I’m writing to you from the future. It's 2038, and yes, we're still living in our beloved home. I’m 86 years old now, and the view from the back porch is just as beautiful as you remember it.

My father taught me a lot, but one thing he never mentioned is how the simple things get harder. Remember how easily you climb a stepladder to change a lightbulb? How do you carry those heavy bags of mulch for the garden without a second thought, or get on your hands and knees to fix a leaky faucet? Trust me, in fifteen years, those simple tasks can feel like major operations.

But I’m not writing to you today to scare you. I’m writing to ask a few questions, share some wisdom from the future, and request a favor from you.

A Cautionary Tale From a Future Breakdown

It’s a pleasant summer day for you right now in 2025, so I know our old water heater is the last thing on your mind. You keep saying we’ll “get one more year out of it.” Can I ask you to rethink that?

What if it finally burst late on a Saturday night in 2037? Can you imagine the stress of trying to find an emergency plumber on a weekend? Or the shock of the water damage and what a new water heater costs in the 2030s? Standing in a flooded basement at 85 years old... it was a nightmare. A completely avoidable nightmare.

What is that one home repair you've been putting off? The one you know, deep down, will be a much bigger problem down the road?

A House Full of Equity, and Full of Worries

I’m sitting here now, in our blessedly dry house, thinking about the massive amount of equity we had in our home back in 2025. It just sat there, a number on a piece of paper. I wish, more than anything, that we had used a small piece of it then, when we were younger and everything was easier.

Do you know what we would have done?

We would have put in that new, high-efficiency water heater. We would have replaced the old, leaky roof before that big rainstorm of '34 caused so much damage. We would have remodeled the master bath with a beautiful, safe walk-in shower instead of that tub I’m now scared to step into.

We wouldn't have just been renovating a house. We would have been buying ourselves over a decade of peace of mind. Thinking about your own home today, what's one single upgrade that would make your life significantly easier and safer ten years from now?

A Gift for Your Future Self

I'm not telling you all this to cause you anxiety. I'm telling you this because I want you to understand the power you have right now.

I know you think of our home equity as just a number on a statement. Please, I'm asking you to see it differently. Using a small portion of it now to fund these improvements isn't just a financial transaction; it's you, today, giving me—the person you will become—the incredible gift of safety, reliability, and financial breathing room.

The question isn't if our house will need repairs, but when. And trust me, you want to make those decisions calmly, from a position of strength, not in the middle of a crisis.

So please, make a plan for us today. I promise you, I'll be grateful for it every single day.

I'll thank you more than you can imagine.