Last week, I asked you if we should move. We have $450,000 in equity in our home which I don’t like. This money isn’t doing anything. I’d rather put it to work. Here is what you had to say:
Joel from the excellent new Pour Not Poor podcast:
Only move if it will make you happier, not if it will make you more money.
What if more money makes you happier? 🙂
Reader Jacq:
My interest in moving is the desire to be closer to friends and family. I do like my home, the area I live in & my bosses at work. But it’s 4 hours each way (by car) to visit family, and my parents are getting older.
I can totally get behind this. All of my family moved away and it makes me sad that our girls don’t get to see their grandparents on a weekly basis like I did.
Mr. PoP from Planting Our Pennies:
If you’re really interested in making more money, stop worrying about the home equity and start a business. You can save up a few million dollars through salary and investments but for big bucks, private ownership seems to be the way to go.
The new business launches soon…
Andy from Aardvark Advisor:
I vote for the refi and staying put.
You could do what we did and rent your house out for a couple of years while you try out new things, travel, etc
I like this idea. We probably won’t travel, but if we find another place, we wouldn’t mind being landlords again.
Reader Daniel:
Wow, you are kind of the minority in the financial world… All the Ramsey-ians out there would be horrified at your plan.
Yep. I like debt in certain circumstances. My 3.25% mortgage is an incredible gift (thanks Great Recession!). I wouldn’t be surprised if over the course of my life, rates never got this low again.
Reader Jim has another idea that I like a lot:
450,000 K gives you endless possibilities to make money and keep your wife happy.
Perhaps use the $ to buy a home in your favorite vacation spot. Airbnb it and block off as much time for yourselves as you want!
I love this, but I don’t think we’ll do it because we have no idea where we’d want to have an Airbnb property. It’s fun to think about though.
The Compromise
One half of our street is mostly rentals while the other half is homeowners. Our home sits right in the middle. On the homeowner side of the street, there are three houses that are owned by folks nearing 80. Two of these homes are especially appealing in that they back up to open space. We are going to start a yellow letter campaign to see if any of these folks are willing to sell. If so, we just may consider a move.
I think it’s a longshot, but we won’t know unless we try.
Do You Use Time Wisely?
I love touring state capitol buildings. Whenever I’m in a capital city, I make it a point to visit them. Wisconsin’s building in Madison is my favorite so far:
The building is situated on an isthmus between lakes Monona and Mendota. The setting is beautiful. And I’ve never seen anything like the paintings and stonework, but my favorite part is that you can go out on a walkway outside the dome. The views of Madison (bottom right picture) are spectacular.
The Wise Owl
When I was in St. Paul Minnesota, the girls and I stopped by the capitol building. We hadn’t scheduled a tour, but were able to jump on one with a school group. At one point, the guide pointed to a picture on the ceiling and asked the group what the meaning was:
I didn’t have a clue and neither did anyone else. The guide then explained. It went something like this:
The owl is a symbol of wisdom while the hourglass symbolizes the time we have. This picture was put there to remind the lawmakers to use time wisely.
That got me thinking. How many times a day do I:
- Check my email: no comment
- Read the news: waste of time
- Look at social media: oof
- Check stock prices: I’m a long-term investor, so this is a stupid exercise
Too many.
You?
The distractions of modern life can quickly overwhelm you if you let them. How do you deal with them?
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Mr. Tako says
I’m pretty terrible about “managing my time wisely”. Right now, I mostly manage my time for maximum happiness. This is one of the best parts of being FI.
Instead of being a slave to the clock and constantly worried about managing my time carefully, I can now afford to spend huge amounts of time on things that will never provide a monetary payout. It’s a pretty wonderful life.
Mr. Tako recently posted…Is Growth Hurting Your Investing Returns?
Jacq says
I got to tour the Capitol building in Topeka KS. The emblem from the state flag is in the carpet under the dome. Or is was all those years ago. 🙂
Accidental FIRE says
I’m like Mr. Tako, terrible at it. Since I’ve semi-fired I find that I’m kinda spazzy on my days off, jumping from one thing to another. I think I need to schedule things on my days off, but I hate the idea. Without the structure though, I’m kinda ADHD.
