Beef up EF vs. Finish Basement

[swanson719]

We'll have our 6 month EF finished in June at our current savings rate.

We already have 3 months expenses in our EF and want to finish our basement, and currently can do so with the amount we would be adding to finish our EF. With the price of labor being so cheap right now, it's hard not to. I have a stable job - military - and DW's job is hiring, so she's not going anywhere. I'm not able to be moved again by the military until I re-enlist, which gives me at least 2 years stabilization. Would it be better to finish the basement and add value to our house, which we'll probably end up selling in 3 or 4 years, or to finish out the EF? My thought is that labor prices aren't going to stay low, and we're both going to get raises in the near future, so why not finish the basement now and then finish the EF this fall? At years end, we'll be in the same place financially if we do it now vs. finishing the EF first, but I don't know if we'll be able to get it done as cheap as we can right now with things so cheap.

[creditcardfree]

Personally, in your case it doesn't really matter because of the stability of your job. I don't know how much you were planning to invest in the basement, but will you really recoup the costs when you move?

We're military too. With this being our first move, I'm debating whether or not it is worth to even BUY a home when moving so frequently. We might just keep our current home, rent it out and then rent for furture moves.

[parafly]

Personally, I would finish funding my EF. Labor prices are not going to rise significantly in 3 months, if at all.

[swanson719]

There's about a $20,000 price difference in my subdivision between finished basement houses and not... so I definitely would see the costs back.

I'm always going to come back here, because being a prison guard, and Leavenworth, well, they go hand in hand in the military. So I don't know if we'll sell the house when we move or not, because I only do short tours at other posts, of the 7 other places I can go in my MOS.

Either way, I think we'll probably wait to do it. DW brought up a good point that the dogs are still making a mess of the rest of the house most of the time, and finishing the basement just gives them something else to get into.