I want to continue my discussion on storage units and their impact on our personal finances. First, I want to clear up a misperception some might have about my comments yesterday. I am not against using storage units. As I said yesterday, I rent one for the items I use in my auction business. Many small businesses do that. It is a business expense and is fully deductible.
There are other good uses for storage units. My daughter and her family go to a beach in Florida for 2 1/2 months every fall. They have rented a small storage unit there to keep their bicycles, boogie boards, umbrellas, and other items they use only when they are at the beach. They used to have to haul the bikes each year until she bought some real cheap at some yard sales down there. Their unit is small and very inexpensive so it makes sense to keep those items there instead of having to haul everything down there and then back home again.
Another good use for a storage unit is when someone is moving, but they can't move into their new home for a few months. Perhaps they are renting an apartment until their new home is ready. They need somewhere to keep their furniture and other personal belongings. It is reasonable to rent a storage unit for 2-3 months while they get ready to move into their new home.
Perhaps this was the deal with the unit I described yesterday, but for some reason that few months stretched out into, I'm guessing, at least a year and perhaps two. That becomes a lot of rent money down the tubes, and when the items are not very good quality it makes it even more sad.
Some may have questioned my comment yesterday when I wrote they could have replaced their furniture for less than they had paid for the rental. All the wood furniture in this unit was made out of particle board. It was all damaged. They were paying rent every month to keep these items. I can go into any auction in our area and buy a hard rock maple dining table and four chairs for under $100.00. I can buy a less expensive wood dining table and four chairs for less than $50.00.
The church I recently served as Transitional Pastor was helping a family furnish a home they had rented. They had been homeless for several months living in a van and had nothing. I went to an auction and purchased a clean and nearly new sofa (it didn't look like anyone had ever sat in it) for $8.00. I cautioned our staff to not buy anything until we attended an estate auction the next weekend. We bought bedroom suites, furniture, lamps, pots and pans and other kitchen items for the family at that auction for pennies on the dollar. We filled a two vans, a car and a trailer with items we bought, and I don't think we spent $300.00 for it all.
I had not been in the auction business very long when I told my wife we would never buy new furniture again. It simply does not make sense to pay $1,200.00 for a dining table and chairs when excellent quality ones can be bought at auction for $100.00 or make payments on a new sofa when a nice, clean one can be bought for well under $100.00.
The whole point of these two posts is to encourage ministers, especially ones struggling financially, to make wise financial decisions. You do not have to go into debt to get the items you need. You do not have to end up at rent-to-own stores where you will pay far more than you could buy the same item elsewhere. You do not have to throw good money after bad by paying to store items you'll never use again. You may have limited input on the salary you receive, but you can make wise decisions about how that money will be spent. If you start making wise decisions you'll find that salary can go much further than you realized.
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