my condo

I paid the property taxes on my condo today. I try to focus on the positive aspects - paying proporty taxes means that I own property. I'm financially solvent enough to be able to write the check without sacrificing other stuff. There's the satisfaction of knowing that I'm being responsible enough to put the money away throughout the year and that it's working (yay for automatic transfers.) It's a great feeling of accomplishment and pride. However, that doesn't stop the cringe of writing out the biggest check of the year (two biggest checks, actually) or watching my carefully plotted taxes account go back down to near-zero.

I'm still doing the math& timeline on moving out of my condo so I can rent it out. I've been in my condo for 9 years, so my mortgage is pretty low compared to what it would be for something in my neighborhood now. But the jist of it right now is that renting it out at $1800 would probably net me $500+ each month after the mortgage, condo fee, property taxes, storage unit (assuming I can't fit all my stuff into a new place) and a condo maintenance account (because with someone else liveing there I'd have to actually take care of things pretty quickly). I don't know how some of those costs will change when I move out, esp. the condo fee & propoerty taxes. All I know is an extra $500/month would get me out of credit card debt in about a year and get me moving full steam ahead on some of the other goals like an emergency fund or a really nice vacation.

In order to rent my condo out though, I need to make some improvements. I've been pretty lax about maintaining it, since it's just me. But I need about $1200 - 1500, including a new stove. So I'm not sure how fast I can get it done. It's expensive in relation to my current budget, but it would pay off so quickly. I'm considering charging some of the stuff. We'll see. This blog talks about how the home improvement projects are coming.

Well. That's it. That's how my condo is the center of my financial life.