Young Homeowners Crushed by Mortgage Debt

“Can you provide estimates for the differences of rent, taxes and cost of living? If these are >20k I'd stick with offer A.”

“Yea we can afford it. Its more of a way of maximizing our housing down-payment and keeping the emergency fund intact. We could rebuild our reserve emergency fund over a years time, or go without (some things)....but these purchases are happening eventually and we will have no issue paying it off before paying. I'm not paying hundreds of dollars weekly (or every other even) for someone to mow my lawn. That would be the terrible financial decision.”

“During times when houses were appreciating or if rent (six month lease, monthly or AirBnB) have any of you pursued a strategy of buying a house every year or two? If you are going to live there, there are loan types that allow for low down payments. If you can find a place that is run down (cosmetic only), put a little into it to increase value, then move in, live there for the minimum amount needed as a requirement for the loan condition and the low downpayment, then move elsewhere. Some of the”

“Hi all, My (28) gf (26) and I are getting engaged very shortly and will be looking for a home. We would like to buy a home that can last us 20 years or so, if possible. We currently have a combine salary of 160,000-170,000 USD. I also have around 100,000 in savings set aside for a house and kids and my gf received a trust via family will of around 500,000 USD. Considering all of this, I want to believe we can put down enough to get a house that will last us a while, but I have not done tons of r”

Nah at 2% no hurry. Go invest. I was assuming like 20% on the CC

“only maxing out 401k as i’ve negotiated a 2% rate on my cc debt and can pay it off. Should i still prioritize the debt or continue with the current plan? it would be around 800 a month at the current rate to completely pay off in 10 months.”

“You should rent before you buy, especially if you’ve never lived on your own before. Get used to setting up internet, paying bills, and managing yourself before also trying to add in managing an actual house. Like others said, if rent is $2k you’ll need much more (and to save much more) in order to buy a home. We are talking most likely at least 100k in savings for a downpayment, plus 3-6 months of expenses left over. Buy a place once you’ve settled into your career and life, as the home purchas”

“Might be a dumb question, but im assuming its very difficult to work and complete an SMP. So do people just take out loans for the 1-2yrs and just live off of them during that time? To pay for rent, bills, food, car payments, etc?? submitted by /u/Visible_Jaguar_2456 [link] [comments]”

“Principal balance Original loan amount Interest rate Estimated Equity $110,392.32 $127,920.00 5.000% $172,208 This are the terms of my current mortgage and potential equity. We are saving $1500 a month outside of retirement for when we move. We plan on moving in 1 to 3 years. So the options are pay the house down, high yield savings or brokerage account investing in index funds. I'm in analysis paralysis. submitted by /u/S4MBURG [link] [comments]”

“So my wife and I are wanting to move to a new house in a good school district in the next 3 years. During this time we are just casually browsing houses on the market as we don't need to move for another 3 years but wed consider moving now if a good option came around. We live in a highly competitive VHCOL market so a house going on the market and going pending can be a week and "contingency on sale" is never accepted. Our current situation is a ~880k house with ~90k left on the 3%”

“Hi everyone, I have some savings in my HYSA that I intended to use for buying a house, but it looks like I probably will not be buying for at least a year. I recently heard about US tbills and how this can be a more tax efficient way to save. I’m trying to understand how to buy them. I visited the Treasury website, and it wasn’t clear which tbill I should be choosing. Also, I wasn’t sure how much I should be buying. Should I just put the large majority of my HYSA in tbills and leave only some em”

“At the time no, we had thought home ownership was always on the "short term" horizon for us. We looked to buy in 2022 when I started residency post medical school but math didn't make "sense" then (funny now since homes were closer to $350-400k where we were living). During this time spouse was making 1.5x me and basically stock piled up cash. We weren't married at the time so her money was hers, not for me to direct what to do with it. Now we are wrestling if we want”

“Biggest thing at your stage: buy before you retire. Mortgage qualification runs on income, and your W2 makes everything easier - the same purchase two years into retirement is a much harder file. So the window is now-ish, not "within a year or so." Three realistic paths: Conventional investment loan, 20-25% down, and the lender will count ~75% of the new property's expected rent toward qualifying, so the duplex's income works for you, not against you. HELOC on your current dupl”

“I get this but I also feel like an owning a house is a huge part of being able to retire. That's so far from the truth. Having enough saved to fund retirement is far more important.”

