My realtor :(

I was 25 and very overwhelmed by it all.

I love my house, it seems perfect still several years later and I've only had to do some minor repairs.

But I'll get one to make sure no dangers are lurking where me and my handy man can't see!

I mean 30 year old me recognizes that was a super weird thing to say.

25 year old me felt super over his head anyway.

But I'm getting an inspector! Don't you fret!

The land it's on is "currently" more expensive than what I paid for it 5 years ago. Just recently got an appraisal done.

If I tried to buy this house now with my income the bank would laugh at me.

Sorry to anyone who didn't buy a house pre - covid :(

The housing market was silly for awhile. Lots of homes basically had a clause of "If inspection done, no sale"

Well even the land itself is worth more than I paid, and 5 years of no problems is a great start. But will find a good inspector and see if I really did get that lucky!

Thank you! I wish I could give advice that was relevant to the current time . If I was 24 and didn't own a home I'd probably be having to do math on buying a 100k home in a super cheap area in a different state. But that would come with other hidden costs like having to own a car, not having access to good medical care, possibly higher crime rate, if I didn't have a WFH job then finding a job will most likely be a pay cut and if I lost my WFH job I'd have to most likely take a lower paying job, then of course if I wanted to see my family ever I'd have to budget in that....

Ugh. IDK man, I feel awful for people just 5 years younger than me.

Hey man I didn't say it was smart!

And it was one of those things where it's like I had X amount of money, and afterwards I was going to have not much money at all. So spending $300 more of that tiny remaining money was uncomfortable.

The simple, but annoying answer, was luck and fear.

I grew up in poverty on account of my father going to prison very young and my unprepared mom having to somehow take care of 3 kids and realizing he had made lots of money vanish and stolen lots of the money we did have that needed to be returned, and instead of inheriting money irresponsibly, I got a crippling fear of debt and spending money on non necessities.

But at the same time I was making around 70k a year at 25, because at 20 I got my associates in IT, then found a job paying above what I was asking for in under a month after graduating, and I still work at that job 10 years later as they've been very reasonable through everything. Getting that job SOO fast that worked out so well was just pure luck.

Also I couldn't buy the house I'm in anymore, buying at 25 instead of 26 was pure luck. If I had been born a year later, buying at 25 wouldn't have worked. The price of the house went up about 100k a few months later.

Also even in 2019, my home was considered a fantastic deal. A 2k square foot town home for 240k in a medium sized city (the one I grew up in), within walking distance of main street. It has an hoa, but it only has 9 other town homes in it, and we have a massive shared common area and pool. Having a pool I only have to share with a dozen other people is a luxury I never imagined. Hoa fee is 200$ and they've only ever asked me to pull weeds around my house when a neighbor was selling theirs and they wanted it to look pretty to help out a neighbor.

So I actually don't have a car (too expensive) and I can walk/bike to grocery stores, doctors appointments, the like. To top it off it's only about 3 miles from where my mom lives, and we just recently moved my grandma into a senior living center about a mile away so she's close to me and my mom.

So, yeah. I just saved every penny to a stupid level, then got rather lucky. Saving every penny at my income wouldn't have worked without the luck. Never being unemployed in my entire life was pure luck. Finding a home that met all my needs perfectly within my budget was crazy.

The cheapest home in this city are 200k 900 square feet town homes, but because of the interest rates the monthly payments are 50% higher than my beloved home.

But all that luck wouldn't have meant a thing if I hadn't saved like crazy. Sooo... yeah. For context, after much cajoling from counseling I have agreed to allow myself 100$ fun budget per month, and $400 a month for food so I buy more "nice" food. My only debts are a little bit of my college loans (I paid off all the high interest ones and the only ones left are like 3%. I had a tradition where every tax return I just put the entire thing towards the highest interest student loan) and my mortgage which is at 4.25%. I'm going to retire a millionaire and with a fully paid off home.

But it's so sad, because people taking the EXACT same actions as me, but 2 years younger, won't. They'll have to rent their entire life, or buy a home out in the middle of nowhere away from family and services. Which means they'll most likely need a car and have to pay other premiums.

Oh sick!

I always find joy in the fact that vegan community accidentally made a large infrastructure for people who need to cut out certain animal products.

Find that you can't eat eggs? Vegans know what replacements work for what purpose.

Milk disagree with you? They have choices!

Happy to hear that it made it easier to cut out dairy for your health!

"Hear me out"

describes a lazy chocolate coffee

I mean it is a unique way of making it, but it's still just adding coco powder and sugar to cold brew!

Oooh great shout! Now remembering how crazy we would go with the little $20 popcorn machine my mom bought.

I mean a small amount of oil usually helps.