Millenial Money - House Poor in Fairfax

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you take home 14K, but spend 8K on housing, then you're house poor. Also, that 8K doesn't cover home maintenance and repairs, so having to replace an HVAC or having a sewer line collapse will become an emergency.

Yeah that mortgage is nuts. We bring home about 14k/month and have a 4K mortgage (all in). It feels fine. We have enough left over for childcare, 529s, some domestic travel, and house projects as needed. But even still we don’t feel wildly wealthy. I can’t imagine doubling our housing payment, I would be so stressed.

[Anonymous]

We have a 8k+ mortgage but we make a lot more than 250k and bought a much more expensive house. It want to know how they were approved for the loan. 2008 all over again.

280k hhi around here is also very average so I’m not sure why she kept bringing up how much money they make.

Several monthly expenses come across low such as the utilities and car gas.

[Anonymous]

We make slightly more and live in a 600k TH with less than half the interest rate.

[Anonymous]

Are they withholding enough? I feel like their take home is high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the math at all.

We make $260HHI. After all taxes and maxing out 401k, our take home is only about $9800/mo. How are they taking home $14k+ after taxes? Contributing small amounts to retirement?

Buying a $1.2M home with 6+% interest. Idiots.

They should have bought less than $700k.

Millennials can't afford to max out retirement and probably factor in their house tax deduction for their exception

What do you mean Millennials can't afford to max out 401k? If you have $280 HHI, you can absolutely max out your 401k, it just takes not living in a stupid $1.2M home.

Expensive homes are so overrated. Between insurance costs going up, taxes that always go up, and never ending repairs that cost thousands, the more expensive the home the more money you dump into a black abyss of taxes, insurance, and repairs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they withholding enough? I feel like their take home is high.

Exactly, it is mind biging how they're taking home $14k. Unless they have crazy tax breaks somewhere. We make close to that and don't take home anywhere near that amount. They must be saving $0 in their 401k or IRA.

[Anonymous]

Why is someone repeatability complaining about their take home pay? We make exactly $260k HHI and take home $13k per month. That includes maxing out 401k for both.

[Anonymous]

In a millennial. Luckily we bought our house before Covid. 3% interest rate and our PITI is about 4,100 a month.

Our HHI was probably half of our current HHI when we bought six years ago. Now our net is about 25k/month. Our mortgage gives us financial flexibility, but we don’t feel incredibly wealthy. Home maintenance costs a lot. We live a normal UMC lifestyle - 401k savings, childcare, 1-2 vacations per year, 2 cars, camps, preschool. We also are choosing to send our kids to private school. We could afford a larger mortgage if we weren’t.

Long story short is that the videos debt:income ratio is insane. No breathing room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they withholding enough? I feel like their take home is high.

They’re probably putting very little into retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is someone repeatability complaining about their take home pay? We make exactly $260k HHI and take home $13k per month. That includes maxing out 401k for both.

Regular 401k or catch-up?

[Anonymous]

I’m still shocked that they got a mortgage like that. I thought lenders had become more conservative after the 2008 debacle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is someone repeatability complaining about their take home pay? We make exactly $260k HHI and take home $13k per month. That includes maxing out 401k for both.

Regular 401k or catch-up?

Regular

[Anonymous]

Lawn care, tree pruning, mulch, etc. where are all of those yearly costs? I doubt two IT people do it all themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lawn care, tree pruning, mulch, etc. where are all of those yearly costs? I doubt two IT people do it all themselves.

And they plan to have a baby. Unless they anticipate free childcare where’s that minimum $1500 payment going to come from? Something’s off with their numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the math at all.

We make $260HHI. After all taxes and maxing out 401k, our take home is only about $9800/mo. How are they taking home $14k+ after taxes? Contributing small amounts to retirement?

Buying a $1.2M home with 6+% interest. Idiots.

They should have bought less than $700k.

Millennials can't afford to max out retirement and probably factor in their house tax deduction for their exception

What do you mean Millennials can't afford to max out 401k? If you have $280 HHI, you can absolutely max out your 401k, it just takes not living in a stupid $1.2M home.

Expensive homes are so overrated. Between insurance costs going up, taxes that always go up, and never ending repairs that cost thousands, the more expensive the home the more money you dump into a black abyss of taxes, insurance, and repairs.

There are only expensive homes or ever escalating rent. There are no more starter homes and builders buy fixer uppers and tear down