Author Topic: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!  (Read 7367 times)

penguintroopers

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If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« on: September 21, 2017, 06:18:58 PM »
Just a quick head shake of shame to this 'helpful' calculator suggesting that we should spend at least $1800/mo in rent, otherwise we're ruining our lives by living in a broken, crappy home.

Mr. penguintrooper and I have hair-on-fire debt right now, and we will gladly be paying a third of the suggested amount to clean up our mess. I can only imagine the life of luxury a $1800/mo apartment could buy.

Disclosure: names and salaries were changed.

JLee

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2017, 06:30:10 PM »
LOL at "too much savings." That'd be an awesome problem to have!

$1800 would get me a studio apartment around here. Sooo, I have a roommate..

RFAAOATB

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2017, 06:32:56 PM »
Just a quick head shake of shame to this 'helpful' calculator suggesting that we should spend at least $1800/mo in rent, otherwise we're ruining our lives by living in a broken, crappy home.

Mr. penguintrooper and I have hair-on-fire debt right now, and we will gladly be paying a third of the suggested amount to clean up our mess. I can only imagine the life of luxury a $1800/mo apartment could buy.

Disclosure: names and salaries were changed.

Not just you living in a broken, crappy home.  You'll be living next to others in a broken, crappy homes who will bring crime and drugs and crime to feed drug addictions to your doorstop.  Car rifling and bike/package thieves abound.  I mean, if you have nothing worth stealing than it might work out for you, but still.

penguintroopers

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2017, 07:42:46 PM »
LOL at "too much savings." That'd be an awesome problem to have!

$1800 would get me a studio apartment around here. Sooo, I have a roommate..

Based on a quick glance at my craigslist, $1800/mo will net me a 3+ bedroom home. If I wanted a super swanky 1 bedroom apt, I could get one for about $1200. Bare minimum 1 bedroom? $900.

We have a roommate for now, but that wonderful perk will likely end when graduation time comes in May.

penguintroopers

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2017, 07:45:20 PM »
Just a quick head shake of shame to this 'helpful' calculator suggesting that we should spend at least $1800/mo in rent, otherwise we're ruining our lives by living in a broken, crappy home.

Mr. penguintrooper and I have hair-on-fire debt right now, and we will gladly be paying a third of the suggested amount to clean up our mess. I can only imagine the life of luxury a $1800/mo apartment could buy.

Disclosure: names and salaries were changed.

Not just you living in a broken, crappy home.  You'll be living next to others in a broken, crappy homes who will bring crime and drugs and crime to feed drug addictions to your doorstop.  Car rifling and bike/package thieves abound.  I mean, if you have nothing worth stealing than it might work out for you, but still.


I think we lucked out in this aspect. Our upstairs neighbor is actually a deputy sheriff, and supposedly a lot of the homeowners on our block are police/firemen, but I haven't seen anything to confirm it. Either way, I feel confident in our current housing area, despite knowing that others wouldn't consider this location.

SeaEhm

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2017, 08:42:26 PM »
That's actually really funny!

I did the same thing and I am saving too much money living in an over priced house in a HCOL area to the tune of nearly $1,000 per month! 

Luckily, I spend that money that I should put towards savings on organic foods, avocado toast, single origin coffee, and fresh squeezed juices.

Travis

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2017, 08:49:25 PM »
LOL at "too much savings." That'd be an awesome problem to have!

$1800 would get me a studio apartment around here. Sooo, I have a roommate..

Based on a quick glance at my craigslist, $1800/mo will net me a 3+ bedroom home. If I wanted a super swanky 1 bedroom apt, I could get one for about $1200. Bare minimum 1 bedroom? $900.

We have a roommate for now, but that wonderful perk will likely end when graduation time comes in May.

It would be easier to sympathize if we knew what market you were in.  $1800 where I grew up would get you 1500 square feet. Where my sister went to college it would get you a closet.

All that being said, there's a website that actually complains to you that you're not spending enough on something? WTF?

ixtap

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2017, 08:53:58 PM »
My in laws get very concerned that we are saving too much. When they aren't being concerned that we have no concept of money and will go broke the day after we retire.

farfromfire

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #8 on: September 22, 2017, 01:25:35 AM »
Just a quick head shake of shame to this 'helpful' calculator suggesting that we should spend at least $1800/mo in rent, otherwise we're ruining our lives by living in a broken, crappy home.

Mr. penguintrooper and I have hair-on-fire debt right now, and we will gladly be paying a third of the suggested amount to clean up our mess. I can only imagine the life of luxury a $1800/mo apartment could buy.

Disclosure: names and salaries were changed.

Not just you living in a broken, crappy home.  You'll be living next to others in a broken, crappy homes who will bring crime and drugs and crime to feed drug addictions to your doorstop.  Car rifling and bike/package thieves abound.  I mean, if you have nothing worth stealing than it might work out for you, but still.

talltexan

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2017, 07:00:09 AM »
My in laws get very concerned that we are saving too much. When they aren't being concerned that we have no concept of money and will go broke the day after we retire.

