Here’s a message to all those financial planners that opine that it’s not ‘really’ necessary to own a place to live/ better to rent a place. My advice : if you can afford it, it actually is. I had an apologetic colleague that handles our project team’s apartment leases, and a non-apologetic aloof property agent knock on the door last night. There was a mistake and my lease had actually expired Mar 31 and, AND : the landlord insisted that the apartment be evacuated immediately. Whoah! I said. What exactly does ‘immediately’ mean? Do I have two hours? You’re going to kick me out with the clothes on my back and with my dinner cooking in the toaster oven? (It was just toast with cheese but hey, that was dinner and they interrupted it).
Several phone calls later we managed to I get agreement that I could stay one more night to pack up my stuff. So this is Saturday morning, and I’m ready to move into the hotel next door. And I’m not canceling my trip to Beijing. I’m flying there this afternoon and I will have Sunday and Monday to check out the city and the Great Wall. Let’s go!