Reflection: On Making Difficult Decisions
What makes a decision difficult?
Is it that we feel like we are flying blind? Is it that we feel unsure of ourselves? Is it that none of the options presenting themselves are particularly appealing? Is it that whatever we choose will be life altering, no matter what?
Sometimes it might simply be that we don't feel ready; the situation was forced on us, by circumstances beyond our control.
That scenario has happened to me many times in my adult life!
For some years, Mrs. Denmarkguy and I have been discussing whether to stay in our home we've been in for many years... or sell it and find a smaller place that's less expensive and less work to maintain. For some years, we were leaning towards moving, then we made the choice to just stay because we have so much effort invested in making this place ours.
Lately, though, we are swinging back towards selling and moving... perhaps because "the years are catching up with us."
Much as we might want things to be otherwise, we're not 29 any more.
And then there's the cost of staying, which just keeps rising. We recently got a letter from the Homeowners Association, to let us know that next year there will be an additional $155 per quarter assessment to cover saving up to re-pave all the streets in the neighborhood. That's another $620 a year we don't have.
Meanwhile, our house insurance went up by 40% this year. Our income sure didn't grow by 40%! I doubt anyone's did...
We're not keen on the idea of going into debt just pay our basic cost to be alive.
Many moons ago, I remember listening to my late parents wrestle with the same sort of thing... so maybe this kind of difficult decision is also one of coming to terms with not only aging, but with the fact that our ostensible "peak earning years" are increasingly behind us, so there will be no more income increases to meet ever-increasing expenses.
We're also facing the reality that a belief in a better future might be little more than hopium, including the possibility that crypto would somehow hold a significant place in that future.
We have never thought of our house as an investment, it was always a place to live.
That said the real estate markets are getting rather dodgy, so maybe selling is actually a good idea...
Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
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Created at 2024-09-08 02:02
It was really a hard decision, cheer up po😊
No worries; difficult at first, but change is also something we can look forward to.
Thanks for the support @ewkaw and @qurator, appreciate it.
That is a lot of dosh, and what about the year after that..what will it be.
It is a tough choice to make, nobody wants the upheaval of moving.
I think we are in for tough times ahead everywhere, maybe take that profit from your house and downsize, it could be a win win!
Part of our decision is precisely based on the fact that it's only going to get worse. We hate moving, and we put a lot of love and sweat equity into this property... and even though we thought we'd planned ahead when we bought this place, we did not "plan" for our costs having almost tripled over the last 15 years, while our incomes have only risen by about 30% during the same time. That's a huge relative net loss...
I suppose the "good" news is that the house is worth more than triple what we paid, due to the insane property prices...
It is the people making $2500/hour convincing the people making $25 per hour that the people making $15/hour are the ones creating inflation that are a problem.
Everyone’s insurance has gone up and deductible/claim revenue is at an all time high though (auto) insurance companies are still making an average of 2% profit. So it is not just big business profit gouging that causing the inflation issue.
On the real estate side of things, prices seem to have at least stopped the ridiculous prices of homes around here at least. The world banks are matching stride and have cut interest rates a couple times so I bet more people entering the market will lead to another boom in price so there will probably be no relief there.
Most of us are drinking from a firehose of information that includes everyone’s problems and digitally being assimilated into the flock of chicken littles. I find focusing on the things I can control and creating my little patch of luck is more productive. How many times do we have to brave the ups and downs before we know we will do it again and again by staying within our means, even though they seem to be shrinking this cycle?
Being nervous means you are ready for this big moment so let’s kill it and share that story!
When people claim wage demands drive inflation, I know they haven't examined any real economic theories from any school of thought beyond partisan blame games.
We're increasingly focusing on "the small things" where we actually have a measure of control, and can "add something."
We have an increasingly productive vegetable garden; most of our business endeavors these days are person-to-person.
I step away from the information stream as often as possible because there's so much "noise" it tends to drown out most of the "signal," to the degree there even is a signal any more.
Sell, buy an RV, and be a nomad for a while?Or maybe don't necessarily take the advice of internet strangers on big life decisions. I get the conflict and indecision here though. Between the inverted yield curve, deeper data in the unemployment statistics, I flation, and other factors, I strongly suspect the court historians will be forced to admit we're already on a recession now when they look back on our era. Costs are u sustainable, and real wealth is not there to back up the demands of government and basic necessities.
I think we are getting closer to a "tipping point" at which the fact that people simply can't afford their lives will cause consumption (of pretty much all consumer goods) to stagnate, and then either production will stagnate, OR the corporate gooks will have to resort to lowering prices... leading to that "dreaded" D-word: Deflation.
Much of it goes unreported because the cost rises are "invisible." Our homeowners' insurance is relatively unchanged, in terms of the premium per $1000," but since the property value is up by some ridiculous amount, so are our premiums...
"Deflation," or more accurately, a price correction cycle, is the necessary correction to a bubble economy bloated with malinvestment and political.incentive distortions, but most people are convinced it's the problem instead of the cure.
Ownership huh?
Yeah, with these sharks always going after our stuff in a bad way, no wonder moving to a smaller place with a nice view to the future cross our minds once in a while.
It's ironic that ownership is so highly valued in the USA... we are led to believe that we should strive for ownership, but the moment we have ownership, we get taxes "because we OWN something."
Hahaha yeah. I believe Klaus Schwab could never have said it better!
Yes, but I don't LIKE it! Klaus Schwab insisted I would LIKE it...