Millenial Money - House Poor in Fairfax

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

What percentage of income per paycheck?

[Anonymous]

I’m a millennial and I bought a condo in DC in 2015. I sold it in 2022 and made 150k on it. I only put down 10% on it. I would never do that now.

My income has gone up a lot in 7 years, but my standard of living has actually decreased in that time due to prioritizing investing and optimizing expenses due to inflation.

I haven’t jumped back in yet but I am still building a decent down payment (30% at least) before I buy again. And I’m not deprioritizing other savings goals for this either.

I wish this couple the best.

They should be glad that it’s not like 2007. I know GenXers who were underwater for almost a decade after that crash and were begging for help for their kid’s college tuition from cousins at the thanksgiving table because they couldn’t sell. At least this couple will have the ability to sell at market rate if they regret the buy in a couple of years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a millennial and I bought a condo in DC in 2015. I sold it in 2022 and made 150k on it. I only put down 10% on it. I would never do that now.

My income has gone up a lot in 7 years, but my standard of living has actually decreased in that time due to prioritizing investing and optimizing expenses due to inflation.

I haven’t jumped back in yet but I am still building a decent down payment (30% at least) before I buy again. And I’m not deprioritizing other savings goals for this either.

I wish this couple the best.

They should be glad that it’s not like 2007. I know GenXers who were underwater for almost a decade after that crash and were begging for help for their kid’s college tuition from cousins at the thanksgiving table because they couldn’t sell. At least this couple will have the ability to sell at market rate if they regret the buy in a couple of years.

Exactly. Condos and townhouses appreciate far behind SFH, and condos in fact become albatrosses with ever escalating condo fees and expensive maintenance on elevators and pools etc.

This family did the best thing they could do: buy a proper SFH for the long term, with good public schools and a reasonable commute. It’s painful but it’s the only way to come out ahead — if they keep renting or buy some dead weight condo, they will end up further behind even if short term cash flow is easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a millennial and I bought a condo in DC in 2015. I sold it in 2022 and made 150k on it. I only put down 10% on it. I would never do that now.

My income has gone up a lot in 7 years, but my standard of living has actually decreased in that time due to prioritizing investing and optimizing expenses due to inflation.

I haven’t jumped back in yet but I am still building a decent down payment (30% at least) before I buy again. And I’m not deprioritizing other savings goals for this either.

I wish this couple the best.

They should be glad that it’s not like 2007. I know GenXers who were underwater for almost a decade after that crash and were begging for help for their kid’s college tuition from cousins at the thanksgiving table because they couldn’t sell. At least this couple will have the ability to sell at market rate if they regret the buy in a couple of years.

Exactly. Condos and townhouses appreciate far behind SFH, and condos in fact become albatrosses with ever escalating condo fees and expensive maintenance on elevators and pools etc.

This family did the best thing they could do: buy a proper SFH for the long term, with good public schools and a reasonable commute. It’s painful but it’s the only way to come out ahead — if they keep renting or buy some dead weight condo, they will end up further behind even if short term cash flow is easier.

There are houses in Fairfax that are less expensive. They'd feel the difference in their budget if they'd spent 800k- $1m instead of $1.2m.

[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.

Please show your math, because I'm not sure how you get there. Here are my quick back of the envelope calculations:

HHI - $260k
Subtract $46k (maxing out two 401ks) leaves $214k
Assuming you make roughly equal amounts and all income is subject to OADSI, subtract 7.65% for OASDI and Medicare tax leaves $197,629.
That translates to $16,469 each month. That means you are withholding approximately $3500 each month for federal and state taxes, as well as health insurance? Seems low.

[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.

Yeah I don't know if folks just haven't actually added up their take home pay recently, it definitely makes sense. We make similar and max my 401k and do match for my husbands (we max is when his bonus comes in because that makes most sense in his job) and we take home similar to that each month.

[Anonymous]

These folks just need to promote or get a raise and that will fix their issues. An extra 50k each shouldn’t be that hard in IT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a millennial and I bought a condo in DC in 2015. I sold it in 2022 and made 150k on it. I only put down 10% on it. I would never do that now.

My income has gone up a lot in 7 years, but my standard of living has actually decreased in that time due to prioritizing investing and optimizing expenses due to inflation.

I haven’t jumped back in yet but I am still building a decent down payment (30% at least) before I buy again. And I’m not deprioritizing other savings goals for this either.

I wish this couple the best.

They should be glad that it’s not like 2007. I know GenXers who were underwater for almost a decade after that crash and were begging for help for their kid’s college tuition from cousins at the thanksgiving table because they couldn’t sell. At least this couple will have the ability to sell at market rate if they regret the buy in a couple of years.

Exactly. Condos and townhouses appreciate far behind SFH, and condos in fact become albatrosses with ever escalating condo fees and expensive maintenance on elevators and pools etc.

This family did the best thing they could do: buy a proper SFH for the long term, with good public schools and a reasonable commute. It’s painful but it’s the only way to come out ahead — if they keep renting or buy some dead weight condo, they will end up further behind even if short term cash flow is easier.

There are houses in Fairfax that are less expensive. They'd feel the difference in their budget if they'd spent 800k- $1m instead of $1.2m.

A SFH in a neighborhood with good schools and a reasonable commute in NOVA for 800k is hard to find

[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.

Same here, we make $270K combined and both max out 401K plus pre-tax deductions for health insurance, FSA and Dependent Care FSA we take home a little more than $13,000/mo. But our PITI is only $2400. We'd like to move up to a bigger house but don't think we can afford it because what's in our price range is essentially the same house we already have (bought in 2017).

[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.

Please show your math, because I'm not sure how you get there. Here are my quick back of the envelope calculations:

HHI - $260k
Subtract $46k (maxing out two 401ks) leaves $214k
Assuming you make roughly equal amounts and all income is subject to OADSI, subtract 7.65% for OASDI and Medicare tax leaves $197,629.
That translates to $16,469 each month. That means you are withholding approximately $3500 each month for federal and state taxes, as well as health insurance? Seems low.

Huh, total tax bill of 42-42K/year sounds right for a married couple living in VA. 31,601 in fed taxes and 11,021 in state. Plenty of us don't have big health insurance costs as our employers cover it. Mine is just 20/mo if i choose Kaiser.

[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.

Please show your math, because I'm not sure how you get there. Here are my quick back of the envelope calculations:

HHI - $260k
Subtract $46k (maxing out two 401ks) leaves $214k
Assuming you make roughly equal amounts and all income is subject to OADSI, subtract 7.65% for OASDI and Medicare tax leaves $197,629.
That translates to $16,469 each month. That means you are withholding approximately $3500 each month for federal and state taxes, as well as health insurance? Seems low.

Lol that you think a young, not-particularly-high-earning couple with an $8K mortgage and upcoming childcare expenses is maxing out not one, but two, 401(k)s.