“On 40k gross, buying a house solo is probably a later goal unless your area has very cheap housing or you get a big income bump, because lenders and repairs are annoyingly real. Right now I would park that extra 900 in a high yield savings account until you have 3 to 6 months of expenses, then look at whether those student loans have high interest before investing beyond any employer match. Living with parents is the cheat code here, unglamorous but effective, so use it to build cash and job hop”

“I am receiving a large monetary wedding gift due to not actually having a wedding ceremony and going to the courthouse instead. Going to be around $30,000. I already own a home which i still owe around 160k but i already make my payments every 2 weeks and do an extra amount that comes out to making 1 extra monthy payment per year towards principal. Im already taking 20% of my paycheck towards retirement and i currently make around 90-110k per year (sales) and i currently have about 10k in my rai”

“Me + my husband bought his parent’s house for cheap so they could live in the in law rent free and we could own a house for cheap. We live in a very HCOL area so this is the only way we could’ve afforded a house. Before this we were renting. I decided to be a SAHM after staying home with baby girl for 6 months, she’s EBF and won’t take a bottle. Because of our situation we decided I could stay home and go back to school. I feel weird living in my in laws house and my husband is the only one who’”

“You're clearly good with personal finance, congrats. Here's the questions I would consider if I were you: Rent vs Buy cost - there are rent vs buy calculators, in many cases today if you buy it's significantly more expensive, so you can actually end up wealthier if you rent and then invest the difference (you do have to invest the difference tho, not spend it) Owning a home is a ton of responsibility, you are semi-stuck in one place, you have to deal with maintaining the house, repai”

“It really depends on where you live and what your income is. Generally if renting is cheaper than what the mortgage will cost you, then renting is the better option. Don’t forget to factor in maintenance, interest, insurance, PMI (if you use a FHA), taxes, etc. and vacancy if you plan to rent it out. If you’re looking at a $680k house, even depleting all of your savings you are still on the hook for $560k.. will probably run you between $3500 and $4000 a month which is pretty insane depending on”

“How sure are you about staying together in the same place for 15+ years? If you are just now starting to test living with each other and not even thinking about marriage right now, I think it's a bit premature to think about buying a house together.”

“Given your financial numbers, free housing is an absolute godsend right now, and you should take advantage as long as you can (at least until CC debt is paid off, better til CC & auto debt are both paid off). Rent/mortgage is most people's greatest expense, and not needing to pay that is the only way you are even able to think about possible plans to become debt-free in your current situation. Pursue that career advancement aggressively; $60k-$80k is a 33% jump in gross income and will p”

“Hi there I wondered if someone could advise on if we are doing the right thing regarding investments please. Current situation: Mortgage £281k left (15 years) Paying £2k a month mortgage Net income with wife is £9k per month Savings: £45k stocks and shares £30k bank emergency fund Investing cc. £1.5k pensions a month Saving £1.5k a month Should we be investing / saving more per month to try and kill of this mortgage? Cheers G submitted by /u/OwnSeaworthiness3434 [link] [comment”

“I would hold just because of the mortgage rate, the return on the paydown alone on that is going to be better than anything you can get elsewhere.”

“You need to stop spending any money. How the did you rack up so much debt with so little expense? Stay rent free until all of your debt is paid off and you plan a plan to not accumulate any more debt. And you save $2k a month “fake rent”. Then move to a rental.”

Touch grass.

“I'm making 20.36 a hour and trying to afford a 160k house in. Hello, this is a post I wanted to make to see what others think about it. I'm 21 living with my parents at the moment and have about 20k saved up in-between savings and investments. I make 20.36 a hour and im trying to look at buying a house for 160k. My monthly would be 1466 dollars for a mortgage that includes home insurance, taxes and the mortgage. It doesn't flood in the area but they still require flood insurance star”

“Context: my partner and I are both late 20s, first time buyers (just returned from a year travelling a few months ago) - we have found an amazing home and we are looking to make an offer of £460,000 (listed at £475) Her salary is £40,000PA, mine has a base salary of £40,000, with £4K bonus per year, and £20,000 of commission approximately this year, rising to £30,000 - £40,000 the year after - and £45,000+ from then onwards. I am a recruitment consultant so my commission can go up and down quite”

“hi! I'll be selling home to family member with gift of equity. The house is worth 500k, but I will sell them for 400k. My mortgage balance is 100k. Am I correct to assume that my capital gain from the sale is 300k (400k-100k)? And follow-up to that, would I need to pay any taxes on this if I'm married and will file married filing jointly next year. I bought this house 10 years ago when I was single and have been living ever since. Looking for any advise I can get from the hive mind of re”

“Does your current $200k annual spend include your taxes, health insurance, and car payments (or replacement fund)? If not add them to your burn rate. Also, you didn’t mention kids. Kids are major expenses, so decide if they are in your future and add appropriate annual costs. Congrats!”

