Should we move, and temporarily give up FIRE?

[waltworks]

TL;DR - our neighborhood isn't great for kids, but our house is amazing for FIRE purposes. We'd like to move for our kids sake, but we'd make a considerable financial sacrifice to do it.

Life Situation: Married (filing jointly) ages 39 and 42. Kids 7, 5, and not yet born (due in August). Live in a HCOL ski town in UT.

Gross Salary/Wages: Me ~$70-90k/year (work 15-20 hours per week, varies based on my motivation), Mrs. WW $3-5k/year (substitute teaching for fun)

Individual amounts of each Pre-tax deductions: varies a bit but we use solo 401k and tIRAs to keep our MAGI optimized for ACA subsidies.

Qualified Dividends & Long Term Capital Gains: About $10k per year spread through retirement and taxable accounts

Rental Income, Actual Expenses, and Depreciation: Basement apartment (in our primary) nets about $17k per year after expenses. No other rentals right now.

Current expenses: $32-35k/year (tracked very carefully by my wife). I'm going to leave out the gory details since this question isn't really about optimizing expenses; we do pretty well at that as it is.

Expected ER expenses: $25-30k/year once kids are all launched, but that's 20 years out.

Assets:
$300k in IRAs and 401ks
$200k in taxable
$900k house (owned outright/no mortgage)
$25k in industrial tools/supplies for my business
2 cars worth maybe $5k combined, if we're being generous
$15k worth of bicycles/bicycle parts and frames

Liabilities: None. So NW somewhere between $1.4 and $1.5 million.

Specific Question(s):

We live in a McMansion on a golf course (at the time we purchased it, it was less than half it's current value, and it was an ideal place to live for Mrs WW to commute by bus to her postdoc). Now that we have small kids, and another on the way, and she no longer works, we notice the shortcomings of the neighborhood for kids more and more. The street we're on is pretty busy, there are no sidewalks, there's no park or public gathering place other than the golf course, and groceries/free concerts/library are about 4 miles away (there's a nice bike path, though).

So it's not a great place for the kids. They are isolated from their peers (nobody in the neighborhood lets their kids roam around, even playing with friends 1/4 mile away tends to involve driving for our neighbors). We're the out of place bike-commuting hippies, basically.

But our house is great. It's huge, but we've leveraged that to bring in quite a bit of income with a basement apartment. It has plenty of room for my tools and our bikes and skis and other gear. It's not an architectural wonder or anything, but it's financially awesome. Or at least as awesome as a nearly-million-dollar house can be.

We could move to another neighborhood nearby that's more centrally located (we rarely drive as it is, but this would reduce driving to basically zero) and is very quiet/kid friendly. Open space and trails accessible safely for even small kids without supervision, lots of fun trail/ski access for everyone just like where we live now, etc. Awesome for kids, just as awesome as where we are currently for adults.

But that neighborhood is also more expensive. To get a house roughly equivalent to what we have now (including space to build an apartment for passive income) would cost $100-200k more than our place. Figure in costs to sell/move and that jumps up another $50k or so. Not to mention the hassle.

We're not interested in moving to a LCOL area, so feel free to facepunch about our insane housing costs - but I'll ignore it.

So: we're currently FI, albeit barely. Should we give that up to improve (theoretically) our situation for our kids, and REALLY concentrate our NW in our house (even more so than now)?

Other factors:

-I'm not interested in quitting work outright (I like what I do and do better with a little bit of schedule/responsibility/structure), but it seems like every year I work a little bit less. I have a hard time imagining not bringing in some form of income. Mrs WW is a biochemistry PhD who is passionate about primary STEM education so she will probably end up working part time for the school district at some point once our youngest is school aged. The district has made it very clear they want to hire her anytime she's willing to work. Likewise if my business goes belly up for some reason the recreation district here would hire me to run/maintain grooming equipment and do fun stuff like that in a hot second. So we don't need or want to live on investments or passive income anytime in the medium term future.

-Kid friendly neighborhood has a lower performing school. I'm not personally concerned about that (it just has more hispanic kids, really), nor is Mrs. WW.

-We haven't decided whether we want to pay part/all of kids college. I'd guess we'll pay some of it.

-We'd like to foster/adopt more kids in the future, which obviously costs money.

