9 | When Did Paying Cash Become "Creative"?

“Home Buyers Get Creative With Cash Deals to Fend Off High Mortgage Rates” is a headline from the Wall Street Journal from the last 60 days.

The first case study is a man paying $965,000 in cash for a townhouse in Colorado.

Raise your hand if you have $965,000 sitting in cash right now.

If you raised your hand, keep it raised if you’re up for parting with all $965,000 for the purchase of a townhome.

Wow.

Honestly, it is just disappointing to see this as a headline.

In a current housing market where refreshing a mortgage calculator feels like you’re in a cold shower that you can’t turn off, we get a headline that tells us the “trick” is to save a ton and pay cash for a home purchase.

The fact that the article is applicable to 0.000001% of society is unfortunate given that it was likely read by much more than 0.000001% of society.

The fact that saving a ton and paying cash for a home is considered “creative” is just misleading and publishing an article about it in one of the largest publications in the United States is just plain reckless.

The article was full of financing and tax planning tactics (and beautiful pictures of course!). Not once was there mention of purpose or “why” the home purchases were important to any of the highlighted folks. Per usual, tactics before purpose.

I don’t mean to beat up on the highlighted people or even the writer. I am bummed because articles like this only continue to compound the confusing, complex, and taboo nature of personal finances. Tiny glimpses into glamorous spending decisions without any context aren't improving our collective relationships with money.