In the mail today, this missive from Fidelity:
A plan to live well now, and in retirement.
Hi Robert,Whether you’re saving for retirement, buying your forever home, or changing jobs, a financial plan will help you live the life you want today, and in retirement. You’ll have the confidence to do the things you want to—without worrying if you can afford to.Our version of financial planning starts with you, your life, and your priorities. Then using a range of financial options, we’ll tailor your plan to fit your goals. And because your plan is based on your priorities, no two plans are alike.Sound good? Let’s make the perfect plan for you.
In addition to being a bunch of vague gobbledygook and corporate happy talk (which seems to be all I ever get out of "financial advisors"), the phrase "forever home" jumped out at me.
This is a phrase I've noticed only in recent years. When I grew up, my parents never talked about a "forever home: nor did we ever read about it in the paper or hear about it on television. In short, such a concept didn't exist. Somewhere along the line, someone decided to promote this term, I guess to present the idea that a home is some great investment that you'll have forever. But such is not the case.
So far in my life I've owned four houses that were primary residences, along with four investment properties. The longest I've owned a house is maybe 18 years or so. The shortest, perhaps 3 years. I've lived and held drivers licenses and voted in New York, Michigan, Connecticut, Virginia, Florida, and now Georgia. Some places I rented, other places, I owned homes.
None were a forever home, and I submit that the only real forever home that you'll ever have would be a coffin.
Mobility of the workforce is key to our modern society. And perhaps that's why this phrase didn't exist back in the 1950s and 1960s, when people moved with regularity from city to city to chase after jobs.. My parents moved regularly, even overseas, during their marriage. They stayed in one place and average of maybe 5 to 6 years or so. The longest they ever stayed in one place was in New York for 18 years.
As I noted before, this was quite common, particularly for white-collar workers, back in the 1950s through the 1970s. In the suburbs I grew up with, the moving van was a common sight. As a kid, there are always new neighbors to meet. When we saw the moving van roll up, we ran over to see whether there was anyone our age to play with. That was the norm growing up back then.
It may be less of a norm today. I hear complaints online from people who talk about losing a job and the idea of moving to another place to find a job seems alien to them. They believe a job should be brought to them. It's an interesting inversion of our social and work expectations.
But even if you stay in your hometown, the idea that you will own a home forever is probably flawed. You may move to a larger house if you decide to have children. You may decide to downsize as you get older. And eventually you may move into assisted living or retirement community once you get tired of taking care of a house.
These are not bad things, either. Change is good for your psyche and a good way of fending off depression. It also can be a great opportunity to sell the family home and cash out, particularly when you get older.
The "forever home" concept plays to the idea that owning a home is somehow the American dream. The American dream is to succeed in life based on your own abilities and skills and on your own merits. The American dream is not granite countertops or wall screen televisions. We've kind of bastardized the American dream lately by equating success with home ownership.
This plays into the other lament of the younger generation, that the price of houses is so high today that they'll never be able to afford one, and they will be priced out of the American dream. Again, we're in the middle of a real estate bubble, so it's probably a good idea not to buy a house right about now. People buying houses today at crazy prices may find themselves in a world of woe a year from now once interest rates go up one or two percent. Mortgage rates are already topping 5% and they were under 3% just a couple of years ago. Some folks may find themselves "upside down" in short order. It is 1989 and 2009 all over again.
But the main point of this posting is how these phrases and words enter the lexicon. We don't talk about "houses" but "homes" - because "house" sounds so cold and clinical and "home" sounds, well, homey. It speaks of baking apple pies and old labrador dogs snoozing by the warm fireplace. It is a high-index word.
"Forever Home" is doubly so - and some marketing jerk, in some conference room somewhere, came up with the term. It has gotten legs - real estate promoters love to use it as a smokescreen to encourage people to buy. It is also used in pet adoption to describe a home for an adopted pet, interestingly enough.
I find the use of "forever home" in terms of pet adoption going back to 2010 or thereabouts. The first use of "forever home" for housing that I can find was back in 2013. But only recently has it gotten legs in the real estate industry.
A home, like a car, or a cell phone or a computer or even your own body, is not "forever" and I guess seeing a bulldozer go through one of my "homes" drove that point home to me, if you'll pardon the pun.
Don't be snookered by the real estate industry. There is no such thing as a "forever home" - just a place to live, which could be a house you own, a rental or a trailer or whatever. Odds are, you will move on average every 5-6 years as my parents did (that was the number they bandied about when Mark was an real estate agent). Thinking your home is "forever" will just get in the way of your mobility and decision-making when the time comes to move.
