Big Law: Real Estate Heartache, part 4: Less Heartache (v. More Headache)

Z closed on the house recently.  The sales price is public information, and it took no effort at all to discover that she paid nearly $65,000 above the asking price.  In some small way it helps to alleviate my heartache to know that I would not have gotten the house even if I had made an offer, because I would not have offered that much.  I had been carrying around my ficticious offer number in my head, but it was not that number. 

Thus, now seems the appropriate time to present to you part 2 of the More Headache v. Less Heartache: Why Walking Away From this House was the Best Decision I've Ever Made series.  Part 1 can be found here. 

Part 2:  Less Heartache

Time and again, I take consolation in just two things when I am pining away for the house.  These things are, simply, (1) time, and (2) money.

Time:  My life is relatively uncomplicated compared to many (read, I have no children to tend to).  However, my time feels no less scarce.  My professional life is very important to me.  I want to do well in my career.  I want to become a leader within my firm and my field.  This requires that my job is, on most days, my top priority. 

In my first couple of years as an associate, I could make my job my top priority and still end up with a smidgeon of evening time and my entire weekend at my disposal.  But I've learned that this changes as you move up the associate ladder.  As your knowledge and skill level increases, so does the work.  More complex work.  Work that requires issue spotting and problem solving, rather than mere execution of the solutions that others have already developed for the issues they've already spotted. 

I've also learned that important to becoming highly regarded within one's firm is becoming highly regarded outside of one's firm.  Two years ago, while a second year associate, I made it a New Years resolution to become nominated to a bar association committee.  By the end of that year, I was on three committees.  These are very rewarding, but can also require several hours of work each week.  I've recently begun to receive invitations to present at continuing education programs.  These are wonderful opportunties for a variety of reasons, but require dozens of hours of work.  As a result, I've worked at least one day nearly every weekend beginning this past summer, and currently log the third highest hours of any associate in my firm.  My average work day is 12 hours, and when I arrive home around 10pm each night, I am brain dead.  I eat the dinner GF has made for me, watch some simple minded television in an attempt to decompress, and crawl into bed.  On weekends I go the gym, clean the apartment, run my errands, and do laundry and ironing.  I try to find a few hours on top of all of that to do something fun.  Because it is important to have a little adventure in one's life.

So while there is a big part of me that loves the idea of owning a neglected old house, lovingly restoring it to its original glory, and ultimately ending up with a home that will be exactly what I want it to be because I've made all of the decisions all along the way, in reality, I don't have the time.  Moreover, to a certain degree, my sanity hinges on coming home to a pretty and clean apartment, in which I can relax at the end of the long workday.  I enjoy working on home improvement projects, but not to the exclusion of being able to come home to an environment where the weight of the day can slowly melt away.  If every night I was confronted with a house that needed to be rehabbed from top to bottom and from inside out, I would be leaving a long office to-do list only to step into an even longer home to-do list.  A home to-do list with no time to accomplish anything on it.  For me, that is the equivalent of stepping out of the anxiety frying pan and into the anxiety fire.

Money:  I don't want to be so house poor that I must give up the quality of life that I have worked so hard to achieve (notwithstanding the long work days).  I traded a successul first career where I made a comfortable living to embark on a new career with the potential to make an even better living.  College, graduate school and law school required a series of years that add up to a nearly decade-long ramen noodle lifestyle.  Paying off my undergraduate, graduate and law school student loans required several more years of a speghetti and jar sauce lifestyle.  I finally have a little bit of financial wiggle room again.  I can finally go on vacations again.  Like the few days I spent in beautiful St. Augustine, Florida earlier this month. 

Sunset over St. Augustine from the Lions Bridge, Sunday, January 15, 2012

And I can finally make non-essential purchases without having to study an Excel spread sheet to figure out what I can trim from my budget to pay for it.  Like this lovely yellow bag and matching wallet that caught my eye last month.

Hobo International's "Florence" line

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I still hope to purchase a house sometime in the next several months.  But a different house.  A house that, although it might need some work, will still allow me the time and money to live the life that I am lucky enough to now live.