Just bought an $800,000 house on a $186,000 salary and now I'm panicking....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So a person making over 150k can't even afford an old house in the dmv with good schools? What about the singles making 50 to 80k? What can they afford? A shack or tent in the woods here?

or single parents who are MC? how do they live in the DMV?

They buy in "unsexy" places that DCUM scoffs at. I have two friends raising families on under 150K, one of whom is a family of four living on <100K. Both are in townhouses, one in Germantown and the other in Montgomery Village.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your income after a 401k contribution, and if so how much?

And how much emergency fund do you have?

And are any of your kids in paid child care or private school?

OP again - yes, income is after 401k contributions (we each contribute 5%, and get a 5% match), and DW is a fed who will qualify for a pension.
We are done with paid child care, kids are in public school, and will attend in-state public college.

do they know this?

They can tell their children that they will pay for the equivalent of in-state public college. Kids can then make the decision if they would like to pay for / take loans out for any remaining tuition as a result of making a different choice. I have a similar agreement with my children.

I bet you haven’t had to cross that bridge yet. It’s not that easy. It’s not that simple.

Um, I have a senior in high school and a senior in college. It is actually that simple.

+1. I have two kids in college. I told them they were not going to private school. We visited only public schools. They understood and went to public schools. They are fine, and if they somehow felt entitled to attend an expensive privates school I would think I raised them wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yikes.

OK. Maybe you are very young and your income will grow by a lot?

We are super grateful that at your salary we were the owners of a house that cost around 350K. It allowed us to save for college, retirement, vacations, cleaning services, hobbies, eating out, entertaining, zero debt, tutors, EC activities, further education and certifications etc. Just by buying a cheaper house than what we could afford, we pretty much had a upper class lifestyle.

We are in the same boat. And that’s a good way to word it, living an upper class lifestyle by buying less house that you can afford. That’s definitely been true in our case.

Great post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes.

OK. Maybe you are very young and your income will grow by a lot?

We are super grateful that at your salary we were the owners of a house that cost around 350K. It allowed us to save for college, retirement, vacations, cleaning services, hobbies, eating out, entertaining, zero debt, tutors, EC activities, further education and certifications etc. Just by buying a cheaper house than what we could afford, we pretty much had a upper class lifestyle.

We are in the same boat. And that’s a good way to word it, living an upper class lifestyle by buying less house that you can afford. That’s definitely been true in our case.

Great post.

What year did you buy a house for $350k? And where?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your income after a 401k contribution, and if so how much?

And how much emergency fund do you have?

And are any of your kids in paid child care or private school?

OP again - yes, income is after 401k contributions (we each contribute 5%, and get a 5% match), and DW is a fed who will qualify for a pension.
We are done with paid child care, kids are in public school, and will attend in-state public college.

do they know this?

They can tell their children that they will pay for the equivalent of in-state public college. Kids can then make the decision if they would like to pay for / take loans out for any remaining tuition as a result of making a different choice. I have a similar agreement with my children.

I bet you haven’t had to cross that bridge yet. It’s not that easy. It’s not that simple.

Um, I have a senior in high school and a senior in college. It is actually that simple.

+1. I have two kids in college. I told them they were not going to private school. We visited only public schools. They understood and went to public schools. They are fine, and if they somehow felt entitled to attend an expensive privates school I would think I raised them wrong.

My mom did the same thing with me. Told me there were more than a dozen state schools and she was sure I could find one that I liked. My spouse and I both have public university degrees, made good money, and have a very nice life. I would only entertain private if my child could get scholarship or aid to get the cost down to comparable to public.

I think DCUM forgets that, outside the NE corridor, public universities are not considered some sort of shameful failure. Not everyone needs to wealth signal that they can afford Ivies and SLACs or is gunning for BigLaw, Big4, or Wall Street, it's just that that population is disproportionately represented here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your income after a 401k contribution, and if so how much?

And how much emergency fund do you have?

And are any of your kids in paid child care or private school?

OP again - yes, income is after 401k contributions (we each contribute 5%, and get a 5% match), and DW is a fed who will qualify for a pension.
We are done with paid child care, kids are in public school, and will attend in-state public college.

do they know this?

They can tell their children that they will pay for the equivalent of in-state public college. Kids can then make the decision if they would like to pay for / take loans out for any remaining tuition as a result of making a different choice. I have a similar agreement with my children.

I bet you haven’t had to cross that bridge yet. It’s not that easy. It’s not that simple.

Um, I have a senior in high school and a senior in college. It is actually that simple.

+1. I have two kids in college. I told them they were not going to private school. We visited only public schools. They understood and went to public schools. They are fine, and if they somehow felt entitled to attend an expensive privates school I would think I raised them wrong.

My mom did the same thing with me. Told me there were more than a dozen state schools and she was sure I could find one that I liked. My spouse and I both have public university degrees, made good money, and have a very nice life. I would only entertain private if my child could get scholarship or aid to get the cost down to comparable to public.

I think DCUM forgets that, outside the NE corridor, public universities are not considered some sort of shameful failure. Not everyone needs to wealth signal that they can afford Ivies and SLACs or is gunning for BigLaw, Big4, or Wall Street, it's just that that population is disproportionately represented here.

Honestly, UVA and UMD are both fantastic schools.