Many people don't have enough money to replace their roof and go on a trip in the same period.

Replacing our roof last year was 40.000USD, (250.000DKK). While we able to pay it off faster, it’s basically a 14 year bank loan. Not everyone, depending on country and salary, is able to get those loans at reasonable rate, but you’ll still need a new roof. That means saving like crazy and holidays get expensive pretty fast, and isn’t something you REALLY need, making it a place to save money.

Try saving to much on home maintenance and you risk damaging your property, lowering it’s value in the future. Owning a home is expensive, it’s still a sound finacial choice, depending on country and so on, but it has a running cost.

Having a home is definitely expensive, but in my mind it also comes down to manage money.

When you get your pay, put aside money first and save for dedicated budgets.

Decide what budget you think is required in each slot.

Example: I want a house saving for min $30000 for unexpected and expected maintenance.

I want a minimum of $8000 for vacations.

Etc

Then, save as much as you can into those accounts until you reach their goal and then keep saving into them, but maybe lower the amount.

In the beginning (and if your out in time, this will be while you're DINKing) it might be rough, but it will be easier as your buffers stabilize.

When fixing the house, don't steal money from your travel buffer. And absolutely never take money from house buffer for travels. :-)

I think a lot of people spend way to much on luxury, like eating out or having three movie streaming services instead of none or one. And then they realize that "oops, no money left for savings this month neither"

Survival, savings, higher standard, then luxury, not the other way around.

40000USD!? Must be one hell of a roof. Where I live it’s less than a quarter of that unless you live in a McMansion.

It’s Denmark, and that was actually the cheapest offer. Half the cost is labour, but we opted for the cheaper cemet tiles, the alternative would have been clay tiles, like bricks, but for the roof.

It’s honestly a pretty good deal. Oh and we have a 25% VAT on everything, so your price is basically just what I have to pay in VAT.

But even when renting the roof still needs to be replaced. Owner pays for it, but it is financed from rent money.

Sure but the point is that you always pay the monthly rent no matter what instead of having to pay 40k one month because of the roof. Also, in some places, it’s actually cheaper to rent because properties are overvalued.

I don’t know how it works around the world, but maintenance of the property is normally factored into the rent. Large maintenance work won’t affect your rent so your expences are more predictable.

expenses are predictable, which may lower the stress level, which is the main part of the parent comment. However owners want to make money using the property, so rent is overall higher then the cost of owning the property including roof replacements.

The problem many home buyers face is that it has become normal to go deeply into debt to buy and maintain a house, so it is not like they pay rent into their own house ownership account which slowly accumulates reserves for costly maintenance. A house costs twice as much as its sale price and if one has to go into dept to buy it in the first place, one is not middle class.

Back in Boomer-Days a middle class worker could buy and maintain a house, provide for a family with multiple children, pay for their education and still have money left to go on vacation. Today two working parents can't do the same, instead children go into debt to finance their education and fathers live in their cars in googles parking lot.

Why do roofs need replacement? Cant they make more durable roofs? Is it the rain? (Never had to deal with such problems so have no idea)

Oh, you can, but it grows expensive fast.

Around here (Norway) a lot of houses have shingles on the roof - typical lifespan ~20 years or so. On the upside, it is simple to replace.

Next step up being corrugated steel, though mostly it is shaped to look like tile. IIRC you can expect to get 30-40 years out of one.

Proper tile - lifespan depends greatly on the quality of the tile, but around here (west coast, lots of crap weather) the limiting factor tends to be the nails used to hold the tiles in place.

Anecdotally, my father in law and I redid a slate roof last laid in 1917 last year. The nails had all but rusted away, and only the sheer mass of the slates held them in place. We redid it using marine grade stainless screws, part of me is a little peeved that I won't ever know how long it lasts - but I fully expect it to last way more than 100 years. Was fun to etch a couple of small plaques for my far-off descendants to read, though. We put them under the first couple of slates you'd need to remove when redoing the roof. :-)

Sure, you can get a roof that last for 120 - 150 years, but the cost means that many opted for cheaper solutions. My house was built with an asbestos roof, those last forever, almost. If a tile broke I would get asbestos particles in my yard.

I've lived in houses which were close to 100 years old(British terraced houses from the 1930s) and the idea of having to replace the roof is.....a bit weird. Sure they need repairs, an odd tile replaced here and there, but....replacing the whole thing? I can't think of any reason why you'd need to do that.

My parents replaced the roof on their 150-year-old slate-roofed house, as did several other people on the street.

A house that old will often have developed a few minor leaks in its lifetime. It's been subject to a lot of weathering. Probably it was put in without any felt underneath, as was normal at the time. Maybe the nails have weakened from rust. Many lofts are a bit damp, due to condensation as the roof is of course cold. So often the battens holding the slates will be a bit tired as well.

You spend a few years with strategically placed plastic tubs catching drips, then a once-a-decade storm comes along, you lose several slates at once, and it's time for a new roof.

Asphalt shingles. They degrade over time and can’t be replaced piecemeal. They’re cheap and easy to lay down. I think the original idea behind them was that the home owners could DIY cheaply every 10-15 years but both houses and people have moved away from that being considered an option. If you have a low pitch roof without a lot of valleys it’s still easy to do though.

Where I live, there is extreme weather like hurricanes or tornadoes. Even if you opt for a more expensive roof, the wind might come along and wreck it. Most people I know have shingles, and they wear down in the elements after 20 years or so. You might start getting leaks or you might not, but once your roof reaches a certain age you can expect to start seeing problems. Kinda like a car.

If your plumbing or roof fails and you aren't there to deal with it immediately, the bill is pretty steep (once the weather / water gets inside the house).