Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a millennial. I watched the housing crisis in 2008 eat up my parents' neighborhood (my parents were fine). The crash also resulted in me losing my post graduation job when I was a senior (I had done co op with them) and they also laid off a huge number of engineers, so the market was flooded with more experienced workers. I ended up doing a masters to delay entry into the job market which worked out for me, but it was a gamble.

So I guess experience taught me to be cautious.

Very smart move.

It's smart to act like a once in a 100 year crash is always around the corner? No, it's not. It's foolish paranoia. Meanwhile the peers the young PP graduated college with who bought expensive houses they "couldn't afford" ( ) in 2009 to 2019 are laughing to the bank. Making big bucks and living large while the PP lives in fear in some modest home.

What's wrong with a modest home though, as long as the neighborhood is decent? My time is precious and I don't want to have a big house to clean/upkeep or to have to manage house cleaners.

Scared money doesn't make money. The peers of PP's who swung for the fences on a bigger home in a premier/hot zip code saw far more appreciation than PP who lives in some "conservative/modest" s***shack or condo. So not only did they make more money, they got to live lavishly. How is that difficult to comprehend? Being "conservative" on a home is ignorant. Actually, it more often than not is just a cope for being too poor and not having the income, credit score, or down payment to go bigger.

Idk about that. You were better off investing your extra money in stocks the past ten years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a millennial. I watched the housing crisis in 2008 eat up my parents' neighborhood (my parents were fine). The crash also resulted in me losing my post graduation job when I was a senior (I had done co op with them) and they also laid off a huge number of engineers, so the market was flooded with more experienced workers. I ended up doing a masters to delay entry into the job market which worked out for me, but it was a gamble.

So I guess experience taught me to be cautious.

Very smart move.

It's smart to act like a once in a 100 year crash is always around the corner? No, it's not. It's foolish paranoia. Meanwhile the peers the young PP graduated college with who bought expensive houses they "couldn't afford" ( ) in 2009 to 2019 are laughing to the bank. Making big bucks and living large while the PP lives in fear in some modest home.

What's wrong with a modest home though, as long as the neighborhood is decent? My time is precious and I don't want to have a big house to clean/upkeep or to have to manage house cleaners.

Scared money doesn't make money. The peers of PP's who swung for the fences on a bigger home in a premier/hot zip code saw far more appreciation than PP who lives in some "conservative/modest" s***shack or condo. So not only did they make more money, they got to live lavishly. How is that difficult to comprehend? Being "conservative" on a home is ignorant. Actually, it more often than not is just a cope for being too poor and not having the income, credit score, or down payment to go bigger.

I don’t get why you wouldn’t *want* to be conservative about it, ideally.

Don’t you like to take vacations, have (possibly expensive) hobbies, go out to dinner, concerts, theater, bars with friends, have kids? Plus, you know, save.

All of that takes money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a millennial. I watched the housing crisis in 2008 eat up my parents' neighborhood (my parents were fine). The crash also resulted in me losing my post graduation job when I was a senior (I had done co op with them) and they also laid off a huge number of engineers, so the market was flooded with more experienced workers. I ended up doing a masters to delay entry into the job market which worked out for me, but it was a gamble.

So I guess experience taught me to be cautious.

Very smart move.

It's smart to act like a once in a 100 year crash is always around the corner? No, it's not. It's foolish paranoia. Meanwhile the peers the young PP graduated college with who bought expensive houses they "couldn't afford" ( ) in 2009 to 2019 are laughing to the bank. Making big bucks and living large while the PP lives in fear in some modest home.

What's wrong with a modest home though, as long as the neighborhood is decent? My time is precious and I don't want to have a big house to clean/upkeep or to have to manage house cleaners.

NP. Modest is a bit subjective, but even a 3 bedroom 1 bath not on a busy road will easily cost close to $900K if you're close in. It is insane.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a millennial. I watched the housing crisis in 2008 eat up my parents' neighborhood (my parents were fine). The crash also resulted in me losing my post graduation job when I was a senior (I had done co op with them) and they also laid off a huge number of engineers, so the market was flooded with more experienced workers. I ended up doing a masters to delay entry into the job market which worked out for me, but it was a gamble.

So I guess experience taught me to be cautious.

Very smart move.

It's smart to act like a once in a 100 year crash is always around the corner? No, it's not. It's foolish paranoia. Meanwhile the peers the young PP graduated college with who bought expensive houses they "couldn't afford" ( ) in 2009 to 2019 are laughing to the bank. Making big bucks and living large while the PP lives in fear in some modest home.

What's wrong with a modest home though, as long as the neighborhood is decent? My time is precious and I don't want to have a big house to clean/upkeep or to have to manage house cleaners.

