HisHersMoney

Everyone knows that the real estate market is in the toilet and if you have the resources, now is a good time to buy. Well, we’re not in the market to buy a house or condo in the area we live, Washington DC/Northern VIrginia, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of the down market.

We have been silently keeping our eye on real estate in Steamboat Colorado were we like to ski. Over the past few years we have spent anywhere from $2000-$3000 a year on lodging there when we visit during the winter skiing months. We have been looking at what they call fractional ownership. It’s were some number of you own a particular condo and share it throughout the year.

The calendar is split up between you and your co-owners in advance and you know which weeks you have. We were originally looking at a place that sold out in either 1/8th or 1/4th shares. We were looking at the 1/4th share which included one week each month and a second week one month of the year which rotated each week. You had the choice of either using your weeks or putting them in a rental pool.

The price on those units right now is between $80k-$90k. In order to finance the cost you needed to put down around half of the cost. The kicker on these particular units was the HOA fees where were a hefty $300+ per month! While this condo wasn’t completely out of our grasp we didn’t have the down payment required so we were busy saving away.

In the meantime, about two weeks ago a unit came on the market in the building next door. It’s pretty much the same situation but the building isn’t quite as nice or as new and also doesn’t come with the hefty price tag either. The unit started out at the $30k price but had dropped to $22k with HOA fees of $100 a month and taxes of $500 per year. This was definitely closer to our price range.

This particular unit is a 30% ownership and includes 6 consecutive winter ski weeks as well as a few weeks in the Spring and Fall.   We made a low offer on the pace of $15k and settled with the seller for $18k. We plan on paying cash for the purchase and we close on the condo in about 10 days!

In upcoming posts we will go into detail about the cash payment as well as the impact to our day to day finances.

Just opened up a bottle Chimay Ale (Red). In case you haven’t heard of it before, Chimay’s origins reside with the Trappist monks of Chimay Belgium. It’s made from historical methods and ingredients even though they use modern technology alongside. Some friends had gotten it when we were out this past week and it was the first time I had tried it. Fairly appalling was the price at the bar. $28 for a 750ML bottle, or roughly double or more the price of a regular beer.

I happened to see it at a wine store this weekend when HERS and I were walking around Annapolis, MD after going for a drive with the top down to enjoy the nice weather. I decided to purchase a bottle after seeing the much more reasonable price of $10.49. For an occasional drink of a special variety for about the price of a bottle of wine, this is good value in my opinion and I’m looking forward to trying more of the Chimay offerings.

In watching the Suze Orman episode on Oprah I was surprised and how much people spent on their monthly “expenses”. In most cases it was within $150 to $200 of their monthly income leaving no room for any unforeseen expenses. There was a young couple around our age with no children. Their take home was about $7900 a month and their monthly expenses was about $7700.

It made me go back to our budget to see how this compared to us. We live in a very high cost of living area so I can’t imagine that their costs of living were really any higher than ours.

Cars, insurance, gas $1000

Rent $2350

Utilities, phone, cable $350

Misc, gym, etc $115

Allowances (both of us) $400

Food / Entertainment $600

Him St Loan, debt $275

That’s a total of $5090

I don’t understand how these people’s expenses are $7700!

I don’t work at home full time but I do get to at least once a week. It’s great because I literally roll out of bed, grab a cup of coffee and boot up my computer and instantly I’m “At Work”. The hour it normally takes to get ready and go to the office is totally negated. Since I’m able to start work an hour earlier I get to quit for the day a hour earlier.   

Every day I work from home I always tune into Oprah at 4pm. I really enjoy watching the show and for some reason I’ve lucked into seeing almost all of the episodes with Suze Orman. Today’s episode showed a number of individuals and families who want to spend some amount of money on something they want. Suze summed up all the figures and showed them whether they could afford it or not. The audience also had the opportunity to chime in with their vote.

It was amazing that even faced with the figures, everyone’s opinion and Suze’s expert opinion some people just didn’t get it.

I personally am kinda wanting a wii. I’m thinking that my husband and I can play some of the interactive games and the wii fit and do something together other than sit and watch tv. I know we can afford it and if we went on the show Suze would definitely say “Approved” but I’m having a hard time justifying it to myself.