The Hustle of Sistah Ant

March went well, folks. I increased my net worth by 5% which was nice.  I saved over a thousand additional dollars for the house fund, which is great!  I now have over half of my original target amount for the house fund.  I intend to have at least $13,000 saved up for the house before I start actually looking for financing and looking at houses.  My unstated goal is to actually get about $18,000 together so that I’ll have money left over for emergencies/incidentals/moving in/minor repairs, etc.  It’s a realistic plan, given the prices of homes where I live, my credit rating, my ability to save, and the time frame within which I want to move.

I sometimes spend time just looking at my net worth page,  thinking about, "If I can pay this, then this will happen to my liabilities," or "If I can save that, then this is what will happen to my assets."  To date, I am still $72,000 in debt, between my car note and my student loans.  Am I sure that I want to pile more debt on?  I know a house is an appreciating asset, according to conventional wisdom.  But the mortgage that comes with it is still debt.  More debt.  Thirty years of debt.  Oh my gosh.  Sometimes the very thought it is just so scary and sobering.  Believe me, I want the house - but not so much that I want to do it for the wrong reasons, like, I’m at the age where I should have one, or I want a mortgage interest deduction, or my friends are getting houses (actually they’re not), or I want to be the first one out of my clique to get a house.  It’s more like, I want to own a place outright by the time I am old and I don’t want to work anymore.  And, I want a place to raise children where I can control my living space instead of worrying if my rent will go up or waiting for a landlord to fix something.  And, Mister Ant and I need space to be comfortable, unlike our current cramped apartment.  And, if I’m going to be paying every month to live somewhere, I’d like to get more out of it than shelter, if I can get some equity in an appreciating asset in the meantime.  Home ownership, in my opinion, is not for the faint of heart.  It’s a lot of responsibility.  The thought of it is very sobering.

If you’re renting, worst case scenario is that you have to move somewhere else and maybe come up with a couple months rent to do so.  But if you mess up with a house for any reason - illness, unemployment, whatever - worst case scenario is that you have no place to live, no place to put your stuff, and you’ve defaulted on an obligation worth thousands and thousands of dollars, leaving you with jacked up credit that will keep you out of getting into another place.  Yikes.

Debt is slavery.

To keep "Yikes" from happening, you have to keep an income to keep paying for the house.  I know you have to keep an income even if you don’t buy a house.  But the house is your shelter, not a mere car or wide-screen TV.  Talk about pressure to make nice with the boss and stay on everyone’s good side.  Talk about pressure to get a paycheck.  People stay in jobs they HATE so they won’t get put out of their homes - so that "Yikes" doesn’t happen.  Do I need that kind of pressure?

You know what?  I’m not going to scare myself out of getting my own home.  But I do have these thoughts from time to time.  If nothing else, they’ll probably keep me from attempting to buy more house than I can afford.  You will not catch me with some astronomical monthly mortgage payment.  Neither will you catch me doing anything I’m not comfortable with - I’m going to really have to like and want the house I "marry" my future to.  ‘Cause I’m going to spend most of my waking hours for years and years making sure that it’s paid for.   It’s going to have to be worth it.  Even now, when I’m at work and I want to just get up and go home instead of working overtime, I think about being able to buy my own home, and that’s what keeps me at the desk, despite sleepiness, or an aching back, or wanting to just go home…  I’m already working for the house.  Ain’t that something?  I’m already sacrificing my time and money for it.  But maybe it’s not slavery.  Maybe it’s indentured servitude…