I went and looked up Ramsey and read his steps which we have been doing for years. :thumbsup::laughing::laughing::laughing:
The city house we lived in was small but cheap. The agent I used to buy the house said I would sell it in 18 months and get a larger house. She was wrong. Very wrong since we stayed in the house for almost a decade. That told me we were NOT like everyone else because the agent was one of the top sellers in that city. We stayed in that little house, 10 pounds of scat in a five pound bag, because we wanted to buy land and build the dream house. After years of looking, we found what we now live on. We had a small lot, under three acres, but we wanted more space. We figured we could afford 15-20 acres, but in the end, we found a 73 acre parcel for sale! By moving fast, and making smart/right decisions, we sold off the chunks of the land to pay down the land loan. I learned about the timber business real fast and which allowed us to pay down more debt. When we first bought the land, the land payment was twice our house payment. Today, the land payment is almost a third less than that old house payment.
Unfortunately, the new house payment is more than I would like but don't have car payments or cc debt.
At first, we wanted to build a house on a part of the land that in the future we would sell off. The problem was that to build the house a bit bigger than what we had in the city would cost too much. We simply wanted a house, a ten pound bag, if you will, to hold the 10 pounds of scat. Running the numbers, it was obvious that building a smaller house and then building the dream house was NOT the way to proceed. We would loose precious time in the non dream home, and we would be building much later in life, so we built the dream home. Our dream house is NOT a McMansion and there was not that much difference in the smaller house design vs the dream home. However, the dream house is more than I wanted to spend.
The land is more than I wanted to buy as well. We spent many a late work night talking this through. At one point, we had the option of selling the land, the timber, and our little city house and buying larger city house. The larger city house would not be any bigger than our dream house but it would not be the dream house. On the other hand, that city house would have no or very little mortgage. :shocked: What to do? :confused3: Now, I had always dreamed of having my own land. Enough land to be able to hunt and walk on without seeing other people. Enough land to just be alone. We found that land after many long years of looking...
So what to do? Play it Ramsey Safe, sell everything and have no debt, but live in the city? Or go for the dream? Playing Ramsey Safe would be the money smart thing to do but then we would never have the dream. We would rather run a slight risk of loosing everything, but at least having the dream for a time, than NEVER having the dream, and always resenting not trying.
Sometimes you have to roll the dice.
Now we did not willey nilley roll the dice. We plotted and planned. Some of the plots and plans have blown up and some have worked out. The wifey had a great and unexpected opportunity to be a real estate agent. Well, you can guess how that worked out. :laughing::laughing::laughing: But it most certainly was an opportunity she should and did take. Per the plan, the land should be paid off at this point but there is a bit of money left on the loan. Health issues, the economy, car accidents, health issues, kids education, have all reprioritized The Plan.
It is possible the house will be refied and/or more principal paid down this year. The land loan might get paid off depending on the house refi. One more small step...
Sometimes you have to chase the dream, otherwise you will spend the rest of your life thinking about the might have beens. So far, we have pulled off what I thought was impossible. I never thought we would own more than 15-20 acres and have the dream house this "early" in life. I could loose my job, and we could loose it all, but at least, for a decent part of my life, I HAD the dream. THAT cannot be taken away.
Later,
Dan
