Living Car Free - Market value of your stuff

There's an interesting discussion about owning versus not owning a home on the "how simply do you live" thread.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?163801-How-simply-do-you-live/page6

A particular exchange that struck me was a pair of posts from the year 2006:

"I bought my house for $80,000 and now it's worth $600,000. It will be paid off in seven years. "

"I hope for your sake that there isn't a market slump in the next seven years." (see post 144)

For me, this was a reminder that the usefulness-value of a thing is often more reliable than the market-value of the same thing.

If you were in this house for its usefulness, you might not care if it was 80,000 or 600,000 in terms of market value.

If all people cared about was the usefulness of their stuff, market values would be unpredictabe anyway...

but we wouldn't see upheavals in markets for cars and homes on quite such a grand scale.

To attercoppe, who thought in 2006 that a market slump was, you know, a possibility worth thinking about:

you win.

The net market value of my stuff? Well, I have a renter's insurance policy for $25,000, so I guess that sounds about right. I have a lot more assets tied up in savings and retirement, but that's nothing but funny-money since it isn't a tangible asset and its value isn't realized until it's spent. More importantly, I have a beautiful loving wife, a job I feel fulfilled with and feel I can make a contribution to the world with, a loving silver tabby eagerly awaiting me to return home. It's hokey to say but these are the things money can't buy but are the most important assets in my life, and make everything else a moot point. While the fund managers work themselves into the grave racing to out buy one another, and define their life by the length of their yacht, I'm more than happy to sit back, enjoy life, and hope my small contributions to society make it an over-all better place.

The only time I'm concerned about the market value of anything is at time of purchase; after that, when I get it home and make sure it's not defective, it takes on its own utilitarian value in my life. That can't be measured by any other means than this: how long will I keep it?

I have an old 25" TV that I paid $160 for, 8 years ago. Uses less electricity than the same size flatscreen. In that same span of time, I've been through 3 hydration packs, still have 2 frames of the 5 bikes I've ridden (broke 2, gave away 1), and had 2 cars. My house is an investment I want to maintain, simply because it's cheaper than rent.

My desk is an old teacher's desk; solid, spacious, heavy as hell -- and free. Fully intend to keep it around....

I have an old 25" TV that I paid $160 for, 8 years ago. Uses less electricity than the same size flatscreen.

Umm... I assume that your TV is a CRT (because what else isn't a flat screen?). CRT monitors/TVs use ~ 2x the energy as LCD. FYI.

Does anybody really "own" anything? I like the idea that everything in our lives is borrowed for the time we are here.

People get so obsessed with ownership that it is nearly a sickness and detrimental to the good of all.

An example might be Flathead Lake in Montana. I remember being there 30 years ago. It was beautiful and pristine. Every view was a memory.

I revisited the town of Lakeside area last year with a shocking sadness. Today, extraordinarly large "castles" have been built around the lake. These new owners are not satisfied with simply blocking access to the lake with their development. They don't even want anybody else to enjoy the view of the lake. They put up high brick fences to block the view from the road. Wall after wall after wall blocks any view of the lake. I suppose to want bigger and bigger and more and more might just be part of the genetics of human beings, but the greed of trying to own sight and prevent views of an area is greed beyond comprehension.

So, back to the OP's orginal question; "what is the value of your stuff?" I guess it depends on how much of your "Stuff" you think you really own.

I suppose to want bigger and bigger and more and more might just be part of the genetics of human beings, but the greed of trying to own sight and prevent views of an area is greed beyond comprehension.

We all have some attraction towards things that are "harder better faster stronger"

work it harder//make it better//do it faster//makes us stronger (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYD_-A_X5E)

More than ever, hour after hour, work is never over.

There's an interesting discussion about owning versus not owning a home on the "how simply do you live" thread.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?163801-How-simply-do-you-live/page6

A particular exchange that struck me was a pair of posts from the year 2006:

"I bought my house for $80,000 and now it's worth $600,000. It will be paid off in seven years. "

"I hope for your sake that there isn't a market slump in the next seven years." (see post 144)

For me, this was a reminder that the usefulness-value of a thing is often more reliable than the market-value of the same thing.

If you were in this house for its usefulness, you might not care if it was 80,000 or 600,000 in terms of market value.

If all people cared about was the usefulness of their stuff, market values would be unpredictabe anyway...

but we wouldn't see upheavals in markets for cars and homes on quite such a grand scale.

To attercoppe, who thought in 2006 that a market slump was, you know, a possibility worth thinking about:

you win.

Renting vs. owning? I got dissed on this very forum a few years ago because I rented a home. People unanimously told me that I was wasting my money on rent and missing out on the great investment of owning real estate.

Well, it turns out that I was right and they were wrong. My last landlord got foreclosed on and will owe beaucoup on the house, with a trashed credit rating. The "market value" of the house (at the sheriff's auction) is about a third of what it was when he bought it 4 years ago.

I got to live in that same house rent-free for 8 months after the foreclosure, then got $2000 Cash for Keys to move out. I feel guilty for being one of the few people in Michigan to profit from the economic depression.

