Not able to refi and not able to sell. We bought a fixer-upper and decided to invest the money we made from selling our condo (during the bubble thanfully) to make it liveable. 100% financing and IO loans. We haven't invested in an appraisal but real estate agents we talk to think that we probably could not hope to sell for much more than we bought in for. We are in a great location, but our financing deal sucks. Refinancing appears to involve PMI and only add to our principal without lowering our payment much. Might make sense if we were committed to staying forever, which we are not. It wasn't supposed to be this way. I think a lot of people would sympathize. I'm thinking we should put efforts towards putting more towards our mortgage each month (more austere living) or just wait out the market. Then there is paying for grad school. I'm loathe to add even more debt. What to do? The car is a done deal. I don't think there is much we can do about that. What to do? There is a lot about our house that still needs to be done to make it "amazing".

Okay, once your kids are out of daycare and in public PS/PK, you can cut down that 28k of expenses to something much less (you'll probably need aftercare, but its less). But I'd put that toward retirement.

Austere living--such a relative concept. For one family it is not going on a vacation or having sushi only once a month, for others it is only buying clothes at the thrift store or rice and beans again or not turning on the heat. But I do manage my money online and am always shocked at how much we spend on lunches and coffees out during the week. So look at easy things to cut out of your budget. I actually buy most of my clothes from a thrift store or filenes. I have never spent more than 40 dollars on a bag. I get pedicures maybe 3x/year.

as for your house/fixer upper. I say that our house is the house of the future and always will be! Seriously, while there is a TON we could do to make our house nicer, we are only doing the minimum to make it liveable. Because I've stopped worrying about it as a 'show piece' and just want it to be comfortable. So we have a shitty kitchen with bookshelves full of pasta boxes and soups since we have no cabinet space. We have tiny bathrooms and we had to buy giant and ugly Ikea wardrobes since we have no closets. Sometimes I look at the crate and barrel perfect houses and look at our place and sigh, but it is not that important--we have decent space, its clean, and we make it a warm place for entertaining by being good hosts (and serving lots of wine).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gross
Me: 180K (public affairs/lawyer)
DH: 80K (nurse)

We live in No. Arlington. Mortgage is $4500/month. 2 kids under age of 3 in daycare = $2500/month. One car payment = $615/month. Student loans = $550/month. Stopped contributing to 401K after arrival of #2 but will probably resume again. We just spent the last year paying off $20k in outstanding credit card debt. But now DH is going to grad school at $8600/year. Will we ever get ahead? Seems ridiculous to be scraping by making over $260k.

We are both around 40. Late bloomers.

Argh. If you bought during the bubble, you may have the big house payment with not much to show for it (but you were able to refi, I hope, to a new lower rate?). If you didn't buy during the bubble, you probably have an AMAZING house, so you do have that going for you!

You should be proud of yourselves for paying down that CC debt -- that's the killer stuff. Sounds like, other than mortgage, your expenses are ok. The only thing I think I'd change (other than refinancing if you haven't already) is to get a less expensive car. Unless you're seen in it often (I'm not sure, maybe you are), you can get a good car for a lot less than that -- it just won't be a luxury car.

Not able to refi and not able to sell. We bought a fixer-upper and decided to invest the money we made from selling our condo (during the bubble thanfully) to make it liveable. 100% financing and IO loans. We haven't invested in an appraisal but real estate agents we talk to think that we probably could not hope to sell for much more than we bought in for. We are in a great location, but our financing deal sucks. Refinancing appears to involve PMI and only add to our principal without lowering our payment much. Might make sense if we were committed to staying forever, which we are not. It wasn't supposed to be this way. I think a lot of people would sympathize. I'm thinking we should put efforts towards putting more towards our mortgage each month (more austere living) or just wait out the market. Then there is paying for grad school. I'm loathe to add even more debt. What to do? The car is a done deal. I don't think there is much we can do about that. What to do? There is a lot about our house that still needs to be done to make it "amazing".

Anonymous wrote:Gross
Me: 180K (public affairs/lawyer)
DH: 80K (nurse)

We live in No. Arlington. Mortgage is $4500/month. 2 kids under age of 3 in daycare = $2500/month. One car payment = $615/month. Student loans = $550/month. Stopped contributing to 401K after arrival of #2 but will probably resume again. We just spent the last year paying off $20k in outstanding credit card debt. But now DH is going to grad school at $8600/year. Will we ever get ahead? Seems ridiculous to be scraping by making over $260k.

We are both around 40. Late bloomers.

Argh. If you bought during the bubble, you may have the big house payment with not much to show for it (but you were able to refi, I hope, to a new lower rate?). If you didn't buy during the bubble, you probably have an AMAZING house, so you do have that going for you!

You should be proud of yourselves for paying down that CC debt -- that's the killer stuff. Sounds like, other than mortgage, your expenses are ok. The only thing I think I'd change (other than refinancing if you haven't already) is to get a less expensive car. Unless you're seen in it often (I'm not sure, maybe you are), you can get a good car for a lot less than that -- it just won't be a luxury car.

Anonymous wrote:$80k me
DH is full-time student who brings in ~$15-20k in loans a year and made a whopping $3k over summer/winter break in income.

