“You’re right I should be using it but I’m kinda on autopilot”
I kinda think that most people are on autopilot most of their lives. They may not realize it, but more and more I think it is true. The worst part about that is that they dont realize how to improve the world or their own lives. A coworker of mine just saw “an inconvient truth” over xmas break for the first time. Came into work all gungho about makeing work cleaner and less waistfull. Sat down to tell us all about how she was gonna do her part, and did so with a disposable plastic cup in her hand. She goes through a half dozen of them everyday. All the rest of us use cermaic cups or Nalgene bottles, but she doesnt like to wash a dish at work. We gave her crap about it, and sure enough a Nalgene bottle showed up, used it about 1 day, and then it was back to the little cups. Too hard to change her habits.
I see this all the time. My roommate still shaves and washes dishes with the water running. I yell at him all the time, and he always turns it off. We do live in a desert damnint, and water and heat are not free. But sure enough, ill come home and the next day there is the water going.
A friend went out and bought a new truck last year. I asked why. She doesnt do ANYTHING but commute, and has no reason to need a truck. She use to drive a truck, needed a new one, and went out and got a new one. No thought process, no self analysis. Besides she added, if I ever move again, I wont need to rent a truck! GREAT, 5 years of getting 18mpg so she can commute, plus the truck premium to buy, to avoid MAYBE needing to rent a truck for a day. Cost/benifit has nothing to do with it. People suck at challenging themselves and making improvements in our daily lives.
To relate this to real estate, I guess it comes back to the emotional reasons to buy now. I know someone who is pregnant. She was a renter. They prepared a nursery for the baby and talked of buying someday in Esco when prices stopped falling. All of a sudden they went out and bought a house. Why? “Cause they were gonna have a baby.” HUH? you already have a nursery all set up, now you have to move 9 months pregnant and redo a nursery. They didnt get a good deal in my opnion either, but I dont have a MLS, so I cant post. (not really comfortable doing it either).
No baby I have ever heard of had any better test scores, growth rates, or happyness because their parents were owners instead of renters. In all actuality, I know they had to stretch, and now have little money left over for all the extra expenses that will be adding up, not to mention that the commute just got an extra 20 minutes longer. So you streched to overpay for a house that is depreciating as we speak, to redo a bunch of work at 9 months and expecting any day now so you could drive an extra 20 minutes? All for a baby that doesnt know the difference? And this is rational? Cause I know both you and your husband are highly educated people.
No, your plan set out at 14 says that youll get married and buy a house, and then have kids, and rather than change yourself and your expectations, you made a questionable (dumb IMO) decision and defend it with something that no one will ever challenge.
It is your money and I cant stop you, nor will I try. But it is my opinion, and you cant stop me from making fun of you when your back is turned.
