Are YOU able to keep your housing expenses at or below 28% of your gross pay?
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Anonymous
I don't bother calculating how much my house is adding to my net worth each year, though — I still need somewhere to live. (I also don't consider mortgage principal to be going toward savings, which I know some people do.) We sold our previous house for a large profit, about 7x what our down payment had been, so I realize there's a potential for large gains, but it's really just theoretical unless you move, so I don't see the point in considering it part of my assets. |
Anonymous
Is that your Gross income? If so that is crazy! |
Anonymous
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About 12%, as we financed about 400k and refinanced at 3%. (HH income about 200k).
However, we put an extra $700 a month toward principal, because we would like to have it paid off by the time we retire in about 20 years, so that gets us to .16%. We also have gotten significant raises since we bought five years ago. Wish we could afford a little bigger (it's 1300 sq ft) but love the location. |
Anonymous
| Yes. I own a condo in a good school district ( it helps that I bought it a while back). |
Anonymous
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Yep, ours is only 13%. We’re financial geniuses!
….except that the home we love and that works so well for our commutes is near public schools so bad that we spend another 16% on private school. Lolsob. So the price of our housing choice is really 29%. Oh, well. We have great commutes, love our house, and our kid is getting a fantastic education. I can’t complain. But I don’t feel financially smart. |
Anonymous
No one sending their kids to a private school is a financial genius. You’re paying for something that is available for free. That other 16% you’re paying is for being a bad parent and failing to empower your kid with the self-confidence, discipline, and intellectual capacity needed to excel at a public school or in the face of any adversity. |
Anonymous
Yep. Job losses hurt. |
Anonymous
Easy to talk when it’s not your kids. |
Anonymous
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You need to keep it as low as possible if you want to have kids, travel, etc.
Live like peasants when you are young. Better yet: crash with your folks and sock away cash. You’ll thank me later. |
Anonymous
Are you kidding? Gen X is literally nothing like Boomers. Especially if you are at the end of Gen X. We are also nothing like Millenials. We literally paid for the benefits that Gen X got, plus in many cases take care of them in retirement. And, we pay for our children, trying to prevent them from incurring debt and trying to leave them something on top of that. And, oh yeah, we also pay for ourselves. We are a small generation who doesn't complain (this diatribe excepted). We are nothing like Boomers who took from everyone with no remorse and we are nothing like the Millenials, who are jealous of the Boomers in a disgusting way. We are also nothing like gen Z, who has no concept of what work is (like many Millenials). And for what it is worth, for those of us born at the end of Gen X, shortly after we entered the workforce we encountered the worst economy the world had seen since the Great Depression. Unlike Millenials and Gen Z who complain that they cannot afford houses, we had houses but they were worth generally several hundred thousand less than we owed on them. |
Anonymous
| Gross? Sure, I'm at about 19% of gross. But after maxing out my 401(k) and getting paid biweekly instead of monthly, my rent is about 45% of my take-home. Which is tight, but doable. |
Anonymous
Uh, okay. Sure. Got it. You definitely sound like a person full of good judgment whose life advice is valuable. |
Anonymous
| I have no idea what we are of gross, but we are at about 23% of net, which is comfortable. |
Anonymous
Same! |
Anonymous
| no way my rent is like 43% |