Accidental FIRE recently posted…Area Foodie Perplexed By $10 Meal That Doesn’t Suck
Mr. 1500 Days says
“…I’m kinda spazzy on my days off”
I think this is a good sign! You’re so busy and so excited to have the time off that you don’t know what to do with yourself! A FIREd life suits you!
Mrs. Adventure Rich says
Oof… using my time wisely is something I am constantly struggling with, tweaking, improving, reverting and trying yet again to optimize. I think one of my best hacks is to get outside. If I go for a walk/run or decide to do an activity with our family (sledding or snowshoeing, biking or swimming in the summer, etc), I tend to be good about not checking technology. But overall, I am constantly working through time optimization in a tech filled world.
Mrs. Adventure Rich recently posted…Guest Post: Maintain Your Financial & Physical Health (By Simple Money Man)
Mr. 1500 Days says
“But overall, I am constantly working through time optimization in a tech-filled world.”
Yeah, technology can kinda suck at times. When I’m out at a park and see parents staring down at their phones, I’m thinking that smartphones are one of humankind’s worst inventions.
Cubert says
Wise owl. No wonder our elected officials never look up!
Good luck with your letter campaign to your neighbors. Seeing as they’re in their 80s, I’d bet the renovation work would be significant on those homes.
I’m not judging old people, but rather calling out the younger set for demanding stainless steel, tiled floors, etc. No wallpaper? C’mon, man!
Mr. 1500 Days says
Haha! I haven’t seen any of these homes on the inside! I can’t wait to see what they look like.
Wise Money Tips says
Time spent on social media can and does get out of control if not consciously monitored. It helps to make a list of tasks you want to accomplish in a particular day. Make this list the night before. As long as the timing is realistic, it can help you focus and budget your time better. If you are retired or otherwise have nothing important or urgent to tend to, then there’s no need for strict daily schedules if they don’t appeal to you.
Mr. 1500 Days says
Good thoughts. I try to keep a schedule on Google Keep. It doesn’t always work out though. Maybe I need a keyboard that shocks me when I spend over 6 minutes on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube? 🙂
Tom @ Dividends Diversify says
Madison’s a fun town. Never thought about taking a tour of the capitol building. I try to set goals and stay focused on them to keep from being distracted. Tom
Tom @ Dividends Diversify recently posted…Let’s Talk Tech: IBM
Mr. 1500 Days says
Do it! The building is awesome! Don’t forget to go on the roof!
Mr. Freaky Frugal says
Hmmm…I could do better:
* Check my email: 20 times per day I guess
* Read the news: once per day and no more or it gets depressing
* Look at social media: way too much
* Check stock prices: 5 times per day as a guess
I do have a To Do list which helps me be a little more efficient with my time, but I could do a lot better.
Mr. Freaky Frugal recently posted…The stages of FIREing
Joe says
Good luck. Maybe you’ll own the whole street someday. It’ll like real life game of Monopoly.
I don’t use my time that wisely anymore. That’s one benefit of being early retired. I can goof off or read or take a nap if I want to.
Social media can be a huge time suck, though.
Danny the Pizza Guy says
I was notoriously bad with social media as it was affecting me at work. To solve this I went a bit extreme and purposely changed my password to something complex that I would not remember. This lasted about a year until, ultimately, I changed the password back. It worked for me as it became habit forming to not sign in all the time. Now I only check it about once every other week.
Mr. 1500 Days says
Wow, that’s a great suggestion! If my plan to block these sites with the router doesn’t work, I may just take that one myself.
Mike @ Balanced Dividends says
Similar to the prior comments, I’m also ineffective with managing my time – but it’s the consistency.
I’m either quite effective or not so much. If I find myself being unmotivated or unproductive, I will wait until I’m in a different mood.
This isn’t always an option though – especially doing “real” work work.
I’m also terrible with the emails and stock prices. Social media has been better at least (just delete it or disable the push notifications).
