Wendell News Outlet

Yes that’s right; your home is an equal partner with your 401k and IRA in your retirement planning. How can that be you say, well let’s go through some basic concepts:

With a 401k and an IRA, you contribute a certain amount of money and they keep on building in value, free of current income tax.

With your home, you contribute to it (pay the mortgage) and it keeps on building in value (or so you hope), free of current income tax.

If you accept the premise that your home is an equal partner with your other saving plans, let’s talk about that portion of the trio.

You own a home in Wendell which is located in Wake County, one of the most affluent Counties in the State and one of the fastest growing in the Country. People are coming from all over the United States, from all over the world, to live in this area. You picked the right place to buy (invest money for your retirement). Or did you?

Those last three words sounded ominous, didn’t they? Well, if you don’t watch your home investment, as well as you do your 401K and IRA, you could be less then satisfied with the ultimate returns. Think about it, the $200,000.00 home you own today could be worth $400,000.00 or more when it’s time to retire, and it may be a major portion of your retirement planning.

So how can you “watch your home investment”? One of the ways is for you to pay attention to what is happening in the area in which you live. Are the Wendell Town administrators exercising their best judgment in planning for the growth of the Town? Is there a suitable diversity in the housing population? Are there enough less expensive homes in relation to the number of more expensive homes? Or, in the case of Wendell, just the opposite.

That brings me to today, the middle of June, 2007. There are currently about 14 or 15 new housing sub-divisions being built or proposed for the Town or its Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ). Almost all of the developers of these sub-divisions want to reduce the size of the property lots on which to build their houses. That in turn will probably mean smaller, less expensive homes which will not generate sufficient taxes to pay for the greater portion of the services the Town provides. This will bring higher taxes or reduced services. It’s a vicious cycle that must be broken by persons such as us getting involved and standing up what’s best for the Town of Wendell and ultimately ourselves. Think about it, if Wendell becomes the Wake County repository for lower priced homes, will your home value increase as much as those in other towns?

The Wendell Community Coalition has pages of statistical data that shows Wendell is currently heading in the wrong direction and that places the Town at or near the bottom of the 12 municipalities in Wake County. Currently there are over 5100 houses scheduled to be built in Wendell and its ETJ in the next few years, most of which will be on small pieces of property. Smaller properties equal smaller houses which equal less tax revenues. Sound familiar? And now more sub-divisions are coming! Maybe you better do something!

If you can spend a couple of hours a month tending to your 401k and IRA surely you can attend one or two meetings a month to protect your home value. Are you going to sit home and hope others will make the right decisions for your financial future, or are you going to be a participant?

Important meeting and elections are coming up in the next few months, I’ll be there, hope you are too! If not don’t worry, I’ll make your decisions for you.

Plan on being at the following meetings. Your presence is important!

Wendell Board of Commissioners – Monday June 25th – 7:00 P.M. – Town Hall

Wendell Community Coalition – Tuesday June 26th. – Wendell Methodist Church – 7:00 P.M.