-Mrs. WW's mother lives with us, and is not able to live on her own. She's in basically good health and on SS/Medicare, but she will require some amount of extra care/resources from us at some point in the future.


I see our options as:

1: Stay in place indefinitely.
Pros: money volcano continues to erupt, as much free time as adults want to do what we want, plenty of resources for MIL, more kids, have more money not tied up in house, etc.
Cons: car-dependent neighborhood is terrible, street is busy and dangerous for kids.

2: Stay for a few more years.
Pros: save up more money to make moving less financially stupid (sort of), can avoid stress of moving with pregnant wife or new baby, can be opportunistic if a really great house comes on market where we want to be.
Cons: By the time we'd move, kids would have missed out on a lot of roaming around on their own having fun.

3: Move now.
Pros: gets us where we want to be, kids out being free range. There's a house that would work for us on the market, too.
Cons: either we'd have a mortgage again, or we'd have almost nothing in liquid non-retirement assets available for a while. Costs at least $150k and more like $250k to accomplish. Means giving up FI status and being house poor (we're arguably already house poor).


Thoughts?

-W
 

[Watchmaker]

I wouldn't be comfortable having 9/15 of my net worth tied up in a house. So, obviously I wouldn't be comfortable with ~11/15 either.

If I did buy the new house, I'd use the opportunity to decrease the equity I had in my home to ~30% of my net worth (getting a sizable mortgage and investing the remaining equity from the house sale).

And I'd plan on continuing to work at least as much as you have been for the foreseeable future.

And, if I was going to move, I'd see no reason to wait since a few years won't materially change the financial situation and childhood is short.

[erutio]

I would make the move in your situation.

[doggyfizzle]

So I figure you sell your current place (while interest rates are low and the economy is humming along) and you walk with~$900k, and you roll that into a $1.2 million-ish house?  Mortgage of $250k-ish doesn't seem like a big deal at current interest rates (3.75-4.25% is what I'm seeing) with your current expenses of ~$35k coupled with $85k give or take of labor-income and $25k of passive (rental, dividends) income.  It sounds like you may be in the Park City (or similar) area, which sounds like an an awesome place to live, especially as a kid.  With three kids, I'd go for the move if there is a house that suits your needs.  A mortgage of $250k, partially offset by rental income isn't going to nuke your budget, and with your level of income from work and your wife's possible future work, it seems like a good move for your family and will still allow you to invest in tax deferred and taxable accounts and grow your liquid net worth.  Take my opinion with a grain of salt though, as I am a FI-er, and not really interested in FIRE, and choose to live and raise my kid in a HCOL coastal area.

[waltworks]

Yeah, to be clear - I consider myself RE right now. I can go do anything I want, whenever I want. The 15 hours of work is something I enjoy (basically I get paid to do my hobby) and I like that it keeps me a little bit scheduled/responsible.

So I don't want or need to live on passive income/do no paid work at all, though it's always nice to know that I could if I had to.

I think it would only take 2 or 3 years to be back at that point if we did move now. Or less if I worked a little more (not likely with a baby coming for a year at least, though).

And yes, we're in Park City.

-W

[caracarn]

The situation for the kids does sound sad.  With that said, even though we live in an area that the kids could do everything you say, they do not because they all prefer to be tied to their devices and just texting each other and are fine seeing each other at school, so you may find you move and your kids are just home bodies anyway.  Now we do not live in an outdoor wonderland like you do, so perhaps kids there still love to be outside, but here in midwest suburbia, kids (not just ours) look at us like we are aliens if we suggest they go outside and ride their bike or run around.  My personally, I'd be very upset if I made this type of change, which really is totally based on the kids the way you write it, and find they are doing nothing differently and you just tied up more of your cash and insured you need to work more than you might like. 

[Watchmaker]

I think it would only take 2 or 3 years to be back at that point if we did move now.

It sounds like you are saving something like $50k-75k a year, so you could earn the $250k to cover the expense in 3.5-5 years. But you were going to earn that money anyway, so buying the new house will still be putting you behind where you would have been otherwise.

You need to work more or longer to "make up for" the additional expense. If you switched to working full time for 4 years that would do it, for example.

