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It can be nice to own things and know that no matter what, that thing is yours. However, sometimes owning things isn’t the best thing for you. There are a number of reasons why you might want to rent something rather than buy it outright. Here are a few things that you can rent instead of buying. It all depends on you and your life at the time. Things change all the time, but you have to be prepared and ready for it. Also, you should be accepting of the changes as well as how to be deal with them.
Homes
The housing market has skyrocketed, and homes that were once worth very little are now barely within reach for first-time buyers. This is where renting comes into play. You can rent a house a fraction of buying, but the only problem is that your money then isn’t going towards a mortgage and future ownership. The benefit of renting though is the flexibility and short-term savings.You won’t want to rent forever, but you might be at a part of your life where you want to live freer. Perhaps renting allows you to live with your friends and enjoy a property in a city center where buying is almost impossible. Either way, the option is available to you and the choice to rent rather than own won’t be going away anytime soon.
Cars
Most people wouldn’t even consider renting a car. Instead, they would buy one. You don’t have to, though. If you don’t need a car for everyday use or a long period, then you can just rent one. There is a lot of choices as well with things like classic, exotic and wedding car hire available. If you are going abroad and you want to drive around, then renting a car is by far the better option. At home, though you might want to own one outright, there is also the option of leasing a car. This works out cheaper for high-end expensive models of car and can be an amazing experience whether you do it permanently or full time. Leasing rather than buying also means that you have fewer responsibilities for the car so that it can free up time and energy.
Entertainment
There are so many reasons not buy you entertainment outright. Firstly, it can be a major drain on your space. While DVD rental services like Blockbuster may have gone the way of the dodo, it doesn’t mean that rentals have disappeared. You can rent movies from various services through the internet or stream them via somewhere like Amazon. This way you can access all the latest releases. However, if you aren’t that bothered about seeing the latest movies, services like Netflix have a massive catalog of films and TV shows. They take up no space in your house and yet contain 1000 of hours of watching pleasure. The only thing that you own is a service subscription and none of the content. However, you can watch as much or little as you please for a very low fee and new content is added almost every day. There are also several of these services, so competition is high which pushes services to innovate and provide higher quality content than their competitors.
These are all major parts of our lives, so make your decisions as wisely as possible. And don’t be afraid to change course along the way. Life is a long journey!
6 comments
I’ve never thought about how renting might be better than buying. I think it makes sense, though. There are some things that are more trouble than they’re worth to own.
We have been renting our home(s) for the past 8 years. You’re right, our money isn’t going towards something but it has given us the opportunity to shop around for our best investment and for a home we want to call ours forever. Plus helped us save up for a down payment!
I am with you on these one day I would love to own my own home. Renting sometimes feels a little bit like dead money.
Because of my health issues, I can’t drive on a regular basis so I do rent cars. It works really well for me and I definitely save money.
Although I own my own home I would much rather rent. I don’t want to be responsible for fixing things when they break. We are a Netflix family and I so feel you on that one.
I guess an argument can be made both ways for these items. For instance, I had my previous car for 14 years and it was 17 years old. I don’t buy a new just because so owning is better for me.