“I’m trying to figure out if recasting our mortgage makes sense. My husband and I are early 30s and when we got married two years ago we also bought a house and sold my house. We could afford to buy before selling our own house and at the time the market in our area was still a sellers market so buying with no contingencies put us in a better position. Our lender said once we sold our house we could recast our mortgage. For context, our old house was a cheap mortgage (1,600) and our new house wit”

“I feel like we're kinda stuck in our current house (golden handcuffs as they say). This isn't a terrible thing, it's overall a pretty nice house in a great area, but there's a few things we'd prefer to change that aren't really possible (needs a lot more storage in attic and has no basement, just crawlspace, and no bathroom on the main level on a split level, which annoys her more than it maybe should, and no pantry space). Our mortgage rate is 2.875%, bought in 2017, ref”

“My spouse and I are planning to buy a new primary home in about 2 years and ideally keep our current primary multi-family property. We'd appreciate a reality check on what price range seems reasonable and on our retirement plan in general. About us: Ages 47 & 39 with two young kids 2026 Gross Income Expected: $130k Net Monthly W2 income: $7200 Monthly expenses: $6500 (counting home expenses below) No other debt and we’d prefer to keep our DTI around 30% Current Primary Home (triplex): Mo”

“Hi everyone, I’m a 36F and recently started learning about the Bogleheads philosophy. Current situation: Approximately $500k net worth Home worth about $500k with ~$137k remaining on a 3.25% mortgage $4,400/month after-tax guaranteed income that covers my basic living expenses. Healthcare is covered No credit card debt No student loans Paid-off vehicle Fully funded emergency fund Recently started a debt-free food truck business at around 60k I’m basically starting from scratch when it comes to i”

“I have a goal of eventually getting a house and possibly having a kid or two with my wife on the east coast. The kid discussion is still up in there since we're still trying to figure out if we want kids or not. Some facts about me: Expenses/Liabilities $1,550 monthly rent locked in a 2 year lease Water bill ($100 roughly right now) Electricity bill ($150-200 roughly) Internet ($50) $29 Netflix subscription $84 car insurance $4800 remaining state student loan. I'm currently paying this d”

“Spouse and I are mid twenties and just finished our third move to a new city since college (and may move again based on careers). We would like to buy a house in the next few years but here’s the kicker: we have no clue where we may be in that time. We may love our new city where homes we would like are 600k, or we may move to a VHCOL near family assuming a decent pay raise comes with that job switch. HHI: 210k split about evenly between us. Their job is secure, mine much less so but I would rec”

“Advice on selling my home paying off bills with equity and rent Have a nice 3/2 home outside of Phoenix Az and keeping repairs. up us getting ahead of me financially with disability being my only income due to medical expenses. Selling vs renting and using equity to get out of debt and not having to worry about paying for more home issues Not sure on how to get advise/help with this submitted by /u/Top_Snow_6354 [link] [comments]”

“Again, if you are spending 300k or more on mortgage and house related and investment property related, they are also partly investments. You have take those out. What is your consumable spend is what matters.”

“It is curious how housing affordability has changed over time. It appeared we did have spikes before like in the early 90s but we are definitely in the least affordable time since 1960. I looked at how many hours someone making the federal minimum wage would have to work each month just to cover the mortgage payment on an average U.S. home. I took this approach because it removes impacts of interest and inflation over time. Lower interests leads to higher prices but nominally the house price can”

“We were in a decent spot financially and took out a home equity loan for 40k for a basement renovation (for some much needed space for the kids). The cost of the renovation is about $25k. We used some money also for essential home repairs (furnace and garage door). The loan is about $350 a month which fit within our budget. We put the deposit down but haven’t started yet because there have been issues with obtaining the permits. I was all set to move forward but then my spouse unexpectedly lost”

Whoops! Heck of a typo.

“I bought a house in 2017 (I was 29 at the time) because my grandfather had left me a small inheritance and I knew I needed to use it for something lasting. Personally, I can’t describe how much it improved my life. I didn’t even really make that much money at the time but it provided me a stability renting didn’t. If you can afford the mortgage, that means you never have to worry about where you are going to live, and what the landlord decides to do. If something breaks, you can learn how to fix”

“right? it’s contradictory to say “we own our house” then immediately follow up with “no debt other than mortgage”. Just say we have no debt other than our mortgage”

“Long story short, in order to purchase a new home without a contingency to sell our current home, we looked into taking a 401k withdrawal for the down payment. I'm not here to discuss the ramifications of doing that, because in the long term it will work out better for us. In speaking with a lender, in order to qualify they said we would have to pay off one of our credit cards. We don't have the cash on hand to do this, but they said we can "take out extra for the home down payment”

“This will be a long one... So, I'm in a really bad way right now and I don't really know what to do. I currently live in a manufactured home with my husband and son. The home was purchased by my husband in September of 2013 before I moved up here with him. It's basically not in good shape after the years and bad storms we've had. The amount we were reimbursed from insurance just wasn't enough to cover any cost of repair. We are looking to get another home, a stick build. A fo”

