Once you hit the point of no mortgage payments life is so.... Oh I don't know.... relaxed. Oh I still have property taxes (boooo!), income taxes, and yes - I have yet to pay off a nice 2010 used car I bought this summer. Still, not sending out that big chunk of money every month still is so odd. Its like I work for me now, instead of others. What a concept!
This hit home when I left for a week's vacation to near DisneyWorld. Yes, I paid my mother to use her timeshare, but that was almost all of the expenses for the trip. There was gas (using gift cards I earned, the balance put on my credit card was about $100), food ($40 @ Aldi's in the Orlando area), eating out was nothing (used gift cards I got for free for Subway and Burger King), and the parks were free (excess tickets my mother had that she gave me and my girlfriend). And then when I returned home there were no bills, just a regular paycheck from work. I even had the power off for the week, so no expenses at all! Only bad part was returning to the office on Monday.
Yes, there will be expenses coming down the road (take down some trees, replace the driveway, replace the flooring in the house, and I'm sure there'll be more), but when you know you don't have to keep running on that hamster wheel you can live life in the moment so much easier - it's great.
Oh, and to make this a finance posting --- If you get to the point I am (no mortgage), seriously consider an umbrella insurance policy. I hate paying money for this but.... intellectually I know its a good idea, and for about $10/mo. its not going to kill me.
Life on the other side
December 8th, 2011 at 07:12 pm
December 8th, 2011 at 07:32 pm 1323372775
December 8th, 2011 at 09:19 pm 1323379158
December 8th, 2011 at 09:42 pm 1323380538
You must be my alter ego. I also need to cut down trees and replace the driveway.
But what exactly does an umbrella policy do?
December 8th, 2011 at 10:39 pm 1323383984
December 8th, 2011 at 11:14 pm 1323386075
December 9th, 2011 at 03:02 pm 1323442942
December 9th, 2011 at 04:47 pm 1323449262
We of course have an umbrella policy. I think it is important, regardless.
December 9th, 2011 at 06:20 pm 1323454818