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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   2670 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 23, 2023

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25% on your mortgage seems really low. Is it?

I donno. It's the only mortage I've ever had.

I feel like once upon a time, having your mortgage be 25% of your take home pay was conventional wisdom. A quick googling shows I'm not totally hallucinating, as it appears here Lifestyle inflation has obviously changed that over the years. But I'm old school, so I made the necessary sacrifices to stick with it. So far it's working out well for my family. We stick to a budget, but it's not suffocating. There are things we'd like, and we can't do all of it. But there is nothing we truly hurt for. We're saving adequately for emergencies, repairs, retirement, school, etc.

Something like 30-35% was the official Canadian stress test number, at least until recently -- they may have backed off of this now that condos are high six figures in any major city, but I wouldn't be surprised if 25% was the traditional number from like the 80s or something.

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