[kendallf]

My personally, I'd be very upset if I made this type of change, which really is totally based on the kids the way you write it, and find they are doing nothing differently and you just tied up more of your cash and insured you need to work more than you might like.

I would think about this also.  Most people's kids don't spend lots of unstructured time outside these days, sadly.  It's personally kind of ironic; now that my kids are grown and moved out, we moved to "the hood" (a low income neighborhood in the city, badly rated schools).  The kids are all outside in our neighborhood, probably because they don't have families with money, time or space for lots of indoor techie pursuits or organized sports/activities.  I kind of like it.. except for when I yell at 'em to get off my lawn.  Kidding, I have a pit bull for that.

[waltworks]

That's a good point. Our particular kids spend basically all of their time mountain biking, skiing, hiking, rock climbing, and wandering around the back yard throwing mud balls/spraying each other with the hose. Park City in general is an old-school kids-play-until-dinnertime in the summer kind of place. With the exception of our neighborhood... sigh. It seemed like the perfect spot 6 years ago.

The kids don't own or use any electronic devices, though we do have a couple of old iPads that we take on long car trips (they just have sketching/doodling and educational apps on them).

I'm writing this on a 12 year old laptop that someone gave me, to put in perspective how not into tech we are. Our possessions outside of outdoor sports gear and our garbage cars can't be worth even $1000. 

So my personal feeling is that the kids would be in heaven. But it certainly would suck if in 5 years they were both glued to phones all day.

-W

[waltworks]

I should also note that I care essentially zero about houses outside of their utilitarian features and location. So when kids are grown, we'd downside to a small condo or something. As such, I suppose I *could* look at an expensive house as a low-yield savings account of sorts (I'm not going to assume it's going to appreciate).

I'm not super comfortable planning 20 years out like that, though. Climate change could render Park City snow-free and then I'm guessing a big house near the ski slopes wouldn't be worth a whole heck of a lot!

-W

[caracarn]

You could still hike up the mountain.  Climate change will not make those disappear, just will change if they are frosted for part of the year or not.

Keep in mind this is coming from a guy who tried to learn to ski once and was scared to death after the first trip up the ski lift ended with an employee grabbing my hood to keep me from going over the cliff into the snow fence because I had no idea how to turn.  Never tried skiing again, just figured it was too likely to end with me hurt or dead.  My wife and I prefer walking through mountains without snow.

[Papa bear]

Keep your eyes open for a better place to move to find something worthwhile.  You don’t have to move, so you don’t have to buy the next place up.

I would want to be in the better neighborhood for the kids.  You know real estate, scope out for “deals” in the area you want and pounce on it when you’re ready.  Time is on your side with this.

Edited to add:

You know this, real estate is location location location.  You can change pretty much anything about a house, but hard to change the entire neighborhood to how you want it.

I’m in a slightly different situation. I LOVE the neighborhood and location, but I’m about maxed out to do what I can with my house.  My wife would love more space, I want a workshop. I can’t build out, but potentially could build up over a garage.  So far, we stay. Because walking everywhere, tons of kids and parks for our kids, and fantastic neighbors is hard to leave.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MrThatsDifferent]

I’d pick option #3 and in your heart I think you know it’s the best choice. If you can give your kids that free roam experience that’s safe, while they can still enjoy it, then do that. I had that in my childhood and it was magical (I’m also surprised I’m not dead considering what we got up to). The money doesn’t seem like much of an issue cause you’re going to be working anyways and you’re not planning on moving. And sure, a lot of your money is tied up in property, but so? If you’re downsizing you’ll get that back. I’d move and take out a 15 year mortgage. That’ll coincide with the kids being almost all gone, once the last leaves it’s empty nest time! You’ll never get this time back with them again and they only get one childhood. Make it as magical as you can.

[waltworks]

I’d pick option #3 and in your heart I think you know it’s the best choice. If you can give your kids that free roam experience that’s safe, while they can still enjoy it, then do that. I had that in my childhood and it was magical (I’m also surprised I’m not dead considering what we got up to). The money doesn’t seem like much of an issue cause you’re going to be working anyways and you’re not planning on moving. And sure, a lot of your money is tied up in property, but so? If you’re downsizing you’ll get that back. I’d move and take out a 15 year mortgage. That’ll coincide with the kids being almost all gone, once the last leaves it’s empty nest time! You’ll never get this time back with them again and they only get one childhood. Make it as magical as you can.

