Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

Please don't flame me as I did see there was a recent post about how much mortgages are, and what percentage of everyone's income goes to their mortgage.

I am calculating our totals before we move, and I am having an overwhelming sense of 'drowning' in bills.

Our Mortgage % will be 34% (after taxes taken out - includes homeowners and taxes in there)
Our total monthly bills (car payments, mortgage, lipa, life insurance, cable, credit cards, cell phones, car insurance, food budget, DH's child support he pays out) - out of our total income (post taxes) is 82%!

Is this extremely abnormal?

Once our credit cards are paid off.. we will be at 76%.

I think overwhelming may be exactly what I am feeling...

Re: Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

Ugh, I feel your pain.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of people are in this situation. We are not but that is because we are currently in an apt and don't have kids yet. That being said, we want to be in a HOUSE and with children soon, and then we are not able to afford that right now....so feel good that you are at least able to meet your obligations.

Not to add to your worry, but did you forget about transportation cost to/from work - I guess it only applies if you take busses/trains. Also, what about retirement savings?

Just hang in there, pay a little towards that CC debt each month and try not to add to it. You will see that sometimes a little each month done consistently really adds up.

Once you get the debt down, you will have more to help you build savings or for entertainment or whatever.

Hang in there.

Re: Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

Posted by queensgal

Ugh, I feel your pain.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of people are in this situation. We are not but that is because we are currently in an apt and don't have kids yet. That being said, we want to be in a HOUSE and with children soon, and then we are not able to afford that right now....so feel good that you are at least able to meet your obligations.

Not to add to your worry, but did you forget about transportation cost to/from work - I guess it only applies if you take busses/trains. Also, what about retirement savings?

Just hang in there, pay a little towards that CC debt each month and try not to add to it. You will see that sometimes a little each month done consistently really adds up.

Once you get the debt down, you will have more to help you build savings or for entertainment or whatever.

Hang in there.

Re: Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

not flaming, but I wouldn't be comfortable with that ratio. New houses bring new expenses - higher lipa, water, gas/oil heating bills, unexpected repairs, furniture, taxes that go up each year...

How will you be able to save? Can you count on salary increases? do you have job security?

In this economy it seems like a lot to take on. I can understand why you feel overwhelmed.

Message edited 7/8/2009 6:43:01 PM.

Re: Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

Re: Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

No flames, that seems a bit high to me as well. Maybe a lower mortgage % (like 25) + the paid off card, then I think you're in the zone of comfort.

I would also recommend a stash of savings to take care of unexpected home issues. Things like yard care (even if you do it yourself-plants are expensive!), replacing hot water heaters, fireplace/chimney cleanings, A/C servicing, etc can really add up. (Can you tell I just had to all of that?!)

Message edited 7/8/2009 10:28:42 PM.

Re: Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

Before DH was laid off we were at 19% with our mortgage and maintenance and now we are at 40%.

Re: Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

if you want the house and you can't get something less expensive then maybe get a second income to use to pay down the debt. We are pretty high with our mortgage, bills but we can save a bit a month. We are using the 8k we get back as your emergency fund since we are putting 100% of all our savings for dp. So dh works a ton of OT and i work freelance so that extra income goes to dh's 4k cc debt and once that is paid off it goes to savings/home improvement.

Re: Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

the mortgage payment we plan on having will be 30% of DH's net salary as of now (not including overtime and bonus) per year - that is also not including our income with me working b/c we don't know what i will do or how much i will make or how long i'll work....so we are trying to do it all on DHs salary so anythinig i make will be extra to save before we start a family....

Message edited 7/9/2009 11:23:13 AM.

Re: Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

after tax income- we pay @ 41% to mortgage, taxes, insur

gross income- we pay 25% to mortgage, taxes, insur

this doesn't include my annual bonus and tax refund.

total expense for us each month are about 79% of our take home pay.

It's def not easy, we try to limit our expenses as much as possible, we only have one car but both commute to the city so our transportation costs are high.

Re: Monthly Mortgage %/Monthly Bills % (Subject has been posted recently-little spinoff)

We're on a break from looking for a house so I don't have any real numbers for you but I would think we are probably in the 75-85% range with the price range we were looking in. We would have a decent amount of money left in the bank which is what makes me feel comfortable about it, and our house monthly budget we've been playing around with includes EVERYTHING you can think of including some money for savings, the money we spend on gifts every year divided by 12, money we spend on clothing every year, budgeted monthly, etc, "entertainment" money for going out to dinner, movies, money for maintaining our cars, etc. This makes us feel comfortable partly b/c we know there shouldn't be any surprise expenses in terms of everything but the house but I also feel that this will give us a cushion and some room for cutting back if we need to - we can not buy as many clothes as we normally would, for example, or cut back on going out if things are unexpectedly tight for a while. The money in the bank will be for emergencies, furniture, and some left for savings.

All that being said, when we start to look again we want to find a house for the lowest price that we can!