Feist’s ‘Mushaboom’ and renting vs buying a home

You know personal finance bloggers are taking over your life when…

You can’t listen to ‘Mushaboom’ by Feist anymore because of its homage to the cultural myth that renting is a tragedy and you have to own your house and two-car garage to be a Happy American.

When she sings:

…But in the meantime we’ve got it hard
Second floor living without a yard
It may be years until the day
My dreams will match up with my pay

She means:

It’s sad that I don’t make enough income to afford a yard and 2 floors to my house and can’t realize my dreams because of how hard I’ve got it with my employer / industry / government.

When she sings (in a wistful tone):

…I got a man to stick it out
And make a home from a rented house oh
And we’ll collect the moments one by one
I guess that’s how the future’s done oh

She means:

It takes a lot to make a home from a rented house, but it might not take so much to make a home from an owned (’real’) house. She’ll just focus on the little things and maybe one day in the future she won’t have to suffer like this anymore. At least she has a husband.

Then finally:

…How many acres, how much light
Tucked in the woods and out of sight
Talk to the neighbours and tip my cap
On a little road barely on the map… Well I’m Sold.

She means:

She’s going to have her an owned house (and a mortgage) even if it takes all she’s got, by god! A mortgaged place on a little road that’s barely on the map is still better than having to make a home of a rented house - she’s ‘Sold.’

Songs are fun, but cultural myths are myths -

They’re stories our culture tells us to explain some hard-to-explain thing, like why everyone doesn’t own a 2-story house with a yard and a big garage. They’re convenient, but they’re usually not completely truthful.

Here in the Bay Area, for example, our rents are exorbitant, but the mortgages are even more mind-boggling and out of reach. For many people and families, it probably won’t ever be a good idea to shoulder loads of debt, taking on multiple mortgages, jobs and other sacrifices just so they can be members of the so-called ownership society. Is this the fault of inflated Bay Area real estate or the yuppies that are ‘gentrifying’ the region (as well as bringing jobs and wealth to lower-paid sectors)? Maybe in part.

But, what’s the point of shaking your fist at the sky?

With money questions, as with job-seeking, personal entrepreneurship, marketing yourself or your company, there’s no point in wasting time shaking fists because you didn’t get what you thought you were entitled to. What if, instead, we thought about the many cultural myths we’re all working with? Yes, perhaps it’s sad that you have kids and you’re still renting, or that you won’t be able to buy a house in your city for many years, but… why is it sad? Is home ownership the cornerstone of a family? Or, do the people have something to do with it?

When we take time off to examine the myths for what they are, the tragedies of us not getting what we ’should have’ don’t seem so bad after all.

This applies to lots of things. Did you graduate from college expecting a dream job in your dream industry (because that’s what you thought should happen to bright 22 year olds), but didn’t get the job? Did you create a product that you thought was so great it should have sold itself, without marketing, but didn’t make your sales goals? Did you take a job and start a life in an expensive city, thinking that you should be able to own your home, just like George W. said, but can’t afford one?

We all have personal expectations and desires, and we all go through delusions of entitlement sometimes too. When you add unattainable cultural myths to the equation, you get the kind of dissatisfaction and melancholy that’s perfect for alt-folk singer-songwriters but sucks for the rest of us.

[Personal expectations, desires] + [cultural myths] + [sense of entitlement] + [practical limitations] = :(

–

Notes:

In this Erica.biz post, Erica writes a great analysis of buying vs. renting and why she’s happy to make her home from a (lovely) rented house.

You should only buy a house if it makes financial sense - not just for emotional / cultural reasons. To this point, Ramit presents an excellent excerpt from his book I Will Teach You To Be Rich, along with links to a bunch of articles and blog posts.

I still like Feist. Her video for this song is super fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDZwThM7vAg

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