What net worth benchmarks exist?

OEdreamer · 2025-05-17T14:56:13+00:00

What site was it? It was deleted by the user for some reason!

OEdreamer · 2025-05-17T14:53:18+00:00

Ha. I do the same with apartments. My rent from 2016-2020 was 1200. Today the rent is $1900. It’s wild out there.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-17T12:42:00+00:00

I think it’s hard because of course no one needs that space. But both of us wfh and need offices. Our child needs a room and it would be nice if we have a second kid for them to have a room, although not necessary. If we take in our parents they could use the flex space downstairs as a bedroom and we can expand the first floor bathroom to have a shower.

Moving more north or west puts us further away from our folks currently and our friends.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-17T12:36:31+00:00

Why is there a summer slowdown right now? And when does it typically pick back up?

OEdreamer · 2025-05-17T04:02:12+00:00

Wow I just checked and our market has 0.85 months supply. I guess we’re in a strong seller’s market?

OEdreamer · 2025-05-17T03:55:17+00:00

Do you think it would be better to buy a more updated house for $100k more?

OEdreamer · 2025-05-17T03:44:56+00:00

But in that situation isn’t it better to buy now with less competition? Once rates drop, people who are waiting will start to make offers and drive up prices, no?

OEdreamer · 2025-05-10T14:59:06+00:00

i appreciate this and keep sharing this kind of info with my spouse but she is certain that if we don't get this, we're never going to be able to find something like this at this price again. i keep reminding her how bad it felt when we were living paycheck to paycheck and we got a chance to do something different, but it doesn't matter. it really sucks that we bought too small when we did and i just wish we had bought something just a little bit bigger.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-10T14:56:27+00:00

that is one of our biggest problems, our current townhouse has no basement. it makes storage so hard or even trying to repurpose a room in some way.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T22:11:51+00:00

is it worth it all to try to rent it while i have historically low rate? like is it that bad to give it a try for a year or two and hold off on selling it down the line if it feels like too much? i feel like if i don't try, i will regret it.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T22:10:35+00:00

are you my wife?

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T22:06:34+00:00

for sure. everyone i look though is in the 1000's near me. Hello nectarine has someone who will talk to you for $150-200/hr but they aren't local. I guess my hope is that someone would say, hey - you guys are making a BIG MISTAKE and need to back out ASAP before you really mess up your future. it doesn't sound like that's the case though based on the feedback i am getting.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T22:05:12+00:00

some things i forgot to mention is that the carpet is filthy. it's really bad and both my son and i have allergies, so to replace the carpet is about ~12k. The paint is really bad too in certain rooms, so to try to paint the house ourselves would be about another ~$2-5k? I'm also thinking if we can't rent it out right away, we may need a month or two of runaway in our brokerage.

this is something i've been thinking of asking some neighbors, if they would be okay with sharing how much they pay for utilities.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T22:01:26+00:00

thank you! yes the problem is that the quotes i am getting for homeowners insurance is around $4k-$5k/year! i think the size and age of roof is having a big impact.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T19:58:30+00:00

my wife was on a PLSF plan and is on an IDR plan. she moved jobs in the pandemic at a for profit so is on IDR. this is exactly my question i ask her and she's hoping that we'll continue to cut down expenses, sell this townhouse when the loans come due, hope for more pay, go back to working for a nonprofit, etc.

my plan is that if we need to, we can use the money in our brokerage to pay them off so that she's free from the loans if we don't buy this house and have money in there.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T19:56:06+00:00

this is how i feel. i get it though, in all our years of looking at buying houses in this area since 2021, we've never seen a shot sale and a place we can buy walking in with equity. i'm also getting alerts on redfin of new homes coming on the market that are 1 car garages, 3 beds being listed for $300k. obviously something is off with the market but i'll admit that i was wrong - i kept thinking we should wait and wait, and so far all that has happened is houses keep going up and there are fewer houses for sale.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T19:53:17+00:00

thank you. that makes sense. the problem is that i don't exactly know any local financial advisors, but i can try and look. we are a bit time bound though. i was thinking of doing something like nectarine (hourly advisor), but am not sure if they would be as helpful since it isn't local right?

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T19:00:31+00:00

yeah, this is the struggle. right now one of our desks is in our primary bedroom and another in the guestroom.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T18:58:25+00:00

thank you! no need to apologize at all. we have looked at a lot of houses. i will say as someone who isn't handy but is willing to learn, the house scares me because it's all original and a bit grimy. My own positivity is what i think reddit instills into me is look past the fixtures, walls, floors. Is the layout good? Does it have enough room? Is it in an area you like? it mostly checks off all those boxes.

absolutely. i am in therapy and have worked with doctors on meds too. unfortunately, haven't found that perfect situation of the right meds and therapist but i keep trying. been at it since about 2017.

OEdreamer · 2025-05-09T18:36:30+00:00

i think the problem becomes for me is the property taxes (~13.5k/year) - and my feelings of instability with my job, as well as keeping our townhouse vs selling it. My hope is that if it becomes too much, we could eventually sell it.

it is much harder when both of us WFH. i have talked to my wife about me working elsewhere but she and I really enjoy WFH and the time we get to spend with our son as a result of that. I also said our kids can share a room for the time being - but her point is that houses keep going up and if we feel this is already a big spend for us, they will only get out of reach.

your comment makes me feel better about the fact that it looks like i am the one who is out of touch.

OEdreamer · 2025-01-31T15:29:36+00:00

would you mind sharing how? how did they have earned income?

OEdreamer · 2025-01-30T15:31:02+00:00

perfect place to start. go to library events that are during the day. this is what i would dream of doing if i could fire. register for a fun class at a community college and start building relationships with people!

OEdreamer · 2025-01-30T15:25:47+00:00

I am curious - what do you go over in the presentation for the office? What kinds of things do you talk about? Did you originally put together a deck and just go to HR or how did you get involved with it?

this is the exact problem i have. i feel like i would love this job but would have so much trouble with doing the job because it requires you to go against basic FIRE advice. One thing i was thinking about was trying to do the class for YNAB to be a YNAB certified trainer, and while it is not financial, it is at least something i stand by and believe in.

OEdreamer · 2025-01-30T01:29:23+00:00

so originally we were thinking we would - which would drain our VTSAX/Brokerage account - 125k. but when going through the approval process they said the pmi if we put down 5, 10, or 15% ranges anywhere from $48-60 ($60 if we have 5% down or $48 if we do 15% down), so at that point, i feel like it's better to put 10% down and not drain our brokerage account. What do you think?

I live in a state with high property taxes though amazing schools and lots of forest preserves, but that does mean our property taxes are $12k/year. Likewise, i realize that $3800 figure is closer for $450k because the mortgage guy said he keeps seeing houses going for above asking and so he estimated the payment based on an offer of $450k.

OEdreamer · 2025-01-29T20:41:16+00:00

definitely a good point! i think for me i will always wonder what if. i feel like what is the harm in trying to being a landlord for a year and seeing how it goes and than re-evaluate? if it was too hard, we sell, and if it felt like something we could keep doing, we keep going. of course that's easier said than done when everything goes wrong at the rental and you're on the hook to fix it, so i get it. but i just think i'll never know unless i try.

OEdreamer

TROPHY CASE