GBrady
Posts: 18
Joined: 6/24/2007
Status: offline
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We looked for apartments in the better parts of town but we found the differential between renting a place somewhere else and actually BUYING it (thanks to the low interest rates) was only about $100 a month. At my age (38..keep in mind I'd be 68 even NOW if I took my whole 30 year fixed to pay the house off...), it feels like waiting much longer would mean we'd NEVER own a home.
They were preparing to raise our rent to live in the crime-ridden area anyways so regardless of which way I went, my % of income out the door for housing was going to increase. I thought it was worth the slight gamble at a slightly higher cost to have the opportunity to actually OWN where we lived...instead of being at the whim of a landlord to not increase our rent and having no control whatsover over our neighbors. (True, we can't exactly control our neighbors in a house but the increased money to live there tends to keep out criminal elements.)
We live VERY modestly. NO cable..at all. DSL for Internet instead of cable because it's much cheaper. $17/mo. Netflix for movies. That's it. We don't go to theaters. (We saw "Fireproof" a week or so ago and that was the first "new" movie we'd seen in probably a year or more). We go to 1 concert at best a year. We don't take vacations. We don't have a 2nd car. We haven't added on to the house, remodeled, painted etc. Our son doesn't take costly music lesson or play sports.
It is tough...but we do it because we believe this is what's best for our boy and our family. I do accept that it is BAD that we have no savings (we did buy a small amount of gold with the leftovers from my wife's 401K after we paid OFF all the credit cards and it has proven to be a good investment) but we are trying, in the middle of dealing with all the stuff that needs fixing (garage door, basement ceiling, car brakes, refrigerator, basement stove, washer and dryer) to reestablish those.
We are doing the best we can. If the worst happens and we would lose the house, I would buy the cheapest apartment possible in the safest place that we could afford. I know that many have it worse and I am grateful that we do have what we have. I know my wife breathes easier everyday that we live where we live now..instead of where we once did.
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