Last week my in-laws were visiting from a neighboring state. They had a fantastic time and we enjoyed hanging out with them for the few days they were in town. While at dinner one night, my mother-in-law described how they love vacationing in Hawaii and staying at their timeshare. They were basically trying to convince us to take a vacation with them. But then, my slightly tipsy mother-in-law blurted out how amazed she is that they own property on a Hawaiian island. At that moment, my mind started turning. Does she really own that apartment at the resort they call their “timeshare?” How does owning a timeshare compare with owning actual property? Is this a good investment?

While probing my mother-in-law’s (MIL’s) husband, he began detailing what they pay annually. Basically, it sounded like they pay for maintenance fees and property taxes. I did some quick and dirty research, I really need to come up with my own research terminology lingo, and found that many timeshare companies do give out deeds to the properties they sell. However, the property doesn’t appreciate, so owning one as an investment property is a moot point. Here are just a few pros to owning one (in my opinion!):

• PRO: For frequent travelers: It saves a lot on hotel costs. When you own a timeshare, because you pay maintenance and property taxes, you usually don’t pay for the week or two that are yours.
• PRO: Transfer weeks for cruises: This is something my step-mother does. (I have a very large extended family!) She and my dad have cruised the Mediterranean for free by giving up their Florida timeshare for a cruise instead. They’ve also been known to take cruises to the Caribbean and the Mexican Riviera this way.
• PRO: Build up weeks for a longer vacation: For people who can’t get away as frequently as their timeshare is available, sometimes you can save up those weeks and use them together for a longer vacation.
• PRO: Tax right off. Because you actually own the property, I’m guessing it can be used as a tax right off. Right? Does anyone know about this for sure?

Now for the cons. In my case, because I have two family members who own timeshare units, I could just borrow their week(s) when I want. They’ve already offered multiple times, so owning one myself may be a waste of income. Based on my biased opinion, here is my list:

• CON: Why pay the maintenance and taxes when you could rent a week from someone else? There are a few sites where timeshare owners “rent” out their weeks for much less than a hotel. You also may find that someone close to you, a relative or friend, may own one and give your their unused week somewhere.
• CON: Since the property doesn’t appreciate, you won’t make any money on it when you sell it. And that’s IF you can sell it. Not surprisingly, they are hard sells.
• CON: Many people purchase timeshares thinking it will make them travel more often. This isn’t always the case. Circumstances can change and make it very difficult to visit your lovely timeshare property.
• CON: Pushy sales people. A couple of years ago while on vacation, my husband and I went on a timeshare tour. Mainly because we wanted some of the “free” goodies they were giving out as an incentive to sit through their spiel. We had an awful experience because they had over-booked their tour. We ended up with some of the freebies, but it really wasn’t worth our time.

So are timeshares worth it? In my opinion, no. There are plenty of travel deals out there that cost way less over the long run. Since timeshares don’t appreciate, the owner ends up not profiting on their purchase and may in fact lose money if they are unable to sell an unused property. Quick math based on information from MIL’s husband: $3,500 per year maintenance + $800 property tax x 10 years = $43,000 for the cost of owning a timeshare for 10 years. Yuck!

Anyone have personal experience with a timeshare, good or bad? What about a contrasting opinion? Did I leave some important details out? I love comments!

Town Home Triplex (illustration credit: Pardee Homes)

For some reason, Southern California has some of the most over priced homes on the market. I don’t know if it’s the temperate weather that makes home builders think people will pay top dollar for cookie-cutter homes, or LA’s obsession with living the illusion. And for some reason unbeknown to me, people are still paying for these ridiculously priced homes. For instance, take a new development that is being built in Ventura County, not far from Los  Angeles county. These new homes are currently selling for $626,000! (Some of them are listed for $686,000 up to $725,000). The homes appear humongous from the exterior street view. However, there is a bit of a charade going on, for once you are inside, the home is still large, but only about 1/3 of the size you thought it was.  How does this happen? Well, the builders are really building triplex town homes, in addition to stand alone homes.

What’s equally distressing is that the town homes are butted up against each other. So new home buyers aren’t paying for the land so much as they are paying for the structure, and only 1/3 of the structure to be exact. I tried doing some research on the exact size of the lot, but given that this is such a new development, many online websites aren’t stating the lot size. The homes, on the other hand, range in size from 1,800 sq. ft. to 3,100 sq. ft. This new community has also walled itself off and in turn reduced the once gorgeous view of the valley below. So for over $600k, the price doesn’t include a view.

