Is this common?

[Anonymous]

Had dinner with a coworker. He shared that his mortgage and taxes are $5500. He makes about $150K and his wife about $200k. In other words, nearly his entire salary is eaten up by the mortgage alone. I make $200, my wife $100, and my mortgage and taxes are $2200.

Granted they have a high income but I was still kind of dumbfounded. Do people really lever this much? It seems so high risk.

[Anonymous]

MYOB.

[Anonymous]

I think your mortgage and taxes are very, very low. Maybe they bought more recently? From what you said of his income, I don't think $5500 is crazy.

[Anonymous]

Different people prioritize differently. Someone who is adventurous and views their home as a place to sleep, shower, and store the stuff they're not using right this second may spend less on a house. Someone who is a homebody may be comfortable investing more in their home since that's their happy space where they spend most of their non-work time.

Combine all that with recession and housing markets, and ... it's still weird for a coworker to share those types of costs. Is the coworker American? I know we're (Americans) are a bit prudish when it comes to talking about money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MYOB.

He shared, its not like I asked for a copy of his paystub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Different people prioritize differently. Someone who is adventurous and views their home as a place to sleep, shower, and store the stuff they're not using right this second may spend less on a house. Someone who is a homebody may be comfortable investing more in their home since that's their happy space where they spend most of their non-work time.

Combine all that with recession and housing markets, and ... it's still weird for a coworker to share those types of costs. Is the coworker American? I know we're (Americans) are a bit prudish when it comes to talking about money.

He's not American. But I don't get why people are so secretive about money... What's wrong with "hey dude how much are you saving for 529? We don't have a clue what to do"? You ask that here and people look at them like you asked or permission to sleep with their mom.

[Anonymous]

Why are you looking at it as a proportion of his income? As a proportion of theirs, it's not too bad. If they have no other debt and stable jobs, it's perfectly doable.

[Anonymous]

I dunno. I certainly haven't. We owe about $190k on our house and have a combined income of about $100k and also enough cash/investments beyond retirement to pay off our mortgage completely. Couldn't contemplate spending thousands on a mortgage but it must work for some. Perhaps they have a huge networth relative to their income (we do).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Had dinner with a coworker. He shared that his mortgage and taxes are $5500. He makes about $150K and his wife about $200k.

We are in a similar situation, so what? Our mortgage is for 15 years and will be paid off by the time we turn 50. Maybe their mortgage is for 10 years - did you ask?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Had dinner with a coworker. He shared that his mortgage and taxes are $5500. He makes about $150K and his wife about $200k. In other words, nearly his entire salary is eaten up by the mortgage alone.

His net income is probably around $9K. Why do you consider $5.5K an incredible amount of money, but the remaining 3.5K so de minimis that you rounded it to zero?

[Anonymous]

You do not know how much "other" money he has coming in. side business, rentals, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MYOB.

He shared, its not like I asked for a copy of his paystub.

But you are now discussing it with random strangers on the Internet. I just don't get why you care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MYOB.

He shared, its not like I asked for a copy of his paystub.

But you are now discussing it with random strangers on the Internet. I just don't get why you care.

Why do we discuss any of the random nonsense on this board that doesn't concern us? OP asked a question, if you're not interested, ignore it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you looking at it as a proportion of his income? As a proportion of theirs, it's not too bad. If they have no other debt and stable jobs, it's perfectly doable.

Because it struck me as over levered. If one person lost their job, they'd be in deeeeeeep shit. I always lived on one income and banked the other - that's why at 33 I'm at 1.6M in retirement funds. I guess i just don't understand how people say "oh let's get into a mortgage we can't sustain if ANYTHING happens".

Maybe I'm just a weirdo, I don't know.

[Anonymous]

They can afford it in one income. Barely, but still possible, especially with a decent amount of savings to cushion it. Or sell. Not that I consider their mortgage to be a good idea on their salary, but its not going to be the end of the world if one person is downsized.