The Spoon Drawer

It would seem that the news today has great pleasure in telling everyone that if they do not have a house now, they never will. The property market seems doomed for anyone that isn’t already in it. With the mortgage being labelled the ‘most dangerous financial product in the world’ [i] , many have been put off the whole process and are not prepared to take one out at all. But, if you think of it this way: for anyone renting at the moment, it is almost certain that your monthly rent packet goes towards paying someone else’s mortgage off, while steadily chipping away at your home owning dream fund. With the whole ‘if you can’t beat them, join them!’ philosophy in mind, it is definitely an aspiring idea worth thinking about that could make taking the scary mortgage route worth it in the long-term. Be a landlord! This may seem like a pretty far-fetched idea when you do not have a chance of buying even your first property yet, but hear me out. On average a four bed house in...

I speak from experience when I say that finding a house at University is never easy. During my time of study I went through all the usual mishaps of sharing a house in a University city. Mold, mushrooms growing through the bathroom floor, rats and mice and mountains of washing up that went ignored for weeks on end until it started to develop and become aware if own existence. Despite all of this, I can categorically say that it was the best time in my entire life. All of the above situations are part of the learning curve when it comes to finding your own place and being a student. Because being a student isn’t just about getting your name called out on stage and picking up a degree after three or four years’ worth of hard work. It’s about all the other things that you learn outside of the lecture room. How to get along with your peers, how to look after your own finances, how to live without your parents and of course, how to drink your own body weight in intoxicati...