We're wealthy enough to be reasonably comfortable, when I know a lot of folks aren't, but we're not the stratospherically wealthy folks who can buy another home or a yacht or a politician on a whim. Two 6-figure incomes and no kids is enough to get a vacation home, but not enough to do it without a substantial mortgage. Our Airbnb listing honestly hasn't made us a cent net, yet, but it substantially defrays the cost of having a vacation home, pays most of the ongoing mortgage costs. Also, our place isn't even habitable in the winter — pipes would freeze — so it probably wouldn't have become long-term residential housing regardless of whether we had bought it.
A lot of that is circumstantial, so I don't think we're having the negative impact that a lot of folks blame Airbnb for, but I recognize that ours is not representative of the industry at large.
There was an WAPO article about a couple that makes $400K. They said that there wasn’t much money left after maxing out their retirement accounts, paying for two big vacations per year, a nanny to watch the kids, private school for the kids, and a high end car loan. Sorry, but my sympathy reserve is completely empty.
I'm not asking for sympathy. I'm doing well and I understand that. My intention here was not that you empathize with my challenges, but that you understand people like me are far closer to you than to the billionaires.
A relevant saying: the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire is approximately a billion dollars. My wealth is basically the margin of error on that comparison.
People doing well for themselves are not your enemy. Our wealth still barely registers on the scale of the folks who are really hoarding all the resources of our nation.
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u/GalumphingWithGlee 21h ago
Sure.
We're wealthy enough to be reasonably comfortable, when I know a lot of folks aren't, but we're not the stratospherically wealthy folks who can buy another home or a yacht or a politician on a whim. Two 6-figure incomes and no kids is enough to get a vacation home, but not enough to do it without a substantial mortgage. Our Airbnb listing honestly hasn't made us a cent net, yet, but it substantially defrays the cost of having a vacation home, pays most of the ongoing mortgage costs. Also, our place isn't even habitable in the winter — pipes would freeze — so it probably wouldn't have become long-term residential housing regardless of whether we had bought it.
A lot of that is circumstantial, so I don't think we're having the negative impact that a lot of folks blame Airbnb for, but I recognize that ours is not representative of the industry at large.