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Started By
Message
re: Advice: Can We Afford This House?
Posted on 1/9/26 at 6:00 pm to Mingo Was His NameO
Posted on 1/9/26 at 6:00 pm to Mingo Was His NameO
quote:
He told the OP he doesn’t have a guest room and to just double his kids up in a room in a three story townhouse And then proceeds to let us know he has an entire finished basement where guests can stay without interrupting what normally does on in his house. It’s really not that hard
He said paying for a dedicated guest room was a waste. He doesn’t have a dedicated guest room. He has a multi-functional room.
quote:
Paying for a dedicated guest room is a waste most of the time.
1
Posted on 1/9/26 at 6:31 pm to POCKET
My first thought is that we need pictures of your wife.
Posted on 1/9/26 at 7:04 pm to houtigerfan
quote:That's gotten prohibitively expensive unless we have different ideas of what constitutes Houston or a nice neighborhood.
I live in Houston and would highly recommend that you buy a 4-5 bedroom, 2-3 bathroom house in a nice neighborhood.
I'm in a similar boat to OP, but we're substantially higher annual take home and net worth. Woman will likely be giving up her income once kids are in the picture though. I'm guessing we will probably just pay cash for something like this and figure out home #2 once kids need middle school.
Can't say I haven't debated biting the bullet and ripping a much more expensive home in Memorial school districts and call it a day. It would definitely be the quality of life move that barry mentioned. I commuted Heights to Woodlands for 4 years, and I'm not interested in reversing that commute to do that again unless it's to be on 10+ acres and maintain a job a good bit of WFH flex.
This post was edited on 1/9/26 at 7:32 pm
Posted on 1/9/26 at 9:30 pm to thegreatboudini
Murphy bed in your office.
You’re welcome.
You’re welcome.
Posted on 1/10/26 at 3:45 am to POCKET
quote:
Area has MUD tax so are property tax would be really expensive (in the ~$25K a year range) and I hate the idea of property tax so hard to agree to sign up for this
Man this is gonna hurt every December to stroke this check. Which will only increase as the home value rises .
Posted on 1/10/26 at 7:53 am to FieldEngineer
frick I actually agree with Mingo here. Y’all are being obtuse. Baw says guest rooms are a waste, then admits he has a guest room. Sure it has other shite in it too, but it’s a guest room at a moment’s notice. He has a designated room for guests that doesn’t require any re-arranging
Posted on 1/10/26 at 7:57 am to Louie T
quote:
I'm guessing we will probably just pay cash for something like this and figure out home #2 once kids need middle school.
quote:
I'm in a similar boat to OP, but we're substantially higher annual take home and net worth.
So you have a substantially higher take home and net worth than 275k and 1.3MM with no kids, but you’re gonna buy a $500k home?
Posted on 1/10/26 at 8:01 am to makersmark1
quote:
2 million is enough for a wife and 3 little kids to get everyone launched? 2,000,000 divided by 20 is $100,000 per year. I guess you’d have some return on unspent money, but she must be some kind of frugal.
You’re not including whatever existing assets he has
Posted on 1/10/26 at 8:19 am to Upperdecker
Believe what you will. Not everyone wants to spend what the loan affordability calculator says you can afford, especially in my case with so much life and income uncertainty in the next 10 years.
We'll likely lose 40% of our combined income in the foreseeable future, and we'd like 4 or so kids. If you want a 2000 sqft house with a yard that isn't a total rebuild in my neighborhood, you're over a million and still paying private school tuition after elementary. Options then become well over a million for public school districts (which adds a collective 1.5 hours of commute time between us) or move to the suburbs. Suburbs are off the table for now since fiancé already spends 2 hours in the car, and there's no desirable housing heading closer that direction.
ETA: I'd also like to retire well before 60, so I might lose 10 years of earn on the back of my career. Property tax on $1.25M also costs an arm and a leg in Houston. And I'm just cheap - currently living in a garage apartment with a high mileage Accord.
We'll likely lose 40% of our combined income in the foreseeable future, and we'd like 4 or so kids. If you want a 2000 sqft house with a yard that isn't a total rebuild in my neighborhood, you're over a million and still paying private school tuition after elementary. Options then become well over a million for public school districts (which adds a collective 1.5 hours of commute time between us) or move to the suburbs. Suburbs are off the table for now since fiancé already spends 2 hours in the car, and there's no desirable housing heading closer that direction.
