Rent-To-Own Addendum: Fill & Download for Free

It’s life changing. I’m not being hyperbolic. You have no idea how nice it is not going to gas stations. Only 30 seconds into my test drive I suddenly saw every other vehicle on the road (including the nice bimmer I was driving) as a 19th-century artifact with an oily, clunky monstrosity of hot reciprocating metal under the hood. Really. How did we ever think that was a good way to propel cars down the road? I can’t stand the thought of going back. When I have to rent a gasoline car for whatever reason it’s like going backwards a hundred years. Yes, that includes the “nice” Mercedes loaner Tesla gave me once. Yawn.It’s wicked fun to drive. Not just due to the prodigious torque (mine is a P90D with Ludicrous Mode). Somehow, right out of the gate, Tesla made a car that just drives really well. A supernaturally low center of mass helps, of course. Even though you can tell sometimes that the car is an immense, heavy boat, it can also feel light on its feet and extremely nimble. It’s just unlike anything I’d ever driven before.Long road trips take a bit longer than they used to, but at the end of a long day of driving my fatigue is just about at zero. It’s the best and most comfortable long-distance road car I’ve ever been in, and there is no close second.Autopilot has totally transformed driving in heavy traffic. It is no longer stressful. I can offload the details to the car and just sit back and pay attention to traffic. Really game changing. The parking spots where I teach are really narrow. No problem: I can summon the car in and out. Worried about parallel parking a giant boat of a car? Just accept its offer to do it for you.The car can get better (sometimes even quicker) via software upgrades. I’ve had Tesla tech support troubleshoot the car while I’m driving.It’s not perfect. The shoulder belt anchor point should be adjustable. Sometimes watching the car and my iPhone negotiate Bluetooth connections is like watching a Three Stooges short. Sometimes you have to reboot one or two of the computers. (This can be done while driving, which is pretty entertaining, really.) All niggles.The most fun, though, is collecting expletives. Just strap some friends in the car and launch. It’s like having a sumo wrestler sit on your chest.Addendum:I just took it to a BMWCCA Car Control Clinic and found out how it handles at its limits. The answer is “very nicely, thank you”. The body roll is almost nil, as expected. Lateral grip is quite high. As you push harder in a turn it doesn’t get squirrely, but very predictably goes into a benign understeer. There’s no engine noise for feedback, but the tires sang prettily. I even tried upsetting it by goosing the throttle in a turn: Yawn. It just stayed planted. For a boat of a car it’s quite agile through the slalom. As one instructor said, “It doesn’t know how big it is.”

It’s a stupid idea for a man or a woman to marry early. Don’t read the answer if you think reproduction is all you seek from marriage.Take it from someone who married at 23. It is a fluke that I ended up having a good life. But over the years, I have seen several people fumble. Siblings, cousins, friends…But, if I had an undo-redo button, I would want to change things. Marriage should be a bond where both of them are independent, confident of leading lives on their own and coming together because they like each other. This means you should have a fair idea about your career, education, ideologies, investments, future plans and a million other things. At 22–24, a woman or man is just done with a graduate degree (rarely, a PG/MBA) and probably has a year or two of work experience. I have made stupid career moves in my life. This comes from my own life. I wasn’t independent when I said yes.People would like to have the choice to go back to do a course and start afresh with a different career. Until you sort yourself and know you want to do something for a while, don’t enter marriage. You need your own career, your own money. No, no, your dad’s money or your inheritance doesn’t count. You need to make your own life and career before you enter matrimony. If you rush into marriage, you are stuck with a career you sometimes get unhappy with. Man or woman. You are in it because you have bills to pay, children to feed and clothe, rent to pay. Take it from an older woman.And several people do not understand that marriage is not a mandate. Ask yourself this. Do you really need marriage? Are you in for such commitment? There is a lot of compromise involved. Are you really convinced that you want this for life? In India, the craziest reason people come up with for marriage is tht their parents want it. Your parents cannot do much when you have an ideology difference with your spouse tomorrow. Indian parents are more interested in finding a match from your own religion, caste, community, state, region, district, economic strata blah blah blah. Don’t say yes to make your parents happy. Your happiness matters.Live independently for a while. Pay your own bills. Manage your own finances. Travel on your own. Meet people. Form a community of your own and see where you fit in. Understand what matters to you. I have siblings and cousins who are well into their 30s and they are single in different parts of the world. I know that they are not significantly unhappy on a relative scale. They have careers, social lives and much more. Don’t marry unless you have strong reasons to. And each of us have our own reasons.The society just feeds the idea that marriage and kids are the norm. Don’t do it just because others do it. Have kids when you know you can fend for them, support them and have time enough to do a zillion scrap books. Raising a child is much more serious commitment than marriage. It is ok if you want kids some day but you haven’t decided on marriage or the right man. Several women have kids in their mid and late thirties and they do their parenting just as well as others do.And this is for all the young women out there. Don’t marry because you need security. The world is yours to conquer. Earn that money. Climb that career ladder. Mark your territory in the corporate jungle. Pitch that start up idea and find seed capital. Travel. Run. Trek. Date. Have a list of things you can compromise on and those you cannot compromise on.Marry if and when you are ready.//Addendum:Everyone has a different checklist. But here is a list from my perspective:Do you have emotional, mental maturity to live with another adult?Are you financially sorted? Noone buys a house at 27–28. Or even 30. But are you in a position to make your own life? Do you earn enough to afford your expenditures?Do you have a secure career?I know it sounds ominous. But do you have a plan B in case your marriage fails? Do you have it in you to pick up the pieces, start afresh?Can you and do you lead life independently? Can you do your own taxes? Do you have it in you to take care of a flat tyre situation all by yourself? Do you understand equities? Can you cook and feed yourself a meal? Can you lead one whole month without taking laundry back to your mom?Can you argue logically and not get butt hurt or judge people based on what they put forth as arguments?Do you borrow money from your parents? If so, do you pay them back?And stop bringing in the biological clock. I told you to stop reading the answer if you are interested in marriage primarily to have kids.

Can a landlord charge extra rent to add a live-in caregiver to a lease in the US?The short answer is yes. And you must get the landlord's WRITTEN permission before anyone moves in, caregiver or otherwise.Your lease should specify how many people are living in the premises. When you add a live-in caregiver, you change that number. That means the lease must be changed. This can be done through creation of a new lease or through a formal or informal written addendum.When this happens, and the lease is changed, the landlord can change any terms, including the rent.You do not have to accept the changes. You are free to move out and find somewhere else to live.If you live in a single family unit and pay all your own utilities, there's really no logical reason for the rent to increase. If the landlord includes any utilities in the rent, it is reasonable for him to raise the rent to cover his extra costs.