Reply to What would you do -- houses, schools, commute, mortgage, retirement?

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[quote=Anonymous]We live in a SFH in a low-end school district.  Our house is paid off.  DH travels 50 min. each way (driving, stressful).  But, sometimes (once a week), he goes downtown.  We are close enough to a metro, so that is how he gets downtown.  On occasion, he has to be at his office for the morning, but then downtown for the afternoon ... so he has to drive there (office) in the morning, then re-position his car at the metro (closer to our house) then metro in for the afternoon, and come back so that his car in closer to home at night.  Kids are approaching ms.  DH is 12-15 yrs from retirement (i.e. 55 now).  We love our neighborhood and all the amenities/retail that are close by.  Life is easy.  If we stayed, we would have to get tutors to fill in what is missing at school.  But, if we are going to move for better schools and shorter commute, it has to be now (b/c of the kids' age/school situation).

Option 1:  stay where we are (financially beneficial, but not so great for schools and really bad for DH who will be committing to the long commute for 12+ yrs -- which is only going to get harder to do as he ages -- might make him retire earlier than he would otherwise choose to do).

Option 2:  move to Vienna where it is close to metro and a 20 min. commute to office, BUT, financially very hard b/c we'd have to spend $160K and probably get a mortgage for $100K more.  obviously, schools will be good and there is activity around.

Option 3:  move to Chantilly where we would get good schools, 20 min or less commute to office, but difficult to get downtown.  Would have to spend $100K, but no mortgage.  Not really walkable to anything in the neighborhood, but close drive to retail.

Option 4:  move to Ashburn where we would get good school, 20 min. commute to office, difficult to get downtown.  Would only have to spend $10-20K, no mortgage.  Not much for retail except groceries and gas.  15-20 min. to most real retail.  Has trails, pools and seems easy to get around (although not sure what people do other than drive to somewhere else). Financially attractive.

We are not used to having a mortgage.  Net monthly income 10K.  We have been saving about $5K per month and living on $5K.  If we get a mortgage, savings will be reduced.  The thought of committing to a mortgage at this point in life is weighing on me.  I like the idea of living within or below our means -- b/c it allows us to feel wealthy -- we can generally do or have what we want (and we don't want for much).  But, with a mortgage, we have to be more budget conscious.  What would you advise?

Is it crazy to increase expenses at this point even if we get better schools and shorter commute?[/quote]

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