Are you my wife?

ixtap

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2017, 09:14:38 AM »
My in laws get very concerned that we are saving too much. When they aren't being concerned that we have no concept of money and will go broke the day after we retire.

Are you my wife?

Is your father obsessed with the minimum accoutrements of the upper class lifestyle, but mocks those who upgrade their cars regularly and take fancy vacations? Obsessed with retirement planning, but thinks that small living and early retirement are unAmerican?

Luckily, one SIL just bought a 5k sq ft house, so one of his kids is doing it right.

economista

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2017, 09:31:50 AM »
Yeah, these online calculators are always crazy with their spending targets and they never take into account CPI differences.  Ironically my current rent is $1800 per month, but I'm in a small apartment with my husband it is almost falling down around us.  This was the cheapest rental I could find and we have to call maintenance at least once a week to fix something that has broken.

penguintroopers

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #12 on: September 22, 2017, 12:42:28 PM »
LOL at "too much savings." That'd be an awesome problem to have!

$1800 would get me a studio apartment around here. Sooo, I have a roommate..

Based on a quick glance at my craigslist, $1800/mo will net me a 3+ bedroom home. If I wanted a super swanky 1 bedroom apt, I could get one for about $1200. Bare minimum 1 bedroom? $900.

We have a roommate for now, but that wonderful perk will likely end when graduation time comes in May.

It would be easier to sympathize if we knew what market you were in.  $1800 where I grew up would get you 1500 square feet. Where my sister went to college it would get you a closet.

All that being said, there's a website that actually complains to you that you're not spending enough on something? WTF?

I think they're somewhere near NYC, given that the craigslist post they linked is outside of NYC. So, $1800 for a 300 sqft closet.

BDWW

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #13 on: September 22, 2017, 12:49:50 PM »
LOL at "too much savings." That'd be an awesome problem to have!

$1800 would get me a studio apartment around here. Sooo, I have a roommate..

Based on a quick glance at my craigslist, $1800/mo will net me a 3+ bedroom home. If I wanted a super swanky 1 bedroom apt, I could get one for about $1200. Bare minimum 1 bedroom? $900.

We have a roommate for now, but that wonderful perk will likely end when graduation time comes in May.

It would be easier to sympathize if we knew what market you were in.  $1800 where I grew up would get you 1500 square feet. Where my sister went to college it would get you a closet.

All that being said, there's a website that actually complains to you that you're not spending enough on something? WTF?

They're in the business of marketing rentals, so of course they want you to "upgrade" and look for new more expensive rentals as often as possible.

Travis

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #14 on: September 22, 2017, 05:42:07 PM »
LOL at "too much savings." That'd be an awesome problem to have!

$1800 would get me a studio apartment around here. Sooo, I have a roommate..

Based on a quick glance at my craigslist, $1800/mo will net me a 3+ bedroom home. If I wanted a super swanky 1 bedroom apt, I could get one for about $1200. Bare minimum 1 bedroom? $900.

We have a roommate for now, but that wonderful perk will likely end when graduation time comes in May.

It would be easier to sympathize if we knew what market you were in.  $1800 where I grew up would get you 1500 square feet. Where my sister went to college it would get you a closet.

All that being said, there's a website that actually complains to you that you're not spending enough on something? WTF?

They're in the business of marketing rentals, so of course they want you to "upgrade" and look for new more expensive rentals as often as possible.

I tried to go to this online calculator and the link wouldn't work, but I went to the company's Facebook and Twitter and it's nothing but articles about areas that are "charming." I think I saw one article in ten about affordability.

chaskavitch

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #15 on: September 24, 2017, 07:32:47 AM »
Hahahaha. 

If I enter both of our salaries pre-tax/401k/HSA/dependent care FSA/health insurance deductions, it says that we should, at a minimum, be paying $2,600 for rent.  Granted, we bought our house right before prices in our city jumped 50%, but even after paying an extra $100/mo on our mortgage we're paying ~$1200.  I can't even imagine what we'd be living in for twice that.

Goldielocks

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #16 on: September 24, 2017, 02:09:28 PM »
The lowest brackets shouldn't be "Too much savings", of course, but "Richest kid on the block!"

RecoveringCarClown

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Travis

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #18 on: September 24, 2017, 04:14:11 PM »
Based on my income, the site suggests I spend $3,020 on rent with a minimum of $2410. It then gives me this other bit of advice:

Quote
If you'd like to live in luxury, you may choose to spend more money on rent and save up less. However, we recommend you pick a place that costs at most $3,630 per month in rent.

For comparison, I'm very comfortable renting an $1,800 house and my FI number will be roughly $4,000/month.

