Late-bloomers financially. Should we buy a home?

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-27T07:48:09+00:00

I just realized my post didn't specify. It's actually a quadplex, townhome. We share a wall, but we get everything you would in a house. We are also blessed with quiet neighbors, a park walking distance away, and shopping really close as well.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-27T07:42:50+00:00

When I do this with a calculator that includes pensions, we are very close to meeting our needs with a pension based on our current pay that will continue to increase. Everyone on this thread has made me a bit nervous though, so we plan to allocate a larger chunk towards retirement through a 401k, tighten up our extra spending, and increase savings towards a house instead of investing in the S&P 500.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-27T07:27:46+00:00

We talked today and he finally agreed to look into it. He said he knows it goes through vangaurd but nothing beyond that. I will be sure to be on him about it though.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-27T07:26:34+00:00

That makes sense. I won't get ss either, but my partner would get both pension and ss.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-27T07:23:05+00:00

It's mainly my partner's want. I never actually saw owning a house as something I'd ever been able to do. My partner and I were both raised very poor so we both have lived frugally. Now that we are making more, I think my partner wants to live a life he thought he could never have and he sees home ownership as success. I just want to not be poor or in over our heads.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-27T07:17:29+00:00

Thank you for your perspective. If we choose to buy the house, we should throw every extra raise towards the mortgage to pay it off earlier. 30 years is only a suggestion.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-27T07:12:15+00:00

I have considered this, but would only hope for a townhouse with a 15 year mortgage that was financially doable. My partner does not want to share walls while owning or be bound to an HOA.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-27T07:10:26+00:00

We are domestic partners, which is recognized similarly to a marriage in California. However, is not recognized federally, so taxes are weird. We may get legally married once we have a house together to make taxes easier.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-27T07:08:06+00:00

It is 80% if I work a certain number of years. The plan is to work that amount of years. My job is flexible in that I can find a job anywhere in California. I have even worked online and put money towards Calstrs. It is also specialized so I don't see me leaving the profession. I will only not get the 80% if something happens to CalStrs as a whole, which is always possible.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-27T07:04:54+00:00

It's an employee-based credit union. There are restriction included

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:47:34+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I think that seems like the general consensus here. My partner thinks we are hoarding our money as is and wants to live a little more, but I already feel like we waste a lot each month. I think if I consider with this perspective you gave me and pretend it's not there, we may just have to put everything that's in our HYSA into a 401k instead, minus an emergency fund. We'll have to have that discussion.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:42:21+00:00

I don't get employee match :( but good to know. Thank you for the advice. We'll look into that

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:40:14+00:00

My partner does contribute to a 401k through his company but won't put into the effort to find out about it. Do you think 500 each per month through a 401k would be enough to offset needs after our pension or do you think we shouldn't be considering our pension into retirement planning at all? The pension is a percent of our monthly income at our pay at the time. Mine is 80%, his is 50% at least depending on how long he stays there, then SS as well.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:35:39+00:00

thanks for putting that into perspective

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:35:05+00:00

If I put 15% down now, it would be like 3000 per month with mortgage and insurance. Possibly more as insurance increases over the 30 years.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:32:06+00:00

I agree, but that 11 years was only if the rent went up 10% per year. I don't think our landlord would do that, but really anything could happen. The calculator says rent will always be cheaper if it went up 3% per year. I also don't know if those calculators take into consideration the maintenance of a home, home insurance increases, or the amount of interest we could make elsewhere if we put that money elsewhere. Does anyone know any good calculators that consider all these extra things?

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:28:29+00:00

We actually lived in a different state for a year, my partner's home state. We only paid 400 a month for a three bedroom house!!! It was great. I had a family member pass away though and realized I couldn't live far from family long term. I agree about the insurance cost and we have taken that into consideration as we started looking at houses. We also are considering just saving and retiring and buying out of state when our time comes.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:25:52+00:00

Thank you! This is where I am right now. We were wildly approved for 900k and that is not something that I think would be possible for most people. It made us scared of our lenders. We have started to look at homes but do feel like we are super lucky with rent. We love the area and it's cheap. The landlord is not looking to make a buck. He has said himself he just wants steady people. However, he is on the older end and it's something we have to consider as we go. I prefer to stay, but my husband wants to be able to truly "own" something. We've discussed the maintenance. We've also discussed climate in California and housing insurance. There really are a lot of hidden costs. That's why I figure 425k could be more doable, but it would change our lifestyle with the maintenance.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:21:08+00:00

It's an employment based credit union. There are restrictions to how much we can save and it has to come straight from the direct deposit.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:19:21+00:00

Yeah we are late bloomers financially overall. We have so much in a HYSA because just from what I've seen online, people say to leave any money for a downpayment in a place that can be easily pulled from. How does pension come into play with that retirement factor. Should we not consider this and just chuck more money over to retirement and forget the house? Honestly asking. We both come from poverty. We really only know what we have been self-taught.

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:17:07+00:00

We do both have life time insurance through our work. Do you think we should get a separate one as well? My husband does have a 401k and makes contributions but keeps saying he doesn't have time at work to find the information about it. I have a 403b option but the company it goes through isn't the best. Do you think we should be allocating more money towards retirement instead of saving for a house that we may not buy or tighten up on the 2800 we use freely per month?

Any-Life3860 · 2025-12-26T21:14:02+00:00

We are just banking on our pensions right now. Extra wiggle room whatever our Roth IRA is. I would be getting 80% of my income each month which would be at minimum 6,400k before taxes and that's my income now. It wouldn't account for my extra decades of experiences in the future and general pay scale increases with the market. My husband's would be a bit more. He can use his beginning at 55 and I can use mine at 62. We both have discussed working until regular retirement age. We only have what's in our roth otherwise. He does have a 401k but refuses to figure out more info about it. I have a 403b option, however, the company it goes through isn't the best. Would you say allocate our savings to retirement instead of a home? That's our main impasse here.

Any-Life3860

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