Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Just one more thing: I feel really bad for all of you senior associates out there. So much stress -- biglaw sucks.

-- Early retired biglaw partner

I don’t. What do you think you are getting paid all that money for?

Not to mention, someone in biglaw can more easily transition to in-house than someone with the same amount of experience in gov’t. It’s a choice to stay in biglaw, and you are choosing money over lifestyle.

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Just one more thing: I feel really bad for all of you senior associates out there. So much stress -- biglaw sucks.

-- Early retired biglaw partner

I don’t. What do you think you are getting paid all that money for?

Of course it is. Many do this in their early 30s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your husband is correct. They can do it without family money if they aren’t contributing to 529s or saving outside of retirement.

We make around 420k HHI and what kills us is the 529 savings and savings outside of retirement. That alone is at least 4K per month just to be on track for retirement.

Truthfully someone with a SAHM isn’t necessarily that concerned with retirement. Having a spouse stay at home is one of the worst financial decisions you can make. Unless you’re loaded not contributing to a retirement plan for years really hurts.

How do 529's kill you at that salary? We make less than half and comfortably put into 529's.

m

We need to invest 2k outside of retirement and $1,200 per child into 529s. Each month. That extra 3k would buy us a much nicer home if we could instead use the monthly income towards a more expensive mortgage.

OP here. We save this much too. And my husband insisted on a 15 year mortgage.

Well there you go. That’s why you don’t have a $1.6 mm home. Your husband has prioritized savings. Nothing wrong with that. Especially if you’d like to retire and you don’t have large inheritances coming.

Nothing wrong except I get really envious of people with $1.6M houses!

And I get really envious of people with 700k houses. Its all relative.

PP here. Just one more thing: I feel really bad for all of you senior associates out there. So much stress -- biglaw sucks.

-- Early retired biglaw partner

A senior biglaw associate with a SAHW and kids in public schools in his late 30s absolutely can afford a 1.6 million house. I don't think it's a smart thing to do -- golden handcuffs and all -- but it is absolutely doable.

Good for them for putting the kids in public school. That'll save them a sh*t ton.

It can be done, especially if they saved aggressively including 3-4 years of bonuses. Another thing - as a senior associate, we regularly get offers from banks for very low interest rates on very large mortgages. It's not the route I went but even with a $1M or $1.25M mortgage their PITI may be lower than you imagine.

Based on our own household budget and income (my wife and I combine for about $300k, which is less than a senior biglaw associate total comp), yes we could stretch to that mortgage, particularly without childcare costs. It would mean very little savings and I wouldn't want to be stretched so thin, but it'd be possible.

Totally possible, if there is no outstanding law school debt.

If I made $350K salary, I would probably live in $2M new home in Arlington and I am not even a lawyer.
And yes, my DW works as well and we are in our late 30s and own a new home valued at $1.7M.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your husband is correct. They can do it without family money if they aren’t contributing to 529s or saving outside of retirement.

We make around 420k HHI and what kills us is the 529 savings and savings outside of retirement. That alone is at least 4K per month just to be on track for retirement.

Truthfully someone with a SAHM isn’t necessarily that concerned with retirement. Having a spouse stay at home is one of the worst financial decisions you can make. Unless you’re loaded not contributing to a retirement plan for years really hurts.

How do 529's kill you at that salary? We make less than half and comfortably put into 529's.

m

We need to invest 2k outside of retirement and $1,200 per child into 529s. Each month. That extra 3k would buy us a much nicer home if we could instead use the monthly income towards a more expensive mortgage.

Unless you have 5/6 of a child, this math doesn' add up.

You’re a moron. I was rounding down. It’s $3,200 a month and I said 3k.

We are in a different area of the country but with similar hhi and home prices. We bought a home at $675 that is very nice but comparatively modest to most in our area. What I notice is that those who bought years ago between $1-2million are making *maybe* $100-200k on sales now and some just making original sale price. We save $150k+ a year and live well while those in $1-2million homes have been paying high taxes, high home maintenance, furnishings, etc - no thank you.

Frankly I have little concern over eventual sale price as the home is a small percentage of our net worth.

If your like your home, stay. Even at high salaries in the $300-$500k range, an expensive home is expensive to maintain and just chews through hard earned cash.

I think your friend has either had help or has just made their home their sole spending/savings priority.

One giveaway, sometimes, is how well do they maintain the
house? And cars? Are things repaired quickly and how well is the home kept up? I see expensive homes with roofs and driveways in need of repair. That said, some people spend money on appearances but the AC is broken for months.

Homes are time consuming and expensive to maintain. I would think about that before turning too green with envy.

Anonymous wrote:Friend of mine and her husband just bought a $1.6M house. 3 kids (public school) wife stays home. Husband is a senior associate in Biglaw (but not partner yet.) They are not that old (upper 30’s) and weren’t part of any company IPO’s or anything like that. I say no way they could do this without help. DH says they could if they really stretched.

What day you? They had help or no? (And yes it’s none of my business - not going to ask her, just curious how others read this.)

Absolutely could if you stretched. That doesn't mean they didn't have family help, and it doesn't mean they did. I wouldn't want to carry that mortgage on that income, but a bank would approve it.

Totally possible. .Their mortgage assuming they put down something like $500,000 from a previous house sale or from savings will be around $6500 for PITI. That is totally doable on a salary of $350,000, especially if the wife stays at home and they don't have any childcare expenses.

Infant/toddler childcare around here is $2,000 a month or so. For 2 young kids that is about $4,000 a month, yet no one around here ever posts stuff like "OMG can you believe that X family has 2 young kids in childcare and pays $2,500 a month on a mortgage for a $600,000 house with only $350,000 in family income!" Yet $4,000 in childcare costs + $2,500 in mortgage is the exact same expenses per month as the family in the OP here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your husband is correct. They can do it without family money if they aren’t contributing to 529s or saving outside of retirement.

We make around 420k HHI and what kills us is the 529 savings and savings outside of retirement. That alone is at least 4K per month just to be on track for retirement.

Truthfully someone with a SAHM isn’t necessarily that concerned with retirement. Having a spouse stay at home is one of the worst financial decisions you can make. Unless you’re loaded not contributing to a retirement plan for years really hurts.

How do 529's kill you at that salary? We make less than half and comfortably put into 529's.

m

We need to invest 2k outside of retirement and $1,200 per child into 529s. Each month. That extra 3k would buy us a much nicer home if we could instead use the monthly income towards a more expensive mortgage.

OP here. We save this much too. And my husband insisted on a 15 year mortgage.

OP - so you save $3-$4k separate and apart from retirement savings, *and* have a 15 year mortgage, and don't understand how someone making $350,000 could afford this kind of house?

It'd be too tight for me, and I wouldn't do it, but use your head. Of course it's possible, especially combined with (i) saving bonuses from a biglaw senior associate, and (ii) proceeds form the sale of a prior home in a rapidly appreciating market.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your husband is correct. They can do it without family money if they aren’t contributing to 529s or saving outside of retirement.

We make around 420k HHI and what kills us is the 529 savings and savings outside of retirement. That alone is at least 4K per month just to be on track for retirement.

Truthfully someone with a SAHM isn’t necessarily that concerned with retirement. Having a spouse stay at home is one of the worst financial decisions you can make. Unless you’re loaded not contributing to a retirement plan for years really hurts.

How do 529's kill you at that salary? We make less than half and comfortably put into 529's.

m

We need to invest 2k outside of retirement and $1,200 per child into 529s. Each month. That extra 3k would buy us a much nicer home if we could instead use the monthly income towards a more expensive mortgage.

Unless you have 5/6 of a child, this math doesn' add up.