Yeah, that's the way I'm leaning too. I don't need or want to do zero work, but I've been focused on the whole FIRE concept for the last 5 or 6 years and I think it's become an end in itself for me to an unhealthy extent. I'm realizing now that I don't actually care about having a ton of passive income, though it's certainly nice. I am already living the life I want while making more than enough money to support our lifestyle - and I can continue to do that while making life better for my family, so why not do it?

-W

[fuzzy math]

I wouldn't do it.

I've moved numerous times with my 3 kids. They're now 12, 9 and 7. We have friends in the neighborhood (I can see their homes from my front and back windows) and they don't see them every day. My DD had 3 neighborhood friends within a block, all 3 have moved. It sounds like you want to create an experience for your kids, but its an experience you can't guarantee. Not only would you have to find a home in the right neighborhood, you'd have to hope that your kids would find those lasting friendships that would cause them to want to go out all the time. My kids are fickle, I don't know about yours. Your kids would have to leave the school they're at, which would mean making new friends. Its a short period of time until your oldest is a teen and not interested in doing all that stuff they did as a child. My neighbors have quads who are now 17.... they're rarely outside playing basketball, all I see are cars coming and going for each kid to go to their own work, sport, church event etc.

Right now you have the system beat. Your place is paid off and you have income coming in. You both barely work and have tons of free time to drive your kids the 0.25 mile it takes for them to meet up with friends. Or to take them to the mountain etc. It sounds like you are able to play in the back yard... Does it butt up right to the green? You're not on a 2 lane switchback highway road headed up to the mountain, right? I can't imagine that any neighborhood nice enough to have a golf course would have people rude enough that they'd mow down children. You could always get one of those neon yellow plastic guys that says slow or children, or 25 or whatever and put it at the edge of your driveway... Get involved in your neighborhood association and try to set up kid friendly events? Someone else there has to have kids!

[jeroly]

I can understand wanting a nicer / more centrally located / better neighborhood house. It's perfectly natural for your hedonic tone to get stretched and to want more. 

However, what's going on here is completely ridiculous.  You are using the flimsiest of excuses to justify wanting this.

You live ON A GOLF COURSE (a pricier option in any given area), with enough extra room to have a rentable basement apartment, and yet somehow you "need" to move to a house that's AN EXTRA $200k? AND you expect to throw away another $50k in transaction costs? On a liquid net worth of $500k?

But wait... it's "for the kids!"

If you really want to do something "for the kids," start figuring out how you, A MILLIONAIRE, will pay for ALL of their college costs.  (You know that your asset level at FAFSA time is likely to be so high that they wouldn't qualify for aid?)

I did a quick realtor.com search and saw 180 houses for sale in Park City, Utah with asking prices between $600k and $800k. I can't believe that none of these are in a 'nice old-time family neighborhood.' if your kids are unable to make friends with other kids on their street, and driving your kids to playdates elsewhere is just too big of a burden, then pick one of those.

[waltworks]

You live ON A GOLF COURSE (a pricier option in any given area), with enough extra room to have a rentable basement apartment, and yet somehow you "need" to move to a house that's AN EXTRA $200k? AND you expect to throw away another $50k in transaction costs? On a liquid net worth of $500k?

But wait... it's "for the kids!"

If you really want to do something "for the kids," start figuring out how you, A MILLIONAIRE, will pay for ALL of their college costs.  (You know that your asset level at FAFSA time is likely to be so high that they wouldn't qualify for aid?)

I did a quick realtor.com search and saw 180 houses for sale in Park City, Utah with asking prices between $600k and $800k. I can't believe that none of these are in a 'nice old-time family neighborhood.' if your kids are unable to make friends with other kids on their street, and driving your kids to playdates elsewhere is just too big of a burden, then pick one of those.

Allright!! The old MMM facepunching fight club version of the forum isn't dead!

This is exactly what I wonder about. We are, by all reasonable standards, totally set. Hedonic adaptation has set in, though, and I want more more more!

Thank you for the brutal honesty.

