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This will be my 20th move, counting every time I have moved from one place of residence to another, even in the same city. A move is a move and although cross-country is more of a marathon while short moves are like sprints, I am spending another month purging and packing, working around and across boxes and wrapped furniture. Chris has been a god, doing much of the work while I was out of town and now, as I grade papers and projects and exams.

I’m excited about the new place, I always am, but I am tired of moving. Yet, in this economy and world, I can’t imagine being able to save the thousands a down payment would take for a house, not in New Jersey. The median house in Montclair is well over $400,000 and Chris and I together don’t make the median income. I know this is true for so many others, too. We work good jobs, that pay well but not spectacularly well — and I never intended it to. But I also thought being a professor would be enough to guarantee financial survival — and now that I am really untangling my finances and seeing what things cost — the world has changed. There’s a bigger gap between those who can afford a house and those who can’t — and that gap is being crossed by second mortgages and other, additional kinds of debt.

The goals our parents attained now take more money than ever before. Even as we work harder and harder. I won’t trade my job for anything — but I definitely am beginning to think about money and spending very differently as a result. I’m also seeing what this growing gap between the truly wealthy and the rest of us is coming to mean.

December 16th, 2007 | Category: Uncategorized | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL