Anonymous wrote:Hit send too soon. 300,000 income is new in past three years. Have saved all of retirement during that time and will continue that saving pattern. (About 45k a year) A lot of our money is going to retirement savings at the moment, to answer another poster.

Posters who say we are having too many children, please refrain from these comments. Children are a blessing and we are not concerned about this aspect of our financial
Plan, just giving the info about why we want a bigger house for kids and hosting holidays and out of town family. Thanks.

This is arrant nonsense, and an indication that you do not want serious advice. Children are a blessing - and also a hugely expensive aspect of life as an adult.

It was the first kid, at 28 and 29, with substantially more than 6 figures of student loan debt and apparently significantly lower incomes, that was the most dicey financial move. Given the ages, of your kids, you had three, and a mortgage, when your income was much lower, before you cleared that student loan debt. That's insane, and an indication that you care more about the kids than a stable financial footing. That's fine, I guess (though not the way I would approach it), but it drives all of your future finances. You need to recognize that, or you're going to end up in truly dire straits.

But, to answer your question, you can't afford to move. You've already more or less decided that your kids, if they go to college, will be saddled with the same debt you are (or at least, you won't be paying for their college). Work on that, and your retirement.

Anonymous wrote:In upstate New York, not in dc proper.

We are making Student loan payments 2,000 a month and we are hoping for public student loan forgiveness next summer or other opportunities/grants so have been waiting on paying them off more fully.

Current house worth is 300k. Bought about 5 years ago. Want to settle in a different also great district with more diversity while oldest son is still fairly young (2nd grade)

Uh, no you haven't. If that's been the case, you'd have substantially more savings, or have substantially more equity in your house.

Put another way - with what are you going to pay them down more fully?

Anonymous wrote:In upstate New York, not in dc proper.

We are making Student loan payments 2,000 a month and we are hoping for public student loan forgiveness next summer or other opportunities/grants so have been waiting on paying them off more fully.

Current house worth is 300k. Bought about 5 years ago. Want to settle in a different also great district with more diversity while oldest son is still fairly young (2nd grade)

I get why you want to move. But you have very little in savings (you need 3-6 months of expenses for an emergency fund in case of job loss or medical emergencies). Aside from barely having any retirement savings, you will also have four kids. You make too much to quality for the Excelsior scholarship, so you will be on the hook for tuition at SUNY (I'm assuming you would pay for in state tuition because you don't seem like you're saving for private).I

2200 is not small. You can pads down your stuff and everyone doubles up for a few years while you save more for your EF and separately for a down payment.

I'm sure there are other ways to get more diversity in your kid's lives. Maybe via extracurriculars?

Anonymous wrote:35 and 36
3 children ages 7, 4, 3, baby due in July
Childcare costs 1,200 a month (spouse works limited part time)

Want to move because current house/yard feeling tight. Not in dc and have about 2,200 sq ft

According to a rule of thumb, you should have $600k in retirement. I would not move if I were you

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You simply don’t have enough cash on hand for a down payment.

This is true we are aware and working on it. Asking more for the price house we can afford with mortgage payments at our income level.
I think only one person actually responded to that question itself...

Because you can’t afford to move. In fact, it doesn’t seem like you can afford your current lifestyle.

Anonymous wrote:My BIL is in the medical field in a high need specialty. He was earning $300k in rural PA when my DH and I married 25 years ago. It went further then. They had 5 children. They did not have a big fancy house. They had five children instead. They chose to have the 5 children and kept their living expenses low enough for them to be able to send all five to nice colleges. They also put their retirement as a priority- not the big fancy house.

You need to stop thinking about the bigger house and start counting your blessings and shore up your finances. Want what you have.

Thank you for this

My BIL is in the medical field in a high need specialty. He was earning $300k in rural PA when my DH and I married 25 years ago. It went further then. They had 5 children. They did not have a big fancy house. They had five children instead. They chose to have the 5 children and kept their living expenses low enough for them to be able to send all five to nice colleges. They also put their retirement as a priority- not the big fancy house.

You need to stop thinking about the bigger house and start counting your blessings and shore up your finances. Want what you have.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You simply don’t have enough cash on hand for a down payment.

This is true we are aware and working on it. Asking more for the price house we can afford with mortgage payments at our income level.
I think only one person actually responded to that question itself...

. The house you can afford is your current house.

*significant