I was wondering how big of a mortgage payment (+taxes+insurance) people had as a percentage of their take home pay (minus all deductions, 401k, etc, ie your actual paycheck)?
I believe Jacob had recommend 10-15% in his book. I wanted to see what everyone's percentage was?
No mortgage payment, so zero percent. Just reduced my insurance premium by $500/year, so take a close look at your policy to see if you are overinsured. Taxes, .... well what can you say? My total expenditure is 2.5% of my current income.
<10% is the coupon amt, but most of our after tax pay goes to paying down the mortgage ASAP, so over 50%.
Goal is certainly as close to 0% of cashflow (whether pay or other) as fast as possible.
Our Mortgage (+taxes+insurance) is 15.5% of take home pay; depending on how much we deduct for our retirement accounts, may be lower.
Soon to go to 0$ mortgage and 4% take home for taxes and insurance.
Good question.
Payments are one question, but don't forget another very important question, how much is your house worth vs total net worth?
To us, that was more important than the payment amt.
Simple answer: 35% for two homes.
Complicated answer: Upon exiting the work force, we'll sell one home (our current primary residence) and pay off the other home (our current second home). At that time, the property taxes and insurance will be 10% of expenses (or about 5% of takehome pay if I were still working).
@FarmOne--no taxes or insurance?
Based on last year's income (it varies) we're at 17%, but we pay ridiculously high property taxes. The monthly tax payment is higher than our mortgage and insurance combined. Honestly, I didn't realize it was that high until I calculated it for this thread.
ours is about 55% of take-home pay. But we have 3 housemates... if you subtracted what they pay, then it is 21%. we live in a high cost of living area and also decided to get a 15-year mortgage.