“In 2021, my fiancee (with her mother as a cosigner) bought a very small home for around 100k. I have always lived in the home as well, but have a lot of debt and credit issues so I am not on the mortgage or deed. We previously were paying a huge amount in rent and mortgage was decidedly a cheaper option for us. When we were looking at the home, my mother's husband offered to do the inspection for us to help on cost since he claims he used to do that kind of thing. He told us that there was s”

“So to make a long story short, I want to sell my current house and move across the country , if it sells for the price I want I will be left with about 225K low end to $275K high end. I want to take the profits along with my current savings and purchase another house in the state of CA. Now here is the dilemma I will be moving from the east to west, not sure if I will have a job yet, zero debt great credit score. I just don't want to pay the high ass rent for a single apartment since that ca”

“I had to refinance this house last year after a divorce, so I have a 30 year loan. I am 50 and have 300k in retirement. I put in 14% monthly in the account. I have enough in my budget to either put in another 2k for the year or to make another house payment(my payment is $1950 per month) I owe 300k on the house and it is worth about 700k. I don’t plan on staying more than 5 more years as I don’t love the house, but you never know where life is going to take you. Interest rate is 5.85% I am a sin”

“I’d say stay for 5 more years. That’s what I’d do. But as a stressed out business owner I get it because 5 more years sounds terrible.”

“This feels like the oldest issue in the book, but I really need some help. My wife is due with our first kid in December and we currently live on a pretty tight budget. We own a home that’s a little more than we can handle, both make decent money, and work for a big company in a small town. Recently, an opening became available in my boss’s old position where I’d make enough to set us up for a long time. There’s no guarantees I’d get it, but the position won’t become available again for a long t”

“They say you're never really have ready for buying a house or having kids. You just pull the trigger and do it.”

“Do you need to buy a house? Just keep renting until things settle down. Make sure you have a year or so of emergency savings and keep stacking bills while you can”

“To play with the mortgage numbers, you need an amortization spreadsheet: vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/loan-amortization-schedule.html”

“Family might be able to help, and I can reach out to my bank about first time homebuyers programs to help with down payment and closing costs. Taxes and insurance were added to the mortgage calculator (about 4k and 800/yr respectively) and I think would be doable.”

“Hi everyone, I'm a woman in my late 30s (Germany) looking for some objective financial perspectives. My husband and I bought a house in 2024 for €450,000 , but we're now separating. I know this breakup comes at probably the worst possible time financially. (I don't want to go into the details, but we are on good terms - no fighting etc.) The house still has about €300,000 left on the mortgage. Selling now would likely mean a significant loss because of purchase costs and the current”

“Context: I am 27F, my boyfriend and I have been together 10 years and are talking of marriage in the near future. However, our finances are 100% separate still. We splint rent evenly ($1586/mo total), but I make $44/hr as a nurse and he just started an apprenticeship and took a significant pay cut, making $24/hr, and will soon only be working 32hr/wk due to class for said apprenticeship. We live in upstate NY. Situation: my best friend is 38 and looking to buy a new house. She's had her curr”

“What should we do? Seeking an expert’s input. I make 194k, spouse makes 190k. Our combined monthly take home is 22k. We currently have about 530k worth of vested RSUs And about 260k of unvested RSUs expected to vest in the upcoming 2 years We both work in tech so there’s always layoffs We have about 130k in stocks investments, low risk investing We have about 80k in cash total for emergencies We have an investment apartment overseas, it’s off plan so we’re paying the first half of its price abou”

“if I take out about 300K to come up with a big enough downpayment How much is this house going to cost if that is the down payment? You almost certainly can't afford it yourself, and it's dangerous to be that reliant on your signifigant other's income while they have no legal obligation to stay/contribute. Your retirement is in a good place right now for your age, to penalize those savings for a house you can't afford is a terrible idea. Plan B is that you find a nice 3 bedroom a”

“I'm going to try to make this as short as possible. I got divorced about 5 years ago and now live with my two children (elementary aged) in a 850 sft 2 bedroom. It's owned by a family member so I pay well below market rate in my high cost of living area- just $2400/month. But it's a really tight squeeze. I'm in a great relationship that started about 3 years ago and we would like to move in together. But him moving in with me would make it even tighter, and his rented apartment i”

“Hi, my wife and I are in mid-30s and would like to move to the suburbs soon, slightly outside our VHCOL city. My job (500k) is semi-stable and a big part of my compensation is year-end with reasonable expected increases. Her job (300k) is very stable with modest increases. Together, HHI is 800k. By the middle of 2027 (when we want to move), liquid investments for a house would be \~200k-300k. It’s on the lower end because of a long training time (wife) and a late start to high income (me) on top”