Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of subscription startups

Re:Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of sub... by TeMPOraL on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @04:20AM (#20153739)

As a regular middle-class person, how do you put $1950 in stock to make more than $400 in 5 years risk-free and time/effort-free?

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Re:Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of sub... by vonseel on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @06:22AM (#20154197)

Apparently, you buy Apple, Tesla, or Netflix, and get lucky because you chose to invest during a wild expansion like we’ve seen since the early 2010s.

I’m not sure what you do when you’re in a down market. Last time I lost a lot of money because I was dumb.

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Re:Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of sub... by Barrin92 on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @04:34AM (#20153788)

index funds, they've averaged about 7-8% over the last 20 years and cost you basically nothing.

mind you renting your toothbrush probably isn't worth it, but if you're thinking about spending thousands of dollars and compare that to the compound interest you earn in a passive fund over a few years, you'd be surprised how much you lose out on.

In fact that's one of the drivers between middle class and upper class inequality. The upper class invests primarily in capital.

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Re:Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of sub... by dagw on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @05:03AM (#20153874)

compare that to the compound interest you earn in a passive fund over a few years

So I did. Remember you've still got pay the $50/month out of that savings. Even with 7% guaranteed annual interest on your initial investment you're still losing money after month 46 with renting at $50/month compared to paying $2000 up front.

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Re:Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of sub... by jbarberu on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @09:04AM (#20155008)

If the company renting out the couch didn't come out on top, they'd just put their money in index funds instead of buying inventory...

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Re:Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of sub... by Dylan16807 on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @05:12AM (#20153901)

$1950 invested and pulling out $50 every month. If you get 10% interest, at the end of four years you have... negative thirty dollars.

And you still don't own the couch.

$50 a month for a $2000 couch is equivalent to a debt at 26%. You can't overcome that with investment. It only makes sense if you're planning to throw it away very soon.

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Re:Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of sub... by avgDev on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @10:10AM (#20155530)

I was under the impression that putting money in stock market is basically gambling and you should be ready to lose that money.

Putting money in a property especially if you can do your own upgrades can really pay off. Example, bought a house for $280k,I invested about $50k, its worth about $400k now.

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Re:Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of sub... by esoterica on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @11:21AM (#20156208)

Putting money into real estate is also gambling. Remember 2008?

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Re:Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of sub... by avgDev on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @01:54PM (#20157785)

It is a lot less risky.

Yeah 2008 happened, however, the prices at least in my area are back to 2007 levels. Short term real estate can be risky but long term it is a relatively safe investment.

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Re:Owning nothing is now a luxury, thanks to a number of sub... by esoterica on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @02:35PM (#20158222)

The stock market has historically been very safe in the long term while risky in the short term as well.

Edit: As long as you are diversified and not putting all your money into meme stocks, of course

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