Although we now know the metaphor is flawed, I don’t have a better one: people are like goldfish*: their spending increases to match their income. You make $100,000/y and buy a $300,000 house with a mortgage. The average person who makes $1,000,000 isn’t going to buy a $300,000; they buy a $3,000,000 and still need a mortgage. If they make $30,000,000, they’ll still take a mortgage because they also want to buy that G500 Gulfstream and a megayacht.
Maybe when you get into the billionaire range, they’re just paying cash. But the “just slightly” folks aren’t paying cash; they’re buying more expensive houses.
A paid-off house is just a house someone’s lived in, continuously, for 30 years.
Even rich people don’t do that.
Although we now know the metaphor is flawed, I don’t have a better one: people are like goldfish*: their spending increases to match their income. You make $100,000/y and buy a $300,000 house with a mortgage. The average person who makes $1,000,000 isn’t going to buy a $300,000; they buy a $3,000,000 and still need a mortgage. If they make $30,000,000, they’ll still take a mortgage because they also want to buy that G500 Gulfstream and a megayacht.
Maybe when you get into the billionaire range, they’re just paying cash. But the “just slightly” folks aren’t paying cash; they’re buying more expensive houses.
A paid-off house is just a house someone’s lived in, continuously, for 30 years.
Good point, but misses the brief. We’re talking normal people who are doing well, not mega yacht rich.