I hear it over and over again …

• Each time you pay your landlord, you’re just making him rich / paying off his mortgage
• You only have so much time in this world, why aren’t you taking advantage of it today rather then putting off for tomorrow
• By not acting now, you’re just taking the default course rather then a better course
• Look at all the gains of people you know who have bought a house in the country, raised a family and our now sending their kids to college
• What good is all the money you save if you’re not willing to spend it

But those people are not me. It’s not that I don’t eventually want to own my own land nor are not banks super willing to lend me money or real estate agents willing to take my money, but ultimately I am not ready to settle down nor permanently declare New York State my home.

I am convinced that there are far more benefits to renting a small run down apartment than buying a house. I am free to travel, I can ride my bike to work. I don’t have to mow the lawn or maintain a building. I don’t have animals to feed, land and building to tend to.

The truth is that if I would buy or build a house, there is a good chance the New York State would be the state I die in without exploring much of the world or living in a community I care about. It seems vein to put so much money into something you don’t care about or have much of a reason to maintain. New York may be where I get my mail delivered to but I’ve never considered it to be my home.

And it’s not like I’m going to be able to find any place anywhere within reasonable commuting distance like the places I spend my weekends traveling and camping in. Nearly everything is built up around Albany, you really have to travel a good distance to get away. The kind of trips good for a vacation or a weekend trip but just too far for regular commutes.

People say you’ll have regrets if you don’t do it while you are young. My reply back is you have no regrets when you are dead. Either you get a chance to do it or you get hit by a city bus and you don’t but in the end it’s all the same.