Life Decisions...

I thought once you reached your 20's, life would get a whole lot easier. Life after college seems like it should be a piece of cake. (alright, I admit it...I've been out of college for almost 5 years...yikes...so I guess I can't really say I'm fresh out of school). Anyways, it seems like all my life decisions are now getting ALOT harder. I feel like, I have a great job, a wonderful boyfriend, fabulous friends and family, why are there so many little things popping up that are making my life so difficult??? The main thing right now is our living situation. Our teeny tiny apartment lease is up in July. They require 2 months notice on whether you are staying or going. So that puts us at May 1st to let them know 100%. Which is really not that far away AT ALL. I feel so much pressure to make a decision quickly, but to make sure it's the right one, since it could potentially change our lives.

I mentioned a few posts ago about the house that we are thinking about moving into. Well there are a few issues. The rent for that house is going to be SIGNIFICANTLY higher than our rent right now. We had figured our apartment rent would be going up about $100-$200 for the 2nd year, making it a little easier of a decision to spend more money on a rental house. Well I talked with our leasing office on Monday and guess how much our rent is going up...$50! That's it...$25/each. Geez Louise! So now, I don't know if we can justify spending ALOT more to rent that house. We're actually not sure what the rent of the house will be (we're meeting with them Saturday morning to discuss everything), so this could be a moot point, but right now, I'm super stressed about it. I know because we are friends with the owners, they will be willing to work with our budgets for the rent, but at the same time, I don't want them to think we are using them for cheap rent or trying to negotiate to a super low rate and screw them over.

Also, the apartment we live in now pays for our heat, hot water and cooking gas. This is a considerable amount that we don't have to worry about at all. Obviously that will not be the case in the house, which will then mean even MORE money each money. However, the benefits of having a HUGE house with a huge backyard, garage, basement, etc. are so tempting. I think Sailor Boy and I would die of happiness from all the space, but then might die of shock as our checking account dwindles from paying rent and utilities each money.

My big thing for the past year or so has been to save as much money as possible and try to buy a house as fast as possible. Sailor Boy somewhat agreed, but since he is in the real estate industry (commercial and land development), he has a more realistic view of everything than I do. I just want our little house, a cute puppy and to start the rest of our lives together. So obviously moving into this house and paying more in rent means less that we can save each month, meaning we would not be able to buy a house next year. In our many discussions about this in the past few days Sailor Boy brought up a good point...what is our rush to buy a house? Especially if we aren't "really" ready and would be pushing it by next year to have enough saved? His thoughts are to move into this rental house, which while it will be more money, we would be more than willing to stay there for 2, 3 even 4 years while we TRULY saved and planned and got everything in order. Since the rental house is so great and big, I actually wouldn't mind living there for a few years until we really could afford our dream house. I obviously cannot live in the apartment for another 2, 3 or even 4 years, but the house...I definitely think we could. I guess I just need to get over my stupid stereotypes of people who rent vs. people who own.

So that's what's going on with our life right now. I think after Saturday, when we meet with our potential new landlords and work all the details out, I will feel ALOT better, but right now...not so much! Sorry this post is so depressing!! Happy Wednesday!!