I guess what I am most flabbergasted by is the fact that there are people who can afford to purchase these homes even in our down turned economy. I did a breakdown of the costs associated with these homes, minus any HOA of homeowners association fees, which I’m sure exist. Here is what it would cost to purchase one of these homes:

• Cost of home: $626,000 (The most recent one sold in the community)
• 20% down payment: $125,200 (Whoa! I guess there are a few people out there with mega-savings accounts!)
• Mortgage: $500,800
• Monthly mortgage payment on a 5.7% APR 30-year loan: $2,875 (This isn’t too bad.)
• Annual Property tax (1.5% of the cost of the home): $9,390 (An additional $782 a month if added to the mortgage payments.)

I didn’t factor in homeowners insurance or HOA, which I’m guessing would add a few hundred dollars more a month. The total monthly payment, with everything included, would be somewhere in the ballpark of high $3,000 – $4,000 a month. The biggest kicker is that 20% down. I’m assuming that if one were to put only 10% down, they wouldn’t be able to qualify for the lowest APR and they would have to also include in private mortgage insurance or take on a second loan. The monthly payments would be even more.

Based on Michael Bluejay’s “How Much Home Can You Afford” calculator, you would have to be making $13,000 a month to comfortably afford a $626,000 home. This calculator also confirmed my predictions on what the monthly cost would be, it calculated $3,940 a month. Obviously, there are people who do make this annual salary of $156,000 a year. I guess I shouldn’t be that astonished by this. Heck, I choose to live in the second most expensive city in the nation.

Correction: The triplex town homes are selling in the low $400k’s, but the houses  in the same community are selling for $626,000 to low $700,000’s.

For the past 10 months, my husband and I have been working to pay down our debt, increase our credit scores, and save for a down payment. We live in the second most expensive city in the United States, so houses are a wee bit expensive as well. Earlier this year, housing prices dipped to their lowest price in about 10 years. This, along with really low interest rates,  is what prompted us to get serious about purchasing a house.

As I have been keeping track of foreclosed homes in our neighborhood using RedFin, I have noticed a startling trend: Prices are creeping up! And we’re not quite ready. Of course, houses are still much more affordable than they were, say, two years ago. However, this trend is making me reevaluate the price of home we can afford. My original estimate of what I felt we could comfortably afford was about $250,000. I am now realizing that there are very few, if any, homes available in this price range.

Therefore, my new ballpark figure, which is slightly higher than I originally wanted to settle for, will be closer to $300,000. In many states, 300K gets someone a terrific, large, newer home. However, in my case, I’ll be lucky to purchase a 1,000 square foot fixer upper. This new, higher price also means that to save 20% for a down payment,  I will have to save MORE money than what I originally had planned. This probably also means I won’t be putting 20% down on a house, it will most likely be closer to 10%. After using some mortgage calculators, here is the breakdown of what our payments would be:

• Down payment of $30,000 on $300,000 home (or 10% down)
• Monthly mortgage payment $1500 on a 5.25% 30-year home loan
• 1.5% property tax divided by 12  months $375 per month
• Homeowners insurance monthly payment approx. $125
• Total monthly payment: $2000 (only $200 more a month than what we are currently paying for our rental house)

This monthly figure is about $100 more than what I had actually hoped our monthly mortgage would be, and this is based on a very low interest rate. Of course we could always opt for a 7/1 ARM (which is not my favorite option), or perhaps find a major fixer upper for less than $300,000. What I’m finding though, is that the major fixer uppers don’t qualify for a home loan, they are cash-only sales.

Our original goal was to get into a house by summer of 2010. This goal still seems feasible providing the housing market doesn’t spike up or interest rates increase greatly within the next 8 months. Of course, if this does happen before we are able to purchase a house, we could always go with plan B; purchase land, then build on it later. Of course there is always plan C; change our lifestyle and go with an alternative housing idea.

