House Hunting

The restaurant's lease is signed. We are now house hunting. Unlike in Singapore where kids can attend good schools if they make the grade, here in the US it is all about school districts. The only alternative here is an expensive private school.

Belonging to a good school district isn't enough, each school has its boundaries. There are bad schools in good school districts. We had to make sure that the houses we like are in the school zones we like.

So why doesn't everyone just stay in a good school district? Because it's freakin' expensive.

I was going to be a little extravagant but reconsidered after Tessi's (my broker) advice. We are still buying in a good school zone, just getting something modest. This will allow me to have more cash for business development.

"I can buy you a nice house now, or several nice houses in the future." That was what I told Jen.

I used a mortgage calculator to calculate what I can afford based on a 15-year loan. I plugged less than half our income into the calculator.

Hopefully, we can pay it off in 5 years.