Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Agemegos
In fact, these assets significantly offset costs of living. My $340,000 house and $36,000 car allow me to live a comfortable lifestyle without paying rent or meeting car repayments. I'm pretty sure that my standing in society is not lowered by the fact that everything is paid off. GURPS's attempts to squeeze all the material requirements of maintain status into current and its exclusion of productive investments from wealth just don't work.
|
Sure it does. You're using the wrong advantage.
Suppose you had to move to another city for work—but you decided to keep the house and rent it out. Even after expenses (property taxes, plus hiring a property management firm, plus insurance) you'd have a significant income stream from it. In GURPS terms, this is Independent Income. You could use it to pay part of your living expenses—for example, to pay your rent on a house or apartment in the new city. Note that Independent Income specifies that you intend to maintain the income source as a productive investment, rather than cashing it in.
Now, if you yourself are living in the house, then it frees up the part of your earnings that you would otherwise spend on rent to be spent on other stuff. So, in effect, it's still producing Independent Income. It doesn't appear directly as cash, but the rental value of the house acts as a kind of virtual wealth that displaces your cash flow into other channels, raising your standard of living in tthe process.
Bill Stoddard