🛑 The Psychology of Inertia, Masquerading as Stability
Do you know the most expensive mistake in financial strategy? It’s not poor trading. It’s inertia.
I was that idiot. In 2018, I bought 110 square meters at Patriarch’s Ponds for $1.68 million. I was proud. Friends were envious. Then I realized: I don’t own the apartment—the apartment owns me.
I’m sitting in a cafe across from that same building, watching new owners repeat my mistake. They have that same animal gleam in their eyes. The gleam of a person who has just voluntarily placed golden handcuffs on themselves.
You call this an investment. I call it $1.5 million spent on fear. In Moscow, a square meter is not an asset. It is a psychological anchor that you cast to the bottom yourself. We Russians have a natural inclination toward this cult of ownership. If you are interested in how this cult impacts the lives of expats and the general feel of the city, take a look at our homepage where we constantly analyze Moscow from the inside.
⛓️ Liquidity and the Trap of “Premium Slavery”
Let’s calculate this coldly.
Center of Moscow, 100 meters, premium segment. $\sim\$15,200$ per meter. Total: $1,520,000$ walled up in concrete.
This is not just money. This is a 20-year mortgage. This is the inability to leave when you are 52 and suddenly want to live by the ocean. This is the necessity of bringing $8–10k$ to the system every month so the bank doesn’t take your “stability.”
I sold mine in 2023. Minus 12% from the peak, but plus freedom. The best trade of my life.
Your “premium” apartment is a self-built prison. It does not give you freedom. It demands it in return.
đź’° The Price of Exit: Why Your Experience is Worth More Than Walls
As long as you are tied to this anchor, you are tied to the system that pays for it. You exchanged the main luxury of the 21st century—professional mobility—for the illusion of “my home is my fortress.”
A person’s true worth is not in concrete. It is in strategy.
Can you monetize $1.5 million in walls right now? No.
But you can monetize $1.5 million in your non-depreciating capital (experience, immunity to errors, a cold head). And you can monetize it at 5–10 times the price.
The concrete anchor is the most expensive subscription to your own fear.
đź”— Read Next: Don’t Let Inertia Cost You Millions
I have thoroughly analyzed why inertia is the most expensive asset.
- If you are ready to strategically escape this trap, you need to study the Operational Blueprint Read: The 3-Phase Detoxification.
- If you want to understand how the ruthless Moscow approach to risk can become your tool for professional escape, read my essay Speed vs. Process Read: Why Moscow Business Doesn’t Fit into a Western KPI Framework.