[at-l] Your opinions?

[janl2 at mindspring.com (Jan Leitschuh)]

Oh wise listers,
A hiker is pondering the following:

"The crux of the question is: how much do I live for now versus the 
future? The specifics are as follows. At 22, I bought a house. I 
didn?t REALLY ever want to own a house, but I also didn?t want to pay 
for rent and then not have any return on that money. (I had a 1.5 year 
contract with work.) Now, the contract is almost up. I?m planning a 
thru-hike of the AT. It?s something I?ve wanted to do since I was 10, 
but hadn?t really put serious effort into it.

Now, there are 2 options. I can sell my house, and apparently make a 
bit of money, at which point I will have enough to go on this hike. 
The fear is ?what if I can?t sell it for as much as I thought, lose 
money, can?t go hiking?. Option 2 is to rent the house. I won?t net a 
profit, may or may not have enough money to go hiking. If something 
goes wrong with the house, I definitely won?t be able to hike, because 
I?ll have to pay to fix the house (which, by the way, I don?t have any 
emotional attachment to ? I don?t really like it that much). Renting 
it, of course, means that I?ll have a greater ?investment? in the long 
term, but, selling means that I won?t have worries while hiking, and 
that I?ll probably be able to hike. It just means more uncertainty 
when I come back (but less strings/commitments, which is good)."

Any input, oh seasoned ones?

Middlewoman Shoe