Mortgage killing future hunting adventures?

[Coltaur87]

Life is a constant balance of living the high life now or having that delayed gratification down the road (unless you make enough money for both).

My wife and I are in Iowa and bought a nice house on an acre lot on the edge of town. It's unique in that there is a wildlife pond and good browse so the deer and turkey move through regularly, and I can bow hunt it. We have no other debt, however, our mortgage rate is 7.25% and our loan is around 340K even after our 20% down payment. The way loans are amortized, the interest payments these first couple years have been a real kick in the junk. I knew that going in, but dang.

The seclusion and thought of hunting this little cool property sold me on it, but I can't help but think a smaller home in town might be better. I could have taken the 25K I paid just in interest last year and invested it instead for our future. We pay an extra 200 a month just towards principal, but we still end up paying about twice the houses value in the long run! This seems dumb to me.

I like adventure, some of the best hunts I've been on were on public. And with the price of land (especially in Iowa), and these rates, I might throw in the towel. Just stash cash, retire early, and go on diy and guided hunts until I'm blue in the face. Unless you can buy land in cash, the interest rates bleed you, and you still have to invest time and money on managing it, equipment / repairs, taxes, and the stress that goes with all that.

I enjoy managing the tiny parcel i do have. Getting prairie established, planting native hedges, and getting a food plot going. I know this feeling has value. But will my 60 year old self look back in regret?

I know similar topics have been covered in the past, but I'd love to hear what other people's opinions are. Am I over exagerating things and not seeing the big picture? Or do you relate to what I'm saying? Thanks!

 

[Tjdeerslayer37]

Just comes down to priorities. Im 33, single, live in a tiny (600 sq ft) home that costs me $320/month all-in. I bought it with the idea that i didnt want to ever be house poor like all my friends nor change my lifestyle and i would rather use that money on adventures, hunts, fishing trips. Ive lived there 8 years now, 0 regrets.

 

[wildwilderness]

No you won’t regret owning your house, especially if you plan to stay there a while and raise a family.


Now if you plan to move every 3-5 years and if rents are significantly less than mortgage, than no don’t buy.

Honestly your dollar amounts now are insignificant to what your future earnings and cost will be. I’d love to only have 340k loan

 

[Coltaur87]

Just comes down to priorities. Im 33, single, live in a tiny (600 sq ft) home that costs me $320/month all-in. I bought it with the idea that i didnt want to ever be house poor like all my friends nor change my lifestyle and i would rather use that money on adventures, hunts, fishing trips. Ive lived there 8 years now, 0 regrets.

That's awesome man. You're killing it.

 

[AndrewMT34]

No you won’t regret owning your house, especially if you plan to stay there a while and raise a family.


Now if you plan to move every 3-5 years and if rents are significantly less than mortgage, than no don’t buy.

Honestly your dollar amounts now are insignificant to what your future earnings and cost will be. I’d love to only have 340k loan

I agree with this. It's a long-term investment. If you're comfortable with the payment and plan on staying in the area I would stay in your house.

Who knows how long its going to take, but you will be able to refinance at a lower interest rate in the future, then compared to future earnings, you'll be happy you kept it.

 

[Coltaur87]

No you won’t regret owning your house, especially if you plan to stay there a while and raise a family.


Now if you plan to move every 3-5 years and if rents are significantly less than mortgage, than no don’t buy.

Honestly your dollar amounts now are insignificant to what your future earnings and cost will be. I’d love to only have 340k loan

Thanks for the advice and perspective!

My wife and I do ok, but we aren't raking it in by any means. We were able to afford this home because I'm somewhat handy and fixed up our last house and we made about 80K profit on it which went towards our dp for this home.

This home also had potential for profit like fixing some erosion issues which we did and finishing the basement (working on now). Another reason why selling is on my mind because I think we would have enough cash to just about buy a home outright if we downsized a little.

 

[LongWayAround]

I would keep an acre on the edge of town and not even think about moving into a postage stamp lot.

Having that space and a little native prairie project every day is worth a lot.

We bought our house around Christmas of 2017 with the idea that it was a "starter." No plans to leave now.

 

[Jimmy]

Stay there! You could refi down the road at a lower interest rate, that would help.

And don't be the people that's always moving and needs a bigger house.

 

[The Truth]

I was in the same boat last year. I was 3 yrs into a 30 yr mortgage. I had a super low rate (2.6%) so I was thankful for that. We received a windfall and instead of investing the entirety of the money, we decided to just pay our house off. That money could have made a lot more invested in the long run. But the fact that I’d be paying twice what we bought the house for over the course of the mortgage chapped my ass. We still save for retirement, and should be able to live comfortably when that time comes. But man, retirement isn’t a guarantee. And I’d rather live along the way. And there is such a freedom to just owning my home and not owing anyone a dime for it. Sounds like you got a nice spot you can hunt though, thats a plus. And if you don’t plan on moving you can always refinance at a lower rate

 

[Nine Banger]

I would imagine there will be an opportunity to refinance within 10 years but the rate doesn't stop you from knocking out the principal with windfalls, bonuses, selling stuff, etc.

