Hi all,
So here's my current situation, my parents graciously put down 30k on a 118k house for me to live in and for most of the past 2 years I managed to do this quite well, living with a roommate only paying $400 a month. My parents aren't really charging me anything extra on top of the mortgage, which is nice to rent from someone that isn't profiting off you and keeping the funds in the family, well besides the interest.
Here's my dilemma, my roommate is moving out this weekend and getting married on a whim. He told me he was moving just 2 weeks ago and I've kinda been shellshocked since. My rent is now going to double to $800 a month. I wish I could get a new roommate but because my family put down the deposit, they ONLY want me living with someone I know and that they approve of. Currently there's no one that fits the bill here. I've checked with all my close friends already.
So here are my options as I see them:
1) I could stay where I am paying the extra on the house. It's just an 8 mile drive to work, it's in a great location, and it's a place I could see myself buckling down for the next decade or three and starting a family in. I have zero debt, am maxing out both my Roth and pension plans and feel like those two will be more than enough to accomplish my goals for retirement. (my work offers a pension instead of a matching 401k, their 401ks that they do offer are lousy with high fees, no match, and I'm in a low enough tax bracket that there's not as much incentive for me to invest there.) The only thing that irks me with this setup is that I can't save more than around $50 a month into a taxable fund to serve as an extra emergency fund or help pay for large upcoming purchases that may hit me down the road (marriage, kids, lasik). But I am in a entry level position at work and see myself moving to a higher paid one that would allow for me to invest in a taxable fund in a couple years or so. And who knows, around that time or earlier a roommate may just pop up and I'll go back down to paying the $400 a month.
2) Probably the most Mustachian option (and the one that I'm sure many of you will nod your heads to) is to get out of the house and get an apt right on top of work. Well, I work at a state university and all the apts in the area are overpriced and surrounded by college kids. Most in the area go for well over $800 a month, the cheapest I could find was 750 and would allow me to bike to work, so I'd probably save about 100 there a month over living alone in the house. But the apts are older and the area is a little questionable, I read some reviews of car break-ins and bikes being stolen. The only way this would make more sense to me is if I sold my car for 13k and bought an older car for 7k and invested the 6k difference. I'm not sure I want to do that though because I have a 2014 car that is paid for and still under warranty for the next 8.5 years (thanks Hyundai!) and I planned on keeping it for well beyond that.
3) I get a studio apt in the area I'm living in now and pay $650ish a month. Here I would probably save around 200 more a month that could go into a taxable account.
So on one side I stay in the house and am still set for retirement, but I worry a little more over big purchases that could loom in the future, or I get an apt and save 1-200 a month that could go into a taxable account to have those purchases covered, except then on top of those big purchases, I may also be adding in saving for a house downpayment down the road, and be right back to square one. I do like my setup now how I'm renting from my parents and not paying much extra on top of the mortgage and would prefer it to an apt that keeps raising their rent each time I renew the lease. Apt prices are definitely on the rise in my city, in just the two years I've lived in the house I've seen the average 1br rate (according to numbeo.com) jumped from 650 to 740. What do you think I should do? Thanks up front for reading and commenting with your advice/thoughts.