Right now, life is great. We live on 50% of our income while saving for a house and retirement. In the next 1-3 years, we intend to buy a house and start having kids. We're in our mid-30s so if kids are going to happen, we should start in the next few years. Also, we're in a small one-bedroom apartment that could be okay with a kid for a short-time, but not feasible long-term.
I've set a very firm budget on how much we can spend on a house based on calculating out what the entire (PITI) monthly payment would be. Having a house would bring our expenses up to 75% of our income by my calculations and the whole mortgage would bring housing costs to around 33% of our income. Given our budget, we don't expect to have a house that is updated and fancy, but ideally, we'll be able to find something that's just out of date and doesn't need imminent repairs. Ideally.
While a house a good idea long-term, it + having kids is going to stretch us and leave us with less of a regular buffer for the first bunch of years. (I'm also pretty set on having a solid 6 month emergency fund before kids.) I believe kids don't need to be too expensive for the first few years, but childcare vs staying at home vs changing to part-time work is the big concern. My partner and I make around the same income and we wouldn't be able to cover everything on just one income.
I know it's futile to worry about stuff that hasn't happened yet, but I keep wondering if we're setting ourselves up for a mess. On the other hand, so many factors could change between now and then.
Thoughts? Any encouragement from parents who've been there?
April 19, 2017 at 08:38PM