Get it out of the way and then you can do whatever you want. Don't be miserable in town.

A few years from now it won't seem like such a big deal.

Seek higher paying employment or start a business.

Easy for me to say, right?

For us moving from town to our hunting property saved me 4 hours of driving a week and my wife is 5 mins away instead of 30 mins away when I'm screwing around with property stuff. Then we had kids. They will tell me every once in a while they love growing up in the country and it makes me feel great.

 

[signing off]

I think the numbers are getting to you. Would you be able to add a little RV parking spot and get extra income where you are?
Then the interest is paid by someone else.
I moved from the city to a country place within sight of public hunting ground. The peace and quiet help me put up with the rat race. And building financial freedom is a daily mental conversation. Good luck with thoughts and deer season

 

[Coltaur87]

Great perspective! Thanks! Was the windfall from an inheritance? My wife and I talk about factoring that in... but that isn't a guarantee either. The nice thing about cash, is it gives you options. Maybe down the road i could buy an even better spot to hunt. If I had the money, I'd buy a nice size farm that has good crop production / cash flow, but also a 30 acre corner of prairie and timber to play on. But that ain't the case lol! And by the time I could save up and buy what land is worth today, it will be worth a crap load more.

 

[JohnB]

Great perspective! Thanks! Was the windfall from an inheritance? My wife and I talk about factoring that in... but that isn't a guarantee either. The nice thing about cash, is it gives you options. Maybe down the road i could buy an even better spot to hunt. If I had the money, I'd buy a nice size farm that has good crop production / cash flow, but also a 30 acre corner of prairie and timber to play on. But that ain't the case lol! And by the time I could save up and buy what land is worth today, it will be worth a crap load more.

The Truth talks about being bothered that he would wind up paying twice his value of his house by the end of his loan. Money invested now at 8% would be worth nearly 9x it's value in 27 years. Keep that in mind before choosing to pay off your house.

 

[grfox92]

I have no plans on having a mortgage again unless I can put 50% or more down. Even then, my goal is to build it myself with a very small of any loan. I few things have to work out in order for that to come together, but until then Im good with renting.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

 

[cnelk]

It’s all relative.
Interest rates and whatever.

Stay where you are at. Put sweat equity into your place and you’ll be okay. Just don’t try to keep up with ‘The Jones’
You should average 6% a year in value.

I’m in the same place I bought in 1989 at 11% for $55,000.
Refinanced whenever I could drop 2% points.

It’s worth over $600k now.

Stay the course

 

[Coltaur87]

The Truth talks about being bothered that he would wind up paying twice his value of his house by the end of his loan. Money invested now at 8% would be worth nearly 9x it's value in 27 years. Keep that in mind before choosing to pay off your house.

Thanks for the comment. I'm not expecting a windfall, so that's a reason in my mind to downsize so I can really invest more intensely while I'm still young (37). Lots of good reasons in the comments to stay put though...

 

[AZ8]

......And with the price of land (especially in Iowa), and these rates, I might throw in the towel. Just stash cash, retire early, and go on diy and guided hunts until I'm blue in the face.

I believe subconsciously you've already made the decision.

You just need someone to convince you to jump off the diving board.

Good luck!

 

[Hnthrdr]

I live in Colorado, I will always live somewhere in the Rocky mountains, love my public land but man I do get jealous of hearing about guys that have the ability to live and hunt basically in town, to effectively do that where I’m at will run you north of 2 million dollars decent house with 40 acres , if you go up and down the front range some it would be around 1.5 maybe… but it’s nuts, sometimes we have to be grateful for what we do have!

 

[wind gypsy]

Depends. If you're stretched so thin that you're not adequately investing for retirement, definitely downsize.

If the house payments + investing leaves you tight on being able to spend $ on enjoyable experiences.. Probably still a strong reason to downsize.

But.. Does the house you're in have more upside appreciation than an older/smaller house in town?

I'm having a hard time seeing hunting on a 1 acre residential lot as being a big upside but that is up to each individual. I live on a 6 acre heavily timbered lot and was attracted to the ability to shoot stuff in my yard at purchase. Now, the prospect of shooting my highly habituated "pets" isn't too enticing but its nice to watch them and have lots of options to practice with my bow that didn't exist when i lived in an actual neighborhood.

 

[ReddingArcher]

You always have to have somewhere to live. If you can afford the payment and not be house poor, I would stay there. Why pay rent and not own something? Where I live rent is damn near what it is to own your home, depending on what you rent. It just doesnt make sense to me to pay someone elses mortgage. When my wife and I started dating, I owned my home and she rented, when we decided to get married we bought a house together. I sold my home after 2 years and pocketed 60k, she had been renting for 5 years and walked away with nothing from that.
If you have kids, you will want to raise them in the country, if you are living in town you'll eventually want to be out of town and at that point may be priced out of getting a place you'd want.