This land is my land

In the previous post, the LSW illustrated her misgivings about The Dream with a picture of a rusty shipping container marked ‘Foreclosed’. While her faith in me warms my heart, I think I can set her mind at ease on at least one thing:

When you pay cash for everything, there is no one to foreclose on your property.

And this is probably where The Dream diverges for the two of us. I suspect that for her it represents weekends with The Boy camping without actually having to go 'camping' and trolling the picturesque countryside for good food and diversions. For me, however, the knowledge that I own a home outright is at least as appealing, and provides a number of intangible benefits:

1) In economic downturns like this one, we don’t have to be concerned about becoming homeless
2) We don’t have to worry about how to pay off my current house before retirement
3) Should we decide to ‘downshift’ our lifestyle or change careers entirely, we can ditch the portion of my salary that supports a (big NYC suburb) mortgage on a (relatively modest) house
4) It gives The Boy a model of home ownership that is not based upon enormous debt, and introduces him to people who are less immersed in the consumerist/career culture that is predominant in Southwestern Connecticut
5) Being right on the VAST system, gives me an excuse to by a Snowmobile



The LSW has heard me repeatedly summarize these benefits to friends as “Three acres and a shotgun!” It’s tongue-in-cheek, but I guess I can see why she’s a little nervous.