How many of you guys went through this "stage" in your life? I'm 24, getting married in August, closing on a house in February, and I can't force myself to spend anything on any toys (even small items). I'll admit, I can probably afford to buy a few small things here and there, but I'm pretty nervous about the home purchase and wedding being so close. That's a lot of $$$, so I'm watching my budget. Sucks, but it is what it is. Were you guys still buying stuff even when you were purchasing you're first home? Maybe it's a sign I got too much house for the first one around
Welcome to becoming a man. It blows. But seriously... don't fret too much. In time you will both make more money and life will get easier.. and then you can buy those toys you want. Cheer up.. and remember if she's happy you're happy.:d
Isn't that the truth! There's something to be said for peace and quiet:d Now I just have to learn to like furniture shopping
What he said.......:d Also, once the house and wedding are paid for, it doesn't really stop. I bought the house last year and still had some money for toys before and during the process, but not like I did before. I think the year before I bought the house I went through 10+ bows and god only knows what other toys that I bought but didn't really need. I'm still saving for our wedding, but after my commission check in February I should have it completely paid for. That put a serious dent in the budget for quite a while......I was putting more $$$ into the wedding every month than I do into my truck payment and mortgage combined. Once that is finally paid for in full, I will have a little more $$$ to play with, but then most of the money will go into home improvements. I already paid for a new driveway, septic, livingroom renovation, and have the $$$ stashed for our attic buildout, basement/mancave, and the landscaping and lot fence next summer, but then I've gotta come up with the $$$ for a whole new kitchen and bathroom. Once these are all done, hopefully the economy will be back in full swing, and the it's time to cash out and hopefully make enough $$$ to buy a chunk of land and a solid downpayment on the home we want to stay in long term.
Yeah, we're fortunate in that most of the big items in the wedding are being paid for by her parents, but we still have to pay for some big ticket items. Couple that with the fact that all of this is falling on my paycheck at the moment (house, what's left of her car payment, wedding, furniture/general housing expenses, honeymoon fund, etc) until she's done with rotations at the end of April...a teacher's paycheck can only go so far
Solutions? 1. Smaller house 2. Justice of the peace 3. Monthly trip to get condoms, pills, and contraceptives. = more money in the long run?
I know what you are saying... Moving from my last home to this one my monthly payment increased by $1000 per month on the mortgage payment. Plus more utilities now with heating / cooling a bigger house. My toy purchases really went DOWN the last two years since we bought this place.
If its not a wedding, its Dylan's braces, Dalton's band instrument, daycare/diapers/formula, real estate taxes, etc. I'd like to tell ya it gets better, but this is one situation where money DOES solve problems. Good luck on getting some toys in the future. :D
Hmm.. When I bought my last house, I was making about $450.00 per day and my house payment was only $900.00 per month. Now I'm only making a fraction of what I used to. I still buy toys, just not as often and I think about them a lot harder. (BTW, if you think a wedding is expensive, try a divorce. Particularly if you're the breadwinner. I'm sure glad I don't have kids.) ..anyhow, you're smart if you're not just buying stuff because 'you can'. Congrats on the marriage and house!
No plans for those. Don't tell her that, though 1. House isn't that huge, got a good deal on it, and we can afford it (my comment about too much of a house was a bit of a joke) 2. If I had it my way, that's how I would have done it, but it's not about me (never will be, huh, lol). 3. See above about my thoughts on that Wow, $450 a day? You sound like one of those infomercials on TV:d Seriously, though, I'm curious what you did. Thanks, though, I know I need to be smart about my money. There will be a time when I can have toys again, but for now, I need to have the best interest of our future in mind (uh...that made me sound pretty old).
Congrats on getting the house and the upcoming wedding. I knocked out those very same "milestones" in 2008. I actually have more "play" money than I thought I would when I was creating my budget. I must have went over that thing 20 times making sure everything would work out. Lately, I've laid off of the toy buying so I can build up my emergency fund. We would be living really well if my wife made more money though.
When we bought the house, we got it for 60K under appraisal, in the condition it was in at the time. It was a foreclosure with no mechanicals (no furnace, central air, hot water heater), the drywall was pretty beat up in places and the non "wooded" part of the property (5ish acres with trees throughout is the "yard", 15 acres in all) hadn't been mowed in a year and a half. I only put 30K into it for all new mechanicals, septic system, paint, carpet, light fixtures, match and patch drywall, getting the yard in great shape etc etc.... I have never got it appraised after all the money and work but I bet we have about as much equity in it as we have money owed on it now. I could have never afforded this place if it would have been in move in condition, luckily for me it wasn't... Well, until we moved in anyhow :d
the real question is, when are you going to start selling your stuff when the kid comes? That's when you will really feel the pinch. Wait about 10-15 yrs, and then by saving a little here, a little there you can buy some toys.
Yea like already said everyone goes thru different stages where you have more and less disposable income. I'm playing it good now. We bought our house when we both made much less money. Then try getting laid off, 6 months later. You find ways to make it through. Better jobs now & the same low house payment = lots of toys. But I gotta get em while I can, the big push is on for a new house. I keep telling her "someday". Don't know how much time that will buy me.
MGH, I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you too. Um, but my cover story is that I'm a certified professional medical coder. I work for different emergency departments in hospitals around the country. Back then I had a bunch of really big clients. The company that contracted us coders had issues and wouldn't listen to either the hospitals or the coders. (idiots) So I went to work for another company. There was no real trick to the money I made. I'm paid per chart, and I coded gazillions of charts. Now, I make a lot less, but I have more time for a life. My only regret is to find out that I could have skipped paying thousands in self employment taxes if I had used the Geithner Edition TurboTax.
I'm in a similar position myself. Just got married 4 months ago and spent the majority of what disposable income we had over the past year and a half on that. Now we're saving up every cent we can to put down on a home within the next 6 months. However, I have one other "problem". My wife purchased an 800 sq ft 1 bedroom condo shortly before we started dating, which was about 3 years ago now. At the time real estate prices were at their peak and she picked it up for a "steal" at 135K. First time homeowner, FHA loan (3.5% down), three years later, a real estate market crash, and now we're somewhere in the 10-15K hole on this place. Yay. So now I need to find a way to get a mortgage on my own without showing the liability of the condo, and either renting it out, or falling behind on payments until the mortgage company allows us to do a short sale. The next 5-6 months should be an interesting one for me.