I'll answer as follows:

-I'm intimately familiar with PC real estate and the neighborhoods (it's not a big place). I have to house 3 adults (one of whom can't really handle stairs), at least 3 children (probably more going forward, we are very into kids and will almost certainly adopt more), and a small machine shop. You can trust me on this: the places that you've found won't work.

-I'm happy to let someone else live by the golf course. It's not something that affected our decision to move here and I could care less about it. I mentioned it only to emphasize the dead-eyed suburbia feel of our neighborhood. Most of our neighbors don't know each others names.

-Primary residence doesn't count for the FAFSA, so if anything having a more expensive house would be a *good* thing...but regardless, I'd rather give the kids a childhood of freedom and personal responsibility than free college. I understand opinions on that can vary.

-I like the FI concept, but I'm not interested in the form of RE that the internet retirement police want me to do. I *like* my job (I set my own hours, enjoy most of my time in the shop, and get paid lawyer/doctor money for my time). Given that I don't want to quit working, and can pay our annual expenses working something like 1 day a week, why should I worry about $200k? I can save that up in a few years. And when I do, it'll just sit around like it does now anyway.

I did a quick spreadsheet of stay vs. move (assuming I keep working at least a bit the whole time) and we end up much much richer investing that extra money in the market over 20 years. I mean, it's not even close. Our expenses go up, our investments don't grow as fast, it's a financial disaster...

But we're talking about net worth of $3 million vs. $5 million or something. Given that our family likes to do stuff (XC skiing, mountain biking, trail running, hiking) that costs basically nothing, and we don't care much for travel or fancy stuff, what on earth do I care about how many millions of dollars I have in 20 years? I'm trying to maximize happiness now, not money.

-W

[waltworks]

For the folks who have mentioned the "your grumpy teenagers won't leave the house anyway"... you are quite possibly right.

I mean, I doubt it. The kids have professional athlete and PhD genetics from both parents. They already are pretty much huge badasses. Now that summer is here they are both a mass of scabs and band-aids and have excess sunscreen stains on their helmets and clothes. We don't own a TV. They would love a safer neighborhood with a park to wander at their leisure, and they'd take advantage of it. Hopefully they'd get in at least some minor trouble.

But even if we say it's 50/50 that they ever leave the house - this is a Pascal's wager situation. If we don't move, we are guaranteeing that they won't be wandering the neighborhood on their bikes.

-W

[BicycleB]

If you can't rent your way into the collection of amenities you want (you probably thought of that), move and get a mortgage.

I admit that I don't get why the new house has to also to have a rental sublet. Maybe I misread that part. But if you're confident of future income, the mortgage is safe and liquidity protects you while you pay it down. Get want you want.

ETA: Since you will temporarily not be FIRE, you'll be implicitly relying on your earnings. In case some accident intereferes with these, maybe you should get some life insurance on the two earners?

[reeshau]

Your story sparks a thought about your current neighborhood.  You note the behavior you see of the other kids, but have you actually talked to them or their parents?  As a golf course community, I assume you have an HOA.  Rather than investing your money to get *more* of what you want, could you spend the time to lobby families in the HOA to add the amenities that you see as lacking?  For example, do you have any open or community lots that you could have the HOA put a playground in?  Or, are you aware of any local government zoning for parks nearby, that you could leverage through some community activism?

It seems you are bending space and time to change a certain aspect of your life.  Are you sure you couldn't use some of your free FI time to make a direct change for yourselves and your current neighbors?

[Linea_Norway]

Why not keep your current house and rent it out, while you rent somewhere more child-friendly? This does require that the house can make a profitable rent. Otherwise, if you want to move again in 20 years time when kids have moved out, there will be another good house on the market.

If you are going to build a home, with a basement to rent out, you should consider whether it really pays off to build something new to rent out. Often one rents out fix her uppers, because that is profitable. My DH thinks it is a large investment on a new home, just to rent it out. And in your case, if you can live smaller after your kids move out, then what do you need the basement for? If you want a rental for passive income, you might want to buy a separate rental in your town for that purpose.

