Joint Accounts

Our Money Pit of a House Is Hurting Our Marriage

Fixing it up is making us broke and miserable

Kristin Wong
Forge
Published in
4 min readNov 4, 2019

--

Illustration: Laurie Rollitt

Dear Joint Accounts,

Two years ago, my husband and I bought our first home and almost immediately regretted it. Our home required so much fixing up (and still does) that it’s become a major added stress in both our lives.

We’re so miserable that even though moving wouldn’t be financially advantageous, I think it’s worth it. My husband disagrees — he thinks that we’re too financially tied to the house, even though the stress is putting a strain on our relationship. Am I being too shortsighted on this? Or is he being stubborn?

Sincerely,

Bring on the Packing Boxes

SSomething that drives me crazy is how we tend to treat homeownership as an unqualified good move. Contrary to popular belief, buying a home is not always a sound investment. Too often, people feel pressured to transition from renting to owning just because it feels like the next step, or because they believe they should. You’re past this point, but it bears repeating for other potential homeowners: A mortgage is a loan, and just because there’s a house attached to that loan doesn’t mean it’s always smart to stretch your finances to take on the debt. A…

--

--

Kristin Wong
Forge
Writer for

Kristin Wong has written for the New York Times, The Cut, Catapult, The Atlantic and ELLE.