist one-sided? Or does that defeat the whole idea of it? If I see it as one-sided, am I deceiving myself into thinking that certain people have nothing to give?

Also, what defines commitment to a community? Is it money? Attendance? Or is it simple being there for someone else? Or is it just a group of friends? If you have a member that is slower or disabled in your group, what sort of role do they play in the community? How important should community be in your decisions? How much sway should the community have in a leader’s decision? My mind is racing with these sorts of questions in trying to figure out how community fits into the whole gospel message. I’m not even sure where to go with the thoughts; I just know I’m really trying to work them out and how they will play out in theStory. Any advice?

I’m heading to The Heart of Canadian Free Methodism class tomorrow at 5am with Joe, maybe they can help me with some answers. Hopefully I’ll have some internet access there and be able to post a bit and respond. If not, I won’t complain about the break.

Mark 10 is one of the most amazing passages in the New Testament because it is so harsh, honest and barely understood let alone followed. We all know the story. It’s the story of the rich man who comes up to Jesus and asks him how he inherits eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments, and the rich man claims that he has always kept them since he was a boy. Jesus responds by telling him to go sell all his stuff, give it to the poor and come and follow him.

Eternal life in biblical context is not the afterlife or heave/hell language that so many of us think it is or we normally default to. Eternal life in the bible means a fulfilling life that surpasses any other kind of life; a life of the age so to speak. The rich man here isn’t asking how he’s going to get to heaven when he dies, he’s asking Jesus how he can have eternal life now. Jesus first response is something I think a lot of us use all the time. When someone first comes to know Christ, we as the church pile on all the things that they must do now to be a follower of Christ. We caution them not to swear, sleep around, drink, do drugs and make sure they go to church and weekly bible study. You know, the modern ten commandments.

Usually though, we stop there, if someone isn’t fulfilled or walks away from Christ its because they haven’t followed they close enough. Jesus though, instead of telling him to “really make sure” he’s following the ten commandments looks a bit deeper into his life and hits him where his heart is. He makes it hard and painful. He tells him to give away everything that he has saved up for himself, everything that gives him security and power and then gives him the simple solution of following Jesus. Then he will inherit eternal life; then he will know what it is like to live for the Kingdom.

I think the command from Jesus to give away all your stuff is so revolutionary that most of us think he’s not serious. We will think of a hundred different reasons of why Jesus didn’t really mean what he said, or he was actually trying to make a point, or it was only for rich men (which by the way, in our world, if you live in North America, you are most likely in the top 1-10% richest in the world, even at 10, 000 a year) or fill in your own excuse here. We are so comfortable with our stuff and our money that we have convinced ourselves it’s not a problem. It is exactly that mentality that the rich man must have had. It was exactly that mentality that Jesus was combating by telling him to get rid of all his stuff.

I truly believe that until we can honestly say to ourselves that our stuff means nothing to us and that we could give it away in a second that we will never truly understand what it means to have eternal life. I think most of us are called to live a lot simpler than we are right now. I think that we are so far from experiencing eternal life that we have made up our own climaxes and feel good feelings and we try to use those to replace what it will be really like to actually follow the words of Jesus.

Just a thought…what would happen if we chose to sell all our stuff and give it to the poor? Or how about what would happen if we just stopped buying things that we didn’t need. Like that 20th pair of shoes that we own, or the tenth pair of jeans, or the brand new car or the constant eating out. This is only the beginning of what Jesus actually commands to the rich man, but I have a feeling most of us can’t even do that. I have a feeling that most of us are so caught up in feeling good about ourselves by money and what it can do for us with our up-to-date clothing, fancy transportation and having whatever we want instantly that we probably think someone is going off the deep end now if they actually chose to live simple. So, I’m assuming you reading this, have like me, not sold all your stuff and given it to the poor. So my question is, why haven’t we?