[waltworks]

Your story sparks a thought about your current neighborhood.  You note the behavior you see of the other kids, but have you actually talked to them or their parents?  As a golf course community, I assume you have an HOA.  Rather than investing your money to get *more* of what you want, could you spend the time to lobby families in the HOA to add the amenities that you see as lacking?  For example, do you have any open or community lots that you could have the HOA put a playground in?  Or, are you aware of any local government zoning for parks nearby, that you could leverage through some community activism?

It seems you are bending space and time to change a certain aspect of your life.  Are you sure you couldn't use some of your free FI time to make a direct change for yourselves and your current neighbors?

That's a good point, and we've invested quite a bit of time in that exact goal (improving the neighborhood).

There are a few problems, though. The neighborhood was built in the 1980s as a retirement/golf community. Literally zero amenities for children were planned or built. I mean zero. There is not a single park or chunk of open space (again, other than the golf course, which is private). There also are no lots available to build a park, as it's been built out for a while now.

Then the development went bankrupt several times and various sets of lots were sold to different developers. So instead of 1 HOA, there are (wait for it) *17* of them. Getting *anything* done by all of them is basically impossible, and to get the resources in place to really make the neighborhood work better for families would require that, I think.

Speeding in the neighborhood is standard behavior, and we live on what is probably the busiest street (it's the feeder into the frontage road that feeds into the freeway). No kids go anywhere because people drive too fast. People drive too fast because why not, it's not like there are kids out there on the street anyway...

Finally, when I talk to neighbors about this stuff, they hear me out sympathetically, but obviously don't care. They drive their kids to school in their BMWs and then commute to their jobs in Salt Lake. They think we're basically lunatics because we commute by bike even when it's snowing. Even on warm spring days there are at best a half dozen bikes in the bike rack at the elementary school.

Oh, did I mention that there's a 300 foot diameter 2-lane roundabout being built between our house and the school this summer, that will have no useful amenities for pedestrians or bikes? Yeah. This is 'merica, take your hippy bikes somewhere else.

I don't think the neighborhood is going to get better, basically, no matter what I do.

-W

[Watchmaker]

Finally, when I talk to neighbors about this stuff, they hear me out sympathetically, but obviously don't care. They drive their kids to school in their BMWs and then commute to their jobs in Salt Lake. They think we're basically lunatics because we commute by bike even when it's snowing. Even on warm spring days there are at best a half dozen bikes in the bike rack at the elementary school.

Oh, did I mention that there's a 300 foot diameter 2-lane roundabout being built between our house and the school this summer, that will have no useful amenities for pedestrians or bikes? Yeah. This is 'merica, take your hippy bikes somewhere else.

I don't think the neighborhood is going to get better, basically, no matter what I do.

It doesn't sound like a neighborhood that matches your values. Are other neighborhoods in the town different (i.e. more bike friendly), or is this a city-wide issue?

[reeshau]

Why not keep your current house and rent it out, while you rent somewhere more child-friendly? This does require that the house can make a profitable rent. Otherwise, if you want to move again in 20 years time when kids have moved out, there will be another good house on the market.

If you are going to build a home, with a basement to rent out, you should consider whether it really pays off to build something new to rent out. Often one rents out fix her uppers, because that is profitable. My DH thinks it is a large investment on a new home, just to rent it out. And in your case, if you can live smaller after your kids move out, then what do you need the basement for? If you want a rental for passive income, you might want to buy a separate rental in your town for that purpose.

@waltworks , having seen your answer, I think @Linea_Norway 's idea is a good one.  A house with an in-law suite isn't that uncommon; I agree with your thought that home + in-law + rental area is going to be unique: not only will you have to build, but you may have trouble selling it.  At least, there will be a narrow market.  You may do better financing you new, modest home with a mortgage on your existing (now rental) home, and using the rental business and asset depreciation to keep your AGI down.

[Eurotexan]

I would move. To me the whole point of this forum and reaching for FIRE is to live the life you want to live. From you comments it seems to me you want the proximity and a safe outdoor space for your kids and you can't make the necessary changes to where you currently are. Life is too short. You have the resources, live your best life.

[robartsd]

I'd make the move; but I wouldn't rush it. How well do you know the RE market? How often do suitable properties come up? How does the one you're looking at compare to other deals that have gone down recently? Maybe the house you're currently looking at isn't as good for your family as the next one will be. But once you find a good RE deal that is the right fix, go for it.

