Not used to better cost of living...

[JFinkle]

Originally Posted by rnwilli

Hi
I need to ask a blunt and sorta tacky question.
We live in NY on Long Island and really want to move to the Raleigh area.
Job offer in Cary for 75K yr- Partner makes about 50k.
Where we are now we could not make ends meet on that. can barely make it on alot more and HATE the crowds and the self serving attitudes.
Homes that we are looking at are under 300k. our commutes are close to 30 min each day. kids in college...2 @ home.
I am scared that we won't be making enough to not be worried about making our bills each month. Am I being overly afraid? I want our life to be a little bit easier for my family...
Is that enough money to COMFORTABLY live on?

We moved here from CT just over two years ago. Your combined salary is in the same ballpark as ours. We are living much better than we did in CT. We made some money on the sale of our house and were able to significantly upgrade our home and with a lower mortgage.

There are something more expensive here, but the big items such as homes, insurance, utilities are much much less. With 4 kids, 2 in college you won't be living large but you will be much better off than you are in LI.

[cheapdad00]

Originally Posted by lifevicarious

And so does the interest rate. About a $150 a month per point on a $250K loan. Not considering Interest (or the PMI's you would pay based on your 50K down on a 300K house scenario) is not great advice. A 250K loan for someone making 125K a year at 4% is 11.5% of income which is ULTRA conservative. Far less then half of what banks will give you. There is nothing wrong with being on the low side but your notion that it should NEVER be more then twice your income is quite short sighted.

I think the 2-2.5 times annual salary thing needs to be updated. Applied when interest rates were 8-10%, but in this ultra low interest rate environment of the last few years (and the next few years), those guidelines can be adjusted.