Walmart, a Big Box Store

I don’t really enjoy shopping. I have to admit, I really despise it. However, it’s a necessity due to the fact that I don’t grow my own food or manufacture my own clothes or beauty products. This weekend, my husband and I decided to stock up on paper goods and beauty products, or HBA products, like shampoo, lotion, and shaving cream. The best price we can find on these items in our area is none other than Walmart, one of my least favorite stores for many reasons.

We purchase in bulk when we visit Walmart so we don’t have to frequent the store any more than absolutely necessary, this also saves us money in the long run.  So, this weekend we stocked up, piled our cart high, and pushed our way through a very crowded Walmart. There are only two Walmarts within a 5 mile radius of our home. One Walmart is in a slightly better neighborhood than the other. Unfortunately, we were closer to the less desirable neighborhood Walmart and decided we didn’t want to spend the time or gas money driving clear across the valley to the other one.

Parking is a nightmare and a little nightmarish at the less desirable Walmart. We always park far away, we don’t mind walking and prefer to keep our car door-ding free. We parked on the side of the store, as far away from other, beat up vehicles as possible. We walked in and were reminded immediately why we avoid this particular Walmart. It was beyond crowded, people everywhere. My husband also observed that this store was laid out terribly, which made it appear more crowded than a more open floor plan would. We headed directly for the HBA section. Many of the products were out of stock, to my disappointment. It looked like someone had cleared out some of the isles, or the store hadn’t had time to restock the empty merchandise. There were few brands of mascara left to choose from. I don’t wear much make-up, but mascara is a necessity on light-blond eyelashes. I ended up settling for a brand that I don’t usually wear.

Hair color is another item I like purchasing at Walmart. I only color my hair twice a year and keep it close to my natural color. But again, the brand I usually purchase was out of stock. I opted for a well-known brand, but one I haven’t used in years. Hopefully it won’t make a mess out of my hair. The last thing I need on my ultra-fine hair is something that will turn it into straw!

Shampoo, conditioner and paper goods were in adequate supply. We purchased enough toilet paper, Kleenex, and paper towels to last us 5 to 6 months. We also stock piled the deodorant and shaving cream. Thankfully we have a large linen closet to store all of our paper goods and HBA products.  We checked out spending a little more than usual, but the amount we purchased should keep us out of Walmart for at least 5 months.

This weekend  I called my step-mom to catch up. She is currently enrolled in school to become an acupuncturist, which is quite interesting. She’s always sworn that acupuncture can cure just about anything, now she is learning the medical craft herself. Within our conversation, she mentioned my step-brother (her son) building a house within the next year in Colorado on some land he purchased a while back. My step-mom lives in New York, and I have to be quite honest, has no clue about money or finance. She briefly mentioned that he and his wife had looked at a model home they really liked and wanted to emulate. Her description of the model home was that it looked like a multi-million dollar home from where she comes from, New York, but in Colorado it would probably be about $700K or $800K. That got me thinking, is it really that expensive in Colorado? I don’t really know, because I live in Los Angeles, the second most expensive city after New York, according to Forbes Magazine.

So, I decided to research a few metros across the nation. Within my research, I stuck to my price range, which has been creeping up lately, that I feel comfortable with: $300,000. I also only checked Zillow.com, since I was running out of time to cross check against other real estate sites. Based on what my husband and I make annually, this $300,000 figure is above the 2.5 times our income estimate, a good base figure. What I found was surprising, but I wasn’t completely flabbergasted. As a disclaimer, I also don’t know the particulars about the neighborhoods that these homes are located in, so the homes may look grand, but the neighborhoods may be sketchy for all I know.

Here is my summary, the photos follow below:

• Northridge, CA (where I live) : $309,900 – Slightly older neighborhood, home built in 1952. 5 bedroom, 3 bath (however, the garage has been converted into one or two of the bedrooms) no square footage available, but judging from the photo, and what I know about these homes, maybe 1,300 sq. ft.  FIXER UPPER.
• Denver, CO: $300,000 – Built in 1890 (an old house, so this one may need some upgrades!) 5 bedroom, 4 bath, 3,440 square feet. This one doesn’t look like a fixer upper from the interior photos on Zillow.com.
• Dallas, TX: $299,900- 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 3,736 square feet, no build date and no interior photos. I’m not sure if this would need some work or not, exterior looks nice.
• Raleigh, NC: $299,200 - 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2,900 square feet, built in 1989. The interior and exterior look immaculate, no work would need to be required except personal choice. Very large lot in my standards, over 10,000 square feet.
• White Plains, NY (the closest I could get to Manhattan without going into the Bronx): $299, 900 – 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment, 750 square feet, built in 1987. So, I guess I am luckier than those who live in White Plains, at least I would get double this square footage!
• Colorado Springs, CO (where my step-brother and his family plan to build a house): $300,000 – 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2, 789 square feet, built in 1998. No interior photos, so again I’m not sure if this would need major repairs inside. The exterior looks nice.

