Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 20:47     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would never buy a second home. I'd rather travel to multiple countries instead with my kids (and have done so).


I will counter this by saying that we have a second home, and also travel to multiple countries with our kids. And before anyone starts, we’re not remotely wealthy by DC standards, but we prioritize this.

We’ve built very different memories from those two things, but it’s all priceless.

Go for it, OP!


You are extremely wealthy. OP has little regular or college savings.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 20:44     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
I say yes. The key here is that your primary residence mortgage low. And obviously you could rent it if you needed to. You could also sell it if you really got jammed up.

We have a second home. We don't rent it and we love it. We've owned one for 12+ years (we upgraded about 6 years ago).
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 20:16     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
Anonymous wrote:Being next to your parents and creating a family compound has a value here too that woulld add weight towards purchasing it.


I agree with this. It is so nice to create family rituals of returning to the same place, provided its a nice place. But a big factor is how far away it is. 2-3 hours, no question for me since I could go for a weekend or just one night. 7-8+hours.... But its different for everyone.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 20:16     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
You can afford it financially.

I personally passed on doing a second home. Didn’t feel I would use it enough and also would feel like every vacation we need to go the 2nd home. Just seemed too restricting, I preferred to travel to different place on vacays.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 19:58     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
Anonymous wrote:How far is the cabin from your primary home? Close enough to use regularly? Are your jobs flexible enough to use it? How often are your parents at their lake house? Often enough that they can look after the cabin if your kids decide to play soccer or something, so you can get there for a few months at a time?


These are the right questions to ask.

Yes, you can afford it, but do you actually want to buy a second home?
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 19:34     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
Anonymous wrote:Id do it in a heartbeat.


Are you poor?
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 19:21     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
Heavens to betsy no! Terrible idea. Just buy a porsche and be done with it. Nobody needs to be saddled with long term debt on a shack somewhere
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 19:20     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
How far is the cabin from your primary home? Close enough to use regularly? Are your jobs flexible enough to use it? How often are your parents at their lake house? Often enough that they can look after the cabin if your kids decide to play soccer or something, so you can get there for a few months at a time?
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 19:20     Subject: Re:Can we afford this cabin?
We make more than you (320K on paper but make more in untamed income thanks to legal strategies we employ)

We have about 560K in debt from our second homes and 550K for our primary home. They are all worth around 1.6 million. We revenue about 80K per year from AirBNBing them when we aren't there. It's totally doable that way.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 19:19     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
Being next to your parents and creating a family compound has a value here too that woulld add weight towards purchasing it.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 19:14     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
Why are you planning on significant growth? I’d be very careful. We are a few years older with HHI of over 1 million, but we were close to that by your age already.

Although our vacation home is significantly more expensive, we waited to buy it until we’d made it and have a backup plan in the event of job loss.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 19:10     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
I would say buy if you think you can cover 3-4 months worth of costs via renting.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 18:32     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
Anonymous wrote:I would never buy a second home. I'd rather travel to multiple countries instead with my kids (and have done so).
that's not an investment, the cabin had potential appreciation and Airbnb income
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 18:19     Subject: Re:Can we afford this cabin?
Anonymous wrote:Since your primary home is relatively inexpensive for your income, I think this is doable financially. Your question could essentially be: can I afford a 600k home on a 270k income since that's the combined values of your homes.

But a second home has a lot of additional expenses, you often don't qualify for tax breaks etc. and it can be a hassle. Think about whether you will really use it, what its resale value will likely be.


This 100%. Yes, it's doable. But you need to be realistic about the details and not just get starry eyed at the idea of buying next to your childhood vacation house. There are already some good questions for you to ask yourself in this thread. Another is how much the rentals in the area are for a week. Chances are it will be way cheaper to just rent the 2-3 weeks a year that you would actually use the house.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2023 17:58     Subject: Can we afford this cabin?
Anonymous wrote:I would never buy a second home. I'd rather travel to multiple countries instead with my kids (and have done so).


I will counter this by saying that we have a second home, and also travel to multiple countries with our kids. And before anyone starts, we’re not remotely wealthy by DC standards, but we prioritize this.

We’ve built very different memories from those two things, but it’s all priceless.

Go for it, OP!