I want to know if you think we are crazy -- my husband and I bought a house in the San Jose area 7 years ago for $1.4 million and put about another $200,000 into it - pool, yard, painting, lights, cabinet refinishing, etc. We eventually ended up with 2 loans - a 30 year 1st currently at $911,000 which we just refinanced at 4.5%. The 2nd is a fixed 15 year mortgage at 6.89% - balance is $259,000. We couldn't refinance the 2nd since the house has gone down in value (maybe worth $1.4 mil -- a few years ago was closer to 1.9!)
We've recently been working the Dave Ramsey plan and monitor our budget through Mvelopes (Finicity) which I think is a great program.
Between the mortgage payments, insurance, property taxes, and other important payments (life ins., food, utilities, house maintenance, cash flowing 2 kids in college) -- we don't have much extra money. We also have about $60,000 in credit card debt. Own all our cars. Only about $10,000 in liquid savings. But....we have $1,000,000 in retirement funds (we are in our late 40s).
My husband is a physician with a large group and it is doubtful he would ever lose his job -- although his income probably will not be going up due to the current state of healthcare in this country. We have more than adequate life and disability insurance if anything were to happen to him.
I currently do not work but am planning on restarting my career in the fall -- this will take a while since I will be working on hours to become a licensed therapist (LCSW).
While I know some people would say we should downsize the house, there are several reasons I don't want to do it. First, I would hate to sell at the low point in the market. 2nd - it's a great house in a good location and we have a 14 year-old special needs (moderate learning disability) child and envision someday having a live-in caregiver/housekeeper and maybe renting a room to another special needs young adult. It would also create a lot of stress to our kids if we were to sell.
Any great ideas to free up some money? We make too much to qualify for any tax breaks on college tuition, medical expenses, etc.
We've recently been working the Dave Ramsey plan and monitor our budget through Mvelopes (Finicity) which I think is a great program.
Between the mortgage payments, insurance, property taxes, and other important payments (life ins., food, utilities, house maintenance, cash flowing 2 kids in college) -- we don't have much extra money. We also have about $60,000 in credit card debt. Own all our cars. Only about $10,000 in liquid savings. But....we have $1,000,000 in retirement funds (we are in our late 40s).
My husband is a physician with a large group and it is doubtful he would ever lose his job -- although his income probably will not be going up due to the current state of healthcare in this country. We have more than adequate life and disability insurance if anything were to happen to him.
I currently do not work but am planning on restarting my career in the fall -- this will take a while since I will be working on hours to become a licensed therapist (LCSW).
While I know some people would say we should downsize the house, there are several reasons I don't want to do it. First, I would hate to sell at the low point in the market. 2nd - it's a great house in a good location and we have a 14 year-old special needs (moderate learning disability) child and envision someday having a live-in caregiver/housekeeper and maybe renting a room to another special needs young adult. It would also create a lot of stress to our kids if we were to sell.
Any great ideas to free up some money? We make too much to qualify for any tax breaks on college tuition, medical expenses, etc.
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