Can someone humor me and just tell me what you think the absolute max monthly payment (everything included: mortgage, taxes, insurance, etc.) you would be willing to take on at our income? We gross $6,200 a month after taxes, insurance, 401k. I have bonus potential of roughly $4k annually after taxes, but I'm not including that in our gross income. It is just extra if I get it.
Breaking down our budget, I think we will have about $1,000 a month left over. This is after everything I can possibly think of, including eating out, going to shows, skiing, etc. We will not have less than $1,000 leftover, and this is a pretty conservative estimate. We have a decent e-fund and a good amount of money saved for our future children for college. Retirement contributions are already accounted for.
We're considering signing on a counter offer we made, but I'm feeling gun shy about the monthly payment that our lender estimated. Once I get some responses, I'll share the final number the lender gave us.
Post by twodogsandababy on Jan 10, 2014 12:14:24 GMT -5
$2000 assuming no other debt. Our numbers are similar, our mortgage is much smaller, but that is because we count the mortgage on our rental property and do not include rental income in our budget. We are comfortable with that budget.
$2000 assuming no other debt. Our numbers are similar, our mortgage is much smaller, but that is because we count the mortgage on our rental property and do not include rental income in our budget. We are comfortable with that budget.
Just some student loan debt, but the monthly payments are included in my budget and they'll be paid off in a few years without any additional payments needed.
To me correlating PITI and income isn't very helpful. There are so many lifestyle choices that impact what you can afford on a given income that the significance of income itself pales in comparison. For me, our SL payment is bigger than our mortgage PITI. Based on our income, we could afford twice as much house if you just took SLs out of consideration. Or kids/daycare, or whatever.
I'd rather just build a budget and figure out what I felt comfortable fitting into everything else that I want/need in my personal lifestyle.
Post by fortnightlily on Jan 10, 2014 12:31:42 GMT -5
We live in a HCOL area, so daycare is as much as a mortgage payment. Since you mentioned future children, unless you expect major salary increases prior to that point, I'd project what you can afford down the line with childcare in the picture.
Post by simpsongal on Jan 10, 2014 12:38:47 GMT -5
Based on that limited amount of information, $2200? That's about 35% of your take home. Most people would not recommend going above that (and that's an upper limit).
Daycare is a good point and something I had not given a lot of thought to. That will definitely be a factor. I think we should be fine to get daycare in there, but it would severely limit us. We may have to rethink this a bit.
Post by Balki.Bartokomous on Jan 10, 2014 12:52:42 GMT -5
What is the split of the $6200? Is it $1000 one person & $5200 the other? Or more 50-50? If it's more 50-50, I'd be ok with $1400-1500, but if it's not, I'd aim for lower since you'd have to pull more out of savings if the breadwinner lost his/her job.