Quick thoughts:

• You already know that your car loan is the killer. You need a car. You probably don't need THAT car. A 4 year loan on a $15k car will come out to about $350 per month. And if your car is worth more than you owe, you could push the purchase price up with a larger down payment.
• Your cell phone bill seems high. Your home Internet bill seems high.
• What is your income? How tight is your budget? If you're having issues balancing things, then maybe you don't have $50 for coffee.
• You made a very telling comment. You said you lived in an area that might not necessitate a car. You said you could cover essentials by walking locally. Does this include work? But your comment of "but I fear my social life will tank" is the telling comment. I'm not saying you should be a total shut in....but are you allocating around $800 per month for a car just to maintain a healthy social life?

So your lender didn't send you an escrow analysis and notice that the monthly payment was changing? That would be the typical process. But maybe they didn't send it, or it got lost in the mail. Normally you get a notice in the mail telling you that it's going up, and they give you the option to pay the shortfall in a lump sum to avoid it going up as much.

Your partner proves his income by filing taxes and formally claiming the income. Consult an accountant if you're unclear on the best way for him to file taxes at this point.

Your partner proves his income by filing taxes and formally claiming the income. If he's doing everything under the table, he can't really prove anything.

>So they had to jack it up to pay for the taxes they forgot to pay.

How did they forget to pay it? When you got the mortgage, they based the escrow balance needed by what the previous owner was paying. When it came time to pay the bill, the escrow account was short, because your tax bill was more than what was estimated. So they covered it, like an overdraft at the bank. The next year, the payment went up to cover the 2 parts. One part was paying back the overdraft. The other part is building up the escrow account to be enough to cover the next bill. Generally, they send you an escrow analysis and give you the option to pay back the overdraft in one lump sum up front, so that your monthly payment only goes up enough to cover the next tax bill.

Property taxes and homeowner's insurance rates change yearly. It's impossible for the lender to proactively predict how much it will change. When the bill comes due, they pay it. If rates went up and the escrow account is short, they cover the shortfall, and adjust the escrow payment to make up for it. If people don't like it, then don't pay those bills via escrow on your mortgage. Pay those bills separately on your own. Then the mortgage payment won't change.

This has nothing to do with putting 20% down and avoiding PMI. PMI is completely separate from property tax/insurance escrow.

Totally agree. The underlying interest rate is a main factor. A $400k mortgage at 3% comes out VERY differently than one at 8%. Those rules of thumb are just generalizations, and as I said, I don't agree with people pushing that shit to 5x. I would say AT MOST you go 3x.

You have a few options, but none of them are particularly great.

• It's unlikely, in my opinion, that you'll have much luck in getting insurance to pay for any of the repairs needed. These were all pre-existing things that were there before you bought the house. Nor do I think you'll get too far with the home warranty paying for stuff. It's worth asking, but I wouldn't think you'll get too far.
• You can try to re-sell as-is. You will likely take a loss here. If the damage is that extensive, I have a hard time believing you'll get any fair price for the home. Unless you got the house FAR below market value, you won't be able to re-sell for what you paid.
• You can spend the money to make the repairs to really make the house sellable. This will cost you a good amount of money, based on your description. This may or may not raise the expected sale price enough to offset the repairs.
• You can keep the house, and hire somebody to make the necessary repairs, and then live in the house.

Personally, I'd just accept the loss, try to relist the house, and get out from it. Your GF hates it. Doesn't sound like you really wanted the house. You made an impulse purchase based on the prodding of your brother. Learn from this, and don't repeat the mistake.

What is the interest rate? Does that payment estimate include projected taxes/insurance? What are you being charged for PMI?

Running the numbers, if you have $1250 in annual property taxes, $350 for homeowner's insurance, $5k down, and a 7.235% interest rate....the payment calculates out to $842/month. Hell, the base mortgage payment on a $96.5k loan at that interest rate is $657/month. And that ignores the taxes/insurance/PMI. So a monthly payment hovering at or just above $800/month sounds about right.

Without really digging into your full budget, all anybody can really say are that general recommendations are that you try to stay at or below 3x your gross annual income with a house purchase. Lately, with the housing boom, I've seen people argue that you can go up to 5x your salary in high cost of living areas. But I still think that compresses the budget a ton. So in your case, without knowing more, I'd say that you should shoot for homes under $500k at most, if you're committed to buying something. That mortgage payment, with $25k down, would generate a monthly payment in the ballpark of $4200. With a $175k combined annual salary, your monthly net income would likely be in the ballpark of $10k. That seems affordable, especially knowing your wife will likely increase her income in the next couple of years.

There is no "best" way to do this. It comes down to whatever works for you. It's fine to leave it in your regular checking account, if you can keep track of it and not spend it. Or you can create a separate savings account and xfer the money into that. You don't need to open a new account at a new bank for this. Most banks will let you open multiple savings accounts under your main account.

If you're asking people for advice on how to manipulate and move your money in order to avoid reporting it to the feds for your aid, then you're asking people for advice on committing fraud. This sub really can't help with that. The advice you'll get here is to truthfully report the balances of your accounts.

Your lender doesn't control your property taxes or insurance rates. There is no way for them to guarantee those items in your mortgage agreement. If you don't like the idea that the escrow portion will fluctuate, then pay your taxes and insurance separately from your mortgage.

Mentally, you're combining your mortgage portion of the payment with the escrow portion. They are separate, and that's why your total monthly payment can fluctuate if you pay them together. The actual mortgage terms didn't change. The portion of that payment going towards the mortgage isn't changing. When you pay taxes and insurance in escrow, you have them tacked onto your mortgage payment. So if the taxes or insurance go up, that add-on amount goes up accordingly. Contact your lender and verify why they saw a shortfall. Did your taxes go up? Did your insurance? Both? Did they send you an escrow analysis with this notice, which would be the typical process? If so, what does the analysis show? Where is the account projected to be short?