Again, I’m basing this off what Zillow has in their database. I know nothing of these neighborhoods, so maybe, like Detroit, MI, the homes are inexpensive and large, but the neighborhood is really bad. Here are the images to go along with my above descriptions:

Northridge, CA in comparison to Denver, CO homes for sale

Dallas, TX in comparison to Raleigh, NC homes for sale

White Plains, NY in comparison to Colorado Springs, CO homes for sale

Based on these comparisons, Raleigh, NC or Denver, CO look like the best places by far. What do you think? Did I miss something in my comparison? Should I have also focused on crime rates in each of these neighborhoods? Do you live in an overpriced or under-priced gem of a city?

Yesterday morning I read a Get Rich Slowly guest post about the lease-to-own option for owning your own home. I, myself, feel that this option is a bit risky, especially in today’s down turned housing market. Too many home owners are underwater on their mortgages, and my guess is that there are just too many unknown variables that could jeopardize this type of agreement. However, this post got me thinking about people, like myself, who were working to improve their credit and save money for a down payment to own a home. It also made me ‘think outside of the box’ (to use an educational phrase I’ve come to like a lot) on other alternative’s to conventional home ownership.

I’ve gathered some great information on building small houses from reading TinyHouseBlog.com. This blog focuses on wonderful and refreshing little house plans that seem simple enough to build.  I am still researching the details of purchasing land suitable for building a residential structure and all that entails, but in the mean time, I’m exploring all of my options (this ‘my’ includes my husband too.) ThisTinyHouse.com showcases alternative living arrangements, and according to the ‘about’ page, Hillary (the blog author), has lived in some very unusual and non-conventional housing structures.

As I continue to research all of my options, the one thing that I keep turning to are small house plans. The kind of do-it-yourself, build-your-dream-house, mentality. Here is an example of what I’m thinking about; this adorable, quaint cottage house plan illustration makes me want to curl up near the fireplace with a good book. The cottage’s square footage, under 400 square feet, is a little small for my husband and me, but when I see such a house, I can’t help but melt.

The Hobbit House (a cob house) from TinyHouseBlog.com. This house inspires thoughts of fairies!

The alternative living arrangements I read about on ThisTinyHouse.com are also inspiring. I often discuss some of them with my husband as ways we could save money quicker towards a down payment on land or a house. He is always open to this method; we recently scouted out some large shed’s at The Home Depot and bantered around the idea of living in one on land we purchase. (I think it could actually be done since it doesn’t snow where I live, we wouldn’t freeze to death!)

As our journey continues, and we reassess our time line for purchasing a house (or land to build a house), I’m keeping all of my options open and not settling for something that I will be unhappy with in a few years time. We also want to choose a financially intelligent option and not take on too much debt. The more I research, the more ideas I acquire that will lead us to our ultimate little house in the valley.

I consider myself a fairly organized person. I have to be. I’m juggling many balls, or wearing many hats, to use a metaphor describing my current life style. I help my husband with his graphic design business, I teach elementary school, I am attending school myself part-time to finish up my teaching credential, and I’ve started a blog because I enjoy writing. So, being organized, or managing my time wisely, is a must for me.

However, my wallet (or wallets) is/are the one area where I’m just not as organized. Now, I read years ago that a messy,or disorganized, wallet is an indicator of a messy financial situation. I don’t know how much I agree with this, though I can see where one would make that connection. My situation, though, is different. In some ways, I have achieved superb wallet organization, in others, I’ve not. For example, I have two wallets. One wallet holds all of my credit cards, which I rarely use, my AAA membership card, my health insurance, dental insurance, and pharmacy card, and a Border’s Books Club card. This is a wallet that I don’t pull out very often.

