What It Means To Be "House Poor"

"House poor."

I'm pretty sure the first time I heard that phrase was when Jake and I went to meet with a financial adviser before we bought our house. He looked over our finances and gave us feedback on whether or not it was financially feasible for us to buy a house.

This meeting took place over two years ago now, but I still remember what he said. He warned us by saying that while we could probably swing a mortgage and all the home-maintenance frustrations that come with owning a house, but he wouldn't recommend it at this point. He took into consideration our income levels, along with some debt that we had, and said that, for us, buying a home might make us feel "house poor."

He then went on to describe what being house poor looks like. It doesn't mean that you can't afford to make the payments, but instead that you'll leave yourself with nothing much left after the bills. The house, essentially, will become your life. And since you can't really afford to do anything but stay home and pay for your house, you'll feel "house poor."

I heard him out, and although I believed what he had to say, I was hopeful that things would be different for us. I mean, we weren't planning to spend nearly as much as the bank said we qualified for, and I was sure that in the long run it would be wiser to invest our money into a mortgage instead of rent, and so I made it my mission in life to convince my then fiancé that buying a house was the best option for us.

After all, we were getting married soon and we needed a place to live. How great would it be to start out life together in our very own house!

So after looking at four or five homes we found what we believed to be our "forever" home—a place we could raise a family, grow old together, have the grandchildren come and visit, and host big holiday parties. We had to jump through a ton of hoops in order to purchase the house due to the type of government loan our bank recommended we go with—we had to get permission from the owner to go in and start cleaning to demonstrate to them how serious we were; we had to paint the outbuildings, the deck, the trim, and a bunch of other things. Finally, a month after our wedding, we closed on the house! OUR house!

Fast forward almost two years later.

I can now say I understand firsthand what the phrase "house poor" means. I wouldn't recommend anyone live this way. The house has, exactly as the financial planner warned, become our life. We work to pay off the house, and when we're not working we're thinking of other ways we can work to earn more money to pay off the house. And if we're not doing that we're making emergency fixes to the flooded basement or the broken furnace, we're renovating the upstairs, or just maintaining the property—mowing, shoveling snow, raking leaves, gardening. It never ends.

The time has come for a dramatic change. Jake and I have a lot of things we want to do in life and right now this house is holding us back. We're considering doing something drastic to change our circumstances... but you'll have to come back to find out the rest of that story.

Keep pinchin' ;-)