How do people afford...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family money. Everyone I know who lives in a 7 figure house under the age of 35 came from a wealthy family and only makes 1/4
- 1/2 of what they would need to support their lifestyle. Family makes up the difference.

Bull$hit. Lots of us made our own money and did it alone. We owned two $1M+ houses at the age of 32. Absolutely no family money. We saved a ton when we were young n

Totally agree w/this. No family $$. We saved religiously and chose careers that went up tenfold in 10-12 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family money. Everyone I know who lives in a 7 figure house under the age of 35 came from a wealthy family and only makes 1/4
- 1/2 of what they would need to support their lifestyle. Family makes up the difference.

No one I know….
Lots of stock though from their companies that have vastly/crazily appreciated over time.

Listen you can never have this life if even one of you works for the government.

This is the key.

[Anonymous]

In my circle

- One couple is an investment banker plus financial analyst. They bring in like 800k a year.
- Another couple, the husband's dad is a famous DC lawyer. He gifted the newly weds 500k downpayment.
- The next couple is a sales engineer and a program manager. The husband's parents gifted them 300k for downpayment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family money. Everyone I know who lives in a 7 figure house under the age of 35 came from a wealthy family and only makes 1/4
- 1/2 of what they would need to support their lifestyle. Family makes up the difference.

Bull$hit. Lots of us made our own money and did it alone. We owned two $1M+ houses at the age of 32. Absolutely no family money. We saved a ton when we were young n

Totally agree w/this. No family $$. We saved religiously and chose careers that went up tenfold in 10-12 years.

lol lemme guess that no family money paid for college??

[Anonymous]

Most people can’t afford. Home sales volume is really low right now - almost nobody is buying houses with this combination of rates and pricing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I get all the responses above, but the folks I am seeing are in the 'burbs and exurbs (Herndon, Chantilly, Ashburn, etc.) and they are mostly freshly immigrant population. Most of them work for software shops in the area. I don't think it is generational money. Still scratching my head to understand this.

The ones I see like this cook from scratch, don’t have fancy cars and don’t really vacation. The house is everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family money. Everyone I know who lives in a 7 figure house under the age of 35 came from a wealthy family and only makes 1/4
- 1/2 of what they would need to support their lifestyle. Family makes up the difference.

Bull$hit. Lots of us made our own money and did it alone. We owned two $1M+ houses at the age of 32. Absolutely no family money. We saved a ton when we were young n

Totally agree w/this. No family $$. We saved religiously and chose careers that went up tenfold in 10-12 years.

lol lemme guess that no family money paid for college??

PP here who suggested family money - excellent point!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people can’t afford. Home sales volume is really low right now - almost nobody is buying houses with this combination of rates and pricing

First sentence is it. Most people cannot afford. OP is focusing on the tiny portion who can. You notice because they’re concentrated in certain areas.

[Anonymous]

We put down a very large downpayment. We’re dual feds and will likely always will be so we wanted payments we could afford. It’s our 3rd house and we sold our 2nd home for 500k cash. We owed little on the 2nd home.

I will say that the mortgage company couldn’t believe we’d want to put even a penny over 20% down. Otherwise we’d be house poor and would have to sell if Dh or I died.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the new constructions in the Ashburn, Herndon and other areas are gobbled up by Indian immigrants. They are easily north of $800K and $1M+. So, this population is more than the occasional crypto rich or stock market savvy. They are also not DINKS, but with school-age kids. In addition to expensive new houses, Teslas and other new cars, several send their kids to private schools whose tuition rival those of expensive private colleges. What kind of HHI do they have to afford this lifestyle? I can't imagine working in the software shops being that lucrative.

Many Indians work very hard to keep up an image. How you appear to everyone else is extremely important. (Can say that cause I'm married to one and the level of maintaining a certain image is ridiculous and something I certainly never grew up with). Who knows if they can actually afford it. Those that I know, at least half probably cannot afford it (Ie are not saving enough for college /retirement/paying all bills in full each month/etc)

Oh please maybe you can’t afford it but Indians are a financially conservative group, and save a lot and don’t spend beyond their means. The people you know probably make a lot more money than you realize or have huge cash piles from stock gains. We’re Indian, in our 30’s and live in a 3m house and people have insinuated to my face that we probably live beyond our means. They can’t or don’t want to fathom the truth, which is our HHI is well over 1m and our mortgage is almost paid off.

Yea, immigrants here nowadays are very financially advanced and savvy. Single Russian female here - $4.5mm net worth by age 44 live in a $1.7mm house with 2% mortgage interest that’s almost paid off. Real estate investments - own 11 rental units. Btw I make $100k in a W2 job. My gross annual income is $400k.
I consider myself very average and modest relative other immigrants who with their spouses got start ups, built hotels, became SVPs in Fortune100 companies etc

To add, I started in RE early at age 26; one year after moving to the US and even before I got citizenship.
When people look at me they probably think I came from oil money or something as my 9-5 job at 100k is well below average. Just a project manager at an NGO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the new constructions in the Ashburn, Herndon and other areas are gobbled up by Indian immigrants. They are easily north of $800K and $1M+. So, this population is more than the occasional crypto rich or stock market savvy. They are also not DINKS, but with school-age kids. In addition to expensive new houses, Teslas and other new cars, several send their kids to private schools whose tuition rival those of expensive private colleges. What kind of HHI do they have to afford this lifestyle? I can't imagine working in the software shops being that lucrative.

