mistakes – Seriously Frugal

Home is where the heart (and most of the expense) is.

Of our many mistakes with money, one that is particularly ironic has to do with housing. The irony is due to the fact that our mortgages have been, by far, our largest debts in our lifetime. Yet, by having had so many of them — each with a break in between — we’ve been temporarily debt free several times.

By the time we had been married for 20 years, we had purchased our fourth house with our fourth 30 year mortgage. It’s not like we’ve ever had to move due to some compelling outside reason like a job transfer or being closer to an ailing loved one. In fact, none of our homes has ever been outside a ten-mile radius from our first. Each time, we had different reasons that prompted us to leave. They were generally the wrong reasons and, being honest with ourselves, they generally shared a common theme.

Continue reading “Home Again, Home Again (and Again, and Again)”

We have made TONS of financial mistakes over the years; so many, in fact, that when we reflect upon our past, it is a miracle that we are free from consumer debt and continue to pay additional principal on our mortgage every month.

Over the next several months we will be sharing our biggest mistakes. We aren’t doing this because we want to beat ourselves up and relive the decisions we wish we could take back, but because we sincerely hope we can help someone else from making the same mistakes.

Neither of us was raised in a family where financial matters were discussed, let alone healthy financial attitudes and strategies encouraged. This is not to lay blame, but to set the stage that we have, for the most part, been figuring this out on our own. In most cases, we failed to seek — and when we did seek, we often did not find — wise counsel. We find ourselves reflecting on our past and say, what if? It is not helpful, but when we think about retirement, which is creeping up much faster than we would like to admit, it sometimes can’t be avoided.

If you’ve not already “been there and done that” allow us to present our own experiences as cautionary tales.

Continue reading “That thing you should never do? Yeah, we did it.”