Some important context notes:
Son, in college, we had our apartment in the Residence Hall as part of mom’s stipend.
Our first apartment complex in Kissimmee (1984) was roach-infested, and crime-laden.
Our first home was 30 miles from my Disney job at Disney’s Contemporary Resort Front Desk. i bicycled there daily because we had one car. Kinda cool that your first Disney job, on the Grand Canyon Concourse, was there too.
Our first home was financed by a first-time, low-income buyer, super-reduced mortgage interest rate of 9.9%.
What felt like a HUGE gift in 1984 at 9.9% is insanely laughable (unbelievable) today. The prevailing rate was 13-14% (Google verifies it here).
Then, because our combined income was so low, we were one of only two special mortgage lottery recipients (out of all the eventual recipients) to receive an extra 1% reduction, so 8.9% seemed miraculous. Because it was.
Context is king…
When we applied for this special first time, low income, homebuyer- lottery, we were the 304th people to be selected. So 303 people were picked randomly before us from the pool of people that fit the criteria. How we got picked being so far away from (304th) in the opportunity is because when your name is called, you have only one week to present a signed contract with a builder. No one was ready with a contract, so the lottery flew through random applications.
By the grace of the universe, we were far enough along with Tom McIntosh (the builder) that we submitted a builder-contract within the week. Had we not, the 305th person would have been giving the same exciting news we got; “Your name has been picked…”
Mom and i have worked so hard for so long that we forget how hard and how long we worked.
You see the harvest.
You never got to see the ‘wilderness’ of our lives.
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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.
