how on earth can we save a down payment?
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Anonymous
| You can buy a townhouse in many areas for 400,000 or less and 5% down on that amount is $20k, not 60 or 80. And you can get a conventional loan with 5% down. You may need to adjust your expectations a bit. |
Anonymous
+1 Please post your monthly take home and budget. |
Anonymous
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oh lordy these threads depress me. you guys really went three years without traveling or going to the movies?
i am not criticizing (obviously!). you've got your shit together way more than i do. i just think i would be miserable giving up life's modest pleasures for years at a time, to buy a house around here. sign me, grasshopper |
Anonymous
| Ah, OP, we were in the same situation 5 years ago, so we waited and five years later we have enough for an 80-10-10 loan. Of course now inventory is so low that we haven't found anything that we like enough to put an offer on. Just keep on trying to save. We automatically put $150 from each of our paychecks into savings, it does not even hit our checking account so we never see it. If you don't have it, you won't use it. We've saved a LOT of money in the past five years. |
Anonymous
Agreed. I would actually disagree with the original quoted PP - in this area, housing is SO expensive that it may not be worth it to buy. Especially right now, when we are inching back up to early 2000s bubble prices. |
Anonymous
What? You would rather just leave our kids property than give them an education that will allow them to earn enough money to buy their own property and meet whatever other needs they have in the future? That's insane. |
Anonymous
Not everyone makes $100k+ a year or has family to give them $ for a down payment. You need to get out more. |
Anonymous
I think you misread the pp. I believe pp was commending the efforts noted to save money and is dreading the prospect of doing it him/herself. |
Anonymous
| We moved to another state. |
Anonymous
This is us too. We waited for 5 years to have kids (until our mid 30's) so we could live VERY cheaply and save. I realize this doesn't help you but it was a very purposeful move on our part. We would have loved to have kids earlier but it didn't make financial sense if we ever expected to own a house and have a reasonable standard of living here (without super high salaries or parental help). |
Anonymous
|
$2,000 Daycare
$1,995 Rent $800 Groceries $625 Tuition $250 Credit Card payment $317 Auto Payment $325 Utilities $265 Gas & Fuel $260 Mobile Phone $200 Federal Tax Repayment $221 Student Loans $125 IRA Savings Account $126 Television and Cable $95 Auto Insurance $82 Life Insurance $57 Fees & Charges etc. Our monthly income is $7,500 combined. |
Anonymous
Pay as you go phones with unlimited talk and text cost me $35 per month (I don't have a smart phone). If you both do that you will be able to save another $180 per month. You don't mention if you have an emergency savings acct. This is a must and you need 6 months saved up (around $45K). Ideally, you should have an additional $10K for the "life/new house happens" stuff. |
Anonymous
| We saved up for 10 years before we had a down payment on a house. We also didn't have kids until after we had the house, although not by choice; that's just the way it worked out. |
Anonymous
Also, if you are both working and your child is in daycare, do you really need cable tv? That's definitely a want, not a need. That should save you another $50 a month, assuming your bill includes internet. Between that and the mobile phone savings, you can get to your goal much faster. |
Anonymous
$325 seems very high for utilities. Our 3br house is only about $40 in gas and $120 electric (flips in the winter). Do you have to pay for water? |