(no subject)
I am trying to decide what my next step should be.
Traditional American society says that you should buy a house, the value of which is likely to increase, with payments of about 30 percent of your income, in an area where there are abundant jobs and opportunities to advance. Given what we have seen of the national economy in the past couple years (as I predicted) both the increasing house values and abundant jobs with advancement opportunities are not things that can always be counted upon.
There's also the possibility of intentionally pursuing the way of life here: low paying jobs with limited advancement opportunities and dirt-cheap housing that is not likely to significantly increase in value.
Right now the house we own is not dirt-cheap and was purchased predicated on the belief that our desirable neighborhood would remain so. So far it remains a good neighborhood, but still houses take nearly a year to sell and are almost 20% below the value we paid. Our house is cheap compared to a place like say, Washington DC or San Francisco, but it's still above the median value for our current area. In truth we have been trying to live like we're in the suburbs of a big city, and as a result we could live here much more cheaply, but the housing would be much less desirable.
On the one hand I could move as we had previously planned to a place where the current economy is better than it is here and try to play the game. We could win big, but we might not.
On the other hand, I could stay here and move into a dirt-cheap house, not viewing it as an investment but rather a roof over my head, and use the savings to do more things I want and need to do (like pay off our student loans, the payments of which for both me and J will be nearly as much as our current mortgage). This would be essentially refusing to play the American-dream game, looking at work as a means for survival rather than to achieve success. This is not an uncommon viewpoint around here.
On the one hand I have never known success the way many people have. Even when we lived in Dallas/Fort Worth before we still had relatively low-wage jobs and faced multiple layoffs (a total of 5 layoffs between us in 8 years). Therefore, trying to redo the concept of moving to a big city with more jobs does not sound very secure.
On the other hand, there's the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy, and I can't help but wonder if the fact that I have never known success and didn't grow up with that model means that I don't expect to have it and am therefore ensuring it doesn't happen.
I don't think like most other people in the middle class about earning money and possessions. I don't really want more, more, more; I just want enough. My standard of "enough" is far lower than that of other people: I don't need a big-screen TV, annual vacations requiring airfare, frequent dinners in restaurants, two brand-new cars in the driveway. This is not to say I don't like or have some nice extravagances; just that I am not driven by the need to have more of them. If I were to stay here and get a much cheaper house, would I be holding myself back from reaching some greater potential or would I just be being smart about my goals?
Traditional American society says that you should buy a house, the value of which is likely to increase, with payments of about 30 percent of your income, in an area where there are abundant jobs and opportunities to advance. Given what we have seen of the national economy in the past couple years (as I predicted) both the increasing house values and abundant jobs with advancement opportunities are not things that can always be counted upon.
There's also the possibility of intentionally pursuing the way of life here: low paying jobs with limited advancement opportunities and dirt-cheap housing that is not likely to significantly increase in value.
Right now the house we own is not dirt-cheap and was purchased predicated on the belief that our desirable neighborhood would remain so. So far it remains a good neighborhood, but still houses take nearly a year to sell and are almost 20% below the value we paid. Our house is cheap compared to a place like say, Washington DC or San Francisco, but it's still above the median value for our current area. In truth we have been trying to live like we're in the suburbs of a big city, and as a result we could live here much more cheaply, but the housing would be much less desirable.
On the one hand I could move as we had previously planned to a place where the current economy is better than it is here and try to play the game. We could win big, but we might not.
On the other hand, I could stay here and move into a dirt-cheap house, not viewing it as an investment but rather a roof over my head, and use the savings to do more things I want and need to do (like pay off our student loans, the payments of which for both me and J will be nearly as much as our current mortgage). This would be essentially refusing to play the American-dream game, looking at work as a means for survival rather than to achieve success. This is not an uncommon viewpoint around here.
On the one hand I have never known success the way many people have. Even when we lived in Dallas/Fort Worth before we still had relatively low-wage jobs and faced multiple layoffs (a total of 5 layoffs between us in 8 years). Therefore, trying to redo the concept of moving to a big city with more jobs does not sound very secure.
On the other hand, there's the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy, and I can't help but wonder if the fact that I have never known success and didn't grow up with that model means that I don't expect to have it and am therefore ensuring it doesn't happen.
I don't think like most other people in the middle class about earning money and possessions. I don't really want more, more, more; I just want enough. My standard of "enough" is far lower than that of other people: I don't need a big-screen TV, annual vacations requiring airfare, frequent dinners in restaurants, two brand-new cars in the driveway. This is not to say I don't like or have some nice extravagances; just that I am not driven by the need to have more of them. If I were to stay here and get a much cheaper house, would I be holding myself back from reaching some greater potential or would I just be being smart about my goals?