Fomerly known as something

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #19 on: September 24, 2017, 06:53:36 PM »
I can't find an apartment in my town for the minimum rent they suggest.  I guess I have to have too much savings.

slugline

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #20 on: September 25, 2017, 07:34:38 AM »
Sometimes I wonder if some of these tools are intentionally set up to give crazy answers just so they get shared on social media sites and forums. :)

JLee

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #21 on: September 26, 2017, 12:19:39 AM »
Sometimes I wonder if some of these tools are intentionally set up to give crazy answers just so they get shared on social media sites and forums. :)

Or to normalize absurd housing costs.

Rent in my area is absolutely insane.

threefive

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #22 on: September 27, 2017, 01:51:43 PM »
A view from the low COL middle-of-the-country: Based on my salary, I should be paying about $3,000/month for rent with a max of $3500 and a minimum of $2500. Interestingly, I actually pay $1800 for a preposterously HUGE (2300 sq ft.) condo on the top floor of a building in the downtown of my new LCOL mid-western city. I have a freakin' concierge, a free movie theater and gym in the building, and climate-controlled reserved-spot basement parking. The condo itself has got granite everything, fireplace, jetted tub, a private atrium, and I'm sure luxuries I haven't even found yet. We have monthly wine and cheese parties hosted in the lounge and provided as part of our rent. I'm sure it's possible to get up to $3000 per month in rent in this area, but ... holy cow what would that look like? If I'm feeling lazy I can already send the concierge to pick stuff up for me. What does $3k get me? Daily sponge baths?

It took some solid work and probably a lot of luck to finally land a coastal city salary in the inexpensive mid-west. So this little calculator does give me some comfort, because at least I'm still frugal in comparison to "normal" and "saving to much" according to the internet, even if on this site I'm a profligate spendypants surfing on a wave of hedonic adaptation.

talltexan

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #23 on: September 28, 2017, 07:18:33 AM »
With that free movie theatre, there's probably no way to justify ever paying to go to a movie theatre, is there?

threefive

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #24 on: September 28, 2017, 10:03:34 AM »
With that free movie theatre, there's probably no way to justify ever paying to go to a movie theatre, is there?

We haven't been here very long to know if it has cut down real movie theater spending. But I can count on one hand the number of times I go to a movie theater each year and still have fingers left. I think of it more as "with that cheap Netflix, microwave to make popcorn, sofa way more comfortable than movie seats, and my stupid inexpensive big screen TV and surround sound system, there's probably no way to justify ever paying to go to a movie theater, is there?" But yeah, I can now get 120" of movie in my face just a few floors down instead of 50".

I point all of this out because my guess from the OP's rent is that they are in a similar LCOL area and they wondered what amount of ridiculous luxury could be had for $1,800. Well ... a LOT! Or, if you happen to like in NYC, none at all.

penguintroopers

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #25 on: September 28, 2017, 10:21:35 AM »
With that free movie theatre, there's probably no way to justify ever paying to go to a movie theatre, is there?

We haven't been here very long to know if it has cut down real movie theater spending. But I can count on one hand the number of times I go to a movie theater each year and still have fingers left. I think of it more as "with that cheap Netflix, microwave to make popcorn, sofa way more comfortable than movie seats, and my stupid inexpensive big screen TV and surround sound system, there's probably no way to justify ever paying to go to a movie theater, is there?" But yeah, I can now get 120" of movie in my face just a few floors down instead of 50".

I point all of this out because my guess from the OP's rent is that they are in a similar LCOL area and they wondered what amount of ridiculous luxury could be had for $1,800. Well ... a LOT! Or, if you happen to like in NYC, none at all.

Close, I'd consider where I am (suburb of Philadelphia) a moderate cost of living area. Vastly different from where we went to school in Arkansas (where I could likely have a McMansion and then some fro $1800/mo) and places like NYC. But, some people do say the cost of living is high so I just shrug.

Maybe our attempts at frugal living bias our views of what the relative cost of living is around here.

Anura

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #26 on: September 28, 2017, 11:02:45 AM »
I shouldn't be surprised that a site that probably makes it's money by the fess paid by landlords, but has anyone looked at the percentages that this is implying?

For the OP's example they are telling a family that it *should* be spending 40% of their take home pay (as estimated by the site) on housing.  Their minimum recommendation is still above 30% of take home pay (which the traditional definition of "affordable housing" limit).  Their maximum is almost 50% of take home pay!  They are damn right that might lead to problems affording breakfast!  Spending more than 50% on housing is a good definition of housing insecurity. 

While there are certainly situations in which people make the rational decision to spend that much on housing, it makes me queasy that a company would try to make money by suggesting that it is a good idea.

MgoSam

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Re: If I'm Not Paying at Least $1800/mo in rent, I'm Saving Too Much!
« Reply #27 on: September 28, 2017, 11:59:01 AM »
With that free movie theatre, there's probably no way to justify ever paying to go to a movie theatre, is there?

Just got my card from MoviePass. I wonder if it will work but for $10/month I'm happy to find out. I generally go to about 1.5 moves a month so this should easily pay for itself. I generally drive to an old theater that charges $6 instead of the one close to my house that is WAY nicer but charges $10. I will go to the nicer one now and so just going once a month pays for it.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!