Ok, I took the bait. This is what I really think
So a friend sent me a photo of a billboard at Roma St station in Brisbane because he knew it would get a rise out of me.
It’s this one, from Suncorp.
He was right. This really gets the blood boiling under my goat, I can tell you that. I can barely mash a metaphor together.
What is it about this ad?
It seems innocent enough. It’s just being a bit cheeky about how much we love the great Australian Dream: owning your own home.
But what are they saying here? Don’t use your head when you choose your home? Just use your heart.
Really? That’s the advice we’re getting? From a bank?
Buying a home should be all about the love?
I would of thought the bank would be more concerned with your servicing capacity, but no, they want to know if you love your house enough.
They want you to run towards your dream home, like Tom Hanks running towards Meg Ryan in some 80s Rom-Com, soaked in rain and yelling, “To hell with the consequences, Sandra. I love you!”
Run towards your dream home, and don’t let all those so-called “smart” people with their so-called “facts” and so-called “calculations about how much debt you can reasonably carry” get in the way of what your heart knows is true.
Jump on the back of your dream-home’s motorbike and speed off into the distance, as your parents come running out of the house saying, “Stop, Tiffany! This is crazy. You’re making a mistake!”
That’s how you should buy your first home. Throw caution to the wind, roll the dice, and act on nothing but on pure emotion.
Your head shouldn’t even come into it. Leave that to us.
(Our head is already very well wrapped around how much profit will make over the life of your vanity-loan, thank you very much.)
It just makes me so angry.
I actually cannot imagine worse advice to give a young couple starting out in life – or anyone at any stage of life come to think of it.
Yes, it’s great if you love your home and love where you live. That’s awesome.
But I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who have dug themselves into a hole because they bought their ‘dream home’.
They followed their heart. They didn’t listen to their head. And as a result they tied up way too much capital in the home, and committed themselves to such a heavy servicing burden, that they had nothing left at the end of the month to put towards assets that would actually build their wealth.
They dug themselves a hole and then cut their own hamstrings with a knife.
They got the dream home, but committed themselves to a decade of going nowhere financially.
(A decade is expensive. You know how much money I’ve made since 2009?)
And they’ve made themselves painfully dependent on their jobs. They end up terrified of taking risks, because they’ve got a massive mortgage to pay and if things go wrong they’ll go under very, very quickly.
All up it’s a very expensive price to pay for a single night of passion.
But the banks don’t want you to know this. They just want you to take on as much debt as is humanly possible in the short run (even if it’s not humanly possible in the long run.)
This is how they make their money.
Your head has to be alive, awake and front and centre in any property purchase you make.
Don’t let some bank tell you any different.
D