James-W
Well-known member
I will give you my thoughts on this, but I agree that everyone should decide for themselves what is in their best financial interest.
When my older brother passed away he left me all his tools. He had a lot of tools, including a lathe, mill, large floor model drill, metal cutting bandsaw, numerous pieces of sharpening equipment, and a whole bunch of hand tools. Needless to say, I didn’t just want a larger garage, I needed a larger garage.
To build a garage around here, you need permission from the local building department. I went there, spoke with the guy in charge, and found out exactly what I could or couldn’t do. Once I knew what was allowed, I could work on a plan for building a garage that would fit my needs and would conform to the local building code restrictions.
I went to a lumber yard in another city, one that I had known about for some time because in the past I had helped friends work on projects and they had purchased building materials from this place with very good results. They not only sell lumber and other building supplies, they also build trusses. They have a structural engineer working there and he will design the building, come up with the correct trusses that you need, and he will make you detailed drawings to give to your local building department, all for free, provided you buy all the building materials from them.
Once I had the drawings, I submitted them to the local building department. They were approved the next day with no problems at all. So I got the permits, and started the garage. I did most of the work myself, with the help of friends. The garage cost me right at $30K which was quite cheap compared to having a contractor build it for me.
Now, I said all that to give you a brief background of how my garage came to be. Building the garage for $30K is not something I needed to finance, I could have paid cash, but I financed it because paying cash would have ended up costing me more money than financing it. Taking out a loan against my house (which was paid for) and deducting the interest I paid, and leaving my money invested and making money for me, was by far a better financial decision than removing money from investments and paying cash.
But beyond that, the money I spent on the garage is not actually gone, at least a portion of it will be recouped should we decide to sell the house. I imagine in some areas of the country having a garage is not a big deal, but around here having a garage is something most everyone wants. Around here having a large garage that has storage up on top, is even more desirable. I may not get back the entire $30K I spent to build the garage, but I should get a large portion of it back and if I get the right buyer, I may possibly get it all back. What it all boils down to is, I get a place to work in and store all the equipment I have, and if I sell the property I get back at least a large portion of the money it cost to build. I feel like it is the best of both worlds.
In the final analysis, having debt is not some evil thing to be avoided at all costs, although that would appear to be the thinking of some people. Having sensible debt can, at least in some cases, actually be a good thing. If you choose your debt wisely you can come out ahead in the long term and in the process you can live a more comfortable life.