Reply to $200K and just getting by

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Or buy a home as early as possible. We got our first starter home when we were dating at age 22. We are 40 now and are on our 5th house with one as a rental.

By the time we started having kids at 27, we were established with equity and it just kept building [/quote]

Good thing you don't buy in 2006. [/quote]

I am a new poster and I did buy in 2006. But where our bank cleared us for a loan up to $1 million (!) we only took a loan of $300k and bought a lovely house for $500k. Don't "stretch" to buy. The people asking you to are real estate agents who stand to get paid.[/quote]

+1 and the same applies to college.  A lot of people struggling with student debt seemed to have bought the line that education debt is "good debt" just like a mortgage is "good debt".  Garbage.  Yes, some people may have to go into some debt for college but it should be minimized as much as possible.  Live at home, do the first two years at a CC, do your research and choose a lower cost option.  DH and I were very comfortable with his $100K salary when I was a SAHM and now as 2 working parents with a $240K income and lots of savings.  A big part of that is that we both went to affordable state colleges for undergrad.  I also went to a state U for grad school and had it paid for by my employer.  He also lived at home during undergrad.  I could have gone to an Ivy but was offered no aid so my parents counseled me, wisely, to go to the affordable state school.  Graduated debt free. Had a great college experience and been very happy in my career.

We also got lucky with market timing in our house purchase but part of that was that we were willing to buy a little 1940s house that had virtually no improvements since the 1950s.  We made modest improvements early on but waited to do a larger renovation until after my stretch as a SAHM.  [/quote]

Please, [b]not everyone gets to live in a state with decent public universities and even fewer live within commuting distance of a university or useful community college.[/b]  Folks like you who are upper middle class in urban metro areas are so out of check with the people who are taking student loans.  It's an escape rocket from a cycle of poverty, but rockets don't come cheap.

My parents counseled me to take out as much debt as I could so having good parental advice and free rent are also advantages you don't seem to appreciate.

I do hope you at least tested your house for lead and asbestos, for your kids sake. 1940s homes can be quite debilitating to infant development, especially when at home all day.  But get real, your house was cheap because of when you bought it, not the age.[/quote]

No, not everyone does.  I do understand disadvantages.  My ILs were poor, living in a tiny house in an awful neighborhood. DH attended a VA State U that most people on DCUM would never let their kids go to.  But, that's what was close to home and that's what they could afford so that's where he went.  He probably could have gotten aid to go to a "better" school but nobody in his family had a clue about financial aid but at least they knew enough that debt is a bad idea.  He never even applied anywhere else.  He was the only person in his family to go to college.  Still, he learned computer programming and went on to a solid career.[/quote]

No you really don't. VA has one of the best public university systems in the country; and my 'local' university was a 2 HR drive away, and many parents counseled their kids to take on debt to get them out of the house and off their books. Your DH already had many advantages, but just compared to your experience it was hard; but many others have bigger obstacles and student loans are about the only option. [/quote]

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