Short story, I'm looking to sell and buy a home in my HCOL area to get into a more family-friendly neighborhood and better school district. I'm guessing the new home will be in the range of $1-1.2 million. I expect we'll have $800k cash on hand (after selling, paying off existing loan, and adding in some savings). I'm wondering how much money I should put towards the downpayment of a new house versus investing in index funds. We're not interested in investment property right now.
I'm 41, DH is 44, and we have one child. We enjoy our jobs (that are paid well) and have always viewed living here as a cash grab (we live like we earn one salary). Someday we might cash out and move to another state, or maybe go FIRE in our upcoming home. We have no debt other than a home loan. I paid off my student loans through investing in index funds (thanks to lots of advice from this forum!), so I definitely see the power of leveraging debt.
One option is put 20% down on the new home. In our area, that high of a loan would be a conventional loan (not jumbo). If it's $1.2 million, monthly PITI would be ~$5,400/month. We would qualify for that on my income alone. Is that crazy? I'm thinking that would give us cash if needed (sitting in indexes) and flexibility in a major emergency (like earthquake or medical), savings towards FIRE, or possibly investment property later.
