Hi @chekohler,
(You better light a bowl. Lol!)
Thought I should chime in too, since I live in Canada and am about a 2 hour (by auto) drive east of TO.
I’m 47.
Bought my first house when I was 19.
That was in 1991 and the interest rates were high. 18, 19 % high. I bought that house for $50,000 and it was 150 years old, then. Yeah, it was a “fixer upper”. Sold and repeated that process 3 times so far...but the most recent time (which was 4 years ago) instead of buying “up” which is what the bank and all my colleagues recommended, I bought “down”.

Approved for 1 million and spent $150,000 because I have paid those high interest rates in 1991. (I also saw what happened in 2008 and it’s about to happen again, but this time in Europe.)

Over time, media exposure convinces you that you’ll be happier “if” you acquire XYZ and it also convinces you to measure your worth, your success, your productivity, and your personal goals against what you are shown and told, other people are doing or achieving.

The XYZ things are called the trappings of life for a reason...read: whatever the golden carrot is, it’s an enslavement trap.

Why the hell do I need a 4,000 square foot monster of a house with 4 bathrooms, 2 kitchens and room for 3 cars in a garage?

Just because I can, wasn’t a good enough reason for me to sell my soul to compounding interest.

And now...and now negative interest rates? (Pardon my French but tabernack!!! Lol!)

My current house is 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen and 850 square feet. There’s 2 people in my household...

In my humble opinion, China now owns the USA and Canada. The Chinese have put their wealth into real estate and as their Yen is inflated, they’ll continue to do that, buy precious metals and crypto.
Trump’s USD will be the last fiat that people will trust. Fiat from around the world will pour in to the US along with the people themselves...the wall isn’t to keep people out, it’s to keep people in. It has the makings of a cage fight the likes of which, the world has yet to see.
My strategy is to keep my debt load either non-existent or as low as I can until the new financial blockchain system is unleashed and the dust settles...
This is a huge discussion topic!
Great conversation. Thanks for tabling it. ;)