Mike @ Balanced Dividends recently posted…Balanced Dividends Shopping: 4 Considerations for February
freddy smidlap says
i stopped on the “news” thing about 6 months ago and have never felt better about not knowing what ariel winter was up to. oh, and the comment sections! don’t get me started. we don’t look at hardly any of that on our days off but are guilty of checking the ebay sales as we list and downsize our significant pile o’ crap-ola.
personally, i have designed my life with a short to zero honey dew list but i do find the need to loosely mentally schedule some blocks for less pleasant tasks on the weekend.
freddy smidlap recently posted…Investing in Things I Loathe
Mr. 1500 Days says
The news is a massive waste of time. I pay attention to local news that I can influence. I try to avoid anything else.
Done by Forty says
I think you hit on the biggest problem we in the pretty privileged Western world face: too many distractions impinging on our time and mental space. Cal Newport’s Deep Work has some neat strategies to help us deal with the situation. My own tricks are to 1) turn of mobile data AND wifi on my phone if I have it with me (people can still call or text.) 2) manage notifications on our phones ruthlessly (I don’t need Yelp telling me about new restaurants) 3)…the truly effective one is just not keeping my phone and laptop in whatever space I’m in if I’m trying to do something else. So if I have people over, the phone goes in the bedroom. If I’m supposed to be focused on my work computer, the phone & personal laptop are somewhere else.
Anyway, no, I am not using my time wisely. But it’s better than it used to be. As the twelve steppers teach us, progress, not perfection.
Done by Forty recently posted…Would We Already be Financially Independent Abroad?
Mr. 1500 Days says
I’ve got to read that book.
I put my phone on airplane mode. I tell Mrs. 1500 that she needs to call the VOIP phone if she needs to get a hold of me. And notifications scare the crap out of me. All of mine besides texts (when the phone isn’t on airplane mode) are turned off.
Done by Forty says
The next time you are in the Phoenix area, let me know and I can lend you our copy.
We buy perhaps one book every two years, and this one made the cut. We find that rereading it always teaches us new things.
MrWow says
I’m horrible with my time, but getting better. I just have to schedule it out and stick to it.
Wake up – work out/run – breakfast while reading blogs – work – home to cook dinner – work on projects – trashy tv – bed. Seems to be my schedule. I check email etc way too mich so I need to stop it. I feel another challenge coming on.
Andy says
The capitol building in Madison is super cool. I’ve only been to that city once, but we managed to get a tour in and it was right around the 4th of July so the weather and the day were lovely,
Time wasting is definitely a huge problem for me, but at least we can take comfort in knowing that that seems to be common for just about everyone? One thing I’m torn about is whether I should be working to do more with my time or to be more accepting and forgiving of my own use of it. There’s probably a good balance between the two, but I think there’s definitely something to be said for not beating yourself up even when you’re using your time poorly.
With mindfulness and meditation I often hear about the concept of observing your thoughts without judging them. I think there’s probably value in applying the same approach to your actions- observation without judgement. It doesn’t eliminate the possibility of working to improve your thoughts and actions, but hopefully takes some of the anxiety out of the process.
Mr. 1500 Days says
But I think in some cases, you should judge yourself. Hours spent on social media every day aren’t healthy. Our oldest child (11) begs for a phone every day. She won’t have one for a long time because I’m terrified of what she may turn into. Google “popcorn brain”
snowcanyon says
No one ever gets to retire early, do they? It’s about having a working spouse, a blog, a business, a side hustle or six.. Not everyone is an entrepreneur, or wants to be.
Mrs. Picky Pincher says
I’ve made this my priority for 2018. I get distracted and overwhelmed easily, which is a recipe for wasting time. And, after all, isn’t the goal of FIRE to earn our time back? We’re working for YEARS to get more of this time-stuff; why are we wasting such a precious thing?
I’ve gotten much more efficient with time management by:
1. Using a to-do / calendar app. I like any.do
2. Using Unroll.me to compile my emails into one daily email for checking. I mostly do this for blogs I’m subscribed to, so I read for an hour a day. It keeps me from checking my inbox constantly and getting distracted by new reading material.
3. Doing stuff on weeknights. I used to save my to-dos for the weekends, but that led to days of pure chores. It sucked. Now I do a mixture of fun and chores on the weeknights to keep things equal.
