November 23, 2021November 23, 2021 FOGA

The Waiting Game

Money

One interesting (read annoying) aspect of being the sole breadwinner is having to put everything on the backburner when the world starts to affect my paychecks. In the past, Mr. FOGA’s checks would still be coming in and, while they would be smaller, we would be able to keep getting little things done. Whenever I expected a delay in my pay, I would use my last check to pre-pay as much as possible so we could coast on Mr. FOGA’s checks. Can’t do that anymore.

Right now, due to the state of everything, all of my closings are being pushed back. My community had no closings in the month of October. Homes that were supposed to close in Oct/Nov are closing in December/January. Meaning, that for any paychecks I was going to get in Oct/Nov, I am now (hopefully) getting in December-February, depending on when they close. It screws up a lot of things, including our overall 2021 goals (more on that in the future).

As far as bills and expenses go, we are fine. I’ll say it again: We are okay. The next mortgage payment isn’t due until January and most of the utilities (save the cell phone since it doesn’t actually let me pre-pay because they are rude 🙄) are covered through December. We are simply in a holding pattern until these homes close, and I get paid. Aren’t irregular incomes fun?

Is this a FOGA regrets spouse retiring to become a househusband post? Absolutely not. I am very happy with the current state of affairs. I haven’t don’t laundry in months people. MONTHS!!! I am thrilled.

This is just something outside of my circle of influence affecting my day-to-day. It’s annoying but manageable. I’m not the only person in real estate being affected by it. If you sell/deal with new construction right now, this is just life right now. I’m lucky. Others in my world are now telling people it will take 1.5- 2 years to build homes that use to take 9 months to a year to build.

A lot of my conversations at work look like this now:
Me- Cabinets are delayed now. The company is overworked and cannot handle it. We are looking for alternatives with other cabinet companies. I will keep you updated when I know more.
Them- This company is horrible. You are just trying to hold back closing.
Me- Look, I don’t get paid until you close. No one at this company gets paid until you close. I daresay that we are MORE incentivized to get you closed than you are. This is somewhere for you to live, but we, as in everyone actually involved in getting your home built, eat ramen until you move in. Publix can’t even keep Gatorade on the shelves right now. We’re doing everything we can here.
Them (Being fairly decent people)- True. That’s fair. Sorry to yell at you. Just frustrated.
Me- I get it. Sometimes you gotta vent. Yell all you want. As long as you don’t attack me directly, we’re good. 🙂
Them- Proceeds to vent about absolutely everything, including their annoying mother-in-law’s poorly trained dog (actually happened).
Me- Checking emails and making comments and or suggestions when needed/requested.

I am in a lucky situation where if my closings got pushed to March 2022, (Note the universe: This is just an extreme example. Don’t you dare. 😠), we would be okay. Yay for the emergency fund. It would suck GREATLY, but we would be alright. (Again to the universe: Not an invitation. Just an example.)

This is just the waiting game that we are having to play. Fingers crossed for a paycheck at the end of November. 🤞🏾

How are things going for you? In a holding pattern as well?




Feature Photo by Tavin Dotson on Unsplash