You guys will survive just fine on $2k per month (the poverty line in this country). 40 million Americans are surviving on less than that

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rent is $5k alone.

There’s a sucker born every day.

Haha jealousy doesn’t suit you. Add up your mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc. and I’m sure you are paying close to same amount. Difference is I have none of the headaches or responsibilities. Home ownership is overrated.

DP. I don’t think you’ll find many people jealous of your $5K monthly rent. Really.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rent is $5k alone.

There’s a sucker born every day.

Haha jealousy doesn’t suit you. Add up your mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc. and I’m sure you are paying close to same amount. Difference is I have none of the headaches or responsibilities. Home ownership is overrated.

We get that monthly from our military retirement and can survive on it for sure! Of course hubby and I work but it’s nice having that guaranteed income for the rest of our lives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We would have radically restructure our fixed expense. Our PITI is a bit over $5k a month, so we’d have to sell the house and get something much cheaper. Also couldn’t send kids to private school. I’m sure we could do it, but we wouldn’t be living the life we are now.

This is why we chose to live in a school district with good schools, even though we could afford private. I was concerned about one of us losing our jobs (we are older and have gone through tough economic times), then we'd have to pull our kid out of private. If that happened in HS, that would be tough for the kid.

We are in a district with "good" public schools, but they are not actually good. If one of us lost a job, we would still be able to send the kids to private because we have plenty of savings/investments. I assume this hypothetical meant we also didn't have those savings. We could go 12 plus years at our current spending rates without earning anything if we needed.

One set of my grandparents survived the Holocaust, and the others survived the Great Depression. So yes, it would be a drastic lifestyle change, but we’d “survive” on 7k a month.

After taxes? yes. We chose to buy an affordable under 500k sfh in an area DCUM would be horrified by though, and don't go out to eat and watch our expenses.

Anonymous wrote:My rent is $5k alone.

There’s a sucker born every day.

My rent is $5k alone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We would have radically restructure our fixed expense. Our PITI is a bit over $5k a month, so we’d have to sell the house and get something much cheaper. Also couldn’t send kids to private school. I’m sure we could do it, but we wouldn’t be living the life we are now.

This is why we chose to live in a school district with good schools, even though we could afford private. I was concerned about one of us losing our jobs (we are older and have gone through tough economic times), then we'd have to pull our kid out of private. If that happened in HS, that would be tough for the kid.

Interesting. I have wondered why some people choose to live in highly regarded school districts, paying a premium for housing because of that, and then either send the kids to private or homeschool them.

Anonymous wrote:We would have radically restructure our fixed expense. Our PITI is a bit over $5k a month, so we’d have to sell the house and get something much cheaper. Also couldn’t send kids to private school. I’m sure we could do it, but we wouldn’t be living the life we are now.

This is why we chose to live in a school district with good schools, even though we could afford private. I was concerned about one of us losing our jobs (we are older and have gone through tough economic times), then we'd have to pull our kid out of private. If that happened in HS, that would be tough for the kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. That wouldn’t even cover credit card bills.

DP.. we put almost everything on cc, and it's about $6K/mo, sometimes more.

That amount might be tough if you have kids, and not necessarily due to childcare. My kids are teens, and our expenses are probably $8k/mo. on just basics.

We don't eat out a ton; no car payments, or other loans; don't buy clothes often. Things just add up.

Yes, but we'd have to pare down.

We would have radically restructure our fixed expense. Our PITI is a bit over $5k a month, so we’d have to sell the house and get something much cheaper. Also couldn’t send kids to private school. I’m sure we could do it, but we wouldn’t be living the life we are now.

Not with our current mortgage and with tuition for two kids in catholic school.