Anonymous wrote:OP makes their point clumsily, but they are correct. Every time a “can I afford this” question comes up there are a cadre of posters who live and die by the antiquated 3x income rule. It isn’t hard to set a budget. If you can afford the house, grow retirement savings, and grow emergency savings, that’s all you need to know.

OP here. What is clumsy about the way I made my point?

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I just think the people in the house and car threads are the same people with different priorities. Like, I only bought a house for 2x HHI but I spent like 50% HHI on cars every 3-4 years. The difference is that I don't tell anyone in either of those threads what they SHOULD be doing. If you want to go 4x income on house, do it. If you want to drive a mcdonald's happymeal box to work, do it.

+1, NP and I'm exactly the opposite! I like having a nice, inviting place to live. I like picking the perfect paint and art and finishes and making the space feel like our own. But we drive a total happy meal box because I just don't care at all about cars. Different strokes.

I guess the thing is that anyone asking "can I afford this?" is by nature not confident about their financial status.

And so probably people respond because someone who isn't confident about their finances should probably be less risk-loving than someone who feels like they have plenty of savings, a steady job, and enough to make ends meet and then some every month.

By comparison my old CEO made 5 million a year for 16 years. In stock on top of salary was clearing close to 7 million a year. He was making $1 million a month for 16 years

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a millennial. I watched the housing crisis in 2008 eat up my parents' neighborhood (my parents were fine). The crash also resulted in me losing my post graduation job when I was a senior (I had done co op with them) and they also laid off a huge number of engineers, so the market was flooded with more experienced workers. I ended up doing a masters to delay entry into the job market which worked out for me, but it was a gamble.

So I guess experience taught me to be cautious.

Very smart move.

It's smart to act like a once in a 100 year crash is always around the corner? No, it's not. It's foolish paranoia. Meanwhile the peers the young PP graduated college with who bought expensive houses they "couldn't afford" ( ) in 2009 to 2019 are laughing to the bank. Making big bucks and living large while the PP lives in fear in some modest home.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a millennial. I watched the housing crisis in 2008 eat up my parents' neighborhood (my parents were fine). The crash also resulted in me losing my post graduation job when I was a senior (I had done co op with them) and they also laid off a huge number of engineers, so the market was flooded with more experienced workers. I ended up doing a masters to delay entry into the job market which worked out for me, but it was a gamble.

So I guess experience taught me to be cautious.

Very smart move.

We are very conservative. I don't want to have to worry about money. I don't want to have to worry if my spouses loses his job how we will pay for the mortgage. My kids are in several expensive activities and private lessons. They enjoy them (but we can cut them out) and I don't want to think twice about paying for them. We have very nice college funds. We have very nice retirement savings. I like when we need (not want) things like a new car, we can get what we want and pay cash. I don't want to be house poor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not just DCUM, it’s the people in this area! I know people whose HHIs are likely double ours but they live in old, crappy homes. We are very comfortably able to afford our home, and I’m sure they could too! Perhaps they value passing that money on, or putting it into luxury items

We fall in this category. We plan to retire early so it’s well worth it to us to live in an older, smaller home. I know you disagree right now, but talk to me again when you’re 52 and still looking at another decade plus of working. We’ll be retired and comfortable by then.

To each his own. I AM 52 (53 next month) and I cannot imagine being retired right now. No thank you. Not everyone is desperate to retire. I like working. I enjoy having somewhere I need to be every day. I like contributing to a team and keeping my mind sharp through problem solving and workplace interactions. I WANT to work until I'm 62.

+1 My DH and I are not looking to retire early. We both love what we do, have our own businesses and will have a child in college when we are in our early 60s. I definitely want my child to see us working. With that said we have a high net worth and increase our income year after year. We both come from families where our grandparents worked long past retirement age, because they wanted to keep working.

I'm a millennial. I watched the housing crisis in 2008 eat up my parents' neighborhood (my parents were fine). The crash also resulted in me losing my post graduation job when I was a senior (I had done co op with them) and they also laid off a huge number of engineers, so the market was flooded with more experienced workers. I ended up doing a masters to delay entry into the job market which worked out for me, but it was a gamble.

So I guess experience taught me to be cautious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not just DCUM, it’s the people in this area! I know people whose HHIs are likely double ours but they live in old, crappy homes. We are very comfortably able to afford our home, and I’m sure they could too! Perhaps they value passing that money on, or putting it into luxury items

We fall in this category. We plan to retire early so it’s well worth it to us to live in an older, smaller home. I know you disagree right now, but talk to me again when you’re 52 and still looking at another decade plus of working. We’ll be retired and comfortable by then.

To each his own. I AM 52 (53 next month) and I cannot imagine being retired right now. No thank you. Not everyone is desperate to retire. I like working. I enjoy having somewhere I need to be every day. I like contributing to a team and keeping my mind sharp through problem solving and workplace interactions. I WANT to work until I'm 62.