Mrs. Picky Pincher recently posted…What A Frugal Weekend! February 18
Mr. 1500 Days says
Nice tips! I’ve never even heard of 1 and 2. Time to do some research!
wendy says
That’s a cool Capitol visit habit you have going on there.
Maybe you can buy a couple of the other houses on the street, do the reno/rent thing, and become King of the Block!
A long time ago, I got tired of feeling that my time was not my own, so I got ruthless with prioritization of who and what I really wanted to spend time on. I practiced and got good at saying ‘no’ to extraneous things that convey no long term benefit or meaning to me.
I don’t use regular social media – no Facebook, Instagram, whatever, whatever…I only have a barebones LinkedIn account and that’s really just part of my career needs since I’m not FI yet. If I want to have meaningful contact with my far flung family and friends, I call them, send long emails, or even (gasp!) snail mail.
Almost all my push notifications are off and I don’t have many apps in general on my phone. I have all the important things (to me) scheduled in Google Calendar (workouts, run, yoga, volunteer time, birthday reminders, etc) so that’s what I focus on.
Oh, and I haven’t owned a TV for over two years. My ‘relax’ goof-off time at night is an hour or so of reading FI blogs because I find them enjoyable and useful… then I put the screens away and read real paper books – mostly from the library – or do creative crafty things.
It takes work to rearrange your habits, but it you want it enough, you can do it.
Mr. 1500 Days says
There is so much damn power in learning to say “No”! I wish that I would have discovered it a long time ago!
And I’m honored that you still hang around here! 🙂
Andrea says
I’m guessing you have visited already but don’t forget the Colorado capital – they also let you go up on the walkway around the dome also and the views of Denver are *amazing*!
Mr. 1500 Days says
I have been to the Colorado Capitol building, but didn’t know that you can go outside around the dome! This is on my list for this summer!
Ms ZiYou says
I want and aspire to use my time wisely, but the reality doesn’t match up to my my expectations.
I need to kick the news habit, and the endless net browsing habit.
PS the capital building looks awesome. I often wonder if people in the future will look back the the building we create today (or the pictures if they are gone) and wonder why they are so ugly?
Ms ZiYou recently posted…Why start a blog?
Mrs. RME says
Since we are still working our way to FIRE we have no choice but to use our time wisely. We end up working a lot of nights and weekends to keep up. We are looking forward to when we can spend our time how we want to once we reach FIRE! As for technology…I literally have to leave my phone in another room to keep from checking it!
FI says
Excellent post. This is one area I have been focussing on recently. I have mostly cut out time spent on social media- that means No facebook or twitter for the last few months. Surprisingly, I dont miss it at all. I had canceled cable and that meant I could not follow my faviorite soccer team ( Another place I was spending a lot of time on). Hang on.. this gives me inspiration for a new blog post.:)
Josey at BuildingUpBucks says
I like to find little daily principles to be more productive.
One I’ve become very interested in is Parkinson’s Law.
Basically, the law states that the time it takes to complete something is the amount of time available.
For example, if you have all day to write a blog post – it’ll take all day.
By limiting my time and making my own deadlines, I’ve become much more productive.
I wrote more about this law on my blog if anyone wants to check it out.
Ten Factorial Rocks says
Good post 1500. I am guilty of ‘wasting’ my time frequently, allowing myself to wander through random thoughts that range from the color of my socks to the true cost of geographical arbitrage or even a deeper meaning of life – all on the same day! These thoughts are generally devoid of any actionable result but I indulge in them nevertheless. I feel good though. So, here’s to more wasting time with random thoughts!
Ten Factorial Rocks recently posted…Fire Your Financial Advisor!
Little Miss Fire says
I’m awful at managing my time. I plan to do too much in too short a space of time and then get overwhlemed when I cant fit it all in!
Fab post, I’ve just found your blog and I love it!
Little Miss Fire
https://littlemissfireblog.wordpress.com
Mr. 1500 Days says
“I plan to do too much in too short a space of time and then get overwhelmed when I cant fit it all in!”
Haha, that’s the story of my life!
And thank you for the kind comment!
May rang cafe says
Evryone has a watch, drink a coffee cup at a cafe, and dont care to time!