We are under 18% of gross. I never looked at it that way. That is for the mortgage, taxes and insurance. However, just the mortgage is somehow 50% of my monthly take home (excluding bonus and DH’s paycheck). Not sure how that happens. It feels tight every month.
What’s your lifestyle like jigsy? How much do you typically spend on discretionary stuff (meals out, travel, etc)? If you had to cut back, would you be hating life?
I feel you with the insane housing prices here. It’s so hard to choose - cheaper rent, but insane commute; walkable and close to work, but sky high rent - it’s so hard to choose between such unpleasant options. :/ I will say that we’ve erred on paying more for desirable housing.
What’s your lifestyle like jigsy ? How much do you typically spend on discretionary stuff (meals out, travel, etc)? If you had to cut back, would you be hating life?
I feel you with the insane housing prices here. It’s so hard to choose - cheaper rent, but insane commute; walkable and close to work, but sky high rent - it’s so hard to choose between such unpleasant options. :/ I will say that we’ve erred on paying more for desirable housing.
I certainly enjoying...umm...spending money. lol
But, there are certainly areas I could cut back and not really hate it too much. I spend a kind of ridiculous amount on what I have deemed "self-care"
The increase in rent, because of the increase in pay, won't really be felt - it will basically be an upgrade to my living lifestyle, but, not at a detriment to everything else. I just won't be able to increase lifestyle in other areas if that makes sense - and, really, I don't know that I need to. But, on the flip side, I never feel like I am "getting ahead" - I am much more focused on living in the moment vs. planning for the future. And perhaps that needs to change eventually, but...I don't know...what if it all ends in a week, what will all that planning for the future do for me?
So PDQ, but my HHI (combined with H) is about xxx a month take home. We pay $1825 for rent, plus electric and cable/internet on top of it. Out of our take home we also pay about $700 in health insurance/student loans, plus the random cell phone, car insurance, Netflix, etc. Its fine. I have been stressed about money lately, but some of that is a FWP of just not being able to do whatever I want all the time. And the leftover $1800 or so we have each month had to pay for groceries/entertainment/clothing/etc for 2 people, so for just you I actually think you are in good shape. Unless you have a lot of other debt payments or something, I think you will be reasonably comfortable.
jigsy , I am so sorry:( roaches are the one thing I can’t handle. I mean I’m better with mice, I am truly sorry you’re dealing with that 😢. That would put me over the edge.
Your housing market is so different from here that I can’t adequately comment. Yours is very very very HCOL compared to here. Just all the hugs.
Thank you. They are sooooo gross. And make me feel like a trash human, even though I know logically there is little I can do alone since I live in multi-family housing. I have a friend coming to visit next month and I am paying for half her hotel room because I just can't make her stay in my apartment. lol
And I love LA, but the housing here is so dumb. Why are they only building luxury apartments? I mean, I know why, but, it makes no sense. When I look for housing options that are cheaper, you see very low vacancy rates in buildings - you look at the high end luxury buildings and there are sooo many open units. Would building a medium-end building that will stay occupied be more lucrative than a half empty luxury building?
wildrice - thanks for sharing your numbers. I have student loans, but who doesn't? lol I also have some cc's I am still paying off from marriage/divorce, but they are 0%, so I just keep plugging along on those. They will be paid off in a year, which will then free up another $250/month. I definitely understand that most of my money complaints are very FWP - I am doing okay for a single person. One day my prince will come and will split rent with me and I will feel like a total baller with all my extra money, lol
Ours is 30% of net or about 20% of gross. It is what it is, more than we would like but we also live in a city where you are hard pressed to find a house for less than $900,000. We’d rather make the sacrifice on other extras instead of having to commute an hour each way to work.
Post by mrs.jacinthe on Oct 19, 2018 18:45:59 GMT -5
Together, we spend about 15-20% of net (my income is variable b/c I'm 100% commission), but it's more like 35% of gross, not including insurance and utilities and all that. HCOL area, about an hour commute to afford that and not live in a terrible neighborhood.
Being single in LA makes things extra challenging. My single friend had a roommate until she was in her mid 30s... That said, I would seriously consider moving as well. Good job chugging away at that credit card debt. I get what you're talking about how hard it is to get ahead in this town, too.
