Madison MoneySports - Personal Finance Thread

[Apoc]

i find comfort in knowing that there's a place i can just call home that isn't controlled by someone else (with the exception of property taxes and the gov't since i'm not sure you can't get away from that completely in the US).  The long-term goal would be to find a smaller place with less of a tax footprint that is a pleasant place to live.

Stability is one thing when you're raising kids, but I don't need that kind of stability once my kid is out of the house. I guess if I'm infirmed I'd want it. but I hope that's not until I get a good 10 years in after I retire (targeting 61).

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housing market stuff is so weird. if it were paid off today we could probably get $400k for our home... maybe that sees 500k later or more... but I'm going to have to spend some of that to live somewhere else. so I just don't do the math with that "guess" of a number in 22 years.

I'm quickly arriving at excluding it from consideration at all because it's hard to model out. 

Assume you had been in seattle 15 years and your house is paid off and sells for $1M.  I know none of these things are reality but I'm throwing a dart here to make a point.  You cash out that equity and stick it in some investment vehicle that earns you 5% per year, or $50k, or $4167/mo.  Now the house isnt worth that much and the rent isnt that high, but, compared to just living in the paid off house where you only owe the taxes & upkeep I guess thats an audible down the line on whether you want lower costs or more flexibility.

Your math actually isn't that far off, as these are the values I was assuming. That's ~$4,600 per month, or $7,400 if you assume 20 years of 2.5% inflation. We could probably rent our place for $3,200 today, which is $5,200 in 20 years with the same inflation.

Who knows where the world economy is headed, but I gotta think we could cash out and live on this. If not, we're dumb as shit. It's all a matter of choice. I don't care about having a higher cash outflow in retirement than people living in a paid off house, as long as I have a higher basis I'm working from.



I'm seen some pretty shitty thing happen to property rights and taxation in Seattle over the last five years. It's really driven home that it's where the government is going to continue their growth in revenue. Many people who planned to own their paid off home in Seattle until they died are being forced out by increases in property taxes and assessed value. I suppose you could hedge that by living in a red state... but then you're living in a red state.