I'm not very good at financial decisions. Frankly, I'm too emotional. I get caught up in the feeling of what I want, imagining the outcome. I'm not able to distance myself from that emotion and make a decision solely based on dollars and cents. That's part of what makes me good at other things in life, but causes real doubt when it comes time to make the more traditional decisions in life.

The house we're most interested in.

My wife and I are considering moving from our solid, suburban neighborhood to an edgier, urban environment. The particular neighborhood we're considering appears to be an up and coming one with lots of investment dollars coming in. While the neighborhood is still a little "wild," we're really excited about the possibility of being part of the new urban boom in St Louis as well as being closer to all the restaurants, concert venues, and entertainment we seem to gravitate towards anyway. Still, there's a disconnect between dreaming and doing.

So why move anyway? We started thinking about this after writing a large check for taxes to our local municipality. We're not invested in the school system (my son will be graduating from a different school district in May). We don't have deep ties to the area (it's stable, it's nice, but not that nice). We've not developed lasting relationships with our neighbors. In short, we're paying for a solid neighborhood that offers nothing more than a return on our property value.

My wife was city born and bred. She's used to the cluttered alleys, the incongruous architecture some neighborhoods offer, the unpolished exteriors, the sometimes raucous neighbors, and the too slow arriving police car. While I've spent some time living in the city, my heritage is the more homogenous suburan clime. I'm embarassed to admit that this matters to me more than I thought it would.

So I'm trying to balance the idea of the verve and energy of this potential new neighborhood while trying to be the financier that I definitely am not and analyze the long tern pros and cons. I wish there was a formula for this stuff that included the emotions as well as the hard numbers. I'm guessing that's MBA level stuff I've not studied.

Since I don't have any real answers today, I'll suggest staying tuned for a few more weeks. Advice is welcome.

Note: OK, a fairly obvious title, I know, but from a great album all the same.

Note Again: An update of sorts... We did not buy the house and over a year later it's still on the market. The real estate bubble is topic for another day.