Early retirement without home ownership

[Alphaville]

You should see my quirky antique rug collection! It's less toxic, more efficient, more visually interesting, and a far better investment.

please post up some photos, if you wouldn’t mind!

[zarathustra]

I gotta figure out how to attach photos. . .

[Flurry]

In Austria renting seems to be easier to me. I rent a apartment with a small garden (what I find luxurious) for 1050€/month together with my wife. Buying a similar apartment would cost around 400.000€ + fees up to 10%. We'd lose flexibility and become the bank's slaves. I like the idea more to purchase stocks until they yield enough dividend to pay the rent
In Vienna there's also a very good social housing system, if we reduce our working hours to move to a lower income bracket, we can apply for an apartment which is even cheaper.
Moving to a rural area gives us the opportunity to purchase a cheap house but we'd need to go from 0 to 1 or 2 cars which adds a lot of costs again and I really don't think it's worth the effort.

[ertyu]

The car issue is definitely a reason why I ultimately decided on settling in a city. A house in a rural area is cheaper than an apartment but it is also more expensive to maintain and carries with it all expenses associated with compulsory car ownership. In the end I decided that purchasing my produce and not having to deal with maintaining a roof and a septic system + avoiding car, fuel, car insurance more than makes up for the added cost of urban housing.

I have to admit that I gave in and I bought a place. There are definitely cons, but let's hope it all ends up alright.

[fireeu]

I am currently renting in Germany, and as soon as you have kids, it is really hard to get kicked out. Even if they want, it takes years. Many landlords also value long term relationships.

So depends on the country. If something breaks, landlord has to fix it. Germans even bring their own kitchen to rental apartments since many stay 10 years or longer.

I guess that's one advantage of FIREing in Germany.

My plan is still to own a place at some point. My wife is Canadian and we want to own a place where we can grow food and have animals there.

But that's maybe 10 years or more ahead. Currently living in a city, with 4 second hand stores close by, grocery shops, schools etc. No need to own a car or anything.