I think the kids in the neighborhood you move to will be more likely to share some of your frugal values than those growing up in your current neighborhood. These kids will be your kids friends and will have some influence on how they decide to live their lives. Get into a neighborhood with diversity. Good for you in recognizing that the problem in the other neighborhood isn't the school.

I'm a member of the Don't Pay Off Your Mortgage Club, and think you should use this opportunity to put some of your equity into liquid investments. I'd be looking to get a mortgage as big as I could and investing as much of the proceeds from the sell of your current house as possible - at least until you can pay off the new mortgage in full and be comfortable with your FI status again. This would provide you with maximum flexibility and optimize your wealth building potential.

[waltworks]

Update, for those who are interested:

-We bought a house in the neighborhood we wanted to live in - very central, very bike friendly, lots of kids out in the street causing trouble all day in the summer.

-Kids are already doing a ton of stuff on their own (we had to talk the school into letting the 5 y.o. ride her bike home on her own after school but we mumbled something about her brother picking her up, without mentioning his age, and they bought it). There are several fun parks (on with a lake big enough to paddleboard on) within walking distance. The change in confidence/behavior of our 7 year old is astounding. The elderly neighbors are just waiting to complain about scooters with stuffed animals duct taped to them in our cul-de-sac.

-Our old house will close in about 2 weeks.

-During this whole chaotic process we had a baby daughter. Yes, I'm very tired!


The damage? About $200k in house price differential/moving/closing costs. And no more basement apartment (though we could build a smaller version in the new house). So we went from FIRE to... not. I took out as big of a loan as the lender would give us (3.625%? Heck yeah...) so we'll be somewhat decreasing our outrageous primary-residence weighting in our NW. We've still got ridiculously too much house, though.

So far, so good. If it all blows up in our faces you'll be the first to know.

-W

[Dee18]

Congratulations!  I’m impressed by how quickly you made it all happen.

[mistymoney]

sounds great!

Good luck getting back to FI!

[BicycleB]

WaltWorks makes a move! Sounds like the kids will like it. Good deal, and thanks for the update.

[Cassie]

The neighborhood sounds great! My kids grew up in one like that. When we downsized we purposely bought in a neighborhood with a mix of ages despite being seniors. I enjoy talking to the kids next door.  They bring life and joy to the neighborhood.

[Watchmaker]

Update, for those who are interested:

-We bought a house in the neighborhood we wanted to live in - very central, very bike friendly, lots of kids out in the street causing trouble all day in the summer.

-Kids are already doing a ton of stuff on their own (we had to talk the school into letting the 5 y.o. ride her bike home on her own after school but we mumbled something about her brother picking her up, without mentioning his age, and they bought it). There are several fun parks (on with a lake big enough to paddleboard on) within walking distance. The change in confidence/behavior of our 7 year old is astounding. The elderly neighbors are just waiting to complain about scooters with stuffed animals duct taped to them in our cul-de-sac.

Great, glad it's working out well!

I took out as big of a loan as the lender would give us (3.625%? Heck yeah...) so we'll be somewhat decreasing our outrageous primary-residence weighting in our NW. We've still got ridiculously too much house, though.

I think that was a smart move.

[DoNorth]

Good move.  I wouldn't worry about your house being too big.  I built our home and it is big, but we have lots of family around, big gatherings and I enjoy the different spaces we created in the house for different reasons.  You'll do the same in yours I'm sure.

[ToTheMoon]

We live in a very similar sounding town, though our real-estate prices are not nearly the same, and we live right smack in the middle of town with two kids (currently 7 & 9.) The freedom our kids get to experience because of our location is so great!  They can walk or bike to the schools, the pool, the rec center, local parks, the grocery store etc.  This has been fantastic for their confidence, and every year they get older there is less and less burden on us to (helicopter) supervise and transport them around. We are even considering saying yes to multiple activities a week, provided they can get themselves to the venue on their own. In previous years, saying yes to after-school activities was a scheduling nightmare as the timing always conflicted with getting supper on the table, but the last year or so has been fantastic as they can head out on their bikes, and I can stay back and get things prepped for when they get home.  Everyone is happier!

That wall of text is to simply say that I think you made a very good choice for your family, and will reap the rewards of it in the very near future. Best of luck!