OP, check this out, nice house in a great location, excellent schools and mortgage will be around 6200. You will have your wishlist plus some savings and peace of mind.

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/2024-Wellfleet-Ct-22043/home/9476465

Anonymous wrote:Why pay 1.8m now when you can pay 1.2m in a few months? Wait it out.

Yeah, i'm sure housing will drop 33% in a few months.

Why pay 1.8m now when you can pay 1.2m in a few months? Wait it out.

LOLZ the OP is just looking to become housepoor and broke. After taxes, that is not $300k per year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Damn we make $400k and I feel anxious about a $4500 mortgage

Well...you're also being ridiculous. Come on. You know you can easily afford more

NP We’re taxed at 33% and 50% (bonus). We have kids. Never owned a home so no appreciation or equity. Yes, $4500 is a lot.

The number of people who confidently post that there is a separate tax structure for bonuses, and don't understand the difference between withholding and actually *paying* taxes, is really disheartening.

Not only that, they don't understand the difference between the marginal tax rate and effective tax rate. DCUM is full of people who majored in humanities and other fake majors. They're probably lying about their income, too.

4000 sq/ft for 4 people is obnoxious. Get your expectations in check and please stop wasting resources - yours, society's, the planet's - so you can have multiple spare bedrooms and the waterfall kitchen island you saw on HGTV.

OP, if you can swing it and that’s what you really want, then do it; however, you need to ask yourself: is it a wise thing to do? What if one of you gets sick or incapacitated in some way and you can’t work? Do you have enough in savings to pay the mortgage?

this thread gives me so much anxiety. clearly OP has their mind set, it seems tho.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Damn we make $400k and I feel anxious about a $4500 mortgage

Well...you're also being ridiculous. Come on. You know you can easily afford more

NP We’re taxed at 33% and 50% (bonus). We have kids. Never owned a home so no appreciation or equity. Yes, $4500 is a lot.

The number of people who confidently post that there is a separate tax structure for bonuses, and don't understand the difference between withholding and actually *paying* taxes, is really disheartening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Damn we make $400k and I feel anxious about a $4500 mortgage

Well...you're also being ridiculous. Come on. You know you can easily afford more

NP We’re taxed at 33% and 50% (bonus). We have kids. Never owned a home so no appreciation or equity. Yes, $4500 is a lot.

Here's the thing. Once you get above a certain HHI (people will debate it, especially on this board, but I would guess it's somewhere around $100-$150k in the DC area) you have a fair amount of disposable income. You can afford food, clothes and incidentals, as long as you're reasonable frugal. You can afford a basic place to live (might not be exactly where you want it or as big as you want it, but you'll be housed). You can get around. As long as you're reasonably careful about money, you can (and should!) have a reasonable emergency fund.

Above that - you get to decide what's important to you. On $300k, you cannot "have it all" - heck, on $100 million a year, you can't have it all. Money is always finite. Generally, a rising incoming lifts all areas of your life - at $300k, most people will take fairly nice vacations, live in a nice home in a nice area, farm out less pleasant tasks like cleaning and yard work, spend a lot on their kids activities, wear nicer clothing, etc, etc. But there is nothing to say you have to divide your "extra" $150k evenly between buckets. You have to figure out what you want. If you want to spend a huge chunk of your money on a great house, then you should do it! But - it means you will take significantly fewer, less luxurious vacations than other people in your income bracket. You will wear cheap clothing. Your kids will not be able to do all the activities they want. You will not be redecorating regularly, or luxuriously. You will drive cheaper cars for longer. Etc, etc.

There's nothing wrong with that - but if you're going to buy this house (and fully fund your kids' 529s, which it sounds like is also a priority but that you're well set up for) you need to be prepared that otherwise - your life is going to look a lot more like someone who makes $150k a year than someone who makes $300k a year.

OP - what did you decide to do?

Anonymous wrote:Yes, sure you can. If you have 800K to 1M to put as a down payment.

+1

THIS.

Yes, sure you can. If you have 800K to 1M to put as a down payment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


So you can’t afford a $15k vacation but you can certainly afford a $12k one. You’re just crying poor.

I can't afford a European vacation. I can afford a couple cheaper vacations per year.

$250k is not middle class anywhere in the country. You live in a bubble.