My other wallet, a small, fake-leather, coin purse I purchased in Mexico almost two years ago, holds my debit/ATM card, my Starbucks Gold Reward Card, my savings account ATM card, my Ralph’s Club card, my driver’s license, and (here is the surprise) a couple of Starbucks Gift Cards. I use this wallet on a daily basis. It’s small enough to fit in my pocket when I ride my bike to Starbucks in the morning or to the grocery store. It’s also convenient to place in a small clutch when, and this is rare, I go out and need a smaller purse. I knew I had a couple of Starbucks Gift Cards in there, but I thought they only had a dollar or less on them, so haven’t bothered to pull them out in a while.

Starbucks Gift Card, a pleasant surprise!

The other day, my husband needed my debit card to renew our AAA membership. He pulled out my small coin purse and emptied the contents on his desk (this was easier for him to do than file through the cards with his large fingers). When the two Starbucks Gift Cards fell out, along with the debit card he needed, he announced his finding to me. He even had the time to look online and check their balances. To both of our amazements, one of the gift cards still had $20.00 on it! I was shocked. Not only did I not realize I had this kind of credit on one of the gift cards, I don’t even remember saving it for future use.

A few days have passed and I still haven’t used my gift card. I am now subconsciously ’saving’ it for a rainy day. However, that little surprise was delightful, sort of a similar feeling to finding cash in a washed article of clothing.

Do you find pleasure in surprises such as these? How many of us misplaced a gift card only later to find it? Did you use it right away, or save it?

My parent’s recently asked me if our graphic and web design business was doing alright in this down-turned economy. I told them that we were pretty much making about the same, or a little less, but spending less; so overall we were doing okay. They tend to worry a little bit about us because we are self-employed, even though they know that I also substitute teach to bring in additional income and provide us with health insurance coverage. Due to their questions,  I decided to pull a couple of QuickBooks reports to verify my answer and make sure I was correct.

Sometimes, it’s easy to say, “Oh, we’re fine,” but I didn’t really have any substantiating evidence. Throughout this year I have been comparing our total income to our total expenses through QuickBooks, and my answer to my parents was pretty much on the mark. We have made a little less this year, so far we’ve brought in about $11,000 less than this time last year. However, we’ve also spent an equal amount less, about $10,000 less.

So far this year, we've earned less than last year, but managed to also spend less.

When I thought about how we did this, it all boiled down to really thinking about what we needed versus what we wanted. Last year, we had a few additional business expenses because we decided to upgrade our computer network. So, right there we saved money this year in comparison to last year on business expenses. We also made a point of eating at home more often and becoming more aware shoppers. We also spent less on things we needed and have put off a couple of other items that are not necessities. In addition, I reduced my travel this year. Usually I plan a trip back east to visit my family, this year I decided I could wait an additional 6-12 months and intend to focus on saving up that money instead. You can see in my comparison image that we have significantly reduced business expenses, eating out, and household items.

With the holiday’s approaching, my husband and I will need to get creative with gifts for his family. His family seems to go bonkers during the holiday season and shop mindlessly for ‘things’ instead of thoughtful items that someone might need. My husband and I have always felt good about the gifts we’ve purchased for them and we try to get creative and stick to a budget. This year, I think we will redefine that budget and see if we can reduce our overall amount. This amount usually tends to fall somewhere between $700 – $900 (there are a total of 8 people we shop for.) I’d like to reduce this amount to $500. If we can continue reducing our overall expenses, and live below our means (basically spending less than we earn), we will be on our way to financial freedom, our ultimate goal!

My husband and I have recently been thinking of looking a little futher than our immediate neighborhood when it comes to purchasing a house. We talked about moving as far south as San Diego, but when we visited the city this summer, we didn’t quite feel the vibe. That’s important to us, the right vibe. Of course, it also has to be a city that we can afford to live in, with some decent stores and shops, perhaps some interesting history, a coffee shop or local Starbucks that I can walk or ride my bike to, and hopefully has a school district that is hiring.

A great place I’ve always liked to visit, to get a city by city comparison, is BestPlaces.net. It lets you look at the overall cost of living of a city, then narrows it down based on climate, housing costs, education, crime, and all the nitty-gritty statistics that are important to know about a city.  I especially like the comments left by people who actually live in the city (not all cities have personal comments, but this feature is helpful.) If I can’t visit the city myself, these personal views help mold my initial impression of the city, for better or worse.

