would you take out a mortgage that is half of your take home pay?

[Anonymous]

Half take home is $3300
Left over after non negotiable bills $1300
This means non negotiable bills are $2000

My family of five has about $500 a month in non negotiable bills. If you include my property tax and homeowners insurance (I have no mortgage), I don’t come close to $2k a month. You have way too expensive of a lifestyle to afford this mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Half take home is $3300
Left over after non negotiable bills $1300
This means non negotiable bills are $2000

My family of five has about $500 a month in non negotiable bills. If you include my property tax and homeowners insurance (I have no mortgage), I don’t come close to $2k a month. You have way too expensive of a lifestyle to afford this mortgage.

DP: while I don't disagree that OP is spending too much - putting their financials aside, your $500 a month in non-negotiables for 5 people is completely and totally unrealistic for most people no matter where you live. You're fortunate to not have a child with special needs, or a child who has an expensive hobby/passion, or a family member with an illness, or expensive healthcare. Just not a good or realistic comparison.

[Anonymous]

Is your position likely to become Schedule F?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half take home is $3300
Left over after non negotiable bills $1300
This means non negotiable bills are $2000

My family of five has about $500 a month in non negotiable bills. If you include my property tax and homeowners insurance (I have no mortgage), I don’t come close to $2k a month. You have way too expensive of a lifestyle to afford this mortgage.

DP: while I don't disagree that OP is spending too much - putting their financials aside, your $500 a month in non-negotiables for 5 people is completely and totally unrealistic for most people no matter where you live. You're fortunate to not have a child with special needs, or a child who has an expensive hobby/passion, or a family member with an illness, or expensive healthcare. Just not a good or realistic comparison.

I actually have both. But expensive activities are not non negotiable. They are optional. And using services beyond what is covered by the school and insurance is also optional. I get that I am fortunate to have been able to afford both for my kids. And, if I’m remembering correctly, OP’s family consists of one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, the thing is, rents are so high, close to 3k anyway. The only way to find a place to rent that is under 2.5k is to rent a 1 bedroom, which I am actually ok with, but in a few years those will be 3k as well.

[b]Find a less expensive home to buy. Ideally you have an extra 1-1,500 a month to save / use for emergencies. Your retirement savings should be much more than 5%.

This. I did take out a mortgage that was a
little under half my take home - but it was with a new condo (minimal expected repairs, fairly know annual increases in condo fees) and I had a good cushion of emergency savings left and expectation of growing salary.

You need:
1) to build up a larger savings so you have a cushion for repairs or unexpected pay interruptions (eg govt shut down if you’re a fed)
2) definitely a roommate for a while (not forever)
Or 3) you need to find a cheaper place to buy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half take home is $3300
Left over after non negotiable bills $1300
This means non negotiable bills are $2000

My family of five has about $500 a month in non negotiable bills. If you include my property tax and homeowners insurance (I have no mortgage), I don’t come close to $2k a month. You have way too expensive of a lifestyle to afford this mortgage.

DP: while I don't disagree that OP is spending too much - putting their financials aside, your $500 a month in non-negotiables for 5 people is completely and totally unrealistic for most people no matter where you live. You're fortunate to not have a child with special needs, or a child who has an expensive hobby/passion, or a family member with an illness, or expensive healthcare. Just not a good or realistic comparison.

I actually have both. But expensive activities are not non negotiable. They are optional. And using services beyond what is covered by the school and insurance is also optional. I get that I am fortunate to have been able to afford both for my kids. And, if I’m remembering correctly, OP’s family consists of one.

And if you read what I wrote in the first sentence I acknowledged that OP is spending too much (for their solo life) and I also took them out of the equation. Sure technically most of our expenses are actually not non-negotiable, except for food/shelter/water - but you know what point I was making. your $500 for a family of 5 is unrealistic. It just is. I admire you for being able to live the way you do!

[Anonymous]

Can you get a roommate to help with the mortgage and other bills?

[Anonymous]

NEVER.

[Anonymous]

No.

[Anonymous]

I feel like DH and I were like this when we first bought our house. I don't really remember, though, because it was a long time ago. But we were so poor we only had one old, paid-off car. This was back in the day when you didn't have to put anything down, though. We got the mortgage through Morgan Stanley where our very modest (small inheritance from DH's parents) holdings were. It worked out for us because: (1) the value in our home kept rising; (2) my salary increased by about 75% a year later; and (3) we refinanced at a lower rate about 3 years later, at which point we had almost 50% equity in our house. Now, we are a few years away from owning our home, and have $800-900K equity. And in the interim, I was able to stay home with the kids for a few years because of our relatively low mortgage payment.

I guess my point is, it may be worth it in the long run, but only you can say whether you are willing to take the risk. A roommate seems ideal, if you can share the space.

[Anonymous]

Monthly payment, no. Our initial principal amount (i.e., total amount borrowed) was not even half my annual comp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So 3300 left per month for everything else

After non negotiable bills (electricity, natural gas, small cable and cell phone bills, car payment [no student loans or cc debt]), I will have 1297.22 per month left

How can those be $2000 a month? Do you have a $1500 car payment or something?

no, I just included every expense in the list, including home utilities (and of course the mortgage).

But how does it add up to $2000 a month? Utilities shouldn't cost that much.