My Story (part 2): Hoping for the best

In 2007 my new career started to show promise. In the first year I only made 20% of my previous salary, yet I was optimistic that I was on my way.

By this time I had met my future husband. We were living together and starting to consolidate households. Between us we had two houses, two boats, a truck, SUV and a car. My husband was much more fiscally conservative than me. He had paid cash (I liked to finance things) for his boat, truck and commuter car. The only debt he had was his mortgage. And it was a much smaller mortgage. But his house was essentially a bat-infested tear down that had to be rebuilt from the ground up.

We were already living in my house and felt that due to its location it had greater potential for appreciation. (Translation: Surely the market will continue to go up 20% a year and if we hold on to this baby for a couple years we’ll be loaded!!!) So in July 2007 we put his house on the market. We also sold his boat and my SUV. We were lucky to sell them. Had we waited even 6 months we would still be stuck with a gas guzzling SUV and a second boat.

We had scaled down a bit, but did we go far enough?

“He that lives upon hope will die fasting.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

My Story (part 3): First taste of failure

Or start from the beginning here.

Be Sociable, Share!

•