Why the Most Frugal Homeowners Refuse the Repair
I went out to a retired schoolteacher in late 2023 to talk about replacing a 1998 heat pump. Twenty-six years old, loud, limping, on borrowed time. House paid off, husband passed in 2014, a pension and savings that left her well taken care of. I put three options on her kitchen table. She looked at the bottom number on the variable-speed Trane, about twelve thousand installed, and said, Dave, I can't. I just can't spend that. Twelve thousand was not the issue. She had it, and a lot more than it. But she could not bring herself to let it go. A psychologist named Brad Klontz started publishing…
The skinny
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