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Washington, DC suburbs in Maryland Calvert County, Charles County, Montgomery County, and Prince George's County
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Old 05-16-2011, 04:24 PM
 
10 posts, read 18,724 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by btsilver View Post
Move north to Gaithersburg, Montogery Village or Germantown.
Isn't Germantown a major s###t-hole?!?
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Old 05-16-2011, 07:43 PM
 
202 posts, read 347,398 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lookoutapiano View Post
Isn't Germantown a major s###t-hole?!?
Simply put.....yes!
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Old 05-16-2011, 07:55 PM
 
202 posts, read 347,398 times
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To the OP. Where do you live now? The dc area has many benefits but also many drawbacks. I have a wife and 3 kids and moved out of Rockville nearly a year ago. I had a 350k mortgage on a 700k house. Between my wife and I we grossed nearly 230k per year. We also sent our kids to private school. Dont believe the hype about public schools in moco. Unless you live in the "right" parts of the county you'll be very disappointed. Anyway, on 230k a year we barely made ends meet. The quality of life was horrendous. As I always tell people the experience I gained there was tremendous. It is great place to live if you are single or married with NO kids. Once you have kids dc is very hard place to make it work right unless you are making serious money. I mean one income is 250k or more and the other parent stays home. Short of that I would never recommend the dc area for anyone to move to who already has children.
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Old 05-16-2011, 08:37 PM
 
Location: Massachusetts
244 posts, read 573,176 times
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Where will your job be? Are you willing to commute? For $3500 you could find many places in other counties like Frederick, Prince George's, Carroll and Howard.
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Old 05-16-2011, 08:43 PM
 
564 posts, read 1,494,129 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oldway View Post
To the OP. Where do you live now? The dc area has many benefits but also many drawbacks. I have a wife and 3 kids and moved out of Rockville nearly a year ago. I had a 350k mortgage on a 700k house. Between my wife and I we grossed nearly 230k per year. We also sent our kids to private school. Dont believe the hype about public schools in moco. Unless you live in the "right" parts of the county you'll be very disappointed. Anyway, on 230k a year we barely made ends meet. The quality of life was horrendous. As I always tell people the experience I gained there was tremendous. It is great place to live if you are single or married with NO kids. Once you have kids dc is very hard place to make it work right unless you are making serious money. I mean one income is 250k or more and the other parent stays home. Short of that I would never recommend the dc area for anyone to move to who already has children.
Seriously? You made $230k and only had a $350k mortgage and you barely made ends meet?????

What could your mortgage payment have been, $2300, $2500 a month? And you were grossing nearly $20k a month...what on earth were you doing with the rest?
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Old 05-16-2011, 08:45 PM
 
Location: Cumberland
7,020 posts, read 11,314,367 times
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Private school for multiple kids probably was a big chunk of change. Don't forget taxes either, they probably cut that gross income in half right off the top.
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Old 05-16-2011, 09:07 PM
 
Location: Bay Area
281 posts, read 811,848 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by westsideboy View Post
Private school for multiple kids probably was a big chunk of change. Don't forget taxes either, they probably cut that gross income in half right off the top.
Yes taxes and private school would take a huge cut. But still - $230K??

My sister lives on a $160K salary (her husband is not working) and has a $450K mortgage and has no problem. It's not extremely tight. Though she is a tight wad lol.

Maybe there were BMW's and Mercedes or something...I mean private school for 3 kids and a house worth $700K...that's a pretty rich lifestyle to me. And I live in SoCal which is nearly as expensive as DC. I know very few people who make that kind of money out here....and if they do they are driving Land Rovers, new Beemer's, etc.

I could more than live well on $230K gross per year! I live in SoCal on 1/4 of that! No mortgage though. And I live pretty frugaly. Public schools for the kidlet's.

I do not buy that you could not live in MoCo on that type of salary.

My sisters neighbors moved from VA to where she is in Minneapolis - and they complain complain complain about the COL in DC area. My sister laughs a bit - they lease new cars every other year, last year took THREE vacations with their kids (Bahamas, Disneyworld, and a tour of old Southern Mansions all through SE USA). They also have every known gadget for every room of their house, a boat, a jetski, a snowmobile,.....you get the picture. Not saying the poster is similar....but there are lifestyle considerations here.
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Old 05-17-2011, 06:56 AM
 
789 posts, read 2,564,368 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scottfs View Post
Seriously? You made $230k and only had a $350k mortgage and you barely made ends meet?????

What could your mortgage payment have been, $2300, $2500 a month? And you were grossing nearly $20k a month...what on earth were you doing with the rest?
230k sounds like a lot; it's all relative...3 kids in private school, let's say they attended Landon, that could easily be a 100k right there, or maybe at the lower Good Counsel, that's 45k... Taxes takes a big chunk too...
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Old 05-17-2011, 06:57 AM
 
789 posts, read 2,564,368 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oldway View Post
Simply put.....yes!
Nope.
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Old 05-17-2011, 07:36 AM
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690 posts, read 1,866,250 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyc View Post
230k sounds like a lot; it's all relative...3 kids in private school, let's say they attended Landon, that could easily be a 100k right there, or maybe at the lower Good Counsel, that's 45k... Taxes takes a big chunk too...
add in student loan payments (perhaps one parent is a doctor or lawyer and the other was nurse or something). people see the 230k figure and automatically assume that both parents were making 115k a year when in reality it could very well be that one parent is a doctor or lawyer or vp of some company and the other is a nurse or coordinator or something like that. add in private school, student loans, car payments, mortgage, credit cards and you can very easily blow through 20k a month.

wealth isn't about how much you earn, it's about how much you can save. i had a mentor tell me that and it took 5 years of me blowing through money as an upstart entrepreneur to realize just what he was saying.
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