I think it's worth spending a little time imagining raising kids in your current, normal-sized house--and it is a perfectly normal-sized house to raise kids in. Would it really be so bad? What wouldn't you be able to do? How many of those things could be achieved with clever customization?
A house can be "nice" without being huge. You could probably customize your house into a beautifully crafted jewel with a tiny fraction of the money that a larger house would cost. A modest-sized child's bedroom could be created such that it's the absolute envy of that child's friends.
Also, you're not even talking about the firm decision to raise kids in that normal-sized house, just the risk, the modest possibility, that housing prices might go up so high that you end up doing so.
But there are other possibilities that may be worth leaving open. You might want to make a career change. You might want to go part time. You might want to take a year off to take those kids to Europe. You might want to spring for a really expensive school. And all of those things will be harder with less money.
The money you're making now could buy you freedom. Time with the kids. Experiences. Security. Better school and college for your kids. A more comfortable retirement.
I think it's worth thinking about where house size fits in your financial priorities, when it's compared with those other things.
I don't think that your kids' friends will say, "Mom says I can't visit, because a house smaller than 3000 square feet just isn't safe to enter. She says it might blow away in a high wind." I don't think your friends will shun you either. Will they?We speculated that the kids might feel inadequate when visiting their friends’ nice houses. While we could teach them not to compare themselves to others, they are still just kids. We hope our kids will feel like they’re growing up in an “average” household. Since we’re not parents yet, we might just be overthinking this.
A house can be "nice" without being huge. You could probably customize your house into a beautifully crafted jewel with a tiny fraction of the money that a larger house would cost. A modest-sized child's bedroom could be created such that it's the absolute envy of that child's friends.
Also, you're not even talking about the firm decision to raise kids in that normal-sized house, just the risk, the modest possibility, that housing prices might go up so high that you end up doing so.
But there are other possibilities that may be worth leaving open. You might want to make a career change. You might want to go part time. You might want to take a year off to take those kids to Europe. You might want to spring for a really expensive school. And all of those things will be harder with less money.
The money you're making now could buy you freedom. Time with the kids. Experiences. Security. Better school and college for your kids. A more comfortable retirement.
I think it's worth thinking about where house size fits in your financial priorities, when it's compared with those other things.
Statistics: Posted by BirdFood — Thu Aug 01, 2024 2:12 am