Home Ownership? No Thanks!

One of my previous entries into this blog stated that at some point towards the end of this year I would have, or would be in a position to buy a house. That very nearly happened a couple of weeks ago. A company running a new development near where I live were advertising free legal fees and your five percent deposit paid; basically it is a marketing ploy to get you to buy in the area and I was nearly caught. I viewed one of the apartments and even spoke to their financial advisor about arranging a mortgage, and then something inside me told me to cut this ‘opportunity’ loose.
A lot of people, when they have tough decisions to make draw up lists stating the pros and the con’s of whatever that decision is. In the case of buying this apartment (posh word for a flat in my book) the con’s seriously outweighed the pro’s; too expensive for what it is and where it is situated, lack of secure parking for the bike, interest rates on the up and the flat already being at the limit of my affordability etc etc etc. The only pro that I could think of was that it would be a place to call my own, but in fact even that was not true as it would belong to the bank for around thirty years and even then I would only own a box on someone else’s land! (The joys of leasehold) It is strange to think that a lot of ordinary folk in this country have been brainwashed into thinking that it is acceptable to be in debt to the tune of over A HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS or more, for something that in many cases is nothing more than a shoe box. Those of you that owe this kind of money, or more even, should just say the amount out loud. It’s frightening, and this isn’t even the amount you owe, as after interest has been added it comes out at a lot more!
I think that in this country we have become hung up on the idea of owning our own property. People see their houses as ways of making a fast buck rather than as a place to live. When I tell people that I live in a rented flat it is almost as if I am saying to them
‘Hi, my name is Pete and I am a second class citizen.’
‘What, you don’t even own your own home?’
‘No, but Barclays owns yours and at least I am not tied to a Mortgage’
A guy in the place where I work blames the current situation on Thatcher. Of course it is not hard to find anyone in the north-west willing to blame Thatcher for any of society’s current problems; however he does have a good point. That point is that in the eighties her government came up with a great plan for everyone in Britain to be able to afford their own home. A grand plan you may think, and very bold until you look at the main problem that blighted that Tory government; that is strikes. People sticking together to support their colleagues and create better working environments etc. If you live in a council house or private rented accommodation it is very difficult to boot you out for non payment of rent (which you don’t have the money for as you are on strike). If you ‘own’ your own home though and do not pay the mortgage then the banks will have you out and your house sold as quick as a flash. Weather this is right or wrong you would have to see that there is a point there.
Of course this could just be me being bitter at being priced out of the housing market by situations beyond my control, but in the meanwhile I am totally debt free and all the things I own belong to me and not the credit card people or some other financial institution and I have to say I have never been happier.
In conclusion then, what I thought I wanted was my own place, but what that would mean is a lifetime of debt, and debt is the one thing that I have spent the last 15 years trying to get out of. Therefore my previous entry stating that I would like to own a house can be scratched from the record until the prices in this country drop to a real, honest and fair level.

Time to Ponder

It took me nearly two hours to get to Manchester yesterday morning. This is unusual as it normally takes me no more than an hour and a half! That means that I travel the 38 miles to work at an average of around 25 MPH, and nearly all of that is along motorway. Stop, start, stop, start. Naturally when you spend this amount of time sat in a car every day you get to thinking a lot, and yesterday I thought about how much of my life I have wasted sat in traffic just going to work. It is frightening. If on average I have to go to the office twice a week (although sometimes it is more) then in seven years at this place I have sat in traffic for 91 days, or 3 months, or a quarter of a year!!!
So it is at junctures in life like this that I wonder why I bother working hard and wasting so much of my life simply to live in a rented place and scrape a living. Don’t get me wrong, I earn a decent wage, but at the end of the month I am still struggling to last till pay day. I wonder why I bother sometimes when friends of mine cruise through life and seem no worse off than me! I suppose it comes down to pride in the end. At least I can hold my head up high and say I have worked for the things I have in life. But am I confusing pride with stupidity? Who is right and who is wrong? Me for wasting months of my life sat in a stupid car going nowhere but holding my head high and saying at least I have worked for what I have, or my mate for screwing the system and still having as much as me?

The Wannabe Traveller.

A few weeks ago I went to the local Hein Gericke store for an evening event featuring Nick Sanders. Nick holds the record for travelling round the world solo on a motorbike, just short of twenty days on an R1. I suppose you would call him a modern day adventurer. He has travelled round the world on numerous occasions both by cycle and motorcycle. He was giving a presentation about his life as an adventurer and I have to say it was fascinating. My earlier rant about being sat in traffic for so long go me thinking about the type of person I actually am. Deep I know, but like I said, you get a lot of time to think when you are sat in traffic. I came to the conclusion that I am the kind of person that moans about stuff rather than doing something about it? What’s happened? Have I taken a turn somewhere in life that has lead me into some kind of comfort zone? Why do I moan about the things in life that do not matter rather than actually doing something about changing them? In front of me at the presentation was a man who was not willing to do that, not willing to put up with the mundane things in life and all the shit that goes with it. Here was a man that dared to be different and dared to actually live his life and do something different. How many people do any of us know personally that have ever or will ever have the balls to do that?
An example of how he got started in the game was quite funny. For his first trip round the world by push bike in the early eighties he wanted to mark the occasion by doing something special. As he was basically a nobody at the time he called the Daily Telegraph newspaper and said that the Nolan Sisters would be waving him off and that they should come and do an article about his adventure; then he rang the Nolan Sisters agent and said that the Telegraph were coming to do an article on his adventure and would they like to come and wave him off? Free publicity and all that. I suppose your mind has to work a certain way to pull something like that off, but it worked and he got his send off printed in the nationals.
I am not putting myself in the same category as this guy, but part of doing the kind of thing he does must be having an iron will to do it, and as time go by and the hours, days and months sat in a car rack up, my will to do something different with my life increases to the point that something is going to give and I will have to do that one big crazy thing in my life and just fuck it all off and go out and start living MY life for ME. After all, maybe, you only get one. Until then though and in the meantime I will have to content myself with fulfilling my ambitions through reading the travel tales of the likes of Nick, Ted Simon and Mondo Enduro as well as the real world people on the road now having their own adventures and updating their blogs on the Horizons Unlimited web site.