Back on track again, just not both tracks
It was pretty rough this past week trying to get our bank account to survive until payday. I don’t like all the money going out so quickly either, but the time frame for some of these things put us in a bottleneck. With the money coming back in again it eases the pressure to get things done. I would just like us to have more long term goals beyond the end of this month. At least I am considering December already because car insurance and Christmas always feels like a one-two punch.
This weekend we’re going to have a garage sale to try to hopefully get rid of a bunch of stuff we have taking up space in storage. My wife thinks we should also sell our dining table and the 4 chairs out there with the stuff we wouldn’t miss. I asked her what the intentions are for the money from the garage sale, and sure as I already knew the answer, we would need to go out and buy us a new table and chairs to go with our furniture. The only real positive side to this is we would have the money to pay cash for this new purchase. On the flipside though, why replace the dining table and chairs if we don’t need to? I don’t get it.
My wife is excited for some reason to get rid of our house and go rent an apartment near the city. I’m not sure what timeframe she has in mind that we should move, but the realtor we bought our house with does not want to work with us to sell it. She says that because it has only been a year, the market is soft, and there is not a ton of equity involved, it might be difficult to sell and we wouldn’t make money off it, or even cost us money to sell it. We don’t have the money available at this time if it does cost us to sell. The answer of course is to find a realtor who is willing to sell our house, not considering the cost of course. The house is financed under me alone because I bought it just before we were married, so I could refinance the loans and possibly turn it into a rental that would pay for itself granted I find the right people.
So why is she excited about selling the house even if it costs us money to do it? She has been browsing these rental websites finding various apartments or condos for rent with really nice stuff. Stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, vaulted ceilings, nice view overlooking the Lake Michigan and/or Chicago, and of course these places are near stores, parks, bars, etc. Details of course that I look at are the cost per month, which is lower than what we pay now but only by a few hundred, is that even worth moving?. The other part is most of the time apartments require a security deposit of about one month’s rent. So we would need to have the amount of the rent available just so we can rent the apartment. The money does not have much of a plan so nothing is earmarked to be saved each month. I’m trying to explain to her that we need a budget so the money has a purpose and isn’t spent before we even have it (currently the biggest problem). It is taking time but nothing has clicked yet.
Having a garage sale to knock away some of that credit card debt is a great idea! Buying new dining furniture, not so much.
Listen to your realtor (when an honest realtor turns down business, there’s a good reason), make your budget and stick to it. Start here, don’t delay! http://youneedabudget.com/
Perhaps you could suggest that a part of the garage sale money goes towards your debts and or “save up for a deposit on an apartment” and the other part for whatever she wants. Say 75-25?
That way, you wont feel as if you are not making any progress on your goals and she will be able to have a little something. Kind of a give and take.
Getting on the same page financially will take time but there’s no need to hand over everything or you’ll never accomplish your goal of becoming debt free.
Good luck with your garage sale!
Chris, our realtor turned down the business I think more because she was annoyed about selling the house, and at the same time she knows she will not make much money off it. Higher it sells for, the cut is better. Selling the house at this moment is a stupid move and I think it would be less stressful to wait it out until next year. Yes I agree we need a budget, but both of us have to be willing to follow it which is not the case lately.
Maria, I am not making much progress on goals because the money can’t keep up with the month right now. What makes it worse is her job changed for the summer so she brings in less money than before. Unless she delays student teaching this fall due to selling our house and moving, she won’t be working much this fall and then the money situation gets worse.
Getting rid of debt is not my only driving force. I am trying to get things to become stable and encourage her to get done with school so she will be able to start her career with some decent regular income. If either one of our incomes were to get a bit of a boost I think we could knock debt out quick as long as nothing stupid happens (she does not like her car and wants a better one) and lifestyle stays like it is now. I think she just feels stuck right now and wants a more exciting lifestyle, like we had in college with no money getting in debt. We both have very different views on how to go about things and no matter how I tell her there is no quick fix to getting out of debt. I am not resorting to a personal loan in order to sell our house and rent, something has to give.
I am in the same boat as you when it comes to our home. We bought a home that was way beyond our means. We actually should not have been approved for the amount but that’s a whole other story. Our market took a fall because of the investors. According to a couple of articles that we read, are area is supposed to spring back. So when we talked to a real estate agent about selling, she told us to wait until next year. She said taking a loss would be stupid and that are area is building and that should help us sell easier. Right now we would have to find a GOOD real estate agent to sell our home at maybe $10,000 less than what we paid for. We are going to take the agent’s advice and wait until summer of next year to put it on the market. I don’t know the specifics about your area but I assume most of the U.S. is trending the same. Very soft market. But if you think your payments are too high to manage, you might want to consider selling. I guess it depends on how long it will take you to pay off your debt and become right-side up again. Also be careful of the whole “city” atmosphere. We moved away from it and now we are going back to it. But this time we are going prepared.