Gold & Silver: Is This It?

Right on, Fredd. The primary difference between renting and buying a home is that the payments end when buying but not when renting. In the right circumstances it can pay to rent, such as when moving every 2-3 years for a job.

I also agree with Earle about cars. Years ago, lots of guys worked on their cars and kept them in pretty good condition. Cars could be tuned and worked on with simple tools. They didn't have 300 yards of rubber and plastic tubing under the hood for one thing. Now, you need some pretty specialized tools to do much of anything on a car. The good news is that the new cars don't generally need a lot of tuning or fiddling with. When they do need work, though, stand by to pull out your wallet, big-time! I guess this is progress.