Anonymous wrote:So a person making over 150k can't even afford an old house in the dmv with good schools? What about the singles making 50 to 80k? What can they afford? A shack or tent in the woods here?

or single parents who are MC? how do they live in the DMV?

OP, if you are real, you’ll have to wait and see how things feel. In other words, do you despise living on a budget? I do. I am noticeably happier with a lot of disposable income, even if I just end up investing a lot of it.

I constantly fantasize about upgrading our house so I just sock money away anticipating that we can do that in a few years without increasing our mortgage payment dramatically. But then other times I think maybe I’ll start a business instead.

When my money is pre-committed too much I just feel sad.

We take home 14k after maxing out 2 401ks and our mortgage is $1900.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your income after a 401k contribution, and if so how much?

And how much emergency fund do you have?

And are any of your kids in paid child care or private school?

OP again - yes, income is after 401k contributions (we each contribute 5%, and get a 5% match), and DW is a fed who will qualify for a pension.
We are done with paid child care, kids are in public school, and will attend in-state public college.

do they know this?

They can tell their children that they will pay for the equivalent of in-state public college. Kids can then make the decision if they would like to pay for / take loans out for any remaining tuition as a result of making a different choice. I have a similar agreement with my children.

I bet you haven’t had to cross that bridge yet. It’s not that easy. It’s not that simple.

Um, I have a senior in high school and a senior in college. It is actually that simple.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So a person making over 150k can't even afford an old house in the dmv with good schools? What about the singles making 50 to 80k? What can they afford? A shack or tent in the woods here?

They rent.

What? a one bedroom apartment for $2500?
Renting isn't cheaper.

A studio apartment. A TH in an unfashionable neighborhood. Roommates. You do what people do the world over when priced out of their dream home. You compromise on size, location, and fanciness.

Here's one for under $100k - https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5000-Call-Pl-SE-APT-203-Washington-DC-20019/88798141_zpid/

Two bedrooms for $124k: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2100-Fendall-St-SE-UNIT-1-Washington-DC-20020/68082158_zpid/

Do you want to live here? Maybe not! COULD you live there? Certainly.

Anonymous wrote:I think you'll do okay as long as your jobs are secure and might increase. The scary thing is that you didn't put down 20%. We had similar stats but put down 30%. Our salaries have increased since and it hasn't been hard making payments.

Why would that be scary? Rates are so low there isn't a big upside in cash flow to putting down much more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So a person making over 150k can't even afford an old house in the dmv with good schools? What about the singles making 50 to 80k? What can they afford? A shack or tent in the woods here?

They rent.

What? a one bedroom apartment for $2500?
Renting isn't cheaper.

Just rent out the basement or a room.
A ton of people do it. Especially in my NoVa neighborhood and Mont co.
You’ll be fine.

I would not be sleeping at ninight.

Just one small thing to add to this convo...

Not having childcare expenses is one thing, but you never know what might come up that you weren't expecting that can be just as expensive. So having a large amount of savings or being prepared to significantly tighten the purse strings is important when you max out your mortgage.

Daycare costs have been done for a few years for me but I now find myself paying 2 grand/month in dyslexia therapy for my kid. It will lessen in a few months but there's a maintenance therapy that will continue indefinitely. We can absorb about 75% of the cost with budget adjustments but the rest will come out of savings.

We have an almost identical take home pay as OP but a mortgage closer to 500k with a payment just under 3k.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We totally fell in love with the house, saw it as our forever home, and went for it.

Now I am here in the light of day and panicking.

Trying to talk myself down from the ledge:

Total mortgage debt is $710,000
Total monthly payment, including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance, is $3,700. (30 year fixed mortgage with a great rate).
No other major debts, and kids are done with daycare.
Our gross monthly income, before taxes, is $15,500.
So our mortgage debt payment is 24% of our gross monthly income.

On paper, that seems pretty reasonable.

What say you, DCUM? Did I screw up and buy too much house?

Hell Yes!

