Community Chat

[Dwight Schrute]

I want to see where people fall on this question. I am 40 years old, a SAHM, with 3 children (all pre high school age). My husband and I are planning a move to a bigger house--this move has been needed for a long time for space reasons but I have been a procrastinator. Now my husband took a job an hour away and we are planning to move out in his direction

With the equity in our house, we are getting completely out of credit card debt and college loan debt, etc. So, we don't have much to put down. So, basically we are starting over and most likely almost tripling our mortgage because we bought our original house 16 years ago. I realize we may never pay the house off----I will be 70 when the 30 year mortgage is up but I would imagine we would have downsized long before that point anyway.

So...right now I am trying to figure out what we can afford. We put a bit away for our kids for college and retirement (we have a stable pension plan as well). My question basically is-----if you were in this type of position---what amount per month would you be happy with as a cushion. Meaning, after all the bills are paid and money is put aside for college, retirement, food, gas, clothing, entertainment, etc, etc, etc,......what amount would you be comfortable with having as a cushion.

Oh...I should mention that we have money set aside to start furnishing the new house and an emergency fund. Also, I am not counting my annual tax return in the monthly cushion amount. I am figuring that money (in the 7-8,000 range) will be used partially for clothing and the rest for housing things that pop up over the year or a small vacation.

Just trying to get ideas of people's thoughts.

Thanks in advance.