If husband and wife both make $40k/year, is that enough to support a family?

Not to hijack the thread...

I make about $70k + $2-3k in moonlighting. My wife is staying home with our 6-month-old daughter, but she's also working a little bit from home. She makes about $450 a month ($5,500/yr or so) doing this.

We're making almost $80k between the two of us.

Both cars are paid off. Rent is $895/month for a smallish 2-bedroom apt. We have some student loan debt, about $450/month, though we frequently over-pay in order to pay principal down faster.

We have approx $38,000 in savings. Should we be thinking about buying a house? Home-ownership comes with maintenance, responsibilities, etc. Would it be worth it for us? Do you really get a good return on your money, long-term from home-ownership vs. renting?

FWIW, we live in SE Wisconsin.

Flagpole? Others?

quickrunner789789 wrote:

Not to hijack the thread...

I make about $70k + $2-3k in moonlighting. My wife is staying home with our 6-month-old daughter, but she's also working a little bit from home. She makes about $450 a month ($5,500/yr or so) doing this.

We're making almost $80k between the two of us.

Both cars are paid off. Rent is $895/month for a smallish 2-bedroom apt. We have some student loan debt, about $450/month, though we frequently over-pay in order to pay principal down faster.

We have approx $38,000 in savings. Should we be thinking about buying a house? Home-ownership comes with maintenance, responsibilities, etc. Would it be worth it for us? Do you really get a good return on your money, long-term from home-ownership vs. renting?

FWIW, we live in SE Wisconsin.

Flagpole? Others?

Id probably look for something in the 0 to 160k range. I would also not advise getting a fixer upper. Plan to spend no more than half of your 38k on down payment. If you can spend a little more and get under the 20 percent required to dodge paying PMI, I would do that.

quickrunner789789 wrote:

Not to hijack the thread...

I make about $70k + $2-3k in moonlighting. My wife is staying home with our 6-month-old daughter, but she's also working a little bit from home. She makes about $450 a month ($5,500/yr or so) doing this.

We're making almost $80k between the two of us.

Both cars are paid off. Rent is $895/month for a smallish 2-bedroom apt. We have some student loan debt, about $450/month, though we frequently over-pay in order to pay principal down faster.

We have approx $38,000 in savings. Should we be thinking about buying a house? Home-ownership comes with maintenance, responsibilities, etc. Would it be worth it for us? Do you really get a good return on your money, long-term from home-ownership vs. renting?

FWIW, we live in SE Wisconsin.

Flagpole? Others?

Is the living situation bothering you? If not, I'd stick it out for a couple years...maybe even 3-4.

How much student loan debt do you have? How long until it is gone if you make minimum payments?

You are doing pretty well, but man it would be WAY cool to buy a house when you have ZERO other debt. OR, get that savings up to $75,000 or so and put a HUGE downpayment down so that your mortgage is tiny (Can you get a $160,000 house in your area that you'd live in?).

Chewbacca wrote:

Critical Thinking wrote:

Given that median household income in New York City is $57,683/year, it seems that making it on $80,000/year should be very doable.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36000.html

Good Lord you people are profligate with money!

Put down the thesaurus and work on reading comprehension.

Profligate: recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources. That is exactly what I meant. Do you have another objection?

Dude, ask your mom or your babysitter to explain it to you.

Chewbacca wrote:

Dude, ask your mom or your babysitter to explain it to you.

Okay, since ad hominem attacks are all you have I will assume you don't actually have a point.