What percentage of your income do you spend on housing?

[Bignate603]

50% I try not to make much - too much taxes.

computers in sig are company owned and used for work exclusively I can't afford such things.

You try not to make much money to avoid taxes on the money you might make? I don't think you understand the tax codes...

 

[Zebo]

You try not to make much money to avoid taxes on the money you might make? I don't think you understand the tax codes...

One thing I understood is the optimum SS matrix was $24,500, get 90% of benefit for 25% payment- so that's what I pay myself.

 

[Bignate603]

One thing I understood is the optimum SS matrix was $24,500, get 90% of benefit for 25% payment- so that's what I pay myself.

Yes, you get more SS for the minimum into the system but that doesn't mean you're any better off. If you expect to live off SS you're lying to yourself for two reasons, the first is that the amount they pay is ridiculously low and the second is that you may never see that money again anyways.

Refusing to make money to avoid paying taxes on it is ridiculous, barring some relatively odd situations the more you make overall the more you actually keep after taxes. If your business has the ability to pay you more why are you making yourself suffer? Sure, there's more to life than money but extra cash sure makes life easier some times.

 

[Zebo]

Yes, you get more SS for the minimum into the system but that doesn't mean you're any better off. If you expect to live off SS you're lying to yourself for two reasons, the first is that the amount they pay is ridiculously low and the second is that you may never see that money again anyways.

Refusing to make money to avoid paying taxes on it is ridiculous, barring some relatively odd situations the more you make overall the more you actually keep after taxes. If your business has the ability to pay you more why are you making yourself suffer? Sure, there's more to life than money but extra cash sure makes life easier some times.

I would prefer to grow and reinvest right now and eventually to take money out at 15% on sale and pay no employment taxes.

 

[daw123]

About 15-20% of gross income just to rent a room in a house.

 

[Farang]

~30% gross

 

[PingSpike]

OP, let's use this post as an example. He has no car payment so that matches up with your situation.
After humblepie gets his furniture he has an easy $1400 to spare.
I'd buy something that suits my current situation, no more space than you and a potential spouse/girlfriend need, and make double payments on it whenever you can.
There is nothing quite like having no mortgage payment at all.
Those of you who rail about investments and tax writeoffs, remember you only get 28% back out of that "writeoff" for interest.

Don't forget to subtract the standard deduction amount from that income "writeoff". That's about 10K for couples that isn't actually saved at all.

 

[mizzou]

Of the actual "Take home money" that gets deposited after taxes etc.,

%20, including the pmt for escrow for homeowners taxes

 

[Jadow]

10% of our gross income goes to the mortgage+ins+tax

 

[Jumpem]

18% net on a fifteen year mortgage.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Well it looks like I'm renting the place for 1200 which plus utilities will be under 1300 every month (cable, water, and sewer are included). My gross income is $6875 every month my net is going to be around 4700-4860... I'll be living in florida pretty much on the bay I don't think I went too expensive, my car is paid off and I don't really have any debt at all. So I think thats pretty good.. Maybe I'm way off though.

 

[Fenixgoon]

40%? college student, so my rent/income ratio is rather high

i still make a decent net profit though

 

[marc8358]

I spend almost 45% of my income on housing(including everything)................

_____________________________
Personal Trainer London

 

[Ricemarine]

Well I really wish I had a smaller, cheaper apartment while studying, but since I will graduate in about 1.5 years I really don't want to move to some small, crappy apartment, only to get a bigger one again when I start working. So I just cut down on other expenses and I break even Plus I can always rent out a room if things go bad.

Mind giving some details about your current expenses right now? I'm interested in moving out into an apartment closer to my campus.

 

[UDT89]

i love how some of you guys say "well if ur spending more than 30% on housing you need to move somewhere cheaper" like its that easy lol.

theres no way im gonna make more money in my field anywhere else in the country, plus I have 70+ years of family living around here. and spending more than 50% on housing when you dont have a car payment, credit card debt, and other nonsense isnt all that hard to do.....especially if you adjust your "dependents" on your paycheck to get your normal tax refund spread out over 12 months instead of getting it all at once.

i disagree with a lot of things said here, mostly b/c you're all living in areas that $300k gets you a home that fairly new and probably 2500-3000 square feet. where i live 300k gets you a house that is probably 1500-2000 square feet, 50 years old, no basement or garage, and hasnt been updated since it was first built......and a shitty school district

 

[DarrelSPowers]

If you're 30 and still need to ask this question, you've got problems.

And it entirely depends on where you live and what you want your commute to be.

Example: 6 months ago I was working in Boston, had about a 15 minute drive into the city, and was able to keep my housing expenses under 20% of my monthly take home pay.

Now, I'm living in NYC, and although I'm making a good chunk more money, in order to keep my housing costs at about the same percentage of my take home pay, I have to deal with a 40 minute subway commute.

Fuck NYC real estate.

 

[MrMatt]

29.1% for 2009

 

[HardcoreRobot]

~28% (including SO), though we are aggressively trying to pay down 2nd mortgage

 

[Modular]

It depends on how much house you bought, how long ago, and the interest rate. When I bought the mortgage was about 40% of net. But my salary has gone up since then.

This. There are so many variables. My wife's father started off making somewhere around 25k as an electrical engineer right out of college 25 years ago. He now clears well over 100k a year (actually 150k plus this year from bonuses paid to him), and is in the same house that he bought 20 years ago. They've never refinanced and have enough $ in the bank to buy the house outright if they chose to. I bet he spends less around 5% net on housing at this point.

My wife and I just bought our first home and we're paying around 20% of our gross. Over time, that will go down.

 

[Xcobra]

i love how some of you guys say "well if ur spending more than 30% on housing you need to move somewhere cheaper" like its that easy lol.

theres no way im gonna make more money in my field anywhere else in the country, plus I have 70+ years of family living around here. and spending more than 50% on housing when you dont have a car payment, credit card debt, and other nonsense isnt all that hard to do.....especially if you adjust your "dependents" on your paycheck to get your normal tax refund spread out over 12 months instead of getting it all at once.

i disagree with a lot of things said here, mostly b/c you're all living in areas that $300k gets you a home that fairly new and probably 2500-3000 square feet. where i live 300k gets you a house that is probably 1500-2000 square feet, 50 years old, no basement or garage, and hasnt been updated since it was first built......and a shitty school district

Exactly my sentiment.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ehh ... I spend around 40% of my net on my mortgage then a bunch more on bills ....

a few years ago, at the time I purchased this house .. I was making a bit less money, and I had more deductions from my paycheck, and it was a lot closer to 50% of my net.

Let me tell you ... that 10% makes a BIG difference....