Anonymous wrote:PP, that's because you weren't cutting costs like you could have been. If you had an annual plan to increase your net worth, and it had been based on the previous income level, you'd be missing the cash.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:06, are you saying you lost $100,000 a year in gross income and don't notice it????? I don't understand - were you saving more than $5,000 each month before, or spending a lot?

I was a senior associate in commercial real estate and that market pretty much died, at least in my specialty (securitized financing). So I got shit canned and took about a $100K hit. (and to be honest, I was damned lucky to get the job I did. Most of my coworkers who were laid off, there were dozens of us, fared much worse.) First thing I did was refinanced my first mortgage and paid off my 2nd mortgage while I still had the high income (and luckily the appraisal for our house came in fine), and those two moves alone saved me about $2K/month. Soon my car was paid for, saving another $550/month. I lowered the cable channels, dropped the housekeeper to every other week, eat out a little less, less extravagant on holidays and christmas, etc. So no, other than the moves above which were not too drastic, I really haven't noticed too much of a change. I think we spent a lot more before. Right now (new job) I don't yet contribute to my 401K, so when I start doing that things will get a little more tight, so we might have to tighten our belts a bit more. But like the poster above said, we still have 7K or so left over after housing expenses, so its not like we are destitute.

I'd consider moving, but the relocation costs and real estate commissions would be huge. Rather stay where we are and hope the market recovers. Besides, about $1K or so of the housing payment goes to principal, so that in a way is forced savings, and hopefully sooner or later the housing market will recover and the house will start to appreciate again. We have an acre lot in Vienna, so pretty good spot and I'm confident enough in our careers that our incomes should rise back to where they were in a year or two. If not, we will just not have as extravagant as lifestyles. That is fine too.

Sorry about the layoff. Amazing that it took a layoff though to get you to save all that money each month.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:06, are you saying you lost $100,000 a year in gross income and don't notice it????? I don't understand - were you saving more than $5,000 each month before, or spending a lot?

I was a senior associate in commercial real estate and that market pretty much died, at least in my specialty (securitized financing). So I got shit canned and took about a $100K hit. (and to be honest, I was damned lucky to get the job I did. Most of my coworkers who were laid off, there were dozens of us, fared much worse.) First thing I did was refinanced my first mortgage and paid off my 2nd mortgage while I still had the high income (and luckily the appraisal for our house came in fine), and those two moves alone saved me about $2K/month. Soon my car was paid for, saving another $550/month. I lowered the cable channels, dropped the housekeeper to every other week, eat out a little less, less extravagant on holidays and christmas, etc. So no, other than the moves above which were not too drastic, I really haven't noticed too much of a change. I think we spent a lot more before. Right now (new job) I don't yet contribute to my 401K, so when I start doing that things will get a little more tight, so we might have to tighten our belts a bit more. But like the poster above said, we still have 7K or so left over after housing expenses, so its not like we are destitute.

I'd consider moving, but the relocation costs and real estate commissions would be huge. Rather stay where we are and hope the market recovers. Besides, about $1K or so of the housing payment goes to principal, so that in a way is forced savings, and hopefully sooner or later the housing market will recover and the house will start to appreciate again. We have an acre lot in Vienna, so pretty good spot and I'm confident enough in our careers that our incomes should rise back to where they were in a year or two. If not, we will just not have as extravagant as lifestyles. That is fine too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bethesda mortgage: 4700/month

me: 125,000
hub: 160,000

one dear boy

painful.

I'm the $4,800/month from above. so glad to see we have some company. Our incomes are pretty close. Way I look at it, it will be painful for a few years, but sooner or later inflation will kick in and/or our incomes will rise.

Wow, both of your households are big risk takers. We have an HHI of almost $400,000 and our mortgage payment is only $2,800 (though we pay extra). Even at our income level, there's no way I'd feel comfortable spending almost $5K a month on just PITI. I must be very risk averse.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bethesda mortgage: 4700/month

me: 125,000
hub: 160,000

one dear boy

painful.

I'm the $4,800/month from above. so glad to see we have some company. Our incomes are pretty close. Way I look at it, it will be painful for a few years, but sooner or later inflation will kick in and/or our incomes will rise.

Wow, both of your households are big risk takers. We have an HHI of almost $400,000 and our mortgage payment is only $2,800 (though we pay extra). Even at our income level, there's no way I'd feel comfortable spending almost $5K a month on just PITI. I must be very risk averse.

We too have a higher income and lower mortgage, due to the fact that we were lucky and purchased a home pre-bubble, but I don't see these posters are risky at all. If they bring home 65% of their income, they still are bringing home $15,430/mo, back out mortgage and they have over 10K left. Who can't live on 10K/mo??? This is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better off that the majority of Americans.

Poster-I'd hate to see what you think of the general populace, considering the average Dual HHI is 67k and the average mortgage is $1,400/mo. The average american family only has around $2,700 left over after they pay their mortgage. You think having 10K left over is risky?

I haven't done the calculations, but I don't think there's that much left over at that gross income, after 401(k) contributions, childcare, college savings, food, household utilities and repair, clothing, activities, etc.

Anonymous wrote:


Again, conservativly if you NET 10K a month after mortgage, is would somehow be difficult to live and handsomly fund these things? In my world 10K is a LOT of income after mortgage. You people live in a bubble.

Anonymous wrote:10:06, are you saying you lost $100,000 a year in gross income and don't notice it????? I don't understand - were you saving more than $5,000 each month before, or spending a lot?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bethesda mortgage: 4700/month

me: 125,000
hub: 160,000

one dear boy

painful.

I'm the $4,800/month from above. so glad to see we have some company. Our incomes are pretty close. Way I look at it, it will be painful for a few years, but sooner or later inflation will kick in and/or our incomes will rise.

Wow, both of your households are big risk takers. We have an HHI of almost $400,000 and our mortgage payment is only $2,800 (though we pay extra). Even at our income level, there's no way I'd feel comfortable spending almost $5K a month on just PITI. I must be very risk averse.

We too have a higher income and lower mortgage, due to the fact that we were lucky and purchased a home pre-bubble, but I don't see these posters are risky at all. If they bring home 65% of their income, they still are bringing home $15,430/mo, back out mortgage and they have over 10K left. Who can't live on 10K/mo??? This is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better off that the majority of Americans.

Poster-I'd hate to see what you think of the general populace, considering the average Dual HHI is 67k and the average mortgage is $1,400/mo. The average american family only has around $2,700 left over after they pay their mortgage. You think having 10K left over is risky?

I haven't done the calculations, but I don't think there's that much left over at that gross income, after 401(k) contributions, childcare, college savings, food, household utilities and repair, clothing, activities, etc.