ETA: I'd also like to retire well before 60, so I might lose 10 years of earn on the back of my career. Property tax on $1.25M also costs an arm and a leg in Houston. And I'm just cheap - currently living in a garage apartment with a high mileage Accord.
This post was edited on 1/10/26 at 8:56 am
Posted on 1/10/26 at 8:37 am to Upperdecker
quote:
He has a designated room for guests that doesn’t require any re-arranging
Do you understand how murphy beds work? There is absolutely re-arranging required. There is normally a basketball goal and a golf net there.
Posted on 1/10/26 at 8:51 am to notsince98
quote:
Do you understand how murphy beds work? There is absolutely re-arranging required. There is normally a basketball goal and a golf net there.
You’re a fricking idiot… as usual
Posted on 1/10/26 at 9:22 am to makersmark1
quote:
2,000,000 divided by 20 is $100,000 per year. I guess you’d have some return on unspent money
Not sure if serious. Do you know how investing works?
I do agree that it’s probably not enough to keep her from ever working again though.
Posted on 1/10/26 at 2:02 pm to POCKET
quote:
Our initial idea was to never touch these investments until retirement, but would likely need to pull out $100K - $200K for downpayment and such.
Do this and when you sell your old house you’ll have 200k or so in equity so you can either replenish your investments or you can put it towards the new house and refinance it around 400k
You have the income to make payments. Your old home in that area should sell pretty fast
Posted on 1/10/26 at 6:09 pm to FieldEngineer
quote:
Do you know how investing works?
Yes.
I also know how wives and kids work.
$2,000,000 is not never work again money.
I’m mostly retired at 61.
I “work” about 10 hours a week.
I don’t have little kids.
I just don’t know what all the costs are now with college and some people prefer private school.
Life always seems more expensive now that ever.
And I certainly have learned about the magic of compound interest. Time in the market has been better than timing the market in my experience.
The best investments I have, I have held the longest.
This post was edited on 1/10/26 at 6:12 pm
Posted on 1/10/26 at 6:35 pm to makersmark1
Fair enough. I read your other post like the cash would be sitting in a savings account. 
Posted on 1/10/26 at 7:08 pm to FieldEngineer
quote:
cash would be sitting in a savings account.
I guess I could put it in a Monte Carlo simulator.
Spit balling I’d guess 7-10% return on the insurance money would support a 5% draw.
I’ll run the numbers.
I know others here are probably getting 30-50 % annual returns, but I don’t think a widow with kids can take on that much risk- even if it’s the rock solid picks of the money board.
Here’s a Monte Carlo with 80% stocks, 10% treasuries, 10 % REITs
LINK
It has a high probability of being enough money to withdraw $100,000 per year for 20 years- and probably more.
Hopefully, to pay premiums and live a long life.
This post was edited on 1/10/26 at 8:20 pm
Posted on 1/10/26 at 11:25 pm to Upperdecker
Our annual take home is around $350K (not a joke) and I have been stressing about building a house that’s in the $480K range. It’s nice to read this and get some confidence that I should pull the trigger and not feel remorse
Posted on 1/11/26 at 12:11 am to tigerclaw10
One of our biggest money makers is staying in our original home, even thought we could easily afford a much bigger one.
The smaller home suits our needs and saves money (over a bigger house) every day on utilities, insurance, taxes, repairs/replacements, etc. That really adds up over 30+ years.
It’s allowed us to save a ridiculous amount in our retirement and other savings accounts, so now we can move to a more desirable part of the country for retirement and buy what we want.
The trick is to live long enough to enjoy the savings, which is why some advocate hookers and blow at 30 and forget saving for retirement.
The smaller home suits our needs and saves money (over a bigger house) every day on utilities, insurance, taxes, repairs/replacements, etc. That really adds up over 30+ years.
It’s allowed us to save a ridiculous amount in our retirement and other savings accounts, so now we can move to a more desirable part of the country for retirement and buy what we want.
The trick is to live long enough to enjoy the savings, which is why some advocate hookers and blow at 30 and forget saving for retirement.
Posted on 1/11/26 at 12:49 am to POCKET
It sounds to me the main deciding factor is a growing family so you want a larger home.
Do you really need to buy a $850K home? I mean could you not get a nice home for $600K that’s larger and fits to your growing family?
Do you really need to buy a $850K home? I mean could you not get a nice home for $600K that’s larger and fits to your growing family?
Posted on 1/11/26 at 9:53 am to POCKET
The simple answer is No You Can’t. You don’t make enough money.
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