In 2005, I had aspirations to homestead in San Diego. There was one problem, however. The real estate bubble was about to burst and I knew it. I didn't know when, but I knew it. I've always been a rational and logical person and I knew that even when interest rates were around 18% in the early 1980s when my parents bought their first home that wasn't on wheels, the asking price of the house was roughly twice their annual income. So in 2005, when no asset, no verification ("liar loans") balloon mortgages (time bombs) and adjustable mortgages were popular (thanks to catchy marketing), I looked at local prices. We took an entire Saturday and drove to Temecula, then to Riverside, then to Hemet, and finally to Parris before we could find homes that were as cheap as thrice my annual income. Even with 8% APRs, the numbers just didn't make sense. Eventually, we bought a house that cost about 250% of my annual salary but by then, the APR was less than 3.5%.
Anyhow, it was in the mid-aughts that I noticed this cable channel called HGTV. I watched a few shows but usually wound up being pissed off that I was logical enough to still be renting while HGTV made it appear that being a millionaire was just an everyday thing. Eventually, this cute couple, Joanna and Chip, got even the most-skeptical of folks (like me) interested. They became successful and followed the Oprah model of marketing their selves in the form of a furniture line and a magazine. Now they are quitting their TV show.
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/09/26/fixer-upper-ending-after-season-5-chip-and-joanna-gaines-announce.html
I think they are wise.
I think they have their priorities straight.
Recently, one of my colleagues explained his priorities to me:
1. Child of God
2. Christian
3. Father
4. Husband
5. Marine Corps Officer
I self-examined, given all the bad things I had to deal with just in the calendar year 2017:
-Passed over, no chance of being promoted
-No possibility of achieving my goal of attaining command
-A marriage that is failing, nearly ended in June, and might very well still end
-A near-death experience
So I thought about my colleague's priorities and figured out what mine have been all along:
1. Naval Officer
2. Husband
3. Father
For what it's worth, I fell out of Catholicism and journeyed through atheism and ultimately figured out that I'm some kind of Unitarian. But that's a continuing journey, like the ideal of arete.
So I think now I want my priorities to be:
1. Father
2. Husband
3. Teacher
4. Naval Officer
However, it might be too late and I might have to strike the number 2 priority.
So back to Joanna and Chip. They got it right. They seem to know their priorities and they seem to have gotten out of one profession before it had a chance to ruin their marriage. I don't normally give two flying hoots about how rich celebrities are doing, but in this case, provided they are being sincere, I suspect they have it right. Or at least they have it right for them.
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