Limbo

Selling our house was the best choice for our family, both financially and for our future comfort. Renting hasn't been as difficult as we thought. We really like our rental home, the neighborhood is awesome, and the space has been wonderful. The difficulty with the situation lies with this feeling of being in Limbo.

Before deciding to selling our home, our family had spent almost a year being 100% focused on reducing debt, budgeting, living on less, and preparing for our future. We did a very good job at it too. When we sold our home, things got busy, jumbled, lost in the shuffle. We have done a very good job sticking to our monthly budget, even through all the craziness. However, all of our extra money is no longer going towards debt, it's sitting in our bank account waiting to be our down payment.

I never, ever, thought I would say this, but I miss putting every extra penny towards our debt. It felt so amazing to know that with every month, we were one step closer to our financial goals. It was also wonderful to see the changes in our family while working toward these goals. My husband and I became closer, we are now a true partnership, and since money/things were no longer the focus, our kids benefited from more time/effort/attention. It was awesome!

We have still carried these priorities with us into the rental, but since our focus is different, it feels different. We are ready to get back on track, but to do that we need to find our home. This is a bit of a chore in that, we don't want to rush our decision, the buyers market is quite slim, and we are still very unsure of the area we want to live in.

Wish we could focus on both

We have considered staying in our rental for a year or two, to help pay down debt, really take our time finding our forever home, and figure out what we really want, but we have quite a few big issues with this option as well. The commute is horrible for Joe, our rental costs as much as our previous mortgage (especially with the added commute for both of us), and most of all, we want to be settled for our boys. Liam starts kindergarten in a year and a half, and we want to be where we are going to be by then. Also, moving has been hard on Liam. He still says that he misses our old house, he asks to paint/decorate is current bedroom, and he misses Sherwood.

We don't know where we will end up, or where we want to end up, but one thing is for sure...it's not Limbo!