Many Indians work very hard to keep up an image. How you appear to everyone else is extremely important. (Can say that cause I'm married to one and the level of maintaining a certain image is ridiculous and something I certainly never grew up with). Who knows if they can actually afford it. Those that I know, at least half probably cannot afford it (Ie are not saving enough for college /retirement/paying all bills in full each month/etc)

Oh please maybe you can’t afford it but Indians are a financially conservative group, and save a lot and don’t spend beyond their means. The people you know probably make a lot more money than you realize or have huge cash piles from stock gains. We’re Indian, in our 30’s and live in a 3m house and people have insinuated to my face that we probably live beyond our means. They can’t or don’t want to fathom the truth, which is our HHI is well over 1m and our mortgage is almost paid off.

Yea, immigrants here nowadays are very financially advanced and savvy. Single Russian female here - $4.5mm net worth by age 44 live in a $1.7mm house with 2% mortgage interest that’s almost paid off. Real estate investments - own 11 rental units. Btw I make $100k in a W2 job. My gross annual income is $400k.
I consider myself very average and modest relative other immigrants who with their spouses got start ups, built hotels, became SVPs in Fortune100 companies etc

To add, I started in RE early at age 26; one year after moving to the US and even before I got citizenship.
When people look at me they probably think I came from oil money or something as my 9-5 job at 100k is well below average. Just a project manager at an NGO

Fascinating!! You should start an AMA!

[Anonymous]

Software professionals can mean anything, OP.
We made our money in stocks.
No family money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family money. Everyone I know who lives in a 7 figure house under the age of 35 came from a wealthy family and only makes 1/4
- 1/2 of what they would need to support their lifestyle. Family makes up the difference.

Bull$hit. Lots of us made our own money and did it alone. We owned two $1M+ houses at the age of 32. Absolutely no family money. We saved a ton when we were young n

Totally agree w/this. No family $$. We saved religiously and chose careers that went up tenfold in 10-12 years.

lol lemme guess that no family money paid for college??

Student loans for me - both grad and law school. Spouse parents paid for u dergrad tho.

our net worth around $30m.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seeing house prices as they are today, how do people afford the $1M+ houses/townhomes that will amount to nearly $9K-$10K/month mortgage? Plus I see them switching to newer cars every so often. These are two income software professionals in the household, and I don't understand the math. What am I missing?

I see these questions on here all the time and I don’t mean to be disrespectful but truthfully you are all doing this wrong.

Figure out what your goals are.

Is it to make a lot of money? Or is it to have an easy work life - govt pension, 9-5. They don’t go hand-in-hand. And these decisions often start when you are 18. Not 30 or 40.

If you can’t change your life now (by moving jobs every year or two in the private sector, and continuing to climb that ladder), make sure you point your kids in the right direction.

Not all jobs are created equal. Not all colleges are created equal. And being saddled with student loan debt is horrible for some professions and careers where you max out your salary.

There is real strategy to career planning And net worth building, and it begins before you leave the house for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the new constructions in the Ashburn, Herndon and other areas are gobbled up by Indian immigrants. They are easily north of $800K and $1M+. So, this population is more than the occasional crypto rich or stock market savvy. They are also not DINKS, but with school-age kids. In addition to expensive new houses, Teslas and other new cars, several send their kids to private schools whose tuition rival those of expensive private colleges. What kind of HHI do they have to afford this lifestyle? I can't imagine working in the software shops being that lucrative.

Many Indians work very hard to keep up an image. How you appear to everyone else is extremely important. (Can say that cause I'm married to one and the level of maintaining a certain image is ridiculous and something I certainly never grew up with). Who knows if they can actually afford it. Those that I know, at least half probably cannot afford it (Ie are not saving enough for college /retirement/paying all bills in full each month/etc)

Oh please maybe you can’t afford it but Indians are a financially conservative group, and save a lot and don’t spend beyond their means. The people you know probably make a lot more money than you realize or have huge cash piles from stock gains. We’re Indian, in our 30’s and live in a 3m house and people have insinuated to my face that we probably live beyond our means. They can’t or don’t want to fathom the truth, which is our HHI is well over 1m and our mortgage is almost paid off.

Oh, we can afford it. We are UHNW in mid 40s. Own 2 homes, worth over $8M total. Got there thru our own hard work and being fiscally conservative (and taking the right jobs at the right time). Haven't had a mortgage or car loan in over 15 years.

But I still call BS....know plenty of Indians who are not financially conservative and spend way beyond their means. been to plenty of Indian weddings on the east coast that cost $300K+ and the family spends years paying them off (know this because they are our family weddings and people talk).

$8M isn’t UHNW

Just their houses are worth $8m lol you.

Apparently trolls are having reading comprehension issues today