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What is you Mortgage Payment and Gross Salary?
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Anonymous
| We bought our house over ten years ago. It is now worth five times what we paid for it. Our gross then was around $160K. Now it's $350K We don't have any debt -- paid cash for our used cars and pay off our credit card every month -- and our mortgage will be paid off early, just before our oldest starts college. Our biggest expense is private school for our two kids, but we've always lived below our means and saved aggresively. We still have a great life, we just don't spend a lot of money on stuff that doesn't hold its value. And we didn't change our lifestyle much as our earnings increased. |
Anonymous
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65K lady again.
Give you three guesses on my profession. Nah, I'll just tell you: non-profit sector. There are a lot of us here. My salary is actually really good for my sector. |
Anonymous
| Also, if I crossed over from the non-profit world, I could probably make some serious bank, but the trade off is that I love my job, have a great deal of flexibility, and uh, I love my job and have flexibility. |
Anonymous
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215K + 10K bonus
5700 mortgage payment, all in We have no car payments, no other debt. Although it's a stretch, we still take a somewhat modest vacation each year (10 days for around $2500-2800), sometimes shop at Whole Foods, etc. I'm a SAHM, so no child care expenses. Our mortgage rate is fixed, so as DH gets raises/I go back to work, it will just get easier. |
Anonymous
You sound like us! What do you mean by "max out" your college funds (i.e., how much per month). How much did you pay for your house and which neighborhood. Just being nosy. Sorry. |
Anonymous
$5700 mortgage sounds high. How much did you pay for your house? |
Anonymous
The loan amt was $800K. |
Anonymous
We did the VPEP college funds, so you pay the whole thing in 5 years. "Whole thing" means a set amount every month for 5 years (for my oldest, it's about 700, my youngest is 750--so 1450 total). After the 5 years, you're done. That will cover full tuition and fees, whatever they may be, at any VA State school, and then there is a formula (based on what the tuition is at VA state schools at the time) to calculate how much you get if the kids go to a private school and/or out of state. After the 5 years, we'll start new funds for room & board, etc. We paid $625K for a house in the Mt. Vernon area of Fairfax County. |
Anonymous
Please . . Potomac is no different than Bethesda, McLean, Great Falls and Chevy Chase. Some people are conspicuos, some are not. You sound like a unhappy, jealous person. |
Anonymous
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I'm impressed with Poster 13:32 - you are doing a lot with the one salary. Don't worry about the basic cable. I'm right there with you. I only upgraded because when my DH moved in (when we were engaged) he said he couldn't live without CNN and ESPN. I don't know that I will ever order the premium channels anytime soon. I'm also probably one of the few people on earth other than our parents that doesn't have call waiting.
Anyway I don't wonder how other people do it. There are so many situations and very few are my reality. Some people just make more money - they are lawyers, doctors, high up in private companies with stock options and higher base salaries maybe independent contractors in IT. Could be someone in sales where when times are good, they can make serious money. Remember the times before the tech bust - there were people making big money day trading. Some people have the knack for investing. There are people that bought "before the boom" or situations where two people each owned before they got married and either held on to one place or sold one during the boom and made serious money. Also some people have parents helping them or inheritance. There are also some people living with serious debt. All I can do is work with my situation - and hope one of these days I win the HGTV dream home  One day I was lamenting to one of my friends how I wish I could be one of the people that could go into a showroom and just pick out bathroom tile and not worry about the cost (I hope in my retirement days 30 years from now that this could be the situation), instead I have to do research and find the best price, maybe get someone to price match etc. My friend said - don't worry, people with money do the same thing - how do you think they hold on to their money. I keep reminding myself of the Millionaire Next Door book - I think it has that the average millionaire drives a car that is 9 years old or something like that etc. and has their money in investments and other things. Anyway, I would say we are "comfortable". Shop at Target, mow our own grass, clean our own house, don't drive expensive cars , drive cars atleast 8 years - but don't have to watch every penny at the grocery store are able to do nice home improvements and get some sort of electronic gadget (computer, digital camera, t.v.) etc. every few years and try to keep up with the mani/pedi during the summer months.
Salary 200K Mortgage 2200 (1800 plus tax and insurance) Childcare 2300 (two kids) cars paid for and no other debt |
Anonymous
One of the previous poster here. Don't forget - I bet you qualified for a much higher mortgage than you have. When we were looking - we qualified for a mortgage at least double if not more of what we decided on. Now if we didn't have kids, and if our salaries continued to go up and if no one lost their job - we probably could have technically afforded that mortgage. However, I'm the what-if voice of what if we have kids and I want to stay home a few years and can't because I need to work to pay the mortgage, what if I or my husband is laid off ... Growing up with parents now divorced and remembering the tension over money and my mother always warning me about putting myself in that precarious financial situation made me overly cautious. So as long as I prepare for that rainy day - and the rainy day doesn't come, I'm in a comfortable situation. And if the rainy day does come, I'm hopefully prepared and it won't add undue stress to the household. |
Anonymous
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$400k plus bonuses annual salaries
$3100/month mortgage $3500/month nanny car and loan payments (not absurd tho) our kids will go to public school and we'll get rid of FT nanny in about 3-5 years. we save at least $2-3k/month plus 401k. I admit, I don't understand how some people making $200-300k are so cash poor. I suspect that they spend much more than they think they do on unnecessary stuff. |
Anonymous
Ok, say Potomac is no different. How does my statement about Potomac make me a depressed, jealous person? Not sure I see the link. And, for what it's worth, our household income is 450K and we live in Bethesda, so I'm not exactly in the position to be jealous. |
Anonymous
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400k plus bonus annual salaries
3800k month mortgage payment 1500 month childcare No student loans - paid them off within two years of graduating No car payments - have a 12 year old car and a 5 year old car that were paid for in cash No other debt Max out 401k We are admittedly aggressive savers and hate having any type of debt. We just put away a certain amount every month and then do not stress about how we spend the rest. It works for us at the moment. We do not have a lot of material desires (could not care less about jewelry, cars, fancy dinners, etc.) but we do want two very expensive things - first, to pay for our two children's college AND graduate school tuition (granted, this is very far away since our children are under 3), and to move to our "dream house" within the next five years. The dream house would require a significantly larger monthly payment but it is something that we have always wanted. |
Anonymous
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Combined Salaries: 175K
Student Loans: 1000 Car Payment: 280 Mortgage: 2500 First baby on the way |