Member-only story

Why I Rent (And You Should, Too)

Celebrating the freedom that only comes from renting.

Angus Peterson
12 min readDec 24, 2019

--

Last updated: January 12, 2022

“For Sale” and “For Rent” sign next to each other, juxtaposing the traditional housing options.
Image courtesy of Abodo.

In one of my previous articles, When a $100,000 Salary Isn’t Enough, I outlined my personal expenses and showed how that a six-figure income just isn’t cutting it, especially with a second baby on the way.

One of the main expenses in that article was housing. I spend just over $16,000 on rent or 14.3% of my income. That’s less than half of the suggested maximum for rent.

I was adamant that we were not going to buy anytime soon, and that renting is better than buying for the vast majority of people. This article goes into the nuts and bolts of that statement, describing the benefits of renting in four main areas.

  1. Money
  2. Time
  3. Stress
  4. Environmental Impact

Money

The standard arguments against renting follow the lines of “you’re just throwing your money away” or “you’re paying someone else’s debt”. On the surface that may ring true, but if you look just a little deeper, those arguments don’t hold any water.

The main financial benefit of renting is that there is a cap to your housing expenses, at least for the term of…

--

--

Angus Peterson
Angus Peterson

Written by Angus Peterson

Becoming collapse aware in the age of the permanent polycrisis. Follow to get all the new stories: https://anguspeterson.medium.com/subscribe

Responses (40)