Hello everyone,
I would just like to start with a quick summary of my wife and I's current financial situation:
I am currently 26 years old, and I graduated almost two years ago with a master's degree and ~142k in student loan debt from both my undergrad and graduate program. My wife graduated with her master's at the same time and ~42k in loans for a total of ~185k in student loans. Our gross annual income is ~160k per year together and our goal from the start was to aggressively pay off our loans within a couple of years. About a year and a half into it, we have so far reduced the 185k to 115k after paying a few thousand in interest and taking a two month deferment during a Covid-related pay reduction. Since the start, we have been renting an apartment because I did not want the possible financial burden of owning a home hanging over my head while also having such a large amount of student loan debt. Our original plan was to rent for 3-4 years, which would give us enough time to completely pay off our loans and save for a down-payment.
The predicament: I really like the idea of being debt free before taking on the responsibility of owning a home, however we are already starting to grow tired of living in an apartment and know we are "throwing our money away" by renting. We currently live about 40 minutes outside of a major U.S. city and the housing prices have been continuously climbing for the last couple of years. We know we are missing out on great appreciation. We are about to sign our third lease at this apartment complex (which has had increasing prices every year), and want to know if it is a good idea to potentially purchase a house around this time next year.
The catch-22 is, because the vast majority of our monthly income goes to bills and loans, the only way we can even save up for a very small 5-7% down-payment on a house would be by reducing our loan payments by approximately 2k per month-thus extending our loan payoff even longer. We watch the housing market closely in our area and see the skyrocketing prices and appreciation that we are missing out on, but I also don't like the idea on taking on a mortgage with pre-existing debt.
The only other alternative to this is if a certain *cough* crypto *cough* investment gets to a particular level where I would be willing to cash out the majority of it to cover a down-payment on a house and therefore not have use that money that should be going to loans instead.
Thoughts???
Thanks in advance!
Submitted March 02, 2021 at 02:47PM by jmh1194 https://ift.tt/382mKJD
