Reply to How does your family survive making under 200k hhi

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Haven't read all the replies here, but I'd say that your definition of "survival" is probably what's making you feel so strapped. $3k per month mortgage (I think you said) is not a bargain mortgage. $1100 per month for food and kids stuff (again, I think you said) does not sound like people who are trying to keep their spending down. I'm not saying it's easy to live in this area on incomes that are anywhere near normal - but to characterize your spending as barely surviving is really making it seem as if you live in a bubble.

You want to live a higher-income life than you comfortably have, is what it comes down to. And, look, I'm the same way - husb and I earn about $150k, have no kids, pay $600 per month toward student loans, $2k per month for rent. And it seems like we are just barely keeping our heads above water. But in reality that is bullshit. We order in food every time we want it. We keep an expensive cable package because we feel like keeping it. I buy clothes a fair amount. My husband likes to buy comic books. We may not have a whole lot of savings, and we may not have a huge amount of extra $ once we're done accounting for all the stuff we buy - but that's not barely surviving![/quote]

Comment again after having two kids on your salary.[/quote]

Do you expect PP to think a $3k mortgage is modest once s/he has 2 kids? We have two and I think a $3k mortgage would be ridiculous at a HHI of 200k, which is about how much we make. I wouldn't go above 2k/month for mortgage or rent. $1k for food & supplies is about what we spend but we're buying organic, local, seasonal food through a farm share. If we felt cash strapped, we could definitely cut that down - PP is right. If you spend 3k on a mortgage, another 3k on childcare, and 1k on food+diapers, you're cash strapped because you're living immodestly, not because you're poor. [/quote]

This sounds good in theory but $3k mortgage is a $500k house, 20% down. $2k mortgage is 2/3 that. Many families will decide, quite reasonably, that its better to cut back elsewhere than live in a 2-br apartment or over an hour away.[/quote]

That's just not accurate. A 3k mortgage on a 30 year fixed would be a 480k loan, so a 600k house with 20% down (assuming 1100 insurance and 0.0109% property tax at a current 4.25 interest rate). Your number would be accurate for a 6.25% rate. That definitely gets you in a good neighborhood in the suburbs (vienna. Fairfax, Burke, parts of Arlington, etc).  For a nicer home or a closer neighborhood it may mean saving for an additional year or two in order to keep the loan to the amount you are comfortable with or can afford on one income, but that is possible at the income level.[/quote]

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