Post by gibbinator on Oct 19, 2018 19:11:38 GMT -5
Our mortgage is 8%. We actually spend 16% because we're making double up payments but that's discretionary really. We're possibly going to build a garage soon so likely those costs will go up.
I would love to have a slightly larger house. I work at home and my office is my office + dh's office + laundry room and I hate being crammed in there. We have no guest sleeping space. Problem is I love where we live and our property... So I'll just deal with having our other rooms taken up with kids for another 12 years...
Ugh, I know this is not your point, but this always drives me to the whole affordable housing crisis and it saddens me that it really doesnt exist.
drives me nuts too being a single parent w no child support, one income in a fairly HCOL area. I pay $2k/m in RENT for an 800 sf 2/1 and that's before utilities onnless than 6figures a year.
jigsy considering it's just you, I would consider it. Keep in mind that now you have AC - your electric bill will go up (could double in the hot months) and with a dishwasher, a small increase in water. However, I would RUN from roaches so do what you have to do. I look at it colored from my own life - I have four (Really three young ones still in the home) to take care of, husband, two cars, etc.. You don't. Also, if you have expenses that can be cut than do it.
jigsy considering it's just you, I would consider it. Keep in mind that now you have AC - your electric bill will go up (could double in the hot months) and with a dishwasher, a small increase in water. However, I would RUN from roaches so do what you have to do. I look at it colored from my own life - I have four (Really three young ones still in the home) to take care of, husband, two cars, etc.. You don't. Also, if you have expenses that can be cut than do it.
Thank you for that reminder! Right now, I pay about $30 every other month. I know that probably won't continue. I do have a portable A/C unit that doubles that figure in the hot months...but, its still a pretty low amount. I am going to ask the people on my tour if they know an average monthly utility cost.
jigsy - I think when you get to higher income levels, particularly if you’re single and/or don’t have kids sucking away extra money, you can go up in percentage because you still have a lot leftover. Take 50% as an extreme example. $500 rent when you make $1,000 only leaves you $500 for everything else. But $2,500 out of $5,000 leaves $2,500. I think you’re fine.
Should I just burn everything and start over, lol Only half kidding because I have thought about selling most of my furniture and starting over anyways. lol
15% gross, about 22% net. We’re renting now and will probably buy when Viv is in kindergarten so we won’t have daycare costs, so we can afford to bump that up some.
I think your numbers look fine, but I’m also over in the retirement thread having a goddamn panic attack and I’m planning a Disney vacation with money I’m hoping will appear somewhere, so maybe don’t listen to me. Lol. ::sob::
Should I just burn everything and start over, lol Only half kidding because I have thought about selling most of my furniture and starting over anyways. lol
We had bed bugs at our apartment before we bought our old house (the neighbor was a hoarder and took in all kinds of furniture off the street, it was awful). We laundered everything and then immediately packed it in airtight containers or those air sucking bags, bought a new sofa and got new covers for the mattresses. None came with us.
jigsy , I am so sorry:( roaches are the one thing I can’t handle. I mean I’m better with mice, I am truly sorry you’re dealing with that 😢. That would put me over the edge.
Your housing market is so different from here that I can’t adequately comment. Yours is very very very HCOL compared to here. Just all the hugs.
Thank you. They are sooooo gross. And make me feel like a trash human, even though I know logically there is little I can do alone since I live in multi-family housing. I have a friend coming to visit next month and I am paying for half her hotel room because I just can't make her stay in my apartment. lol
And I love LA, but the housing here is so dumb. Why are they only building luxury apartments? I mean, I know why, but, it makes no sense. When I look for housing options that are cheaper, you see very low vacancy rates in buildings - you look at the high end luxury buildings and there are sooo many open units. Would building a medium-end building that will stay occupied be more lucrative than a half empty luxury building?
