Approaches To Life

Encounter #1: I am sitting at my kitchen table. I clear my throat and say to my ex, “Are you sure you want this Harley-Davidson you’re talking about for your business? If you took the same amount of money, you could buy a good used compact car, and you’d still have enough to get a custom paint job for it, advertising your business. Your employees would be able to drive it, too, and I don't think you'd be letting them on a Harley." He admits, frankly, that the Harley would be a toy for him, as well as a sexy way to deliver page proofs around the tangle of downtown Wellington. He’s still going to do it, he assures me. I raise my eyebrows, but decline to mention the motor home he’d been equally keen on acquiring last month.

Encounter #2: I am standing in a chic downtown penthouse, oohing and aahing over the glorious bay view. The last time I met the tenant, my hostess, it was at a workshop about buying real estate in Wellington. She says to me, “I wanted to rent a place that I could never afford to buy!” This sends me off into a series of mental pretzels, for this is no basic rental in a hyper-high real estate market, but true soaring luxury. If you’re renting luxury you could never afford to buy, does that mean you’re maxing out what you can pay for rent and undermining your long-term ability to buy a place? Will you be unsatisfied when you settle for the shoebox you can afford? And what sort of message is this sending the universe - is it a self-fulfilling prophesy?