Everybody Loves Your Money

I have to confess.  I really enjoy reading about other people’s finances and day to day dealings with money.  I wish that Oprah would have a weekly Debt Diet episode so that I can see more families who are either struggling with their finances, or are doing exceptionally well with them.  Honestly, I think I’d rather see a reality show about families that are doing well.  I’d watch with intense interest to see what kind of decisions they are making, and how they manage their money.

I do a little of this voyeurism in my own neighborhood.  It isn’t hard to see which families in our neighborhood are smart with their money, and which ones aren’t.  There are some neighbors that have MANY different toys.  Boats, motorcycles, new cars all the time, and many other fancy things.  Every now and then I pick up on a few words they mention that helps me paint a mental picture on where I think they are at.

In other cases, I just flat out talk about finances with my neighbors.  There is one neighbor that I’ve had many conversations with.  They are very much like I am, if not a bit smarter with their money.  They don’t drive brand new cars (strike one for me) and we’ve talked about how smart that is.  Needless to say, when I got my new truck earlier this year, I got lots of teasing from them.  In fact, they mentioned that they had considered buying a new version of the car they bought, but decided not to, because for one thing, they knew I’d tease them.  Well, they got the last laugh on that one.  I’ve also had some pretty good conversations with these neighbors on how they save their money.  They were smart to put money in college funds for their kids and also have made sure that they save enough for their retirement.  I get the sense that they are at the point where they’ve amassed enough assets that, no matter what happens, they’ll be in good shape.  Sometimes I wish I could just take a peak at their finances to see more specifically where they have made the best choices.  I think it’s unfortunate that such a critical part of our lives has to be so secret.

If only we could wear our net worth number on our sleeves instead of trying to drive our net worth, or live in our net worth, or wear our net worth.  So many people are so concerned with showing the material things they have, that it just helps reinforce our extremely materialistic society.  Maybe some day materialism will get the negative attention it deserves.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go fill up the gas tank in my HUMMER.

I’m now the proud owner of a partially completed second home.  Okay, we are going to call it a cabin but it’s a 30X32 building.  The first floor is all one large garage.  The second floor is a two bedroom 1 bath apartment, I guess you’d call it.  When it’s done it will have hardwood floors and granite in the kitchen.  I’ve been looking around and granite really isn’t that expensive for a smaller kitchen.  My family will be helping us finish it.  We plan on doing all the wiring, plumbing, and most of the other finishing work.  I’ll probably sub out the insulation and drywall, but we’ll do the rest.

For those of you that are wondering if I’ve fallen off my rocker, I haven’t.  Basically I saw this as a great way to increase my net worth over time and also enjoy having a place out by the lake.  Because we got a great price on it from a friend, we walked in to a little instant equity.  About 30K to be exact.  Once the place is finished, we estimate our equity in it will be around 60K.  We don’t plan on selling it, but it’s good to know that it is one more asset that is appreciating in our portfolio.  While cash flow is going to take a bit of a hit for awhile, I think it’s going to be worth it.  My wife is going to go back to work, at least for awhile, so that we can pay cash for the rest of the construction.  The goal will be to own this free and clear as soon as possible.  The good news is that we will be writing off all the interest that we are paying for it, because we used some home equity to cover the purchase cost.  (Oh and believe me.  It was a fixed rate.  I don’t need any surprises)

I’ll post a picture of it once we get it roofed and sided.