We weren’t thrilled in our rental situation because the landlords didn’t want to make an effort to maintain the property and we ended up putting up with a lot of wear and tear issues and maintenance issues because we didn’t want to have to go begging for something to be done.

Then, my elderly grandmother told me she had a chunk of money she wanted to “gift” me now rather than after she was gone and she wanted me to use it to buy a house.

My uncle, her son, pressured us to move quickly because grandmother’s health wasn’t good and we had to have all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed as soon as possible.

There weren’t too many houses available that were reasonable as investments or remodels and we ended up picking the “best” house we could find that turned out to be a more expensive house.

All was fine ….. until last November when my H was laid off from a corporate job he’d had for 6.5 years. He took another job fairly quickly but it was at a $40k less per year than the other. There’s supposed to be a commission potential every quarter to make up the lack … but we’re not likely to see much of anything in that area for a while.

So we’re short $1,600 a month … now our mortgage takes up almost 1/2 of our income and I’m trying to cut every unnecessary expense that I can.

It’s awful being trapped by a large mortgage in a house that’s gone down in value $90k since we bought it. And while we owe less than it’s worth, it’s not by much and there’s no reason to hope to sell it any time soon.

If I had it to do over, I’d have waited as long as it took to find the “right” house for at least 1/2 of what we paid for this one … I’m not sure how we could have said that at the time but we felt like we would be foolish to not accept this gift as we’d likely never have that opportunity ever again in our lives.

Oh, and grandmother is doing very well, still. Thanks be to God.

God Bless,
Lisa

I suppose I just feel that sometimes it is overemphasised by christians – and I think that is sad, as we should be counter-cultural and not overly concerned with worldly possessions.

On the point of being retired and still having to pay rent because you have not bought a house – Well, I have to admit that this is a worry for me sometimes. However, I suppose the way people managed in the past was that the elderly who couldn’t work and so perhaps didn’t have enough to pay for rent, were taken in by children and extended family. Whereas now, we all fend for ourselves because we live in such an individualistic society. But I guess that is a whole different discussion!

I think you make a very valid point, one, in fact, that my brother just brought up yesterday. From Dave Ramsey’s perspective, he considers mortgage debt different because it is usually an investment that earns in time.

But still, I think you’re right, that we can way overrate our obsession with buying a house.

Renting has many advantages. Depending on where you live it can be a lot cheaper, and you don’t have fork out for maintenance or insurance. Also, from a christian perspective, it can free up income to give to the Lord’s work, and can also mean you are more flexible to move house if the Lord leads you.

Many christians, rightly, see debt as a bad thing….until it comes to mortgages! My mother says that in her parents generation (born in the 1920s), you never went into debt. If you couldn’t buy a house outright (and most people couldn’t), then you didn’t buy one at all. The majority of people living in the world since creation have not lived in bought houses – so why do we feel that it has to be such a priority? I’m not saying it’s wrong to buy a house, but there seems to be an obsession with it as a major goal and life, and a major investment of money, tying up so much in a property, that could sometimes be used for better things.

On a personal level, we know that when we have children, I will stay home – and we know that we can’t afford a mortgage on our one salary, so we will continue to rent. We also are concerned that interests rates can be so volatile, and fixed rate mortgages so rare, that you can end up paying a lot more a month than you budgeted for. That scares me! And so for us, despite the constant harrassment from well-meaning christian friends and relatives, we will probably not buy a house. People always give us the line “well renting is dead money”, but what other every day purchases like food, electricity etc are investments? Those bills are technically “dead money” too, and yet they are a fact of life!

Food for thought here….Can’t recall where I read this….The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing but in today’s day we apply for a curse and reject blessings.

Unfortunately, I have friends who fit the world’s view about living on one income – because they haven’t been able to do it. In debt from overspending has brought them to a bandruptcy. With both parents having no inclination to change their spending ways, I pray the kids are learning how NOT to do it.

Is there a way to encourage people like this to change – or just live by example?