Here’s my current situation …. as most of you know, I’m living in a village house in a small mountain town just outside of Sai Kung town. 2100 square feet plus a patio, two balconies, rooftop and a 700 square foot garden. The village is peaceful and quiet. I have a million dollar view. And plenty of room for my girlfriend, my helper, my two large-ish dogs and all my stuff. I love this house. My lease runs until March of next year and at the landlord’s request does NOT contain the standard two month break-lease clause, though of course there are probably ways around that.

My future …. as of November 1, I will be out of work. I will be getting approximately 1 year’s salary as severance pay. I do not collect the package if I leave before November 1st. I don’t know yet if at that point I will look to get another job along the same lines as what I’ve been doing for the past 23 years and, if I do, will I find something within two months, six months, never. Or, I could up the level of risk by attempting to start my own business.

Of course, one of the things I’m thinking about is economizing. What I can cut out of my life and reduce my monthly overhead. One thing of course is rent.

I’ve been looking at ads and seeing that, thanks to a down economy, I could get 2 floors (1400 square feet) in a village house for approximately half the rent I’m paying now. Going that route, I’d need to come up with two months’ rent for security deposit, 1/2 months’ rent for the realtor, and probably spend somewhere around $10k on the move. All my stuff won’t fit into 1400 square feet – I’d have to consider a combination of selling, donating and storing a large part of it. And that’s optimistically hoping that my landlord would go along with letting me out of the lease early – calling her “kookie” would be putting it mildly, calling her unbalanced might not be an overstatement, and I’ve got no idea how she’d react to this.

So on the one hand, it would kill me to get rid of stuff and move out of a house I love and then get lucky and find another job at the same income level within a matter of months. On the other hand, it would kill me to be paying out the rent in this house month after month and watch my savings dwindle as a fruitless job search continues.

So, hope for the best or expect the worst? Should I stay or should I go?

OR …. wait till November gets closer so I can judge the state of the economy and make a more informed decision?

Hongkie Town
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