Your escrow account covers your property taxes and insurance. Double check, but your taxes likely went up. They didn't go up by $7200. When they paid your last taxes, the account was short b/c the taxes went up. So they paid the taxes in full, and you owe them that difference. They also re-calculate the payment so that you won't be short the next time taxes are due. So your payment goes up by the new amount needed, plus the past due from the last tax payment. Typically, you can contact your lender and pay back the past due in a lump sum so that your monthly payment won't go up by as much. But contact your lender to verify.

Tldr, your payment went up b/c your taxes went up. Your payment went up enough to cover the new tax amount, as well as your past due from the account being short for the last payment. You don't get a freebie on the shortfall from the last payment.

It is never recommended to buy a car that equals your annual income. Most recommendations are that you spend 20-30% of your annual income (conservatively), and no more than 50%. So most people would recommend that you be making at least $200k before you consider a car that costs that much.

You'd probably need to post out a breakdown of your full monthly budget (which is almost assuredly out of balance), along with each card/loan and the balance/payment/interest rate on each. It's impossible to say if debt consolidation loans, or bankruptcy, or anything else make sense w/o more info.

Otherwise, generically, cut out any expenses that you can. Consider picking up a 2nd job. Prioritize paying down the highest interest debt first.

Just deposit the money. You can get in trouble for "structuring" if you try to time your deposits in ways that avoid reporting. This is actually against the law. You won't pay any taxes on any of it regardless. At most, the bank will ask where the money came from. You tell them, and it's done.

Well, if your intent is that you would live in this home as well, it changes things....but not by a ton. Unless you are able to save up $750k or more to put down on the house, it's probably not going to be affordable. B/c you're not only looking at your finances at this moment, but for the next 30 years. You don't have a car payment now. But you won't need one ever? Gotta have wiggle room to afford to buy a car. And pay for car insurance. And gas. Food and household bills will go up if you're covering the entire home. You will have to pay for maintenance and upkeep on the house. Assume 1% of the purchase price annually for repairs/upkeep. So you may have to cover up to $15k annually for home issues. You will have utilities to pay. On the home you could easily be over $500/month for gas/electric/Internet/water/sewer. More, if you live in an area that can get very hot or cold.

It really comes down to your budget. What are your bills for the short (and long) term? What are your savings goals? If you buy this house for your dad, will you also be focused on buying a home for yourself? If so, you need to account for that.

Without knowing more details about all of that, a general rule is to not exceed 3x your gross annual salary on a house purchase. So roughly speaking, in order to afford the mortgage and maintenance/upkeep on a $1.5 million home, you probably need to make in the upwards of $500k. But again....if you can afford to put a very large amount as a down payment, that will change things.

Generally, a $1.5 million dollar home will not be affordable to somebody making $250k/yr.

The mortgage on a $1.5 million home with $300k down will be roughly $9238/month, depending on taxes and insurance. So it could be in the upwards of $10k/month, if taxes are higher and if interest rates continue to climb. If your net income is $12k/month, then you already can't balance the budget.

If you saved $6k of your money every single month for the next 5 years, that would add up to $360k. Add that to the $300k you have now, and if you put all of the $660k down on that house, the payment comes out to $7000/month. So it would still eat up more than half your net income monthly. And it would require you to save all of your extra money for the next 5 years, and would take all of your savings to purchase. Or it would require you to make more sacrifices (like stop travelling so you can save $7500-10k/month) to increase the down payment (or not spend every penny of your savings).

Yeah, my numbers were intentionally a bit inflated. I was more or less making the point that when you sit down and really add up everything you pay for, it can be shocking. But when you're thinking of moving out, you have to account for all those "other" costs. Too often, when asked "what are your bills", people only think of rent and loans. They don't think about gas, or car insurance, or food, or whatever.

In your case, if we just assume utilities stay at $200, and you spend the same on food/eating out, you have about $3506.67 in bills with the rent. So right now, you're at $600 extra per month. But that also doesn't have your cell phone in it. Or any car repairs, or potential car payments. Or saving any money, outside of your existing retirement contributions. Or saving money for travelling. So it feels like it'll be a bit tight w/o a roommate.

I think the biggest issue here is that you didn't read the room. Ideally, sure. You don't jump to giving numbers out. Your pre-prepared answers were OK. But based on your description, there was a point where the HR person was making it clear to you that they were looking for actual numbers from you. In my opinion, this would have been the time to pivot, and throw out some numbers on what your salary expectations were. I'd have said something along the lines of "Based on market rates for this position, and factoring in my current salary, I would need a salary of X in order to justify leaving my current position." Something along those lines. Instead, you stuck to the generic advice of not giving any ground. This particular employer called that bluff.

You'd probably need to break out your entire budget in order to know if this is OK or not. On the plus side, you indicate you're already contributing a lot to retirement. So $2k in rent against $4261in net income could work. But what do you spend on food? Car payment? Insurance? Gas? Cell phone? What will utilities be? Do you have any other loans or debt? With no other debt and reasonable expenses? It's probably affordable. If you have a $600 car payment, $150 car insurance, spend $500/month on gasoline, and have student loans? And you might spend $1000 on groceries and going out to eat? Suddenly it's not so affordable.

Right. So without knowing what your income is, and what your budget otherwise looks like, it's impossible to say if this is a smart purchase or not.

Generally speaking, most recommendations are to try to keep your car purchase price at 20-30% of your gross annual income (conservatively), and to not exceed 50% of your gross annual income. So if you're looking at a $26k car, you'd ideally make $87-130k, and at a minimum, at least $52k annually. But those are general guidelines, and will depend on what else you have going on.