ziggy29
Moderator Emeritus
While downsizing the house might make sense for a few reasons down the road, I don't think there is a huge benefit to be had for doing it now (the financial windfall will be smaller than you expect because of costs of selling the home, moving expenses, getting the house ready to sell, et cetera). And your wife is happy there, and not uprooting your kids, keeping them in the same school with the same friends, is worth something as well. But getting rid of stuff now and keeping it less cluttered is good practice for when and if you do move to something smaller. You will still have that option when the nest is empty, and then it might make a lot more sense.Thanks for all the posts and advice. I will say that we are currently cleaning out the junk, while we did not think we were spoiling our kids it became very clear that they did not appreciate the plethora of toys they had. So today we cleaned out the basement and let them choose 4 toys each, rest will be donated. We told them no more toys from mom and dad, something you want,something you need,something to wear and something to read is what santa will bring every christmas.
The downsizing will continue with my wife and I as well to show the kids that we practice what we preach. I have a 2017 M4 that I don't get to drive as much as I would like and in the spirit of decluttering its getting sold shortly
Not to mention that when you buy a new home, it's not going to be "exactly" what you want and you can very easily sink well into five figures making changes to make it "your own". Your current house is more or less already built as you want it.
So all that said, what is a $250K "windfall" on paper (in terms of difference in home value) might be half that after cost of sales, moving expenses, getting the house ready for show, and fixing up the new home to be what you want. And it could easily result in a $100K hit to net worth.
Last edited: