Retirement Realizations
Recently, I’ve been coming to some realizations about being retired. This epiphany isn’t seen more than when it comes to retirement income and trying to get a home loan. Since retirement, we have been working hard at remodeling our home. We have spent money we had from various sources knowing that we were building equity along the way. We have purchased a couple of cars on loans, no problem. We purchased a rental house without any hiccups. But recently, we were presented with the opportunity to buy a house that we had snoozed on a couple years before. We regretted it, but at the time, we never looked at the home except for pictures on the internet. Last year we had a chance to get a house considered waterfront and we jumped at the chance. It is a cute house and has so many unique possibilities that we have refined our thoughts on but just haven’t moved forward in taking care off. We love the house, and the garage is a bonus as it’s bigger than the house, almost scaling on a barn and not a garage. A month ago, the house we passed on became available again and before the sellers had a chance to put it on the market, we contacted them and asked if we could make an offer before they did. They obviously jumped at the opportunity; we toured the home and made an offer hinging on us pulling some of the stagnant money we had in equity on our house. Thinking there is no way it would be a problem, we have the money in retirement accounts to more than cover the cost, but the underwriters don’t seem to care how much you have, they care about how much you have coming in. I haven’t been confronted on this type issue since my twenties.
After three weeks and closing desperately in the date we found out they wouldn’t include money that for seven years has been a part of out income monthly. Granted it had been in a 401K until this year, when we moved it all to an IRA account with a very widely known financial organization. I proved to them that outside of the transition month, nothing has been any different. Nope, they weren’t going to accept and just like that, we didn’t qualify based on our other revenue streams. We scrambled and argued heavily one night about how we could still do it and that we’d just have to sell the other lake house. Of course, in the meantime, we’d have three mortgages that would make our monthly money available for those silly things like food, gas, and utilities almost impossible. Well, not totally true, there was enough, my wife just called it a showstopper. We went to bed with a decision, an unsettling one, but a decision. I woke at 2:30 AM with about as clear a thought as I have ever had, don’t buy the house. With that decision, I actually felt my body feel relief, but I had to sell it to my wife after arguing for it and convincing her it was the right thing to do. Ahe asked the appropriate question of why the change. She accepted my answer as it had to do with her side of the argument and realizing she was right. If you ever want to see your spouse fight back, just tell them they have to cut their allowance in half because the house needs it. Problem was, this whole decision was a desire, not a need.
We moved forward with the loan and on that same day, we lost the contract on our lot that would have made the deal work with only having to move the closing date out a bit. Now the distasteful task of letting the sellers know we had to back out. Never talking verbally to them, we sent them a document from Texas Real Estate Commission terminating the contract. We received a simple “ok” in response. I’m sure they were pissed. Then I hit them with the form requesting our earnest money back, but they had no recourse as we had demanded as part of the contract to have an addendum identifying the fact that a refi cash out loan on our main house had to happen in a certain way to allow us to purchase their home. Of course, the mortgage company had something to say about things and dropped the loan amount to a point where we couldn’t buy their house, but we could put cash down to pay off the loan on our rental and do all the things we wanted along the way. Knowing we could sell this house at any time, we felt to maximize the return on our investment, we had to make it a more desirable place. Pivot on our desire but with a realization that the universe just might be looking out for us and that if we listen to it, we might just open more possibilities.
The undertone through it all was a realization of how things were going to work for us moving forward. Knowing we’d never be able to tap into the resource of equity sitting on the side. The other realization, as we were signing the new loan documents, was that I’d be 94 years old when the house would be paid off unless we somehow added principle payments. We hope too, but we also know that it is also going to require something we haven’t really shown much sign of being able to do, being conservative and responsible with our finances and spending. I’m not unhappy with the course of events but I’m more focused on the reality of our life and what we can and can’t do. I’ve been edgy for some time and have thought about some form of work I could do that would be meaningful and still give me the freedom of doing things my way and me be in control of my time and experience. Since what I want is to be a real estate investor, maybe being an agent would help to realize my dream.
Two major thoughts come from this experience; I may not live to see the day of this house being paid off and that we truly are on a fixed income. Neither of which make me feel good. Can I change things? Of course I can. Am I willing to change things? Not so sure I will. I told my wife that she may start hearing no a lot and that she would have to be happy with her allowance being her spend as you wish area. The rest is for the house and anything else is mine to decide the use of. Retirement realities have set in. What happens now? Not sure, but I know that anxiety and stress left with the completion of our closing of a new loan on our house. However, I’m still not settled, and I know there are additional thoughts to straighten out in my head and I have to attend to this itch of wanting to work and knowing I still have something to offer to us and to others. The realities will come to me clear enough I’m sure, sooner would be better than later. Retirement ain’t easy folks!