Buying a Home

There seems to be a lot of people who have the desire to own a home larger than they really need for a variety of reasons, the least of which is the fact that they have the money to do so, but also, a larger than needed home is a status symbol in the eyes of most Americans, just like buying a luxury car.

I had a real estate agent friend one time tell me that he invested in an large than life luxury car because he wanted to impress him clients and give them the impression that he was very successful at what he did otherwise he would not have been able to afford such an expensive car.  However, he never shared with me any data as to whether or not it worked for him as he had anticipated.

I have know other people who invest in 3 large bedroom house when they have no children nor do they want any and seldom do they have any house guests.  These same people have a formal and informal living rooms, a large kitchen that could be cut in half for two homes and still have a larger kitchen that is typically inside these types of homes.

What's the point?

• Do you clean the house yourself or do you hire someone to clean it?
• What are your heating and cooling bills like?
• How much time do you actually spend in all of these rooms?

My wife and I have just under (but not by much) a 3,000 square foot home and now that we are retired, we see this house as more of an inconvenience than a convenience.  We simply do not need this much space.  We have 2 bedrooms that we never use that we have furnished that collects dust.  Our living room is way too big for 2-4 people and when we get together with friends there is always more than enough room.

Our furnished basement which is the same size as the upper house plus the ground level garage which is why we are closer to 3,000 square feet than away from it, is never used unless we have to keep our cats sequestered so that we can catch them easier to take to the Vet.

The basement also houses our storage boxes that we never go into to see what's there and exercise equipment that we no longer use...  but, we do keep our Christmas tree and other decorations down there as well as our lawn mowers.

What we need is a smaller house and a outdoor building for storage and all on one level with a yard that is only large enough to picture frame our house on all sides by a yard or two.  It would not be totally necessary but we could put solar panels on the roof although heating and cooling costs for a smaller house would not be that bad.

And since we are both retired, there is absolutely no need to have a bunch of clothes as most of the time we are lounging around the house in casual clohtes and we wear a little better casual clothes when we go out to eat or go on vactation...  we could donate to charity over half our clothes and still have plenty.  I have not put on a pair of socks in over 5 years.

While we have plenty of money for retirement in that our lifestyle is the same now as when we were working, we are consciously trying to spend less rather than trying to spend more...  and, not because we want to hurt the US economy but because there is simply no need to spend all that money.

Americans need to learn not to be so GREEDY with everything...