My 2nd Home - Location! Location! Location!

Another thing that has been keeping me busy is focusing on my next home.  I have becoming more and more disillusioned with where I am living.  Part of it is because of how expensive my neighborhood is and how much more expensive I believe it will become.  

I am feeling squeezed.  Not literally.  Clearly I have excess funds to invest in savings and investments and overpay my mortgage.  But I have this feeling of not being able to breathe well.

My original plan was to buy another cheaper (much cheaper!) home in the same county.  This was important because it was still somewhat close to my job.  My commute would have worsened but I would still be close - especially on weekends when I used my car.  The town I was looking at was also a really nice low-to-middle middle class town which had a sense of community.

However, the more I thought about it, I have become more concerned about property taxes.  The proximity to a neighboring city means that this town will eventually be in demand and property taxes will go up.  A lot more people will also look to live there.

So I've started to look further away.  In fact, I have started looking as far as 90 minute drive away.  But a place that still has transportation so that I could get to my job.  I've recently done a scouting trip.  I am feeling good about this.  In addition to property taxes concerns, I also just want to ensure that my community is peaceful.  And I believe I will need to move far away to ensure that it remains peaceful.

As part of this plan, one idea that I have is actually moving sooner rather than later.  But I won't do it until I get my mortgage down to a certain reasonable level.  What is reasonable?  That is the question I still have not answered.  I believe the answer is an emotional one and I'll know it when the mortgage reaches that amount - I'll just be in a position to sleep better at night.  Hopefully by the end of this year I will reach my *reasonable* number.

Pru

Strategy change? Possibly...

This past election has proven to me that people do not uniformly and consistently act in their self-interest.  This leads me to question how rationale the market is.  It certainly isn't the first time I have questioned the basic tenets of economics :-)

The market cannot climb forever.  At least not if history has any say.  I continue to believe that we are on the cusp of a downturn.  The question is just how soon it will appear.  

Right now I believe there are a lot of speculators out there drunk on the idea that Trump is going to shred ALL THE REGULATION (and thereby *free* us all...where is the vomiting emoji?!). There are also some non-speculators (especially at the institutional level) that are probably hedging their bets.  

Now Twump is going to reduce some of the regulations.  That much is clear.  But that doesn't necessarily mean that it will translate into a wonderful thing.  There is also the issue of possible trade wars which would not be a good thing.  There is also the possibility that some of the regulations that are clawed back were some of the really good ones put in place to protect us (us being the average citizen) following the last downturn.  SAD!

All of the above, means that I'm just not sure what exactly to do.  Right now I am transferring a certain level of funds to my brokerage account each month.  I believe in a good market and a bad market, it is important to keep investing.  Consistency is everything.  

I am not investing all the money.  I am investing about half and keeping the remaining half in cash.  It's not a lot.  But I am not willing to put everything into the market right now.  The funds remain in my money market account and can be transferred back to my checking account if need be.  They can also be invested if I see something that I want to purchase.

I will continue to reevaluate this throughout the next year.

Pru

Still here, still plugging along

Hard to believe it has been a month!

The days have been running into each other and the weekends are barely non-existent.  Been dealing with *stuff* at home (ugh flatmate), at work (double ugh), in personal life (triple ugh).

And let's not even talk about what is going on in the U.S. right now.  Stress, lack of sleep, stress, panic and so on.  Yup definitely a conservative snowflake living at this blog who still thinks Trump supporters are morons and questions what will happen to the true values of this country (not to mention what will happen to our constitution).

So where am I?
Well I am definitely feeling like my apartment owns me and it likes to crack the whip and keep me up at night.  The sooner I pay off this place, the sooner I will feel free.

But I am still plugging along and still making progress on my financial goals.  I have made my transfers to savings accounts in January and February, overpaid my mortgage in both months, and made a few share purchases.  (Will update the blog pages next weekend (covering both January and February).)

What is this world coming to?  Pru still wonders....

Hope everyone is doing well!
Pru