33 y/o, married with a 3 y/o kid.
I currently pay $2,000 a month (NYC) for a 2 bedroom railroad. Its falling apart. I've killed 16 mice in the last 3 months alone. Landlord problems, I won't get into it.
Thanks to some unstable job issues and a new kid, I was in $45,000 in credit card debt. Thanks to a new job and a quick promotion, that is now down to $16,000.
After taxes (and before bonuses, which occur as stipends every other month ranging in $100 - $2,000 every period) we pull in $10,600 a month.
At present levels of spending, I believe we can pay off our outstanding CC debt by August. We are no longer paying interest on any card.
We looked at a 3BR, 2bathroom beautiful apartment with a dishwasher, parking.. the works. It was $2,800. I panicked. I'm so scarred from falling into debt.. can someone help me make sense of if we can afford $2800 a month?
Current Spending Breakdown
*Rent: $2,000 a month
*Car Insurance: $300 a month
*Car Payment: $220 a month
*Student Loans: $550 a month (my wife + mine)
*Daycare Costs: $1200 a month (this actually goes away in September, but we are working on having kid #2 and this cost will come back in 12 - 24 months so I don't want to remove it from my budget)
*Current Outstanding Credit Card Debt Payments: ~1,500 a month
*Groceries + Medical Bills (Therapy) / Other Daily Living Expenses (Tolls, MetroCard, etc): $1,500 a month
*Money currently in savings: $12,000 (I could use this for credit cards but we aren't presently paying interest and this was our emergency move fund, like I said our place is literally falling apart)
Typing this all out makes me think duh you should be able to afford an extra $800 in rent. But I'm afraid we're going to have trouble saving money for a house in 3 - 5 years. I'm not sure where to turn. Should I look into a professional? If for some reason someone is actually reading this far, just.. thank you! I appreciate you listening to my rambling.
Submitted January 07, 2021 at 11:02PM by Pepperpwni https://ift.tt/3q0WupG