Are we stuck for now?

[Anonymous]

Did your HHI decrease substantially after you bought the house? Was there a divorce, death, or did one spouse leave the workforce?

[Anonymous]

sheesh, we make $60K more and are stretched on a $700k mortgage.

[Anonymous]

We bought a very small house near downtown Bethesda for $600K.
It was a fixer-upper, however, and we put in another 100K of work into it.

Our children share rooms, of course. One child goes to public.

This is how we make it work on 92K a year and still fund our retirement and the kids' college accounts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We bought a very small house near downtown Bethesda for $600K.
It was a fixer-upper, however, and we put in another 100K of work into it.

Our children share rooms, of course. One child goes to public.

This is how we make it work on 92K a year and still fund our retirement and the kids' college accounts.

This is very impressive. Can you give me a sense of your budget? I am not picturing how you make it work this way, while still funding retirement and college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a house that we paid 1.25k right before the crash. We owe a little over 1k and our monthly payment is 7,000. (2 mortgages) I'd really like to sell it but we have so little equity that by the time we pay closing costs and realtor fees I feel like we will lose the little money we have in it. Has anyone else been in this situation. I'm thinking we just have to wait a few more years until it appreciates a little more and we get more equity. Would moving to a 850,000/900,000 help if we could? The problem is we probably wouldn't have any down payment because of the closing costs and other fees, or very little.

Where did you live before you purchased in 2007? Most of the people I know with HS aged children bought well before the crash and still have quite a bit of equity in their houses. Was your income quite a bit more than it is now? $7k seems very high for a HHI of $290k- especially with 2 children in private school - especiallt when the children are HS aged. HOw much have you been able to save for retirement and colllege?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instead of getting a refi on the second loan, can't you get another loan at a lower rate and just pay that off?

The second loan is close to 130,000 so I can't pay it off any time soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sheesh, we make $60K more and are stretched on a $700k mortgage.

It only means you're not good at managing money either.

[Anonymous]

OP, you need to do a purge, you're way in over your head. No realistic amount of appreciation over the next 3-4 years is going to bail you out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We bought a very small house near downtown Bethesda for $600K.
It was a fixer-upper, however, and we put in another 100K of work into it.

Our children share rooms, of course. One child goes to public.

This is how we make it work on 92K a year and still fund our retirement and the kids' college accounts.

This is very impressive. Can you give me a sense of your budget? I am not picturing how you make it work this way, while still funding retirement and college.

Agree, I would like to know this as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with some of the PPs that you should get out now (ie sell the million dollar house). But don't buy one for $800 or $900k. Buy one for $600k. You need to SERIOUSLY reduce expenses if you're ever going to retire.

+1

It's time to stop keeping up with the joneses and live within your means.

Do you have any savings for a down payment on another house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with some of the PPs that you should get out now (ie sell the million dollar house). But don't buy one for $800 or $900k. Buy one for $600k. You need to SERIOUSLY reduce expenses if you're ever going to retire.

+1

It's time to stop keeping up with the joneses and live within your means.

Do you have any savings for a down payment on another house?

No, we don't have enough savings for a down payment on another house. What do you think about possible appreciation and equity over the next 8-10 years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We bought a very small house near downtown Bethesda for $600K.
It was a fixer-upper, however, and we put in another 100K of work into it.

Our children share rooms, of course. One child goes to public.

This is how we make it work on 92K a year and still fund our retirement and the kids' college accounts.

I'm really curious about this. Did you have help with either the downpayment or the 100K of work? We make just over your salary and need to sell, or rent, and move to an area with better schools. I can't figure out how to afford a house of that mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did your HHI decrease substantially after you bought the house? Was there a divorce, death, or did one spouse leave the workforce?

No, I think she said earlier that her first loan was interest only.

OP, no offense, but you are exactly the type of people for whom I have zero sympathy. You're not some ESL housekeeper who was sold a bill of goods by an unscrupulous realtor. You're not someone who had no choice but to overextend because you needed to keep a roof over your kids' heads. You make well over a quarter of a million dollars a year, and ought to know better. You could *easily* have afforded a nice house in a nice neighborhood. But you had to get a house that was over four times your HHI because, you know, that's what the Joneses do. And the only way you could do that is with an interest-only loan, because everyone knows that housign prices ALWAYS go up. And even though you live in a great school district, you send 2 kids to private school. And now you're over-extended, and when people offer you suggestions, you say, "I can't do that - we'll lose money!" You know what? When people make stupid financial decisions, they lose money. That's what happens. (Note - not decisions that didn't work out, but decisions that were idiotic at the time you made them.)

OK, rant over. You can pull yourself out of that hole, but you have to stop waffling and take some common-sense steps that are rational within your financial framework.

[Anonymous]

You need to sell and move into a 3 bedroom apartment - set a max rent at $3k. Pull your kids from private school. Then you will be able to save and pay for college next year. Tell your child you will only pay for in state tuition and R&B - no private schools unless he/she can get funding on her/his own.

Take the money you are currently spending on the mortgage less rent ($7k-3K)=$4k and put it in a savings vehicle for retirement or a house when you retire. You should be able to save $50k per year. Talk to a financial planner to help you through this.

Take the money you are currently spending on private school and use it to pay for college next year. If there is extra- put into your savings program.

Do this for the next 8-10 years. Live frugally and WELL below your means to get the savings you want.

[Anonymous]

I cant believe people are falling for this troll. Its obviously not true - the numbers literally are impossible. $7000 a month mortgage + 2 kids in private = 90%+ of their income.... The figures just dont even begin to remotely add up. She'd literally be falling behind on bills every month.