Milestone accomplished (almost)

After a week of wringing my hands, the house payoff quote finally arrived yesterday, and hurrah, it is exactly my balance. I immediately initiated a large transfer from my savings to checking, which will take a couple of days, and then I set up a bank transfer on probably Thursday, and then it’s done. I am officially mortgage free. 

I had a conversation with the one friend I trust with this information, and it was interesting the difference in perspective. Having no children, she sees her paid off house as hers to do with as she wishes; she imagines at some point she’ll sell it and downsize to a condo or apartment and live off the profit. Having kids, I see this house as theirs, and something I want to leave behind intact, not with money still owing or sold for me to live off in my final years. She pointed out that if I do manage to live into my 90s, these “kids” will be middle aged men with their own homes and careers; they shouldn’t *need* a house to be left to them. I tend to forget this - having come from a long line of poor people who left nothing behind (no money, no property), I tend to want to “do better” for these kids. But is anyone entitled to an inheritance? Not really. You need the money when you’re young and starting out, not when you’re in your 40s or 50s (hopefully). I have life insurance for them, and depending on when I kick off maybe some leftover money. Maybe I need to shift my perspective. That’s not to say it’s bad to try to keep this place mortgage free and to not use it as an ATM, but maybe give myself the grace to do that if it becomes necessary. 

So I have (or will have, within days) accomplished one of my greatest goals, which is to pay off the house I wisely bought at 29 in 2001, at the age of 52, while my kids are still young. And now that extra money can go to their school funds, and my retirement. And maybe an international trip or two, to boot.

Last weekend we did a quick desert trip to open the place up after being shut down for nearly four months. As with last year, the spiders and scorpions had taken over, but only the ground floor, and they were all dead. It didn’t take much to dust the place off and make it inhabitable again. It’s easy to forget that at this time last year we still didn’t have stairs or an overhang or any furniture in the place. We had a lovely night under the stars in the hammocks - it was too warm, even, for a campfire - and the next day got on the road before the mid-90s temperatures crept in. We won’t be able to get out there again until the end of October, which bums me out more than you can imagine. I can’t wait until the kids are more self-sufficient and I can sneak off to the place by myself in the middle of the week.