wildrice - thanks for sharing your numbers. I have student loans, but who doesn't? lol I also have some cc's I am still paying off from marriage/divorce, but they are 0%, so I just keep plugging along on those. They will be paid off in a year, which will then free up another $250/month. I definitely understand that most of my money complaints are very FWP - I am doing okay for a single person. One day my prince will come and will split rent with me and I will feel like a total baller with all my extra money, lol
I guess I'd add...I would be a little more hesitant to live this tightly if we didn't have savings. It's not like we have piles of money set aside or anything, but if we had to pay a car accident deductible, emergency vet, repair the car, etc we could pull from savings. I would hate to have no cushion in the budget if we didn't have that cushion. However, I think you probably could drastically cut back for a month or two if things got dire and you don't have that cushion...just something to consider. I know we could probably save a few hundred a month too if we really cut back on entertainment and eating out...but that would defeat the purpose of paying a premium to live in a city, so we won't do that.
But, I do find it hard to save on my budget.
It's hard in a city. I live in a less expensive one than you, but to live somewhere convenient to work that isn't tiny, crappy, or dangerous costs more. I do think it's worth it.
What’s your lifestyle like jigsy ? How much do you typically spend on discretionary stuff (meals out, travel, etc)? If you had to cut back, would you be hating life?
I feel you with the insane housing prices here. It’s so hard to choose - cheaper rent, but insane commute; walkable and close to work, but sky high rent - it’s so hard to choose between such unpleasant options. :/ I will say that we’ve erred on paying more for desirable housing.
I certainly enjoying...umm...spending money. lol
But, there are certainly areas I could cut back and not really hate it too much. I spend a kind of ridiculous amount on what I have deemed "self-care"
The increase in rent, because of the increase in pay, won't really be felt - it will basically be an upgrade to my living lifestyle, but, not at a detriment to everything else. I just won't be able to increase lifestyle in other areas if that makes sense - and, really, I don't know that I need to. But, on the flip side, I never feel like I am "getting ahead" - I am much more focused on living in the moment vs. planning for the future. And perhaps that needs to change eventually, but...I don't know...what if it all ends in a week, what will all that planning for the future do for me?
(I am a super responsible adult, lol)
Gotta be honest, I’d move but try to cut back on other stuff instead and still try to start getting ahead. I know it’s hard, but avoiding lifestyle inflation equal to every raise is the key to start saving. Some of it is obviously unavoidable, like I would definitely get the heck out of your current apartment. But hopefully with your raise, there is a compromise between spending it all or living with roaches.
14% of gross, 22% of net (this includes our escrow). Our house is fine, I would’ve preferred something newer/bigger/more updated, but I didn’t want to over extend ourselves either. We live in a M to HCOL area, and plan to stay in this house at least until the kids are out of high school. I’d like more land but to get that we’ll have to move even further out from the city (we’re already 35 miles out and barely a suburb) but more land means less desirable schools out this way.
jigsy, I would move. You are talking about serious quality of life issues here.
We faced a similar calculation in DC. We spent more than I wanted to on rent, but we had a nice place, close to things we wanted to do, with reasonable commutes. People had suggested looking farther out, but I was finding that to stay Metro accessible, even fairly far out I was only going to save a couple hundred per month. Since that kind of savings won’t get you a down payment in DC, we figured we might as well enjoy where we were living.
Post by NewGirlNic on Oct 19, 2018 21:26:13 GMT -5
Just about 10%, that includes escrow, taxes and I pay an additional $250 to the principal each month. Figuring out the percentage just makes me feel like we should have way more money in savings. LOL
Should I just burn everything and start over, lol Only half kidding because I have thought about selling most of my furniture and starting over anyways. lol
Eliminate as much paper and cardboard when packing. Spray around each box packed? Shake out everything you pack and repack anything still boxed from last time. They like clothing, too, so check your garment bags, suitcases and storage boxes.
I'd do all I could to pack a fresh box, spray a perimeter around it, and empty the furniture and spray it well.
Leave behind all food that isn't canned or still sealed in a jar.
The little ones are the most problematic. If you have those, good luck and godspeed. Then buy a new sofa.
Post by thatgirl2478 on Oct 19, 2018 21:48:07 GMT -5
PITI = approx 15%
PITI + utilities (elec/gas/h2o)= approx 18%
When talking about net, we're closer to 26%. Which... isn't bad but is closer some months than others. if I had to do it again, i probably would b/c the house is great, and we won't be in this position for ever.