Keeping Financial Losses in Perspective

We are about to lose money on a house. Our house. The one in which our kids grew from children to near-adults. Sometimes it makes me mad. Then sad. Then frustrated. But then I remember that…

1. The memories made in that house are priceless and will always be with me.

2. Yes, we spent a fortune on landscaping and a furnace and an air conditioner and painting the house and fixing all the windows our sons broke with various balls, and new pool equipment. But didn’t we get to enjoy the warm and cool air provided by those appliances? And didn’t we get to look out those windows into the backyard blooming with yucca all summer long? Didn’t we get to enjoy swimming in that pool on hot summer evenings? And didn’t we get to appreciate the smooth paint job each time we drove into the driveway? Yes. We did. So our investment more than paid off in the amount of six years of comfort and happy moments.

3. Some people don’t have a house. Or any home at all. Boom. That puts it in perspective.

Despite losing thousands of dollars, we are lucky to have enjoyed our house for these last six years.

For that, I am grateful.