Wedding vs. Marriage
Plus, buying a home vs. owning it
Ric Edelman: It's Monday, December 9th. I want to mention two words to you, and I want you to tell me if these are synonyms or not. Wedding. Marriage. You know, this is a fundamental problem that I find with a lot of young couples. They tend to be more focused on the wedding than the marriage. Two very different things, aren't they?
The wedding is the celebration that creates the union. Legal, religious, and otherwise. The marriage is something that lasts a lifetime. The wedding, if you really think about it, is nothing but a four-hour party. And yet people spend tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars on that four-hour party.
And all the surveys tell us the same thing. Ask a bride which would she rather do? Spend $100,000 on a wedding or $100,000 as a down payment on a house? Brides, big majority of them say they'll choose the wedding, but ask wives and wives say they'd rather spend the money on the house. I think we all understand the emotional basis for all of this.
Let me give you a related question regarding buying a house. You thinking about buying one? You excited about buying one? I haven't met anybody who's looking for a new house. who isn't excited about the idea. But here's the thing. A lot of these folks are excited about buying a new home. They're not really thinking so much about living in it. Meaning, they focus on the costs of buying it. The down payment, the closing costs, moving expenses.
They don't think so much about the costs of owning that home. I'm just going to give you one example that has cropped up recently in a new study that puts this to point. 30% percent of all the houses in this country are in communities that are HOAs, homeowner associations, or condominium boards, or community associations, or cooperatives, known as co-ops. These organizations run the community. They handle the common expenses, such as snowplow removal for streets in many cases, or for the landscaping, or the lighting, the signage entering the community, the local pool and other community gathering places. They assess dues for all this. And when you buy that house in that community or that apartment in that building, you're not only legally required to make your mortgage payment, you're legally required to pay these dues that the organizations assess.
So, 76 million people are covered by all of this. And those dues have been rising faster than the rate of inflation. In fact, in some places around this country, dues that these organizations charge have doubled in just the past year. Condo association dues nationally are up 6% this year. And some places, a lot worse. In Florida, a lot of cities up 15%. New York co-ops, 27% increases.
You know, your mortgage might be fixed, but your insurance costs are not fixed. Your property taxes are not fixed. Your maintenance repair expenses are unknown and can be high. And these dues are not fixed either. If you're looking to buy a home, you have to ask yourself, can I afford to live in it for the next ten years? Just as though when you're getting married, it's not a question of can I afford the wedding? It's, am I going to enjoy the marriage?
Hey, today at 2:00pm (EST), I want to see you at the webinar. I'm hosting “What the Election Results Mean for Crypto”. All the rage these days, understandably, up 150% this year, 50% simply since Donald Trump was elected president.
I'm going to show you, along with Steve Kurz, the Global Head of Asset Management at Galaxy, the right crypto allocation and the investment options to consider. There's a lot more than just Bitcoin and Ethereum. Whether you should buy the new ETFs or buy these coins directly. Should you choose active or passive strategies?
It's a free event. One CE credit if you're an advisor. It's today at 2:00pm (EST) and the link is in the show notes.
And tomorrow at 2:00pm (EST), “The Retirement Revolution: ETF Solutions for Modern Retirement Planning”. We're going to share with you ETF solutions for modern retirement planning. So, join me for this important conversation with Andrew Nelson. He's the Director of Product Strategy at Innovator ETFs.
We're going to show you the 2025 market outlook, the new risks when investing for retirement, and some really interesting strategies for helping you manage retirement risk. That's tomorrow at 2:00pm (EST). It's free with one CE credit. The link for that one is also in the show notes. Looking forward to seeing you today and tomorrow too.
If you like what you're hearing, be sure to follow and subscribe to the show, wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and remember leave a review on Apple podcasts. I read them all. Never miss an episode of The Truth About Your Future. Follow and subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
I'll see you tomorrow.
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Links from today’s show:
Today's Webinar - What the Election Results Mean for Crypto: https://dacfp.com/events/what-the-election-results-mean-for-crypto
Tomorrow's Webinar - The Retirement Revolution: ETF Solutions for Modern Retirement Planning: https://www.thetayf.com/pages/the-retirement-revolution-etf-solutions-for-modern-retirement-planning
2/24-2/26 Wealth Management Convergence-2025 https://www.thetayf.com/pages/convergence-2025
11/13 Webinar Replay - An Innovative Way to Generate Income in a World of Declining Rates: https://www.thetayf.com/pages/november-13-2024-an-innovative-way-to-generate-income
10/9 Webinar Replay - Crypto for RIAs: Yield, Staking, Lending and Custody. What’s beyond the ETFs? https://dacfp.com/events/crypto-for-rias-yield-staking-lending-and-custody-whats-beyond-the-etfs/
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