Our gross income is $15,000 a month. Our total monthly payment including all of that is $1,300 because we bought under our means and saved for years to put over 200K down. No student loans, CC debt, or health debt. Car note is $600 a month (2 paid off, 1 not). I need a new car but taking on a second note freaks me out. I would be throwing up if I was you.

What was the purchase price of your house? I would like to think I’m frugal but come one, don’t sit on your high horse..I don’t think this is anything to brag about. You’re just really cheap. Even if you put 200k down your house couldn’t cost more than 500k unless you bought a long time ago and refinanced. In any event, you must live very far out..which is a choice.

It’s like when DCUM land brags about how smart they are driving around a 15yo clunker car. Again, nothing to brag about just like I’m not going to brag about my Audi. Live a little!

The PP who would throw up. You must be a pretty miserable person. OP will be totally fine. I wonder if this person invests in stocks or just hoards cash under the mattress. Genuinely confused by them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We totally fell in love with the house, saw it as our forever home, and went for it.

Now I am here in the light of day and panicking.

Trying to talk myself down from the ledge:

Total mortgage debt is $710,000
Total monthly payment, including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance, is $3,700. (30 year fixed mortgage with a great rate).
No other major debts, and kids are done with daycare.
Our gross monthly income, before taxes, is $15,500.
So our mortgage debt payment is 24% of our gross monthly income.

On paper, that seems pretty reasonable.

What say you, DCUM? Did I screw up and buy too much house?

Hell Yes!

Our gross income is $15,000 a month. Our total monthly payment including all of that is $1,300 because we bought under our means and saved for years to put over 200K down. No student loans, CC debt, or health debt. Car note is $600 a month (2 paid off, 1 not). I need a new car but taking on a second note freaks me out. I would be throwing up if I was you.

What was the purchase price of your house? I would like to think I’m frugal but come one, don’t sit on your high horse..I don’t think this is anything to brag about. You’re just really cheap. Even if you put 200k down your house couldn’t cost more than 500k unless you bought a long time ago and refinanced. In any event, you must live very far out..which is a choice.

It’s like when DCUM land brags about how smart they are driving around a 15yo clunker car. Again, nothing to brag about just like I’m not going to brag about my Audi. Live a little!

Anonymous wrote:So a person making over 150k can't even afford an old house in the dmv with good schools? What about the singles making 50 to 80k? What can they afford? A shack or tent in the woods here?

They rent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We totally fell in love with the house, saw it as our forever home, and went for it.

Now I am here in the light of day and panicking.

Trying to talk myself down from the ledge:

Total mortgage debt is $710,000
Total monthly payment, including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance, is $3,700. (30 year fixed mortgage with a great rate).
No other major debts, and kids are done with daycare.
Our gross monthly income, before taxes, is $15,500.
So our mortgage debt payment is 24% of our gross monthly income.

On paper, that seems pretty reasonable.

What say you, DCUM? Did I screw up and buy too much house?

Hell Yes!

Our gross income is $15,000 a month. Our total monthly payment including all of that is $1,300 because we bought under our means and saved for years to put over 200K down. No student loans, CC debt, or health debt. Car note is $600 a month (2 paid off, 1 not). I need a new car but taking on a second note freaks me out. I would be throwing up if I was you.

It sounds like you're bragging about your frugality....but then you act like having a huge car payment and financing a depreciating asset is impressive.

600 bucks for a single car payment is ridiculous.

710k mortgage is not that bad with interest rates this low. This is like a 500-600k mortgage under higher rates. You’ll have a lot of mortgage interest to deduct as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That would absolutely terrify me. Like, not even an option.

Many on this board might say I am too conservative, though. On a home worth $1.15M I owe $396,000 on a 15 year mortgage at 2.25. I'm 45 and a single mom on an income of $380,000 ~ But its sales so can always vary. Again, I'm conservative with debt and was once house poor with small kids (because ex was a moron) and I hated it.

Of ffs. You are not anywhere close to house poor.

Yes I know. If you read more closely before cursing at me, you’ll see that I say I once was house poor and I hated it, so I changed my circumstances. But thanks for cursing at me. You sound like my abusive ex- his own stupidity made him so so angry.