Well, we closed on 6/30, and now all my crap is on a truck on its way to Gaithersburg MD. Did I rationalize? I don’t think so. I can’t even find a rental close to my new house for anything near to what my mortgage payment is. I also won’t have a guy in a little beat-up yellow pickup with a clipboard in front of my house scheduling the trustee sale (this happened 10 days prior to our move, I asked the guy how much time we had and he couldn’t tell me, but he said we still had some time).

Renting was very good to me, and it allowed me to save the nice chunk of change that I could use as a down payment. But renting is not without its problems. While living in LA we had to move twice, once after my first year, and I had to do that one myself. I cannot tell you how stressful that was for my family. I also feel a little better about this money when the inevitable inflation finally hits. What’s the difference if the money is lost due to depreciation of the house, or if its spending power is decreased through inflation? At least now my housing costs are fixed at a price I can very comfortably afford. When inflation comes I’ll be smelling like a rose. If the money was in a CD or other safe investment I would lose by both lost spending power, and having to pay increasing housing costs.

I am now very well situated to ride out anything that comes economically. My job is completely safe. Even if the Navy dumps me, I could find a new job in about 5 minutes. I don’t see procreation dropping off any time soon, and women keep having babies later and later in life, which keeps the high-risk OBs quite busy.

I hope I can keep my PIGG status on the East coast.