thinking outside the box

[mellowtigger]

I am applying for tech support jobs that seem to me like really good fits, but I decided I should also be more creative and try to imagine a life-changing alternative. What if I went back to school and got a degree, so I could become an astronomer? That has always been an interest of mine. I "did" the computer world in this first career already, so now I should try something else entirely different for the next stage.

I called the realtor who helped get me into this house in 2015. He says (without having seen the place yet) that I should probably list this house at $110K and see if bidding pushes the price upwards from there. The house doesn't even need to be perfect in this hot market, because buyers will accept the small problems just to get the property. That incoming light rail project is really affecting the interest here.

I think it's conceivable that this house could be my scholarship for going back to college in the fall season. :)

I checked my mortgage online. It says I owe just under $39K on it now. I wonder if I could actually pocket a difference close to $70K, or how much in taxes/fees would disappear?

• That amount alone would be sufficient to pay for several years of studio apartment rent and tuition in Moorhead MN without needing to work-and-study at the same time. I tried that dual life long ago, and it was very bad for my mental health. I should focus just on studies.
   
• If a bidding war provides a little more money, it would be enough to buy a condo in a nearby town (4.7km / 2.9mi) and afford a few years of association fees there.  It would keep some of that wealth intact, to help when it's time to graduate.
   
• If a bidding war provides a lot more money, it would be worthwhile to investigate buying a lot near-ish (3.9km / 2.4mi) to campus and build a new "tiny house" on it. Hard to imagine that much money for this century old house, though. I'll try to remain a little more reasonable in my expectations during this brainstorm.

It sounds reasonable, though, doesn't it?  Start a second life?  I haven't flitted off into escapist fantasies, have I?

Comments

[mtbc]

Definitely assume you'll need more money that you expected. I'm sure glad I did that for this move, given the myriad issues with this house that the inspection didn't report, today the guy's replacing rotten-wood parts of the "new roof". I had other plans for the post-purchase remainder of the capital, sigh.

I sure don't want you to dissuade you from chasing your passion but definitely look hard at the resulting career options so you have a good idea where you'll end up, i.e., very plausibly not as a comfortably paid astronomer.

[mellowtigger]

Yes, renting is good for eliminating those particular headaches. There's still the issue of rising rent, so maybe everything is just a complicated trade off. If campus had a dorm just for older students (who are much quieter) it could be a good thing to get a single room there, but I only just discovered this morning that single-person dorms are even a thing.

[foeclan]

When I went to UMD, there were single-person dorms, but they were planted in the middle of all the others, so they weren't any quieter. In fact, the loudest person in my section was in a single-person door that he filled with speakers.