Ldear friends of concrete! You know Hamlet, the famous hero of William Shakespeare, who, as Prince of Denmark, asks the fundamental question: To be, or not to be, that is the question. Based on his challenge, may I ask you how the protagonist of my column should decide, maybe even you yourself? Shall he hold his condominium, which he bought ten years before? Or should he sell the apartment and invest the proceeds in bonds and stocks? If you’re facing similar questions then there’s no way around digging into my numbers, but if you just enjoy guessing I invite you to take a gut look. Agreed?
The man is 50 years old, single and has no children. He is a legal counsel in the industry and earns around 120,000 euros a year. The lawyer bought an apartment in Cologne ten years ago and has lived in it himself the whole time. Now it will go professionally to Stuttgart. The Gent does not want to settle down there, so the man is faced with the question of what to do with the “Rhineland plaice”: rent it out and return to the Rhine in retirement? Or sell the “beautiful pearl”, invest the proceeds in securities and see what life in (non)retirement will have to offer? What do you think, dear observer, what would you advise the lawyer to do?