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You are in good financial shape. You have decent savings and investments. Decent job. Retirement plan. Free of the ex...any children?
Leap and the wings will appear.
Do what you wish in your heart. Your finances are not an issue one way or the other.
I would say that one year post divorce for "some" people is a time when they are not emotionally settled. I moved on pronto, but others have trouble getting their "single" life in order. If that is an issue for you, just take a little extra time.
While it appears that you are locked in geographically due to your job, i was in a position where i could move (a long-distance event) to get out of the environment of my ex, which was toxic). It has been refreshing.
And lastly...house prices...coming down slowly...take your time, they are likely to get softer before they go higher. At worst for you as a buyer, they aren't going up any time soon as interest rates are still going higher. You have time if you CHOOSE to wait. Squeeze the developer...they have inventory and soon have to cut prices/add lots of incentives to get it sold so they can pay their debts.
Otherwise, let it rip and enjoy the renaissance in your life.
a) Specifically tenured college professor. I was a department head for a few years and interim dean for 1 year, but chose not to apply for those positions permanently because the divorce was going on, I was mentally exhausted, and I was in my last year of "right of return," after that I'd lose tenure & they'd hire for my teaching position. That cost me about 15k a year to go back to teaching. If I work summers I can kind of approximate the difference but not completely & summer classes are not guaranteed.
b) Yes, but I'd need to find a job to make it worth it.
c) Yes but again I'd need to find a job that made the move worth it. I grew up in rural Texas, doesn't get much more conservative that that. Although I probably wouldn't be a great match for a woman who was a Trump supporter, I could handle a moderate conservative.
What field are you in and are you looking to get out of academia? I don't know what the current job market is for your field in the academic world, but I know tenure is a hard thing to give up. On the other hand since you're currently unencumbered, this is as good a time as any for a big leap.
Back in the day we had the rule of 100s in that a house was worth 100 times the rent. Maybe that didn't apply when interest rates were dirt cheap, but still... Using that kind of metric your rent is a good deal.
Something that hasn't been discussed is if/when you get serious with a woman there's a good chance she will own a home. We can't speculate if moving in will be an option but there's something attractive about a man with a truck... Or you may want to buy something together should you get married.
Don't tie yourself down to a house and block the number of that new house salesman.
As for 2nd jobs - is there one you'd enjoy where you'd meet suitable women?
What field are you in and are you looking to get out of academia? I don't know what the current job market is for your field in the academic world, but I know tenure is a hard thing to give up. On the other hand since you're currently unencumbered, this is as good a time as any for a big leap.
A liberal arts field without that many direct applications. It's not anything with 1:1 jobs like engineering or something. There are jobs but most would involve me taking a pay cut for several years before I could work up, unless I was to make a big jump to leadership level.
I could indirectly apply my experience to a number of jobs in a variety of areas though. I've explored this, but I don't think I can find much that pays extraordinarily better. Most would be lateral moves at best. However, I have former collogues as well as K-12 teachers I know who quit for what seemed like the most random jobs and they make more money than me now. Some of these would be in lower CoL areas. I haven't tested those waters much, so hard to say.
A liberal arts field without that many direct applications. It's not anything with 1:1 jobs like engineering or something. There are jobs but most would involve me taking a pay cut for several years before I could work up, unless I was to make a big jump to leadership level.
I could indirectly apply my experience to a number of jobs in a variety of areas though. I've explored this, but I don't think I can find much that pays extraordinarily better. Most would be lateral moves at best. However, I have former collogues as well as K-12 teachers I know who quit for what seemed like the most random jobs and they make more money than me now. Some of these would be in lower CoL areas. I haven't tested those waters much, so hard to say.
I knew it wasn't engineering, but trying to get toward your knowledges, skills, and abilities so I could relate to other jobs. There are a lot of jobs that don't have degree specific requirements but are a combination of various KSAs that you would have learned in a combination of education and previous work experience. Things like procurement or management analyst.
I knew it wasn't engineering, but trying to get toward your knowledges, skills, and abilities so I could relate to other jobs. There are a lot of jobs that don't have degree specific requirements but are a combination of various KSAs that you would have learned in a combination of education and previous work experience. Things like procurement or management analyst.
Yeah I could make an argument for something. From what I hear, few employers can afford to be choosy these days; they're all suffering from small applicant pools. E.g. I saw a job pop up at Nike, director of digital learning or something like that. They wanted a business or management degree but I could make an argument.
It sounds like you need to make a choice, which do you want more, a dating life or a house?
It's possible the house prices will go down a bit more than they already have. There is no way to predict the future. Real estate does tend to run in cycles.
It's also possible that the people in power will continue to feed inflation and buying a house will cost more dollars because each dollar is worth less. No one has the inside secret on what the real estate market will do; your guess is just as good as anyone else's guess.
[*]Do nothing. Keep renting, save my assets which are making money, maybe invest some of it more aggressively.
Definitely Option 3!
The housing market doesn’t have to crash or collapse. It merely needs to ease. The entire financial premise of owner-occupied residential housing is capital appreciation. If the place doesn’t appreciate for several years, then the nod goes to renting. If we find in 2026 that housing prices are at the same level as they were in 2021, that redounds to the renters’ credit (literally). Buy once we’re fairly certain that housing appreciation has resumed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by redguard57
Risk - the housing market explodes again faster than I can make money from working ...
This is unlikely, given the already strained ratio of housing prices to prevailing incomes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by creeksitter
Back in the day we had the rule of 100s in that a house was worth 100 times the rent. Maybe that didn't apply when interest rates were dirt cheap, but still... Using that kind of metric your rent is a good deal.
100X is classical, but an awfully tight standard at present. Our apartment in LA, if converted to a condo, would be at ~400X. The price-earnings ratio simply doesn't favor owning a small place. As the square footage increases, the ratio tilts in favor of buying. A family that needs 4 bedrooms might be better off buying, while a single person or a couple in a studio-apartment would struggle to justify buying an equivalent place.
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