Writedown - is what's good enough for Citi good for us?

So, should we take a write down on the value of our house? I'm talking about the value we ascribe to our house as we keep track of our net worth. This is a totally esoteric debate since we're not planning on selling anytime soon. We may, however refinance the house in a couple of years, so maybe it would benefit us to take a very conservative view, if for nothing else, it would keep us pleasantly surprised when the refi happens.

Does it matter? We haven't jacked up the estimated value of our house since we bought 3 years ago, only going up about 7% over the purchase price a year ago, and have not touched the estimate since. Housing prices have gone down some around here, but not a ton, and it is not the case that there are tons of house sitting on the market - a few, yes, but not strings of for sale signs along any blocks so far.

A more reality based thought is that if we look to our "net worth" estimate as a barometer for how much debt we think we can take on, then we should probably take a write down. If we resist debt at all costs, then it probably does not matter whether we take a write down on our books. Probably what we should do is make a calculation on our spreadsheet that eliminates the consideration of both our mortgage debt and our home value estimate. That way we can see whether and how we're progressing against our other outstanding debt, which is almost all student loan debt.

That sounds like a plan...

Ch ch ch ch changes

We've got more kids on the way. As in twins - due soon, and it will bring our grand total to 4. Who has four kids? We will! And we're all fired up about it.

This does cause some concern among the adults, though. Questions like: where will we all sleep? Will we sleep? (likely not, for a while) should we get some help? (definitely) Can we afford this? (definitely not!) So we made a list. A long list with everything we needed to do: house renovations, buying stuff, getting ready, finding someone to come help us! We're knocking down the 'to do's' and we're just about ready. We have an au pair coming in a couple of months, I got a new job for more dough, and I've made a spreadsheet estimating how much everything is going to cost.

It's going to cost a lot. Think luxury minivan. Think trip around the world. Think new boat. But hopefully we'll be OK. I think we will, what with the new job and the (relatively) new organize our finances mantra. I think we will.

'night.