Thanks all for the excellent suggestions! lifelong VHCOLA urbanite w much probably imprudent dining and travel in my past but very little good guidance. and my current abode is a micro apt / studio with an an alcove kitchen and its been 20 years and just develped a persistent rodent issue so… it‘s kind of a must at this point. 1200 sq ft would be a massive upgrade. cracking 1000 will be awesome. mentioned in my post I was going to do that anyway, so its not really the reward, although it would be very nice.
my earlier tradeoff was a tiny place so I could afford travel, dining and experiences. now I‘m older and just want safety, a little more space and quiet. plus an office to WFH. considering MCOLA where my sale proceeds would go farther.
I‘m doubtless not the typical BHer but I‘ve worked very hard to be in the bottom quarter here and one way that happened was making a lot of material sacrifices for a very long time. not complaining. Ive been very lucky and much luckier than my childhood neighbors, but not smarter. magnet schools, scholarships, opportunity and saving did it for me, but I didn’t leverage the power of investing until relatively recently. sorry for the TMI.
closing in on $2 mil is very much a miracle for me, and it was extremely unlikely when I embarked on this odyssey.