quixotic journey to Lexington?

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted.

Well, big decision was made around Labor Day where Tam knew the chief job in Lexington was coming up. She was qualified. It was a dream job/promotion. Should she go for it... after long deliberation I said yes.

One of the things I've thought deeply about is being in this cool house, but really wanting to get out. It's too big for us. I now realize I want a "home" meaning my family and not the house. A smaller house in a suburban community in a more diverse place with more opportunity made sense.

I am quite torn though because it is gorgeous here.

I will never forget signing on the dotted line for 240K worth of mortgage and thinking 'this is a ton of money'. Especially here in the middle of nowhere. But everyone else was doing it... Yes, I have a 1/4 million dollar view, no doubt, but still. Well, we knew our exit strategy would be uncle sam buying the house as the thought was Tam could go for a promotion at some point. And this has happened. However, as part of the plan, I did not count on the housing market crashing.

So as of this morning, I heard our next door neighbor is going into foreclosure secretly. They even own a business and had been there for a long time. Wow. The house 3 doors down foreclosed about a year ago and the sell price for both is LOW. I am told that our county and the surrounding ones are generally selling for 55% of their tax assessed value. Ouch. We have a nicer house than those others, but...

The bottom line: We are going to pay big time to get out of this lovely place.

I know Tam has lofty ambitions and admirable ones and in the end we shall be happier. My guess is we are going to eat 100K total when you add in $$ we used to improve this place. I am happy I was able to make this place better. We will likely have to tap the 401K to square the mortgage [please tell me that won't happen!]. In the end, we will work for at least 5 years longer just to make up for this shortfall, since 100K at 20 years before retirement compound interest will add up to a lot of $ had we not had to do this. Good news is Tam will make more $, but this is going to be a financial wreck. I more or less knew this when making the decision months ago, but reality has hit home.

Tam, I love you, and congrats on this position. We will make it work.