A Tale of Two Families

I want you to take a walk through time with me with two families. They're basically the same make-up. Family of four, kids are 14-16 months apart, moms work outside the home for a while.

The first family starts out in 1971 having just left a Union job for a non-Union job. He buys a house that he expects will be the last house he ever buys. He knows he's looking, but he isn't REALLY looking. God smiles on him and he finds it on the way home from work. It sort of lands in his lap, just like the job did. He's disabled in a way. He lost his eye as a teenager, but he never let that get him down. He never considered it a disability. He worked hard and taught his kids to work hard. A job worth doing is worth doing right. Never start anything you don't plan on finishing.

So, this house is a 3 bedroom ranch, exactly what he wants. One bedroom is a bit small, but that's ok. They probably got a 6-7% loan. They watched people who got an adjustable loan as they soared to 19.5% They dug in and stayed in their house. They even, while the rates were low, got a loan for the 1/2 acre plot next to them so that they had an acre of land. They stayed in this house while their kids grew up and left. As a matter of fact, they are still in this house. Their house is now paid off and they don't have a mortgage.

The second family in the early 70's lived in a 2 bedroom house. The husband worked repairing appliances. He had several employers, and at one time was self-employed. They bought a 3 bedroom, well, actually a 2 bedroom that had been converted to a 3 bedroom. It had a 3rd bedroom in the basement. The wife liked to entertain so she converted the upstairs living room into a dining room (the kitchen wasn't big enough) and moved the family room to the basement. In the 80's they bought another house because they wanted to have foster children and this house didn't have enough bedrooms. They bought a larger 4 bedroom house with a swimming pool. Later, they decided that they didn't like living in Illinois, and God was calling them to Texas, so they moved again. They had already bought another house for rental property and still had the house with the converted basement. They sold all three houses and bought one house in Texas for cash. So, here they are, 25 years later, with a house they bought for cash, but really no better off. If they hadn't had the rental property, they would have been in trouble.

My dad, who worked at the same job for 25 years and was able to retire at the age of 59.5 and then use his stock to live off of until now (he's 78). My mom, who worked as a nurse and dad put her through LPN school so she could get a better job. She did take a break from working when we were very little.

We have an excuse for not following in my prents footsteps. My husband was active duty for 20 years and we had government housing. We rented her house (with the converted basement) for a year, then bought our first house. We lived there for almost 3 years before moving to Texas. We (in our error) bought a house with his parents when we got here. We're starting from a year and a half ago. We're starting from 45 years old.