This weekend, while I was recuperating from a bad cough (no thanks to my sweet little student’s runny noses!), I decided to check out Zillow and browse the whole state of California’s map for home sales. I pushed my mouse further north towards the bay area and Davis, California. I have read a few inspiring bicycle stories about Davis, like the fact that they are considered a platinum bicycle city according to the American Bicycle League. They are well-known for their terrific bike infrastructure. However, according to , Zillow, their housing market is still a little out of our price range.

So, I pushed my mouse slightly further, to a town right outside of Davis called Woodland. Thanks to the Internet, I was able to find some photos of the city and even a local newspaper. It seems awfully quaint, filled with a historic looking downtown and many victorian-style houses, though small in size for our standards. But I guess many cities will seem small compared to a metropolis of over 3.5 million people! I then remembered I had a friend who went to school in Davis, and with the help of Facebook (I’d be a complete recluse without the Internet!), I was able to enlist a more personal opinion of this unknown area. According to her description, Woodland has some great Mexican food and Davis has terrific bike lanes. She also added that Davis had a good mix of a farmy/hippy thing going on. I think my husband and I need to plan a visit soon.

Here are the BestPlaces.net overall cost of living comparison. You’ll notice that Woodland is more cost-effective if we were looking to save money, where Davis is about the same as Los Angeles when you average it out.

Davis and Los Angeles City Comparison

Woodland and Los Angeles City Comparison

Of course, if we decided we didn’t want to move 400 miles north of where we currently live, but needed to reduce our cost of living, especially our housing costs, we could always move 15 miles north to the Santa Clarita Valley. There are quite a few cities within in the neighboring valley, so this overview is kind of vague. The biggest drawback with this particular community is the slightly higher temperature in the summer. (I originally was going to say it’s walkscore, but after searching a couple of decent properties, it’s average walkscore is about 60 – not bad!)

Santa Clarita and Los Angeles City Comparison

As we near the beginning of 2010, I’ll be able to have a clearer focus on exactly what houses will be within our realm of possibility. Until then, I can dream of distant utopias!

It's been too hot for me, and we're now in fall!

Let me preface this post by saying that it’s been over 100-degrees every day for the past week, so this may be contributing to my negativity. With that said, the more I search the homes for sale, the more I think, “Why do I continue to live in Los Angeles?” I’ve been browsing multiple websites for both land and home sales and let me just say $275,000 doesn’t get you much of a house, or any house, for that matter. Earlier in the year, there seemed to be a much larger inventory of homes in the smallish square foot range that were moderate fixer-uppers. Currently, the homes for under $300,000 are in really bad areas, are falling down (literally), or will most likely sell for much more than the listing price.

What I’m finding is that many homes that appear in decent condition and are priced below $300,000 are being sold at almost $400,000! This is ridiculous considering these homes are under 1,500 square feet and still need some work. Is Los Angeles the most over priced city? I would have to agree and say, yes. If you average out the square foot cost of homes in my area, they are at about $319 per square feet. That seems high especially since the homes are old, most were built in the early 1950’s.

So, why do I stay, you may wonder? Well, usually our weather is beautiful. However, over the past three years my husband and I have noticed that we have been getting some unusual heatwaves, lasting for over a week with temperatures topping 108-degrees. When I was a child, this was very rare. Yes, we would get some hot days, but nothing like what I’ve seen lately. We’ve also been in a drought for the past few years, so I’m beginning to wonder if we will eventually have to move toward Arizona-type landscaping. I fear that our unusual weather patterns may be with us a while, perhaps due to global warming. If this is the case, I might as well move to Arizona for half the cost and live in an arid climate with 180 days of 100-degree weather.

There is another reason for why I stay in Los Angeles, our city’s diversity is unlike anywhere else (except, perhaps New York City). My husband and I love the diversity of the city and all the different sections of town. If it weren’t for the horrible traffic, I think we’d enjoy venturing out towards downtown more often. We enjoy seeing different people out and about in our community. Our cultural diversity makes the city come alive.

Hopefully, as we near the beginning of the year and the temperatures cool down, the real estate market will begin to look more promising. I won’t be as irritated at the weather and may feel more optimistic. I may also have to expand our searchable area and look farther north or east, this is a possiblity my husband and I have discussed. C’est la Vie!