Market value of my stuff is whatever someone else is willing to pay for it. I have several things that are of little or no value to others but are worth everything to me. Primarily things that belonged to relatives that have been handed down through the generations. I have a spirit level that belonged to my grandfather, he built several barns and houses with it. It cost him close to a month's wages at the time he bought it, and he made a case to protect it. Nowadays you can go get one and pay about an hour's wages for it...if that. A tool collector "might" pay $40 for it.:p

Aaron:)

My last landlord got foreclosed on and will owe beaucoup on the house, with a trashed credit rating.

No fun - it would really stink to build equity in a place and then lose that AND end up owing money.

As for the trashed credit rating, that ain't fun either. On the other hand, I've realized that banks "credit rating" with me has gone way down in the sense that I don't want to owe them anything. If I were borrowing money to make more money in a legitimate business, it might make sense. But such a big portion of people's borrowing is for homes that are about a "comfortable lifestyle" (and cars, and big-box-store purchases) ... not small/inexpensive/comfortable homes but homes that are expensive enough to take away the possibility of working lower paying jobs you might like, traveling for a while with no job, etc.

The market value of my stuff is probably worth enough to buy a cheap and small house in a low income part of town. I don't know what it is worth but I suspect as much as someone is willing to pay for it all.

The true market value of what I own is maybe $500. I do have a home ,its full of furniture ,2 vehicles, and a pool. I don't consider those mine all of that was purchased for the family. I have noticed the wife doesn't view the ownership the same way.

Market value doesn't bother me...assessed value does. I own my house. It's paid for (since about 1960 or so). I've never taken a mortgage out on it, nor will I. When I inherited it, it needed painting/renovation badly. I worked on the inside and left the outside as it was. That kept my assessed value down for a while. Of course, then I got married and the house had to look good. Through the miracle of Indiana's revised property assessment laws (and 2 reassessments), my property taxes are now lower than they were when the house looked like crap.

I would never consider my primary house to be an 'investment'. I like having a place to live more than I like tapping my home's value for mortgages.

Anyway, even though I'm poor as hell at the moment, the market value of stuff I own is probably in the $200,000 range.

Umm... I assume that your TV is a CRT (because what else isn't a flat screen?). CRT monitors/TVs use ~ 2x the energy as LCD. FYI.

Try looking at a data plate sometime, they tell you the usage; my 25" CRT uses 30 watts less than the average 32" LCD, and about 10 watts less than a 26" LCD. I've done the research....FYI.

Interesting topic. My value of say my video game collection is much higher than market value! There is no way I would sell my Xbox 360 and all 40 of my games for the 400.00 they would probably offer me. Same thing with my PS3, crap my computer would resale for about 400.00 now, it's worth a lot more than that to me! Same with our bikes, mine is old and rebuilt and probably isn't worth more than 30.00, but if I value it, it's worth over 500.00 any day.

Cars are a lot like this, especially for those who like a certain kind of car. My car in particular has a really really low market value because Oldsmobile was taken out of business (a very bad business decision, that is for another time though). What was once a 50,000.00 USD luxury car is now a 1,500.00 pick of the litter (only 10 years old). But to me that car is worth a lot more, it's my pride and joy, too bad her transmission says otherwise...

Want to find the market value of your "stuff" - Get divorced

Well, the more the value of my house goes up the more taxes I have to pay. I don't really want to see it keep going up for other reasons as well. Even with the downturn in the economy you can't touch a home in my subdivision for less than $700,000 making it pretty much impossible for ordinary working people to buy into the neighborhood. It was never my intention to live in an upper middle class enclave but that seems to be where it is going. So, I wouldn't mind the real estate values taking a dive even if it means my "net worth" would take a dive as well. The important thing for me is making the house sustainable, which is easier to do when you own it.

I have the contents of my apartment insured for $50,000.00. That is probably about right. The only way I would ever get it is if either somebody stole the entire contents of it or a fire destroyed everything I own. Both are unlikely to happen. I was forced to have insurance because it is one of the conditions of my lease. I would prefer to not pay for insurance.

If I sold everything I own it might equal more than $50K. Of course the selling price of used items is much less than the price one would pay to replace those same items. My computers and software alone are worth about $2000.00. The jewelry I inherited is worth another $15,000.00. I've got many technical manuals that cost a fortune yet are not worth much to other people not interested in the profession. Textbooks cost way too much.

Over the last four years I've been selling things I don't need. I still have the goal of being able to put all of my possessions within the smallest rental moving truck available. I've got a long way to go. The funny part of it is that the total market value of my stuff will still be high because I will keep the valuable things and dump the inexpensive things.

I have a bike and accessories worth 1000 dollars, and a bunch of other stuff I could care less about. So in that sense, I own 1000 dollars worth of stuff.

To replace everything I own in the apartment: maybe 20k... including the 6 year old car.

I have a bike and accessories worth 1000 dollars, and a bunch of other stuff I could care less about. So in that sense, I own 1000 dollars worth of stuff.

To replace everything I own in the apartment: maybe 20k... including the 6 year old car.

You have a car in your apartment?