2 kids in full-time daycare.

Beat that.

Wow. Hats off to you. Hopefully DH's schooling will 'pay off' literally, in a short time : )
Where do you live, what is your mortgage or rent?

Anonymous wrote:Gross
Me: 180K (public affairs/lawyer)
DH: 80K (nurse)

We live in No. Arlington. Mortgage is $4500/month. 2 kids under age of 3 in daycare = $2500/month. One car payment = $615/month. Student loans = $550/month. Stopped contributing to 401K after arrival of #2 but will probably resume again. We just spent the last year paying off $20k in outstanding credit card debt. But now DH is going to grad school at $8600/year. Will we ever get ahead? Seems ridiculous to be scraping by making over $260k.

We are both around 40. Late bloomers.

Ouch, those expenses are killer.

Gross
Me: 180K (public affairs/lawyer)
DH: 80K (nurse)

We live in No. Arlington. Mortgage is $4500/month. 2 kids under age of 3 in daycare = $2500/month. One car payment = $615/month. Student loans = $550/month. Stopped contributing to 401K after arrival of #2 but will probably resume again. We just spent the last year paying off $20k in outstanding credit card debt. But now DH is going to grad school at $8600/year. Will we ever get ahead? Seems ridiculous to be scraping by making over $260k.

We are both around 40. Late bloomers.

Anonymous wrote:88k and 55k no kids own in dc w/$1700 mortgage. the plan is to have 2 kids. no other debt. more power to anyone that spends more. enjoying the simple life. one thing i've learned its how you spend not what you make.

oh yeah 27 year olds

88k and 55k no kids own in dc w/$1700 mortgage. the plan is to have 2 kids. no other debt. more power to anyone that spends more. enjoying the simple life. one thing i've learned its how you spend not what you make.

Anonymous wrote:Me: 200k
DH: 500k (but we just started earning this much after years of government salaries)

Arlington. 6k.

What do you do now? Frustrated fed here who wants to move on...

Me: 200k
DH: 500k (but we just started earning this much after years of government salaries)

Arlington. 6k.

Me: 103K
DH: 77K

SFH in Falls Church (the Fairfax county part) w/ a mortgage of $2200.

DH: ~400,000
Me: ~50,000

Rent in Kalorama: $2400

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We lived on $65K/year (my salary) for the 3 years my DH was in law school. Maxed out retirement, traveled every year (internationally), saved at least $15K/year for down payment. We shopped at WF and had a cheap, no frills apt with no cable, but lots of other entertainment.

I don't get people who need $200K to get by (though we make that now, we bank a LOT). Our mortgage now is only a little more than our rent used to be. Our DC costs us a little extra ($2000/month), but that's why we waited until we made more to have a kid, and we still save a ton.

Are all y'all living high on the hog? What am I doing right/wrong here?

Where are you living that your mortgage payment is only a little more than your rent used to be? You say your rent during this period was $800 ... If your mortgage is near $800, then I can definitely see why you don't get people who need $200k to get by. Plus, based on your previous follow-up responses, it sounds like you had some special circumstances when you were living on $65k - free medical insurance, only doing 1/2 of retirement, being able to stay with friends when travelling.

Again, I am unaware of how I only did 1/2 of retirement? I paid up to the limit, as I was the only one employed. As for mortgage, we bought before the bubble (and recall the downpayment fund, we saved a lot!).

And yes, vacationing with friends and family may be cheating...but it's fun, and I wouldn't drop $5K on a cruise when that money would be better served elsewhere. We still travel this way -- it's a better way of seeing the culture of the countries. Someday when I'm a broken-down old lady, though, I plan to sit on a beach/ship and have people serve me!

The medical IS lucky, though...I guess I assume most people around here earning that little are not working for private industries or giant corporations. I am fortunate to still have this benefit. I think it was more common then (this was 8-10 years ago).

If you purchased a home pre-bubble, that means you were renting back in the 80s or early 90s, living off 65k/yr. Of course internatioinal travel was 2K, plane tickets were not 1K, plus back when Michael Jackson's hair caught fire.

Bought in 2002, for $240K, with a $104K downpayment. Monthly payment was just over $1000, but we refi'ed recently, as it was at 6.5% originally.

You are right that international travel was so much cheaper then than now, but there WAS a bubble in that, too (though I remember some great rates post-911). Ouch, MJ reference, am I that old?

Anonymous wrote:We lived on $65K/year (my salary) for the 3 years my DH was in law school. Maxed out retirement, traveled every year (internationally), saved at least $15K/year for down payment. We shopped at WF and had a cheap, no frills apt with no cable, but lots of other entertainment.

I don't get people who need $200K to get by (though we make that now, we bank a LOT). Our mortgage now is only a little more than our rent used to be. Our DC costs us a little extra ($2000/month), but that's why we waited until we made more to have a kid, and we still save a ton.

Are all y'all living high on the hog? What am I doing right/wrong here?

Yup, we're living high on the hog. We charge $3K a month on credit cards (pay it all off though each month).

Most of you aren't factoring in private school tuition -- which is a reality for a lot of people, especially those who live in DC.