I have that salary and piti of $5500 and it's fine. I contribute fully to retirement, contribute to 529s, send my kids to preschool part time, and have people who mow my lawn. It's fine.

Anonymous wrote:$300k HHI generally on an upward trajectory. No debt. 2 kids with nanny plus preschool eating up about $3k/mo but both will be in public school in a couple years. Contemplating buying a house that leaves me with $6k PITI. Will be tight now but better once kids are in public school not to mention any income growth. Anyone in similar position making it work or struggling?

This was exactly us two years ago when we bought. Same HHI, took a mortgage with a monthly PITIA (A = association) of approx $5000. 2 preschool kids costing $3000/month. No debt but send $500 to my parents each month. We saved a bit less (sad, because the market has been on fire since Trump has been in office) and tried to stick to a budget. Earlier this year DH got a raise equating to $1200 gross per month, and kids are entering public K this fall, woohoo!

Overall it was tight but doable. may have to cut back on retirement savings. But I believe housing prices are only going up for a while so don't wait too long.

That is a lot ... our HHI was about $300K when we bought our house 4 years ago and our PITI was probably around $4k and I thought that was tight.

HHI is now $400K but we have 2 kids to add into the mix with the same PITI and while its not a struggle I cannot imagine having a higher PITI!

Anonymous wrote:$300k HHI generally on an upward trajectory. No debt. 2 kids with nanny plus preschool eating up about $3k/mo but both will be in public school in a couple years. Contemplating buying a house that leaves me with $6k PITI. Will be tight now but better once kids are in public school not to mention any income growth. Anyone in similar position making it work or struggling?

HHI is $360K, PITI is $5,500. We are still paying for a daycare center for 2 kids. We are able to max out our 401K contributions, put $400 into each kids 529 monthly, and take a modest vacation each year. But it IS otherwise tight. I personally can't imagine a $6,000 PITI on $60K less HHI. Hope you aren't buying a home that needs work/renovations.

Anonymous wrote:Live cheaply now and save up a huge down payment so that you can have the same house in a few years with half the PITI. That's what we did, which then allowed us to pay off the whole thing in about 6 years.

that assumes OP can get the same house in a few years at a comparable price. Probably the case (I personally think that prices will level out soon), but a gamble.

Sounds tight. Even once they're in public school what about before/after care, camps, activities, sports, etc.?

Really depends on what you mean by "generally upward trajectory." I wouldn't do that even without a nanny, but if one or both of you are in a career with regular large increases or an upcoming income jump; maybe.

You don't want to eat up all of your expected savings (putting expected here to head off all the parents who insist camps are just as expensive as daycare/nannycare in elementary years) with your mortgage, either. Most people earmark that for college savings.

We have the same HHI and would not do that. Way too tight.

These seems ridiculously tight to me. We have no debt and HHI of $250k and a PITI of $3k. Im not ridiculously frugal but I can’t imagine doubling that with a HHI of just $50k more.

Live cheaply now and save up a huge down payment so that you can have the same house in a few years with half the PITI. That's what we did, which then allowed us to pay off the whole thing in about 6 years.

Sounds a bit tight.

We are at $360K HHI and PITI of $6k. Felt it a bit but we started with nothing so the first couple of years ate up $$$ in furnishings.

Sounds fine

Similar HHI. PITI almost half. Your proposal sounds incredibly tight to me, OP.

When we first bought our house we had a piti of $6k and a hhi of about $330k or so and I found it really tight. We also had a nanny and private preschool. I ended up changing jobs to increase my salary to get some breathing room. You will definitely be house poor.

$300k HHI generally on an upward trajectory. No debt. 2 kids with nanny plus preschool eating up about $3k/mo but both will be in public school in a couple years. Contemplating buying a house that leaves me with $6k PITI. Will be tight now but better once kids are in public school not to mention any income growth. Anyone in similar position making it work or struggling?