Yes, maybe a few more feedback would help.
We both have safe, public jobs. We have a primary house that is 8 years from being payed off, to quite a low rate (so paying that off would not be wise). No negative equity on this one, selling it would even let us pay off the second debt. No other debt of any kind.
Real estate financing in France : most mortgages are fixed rate ones, ours is. When in negative equity, you can't walk away and have your debt wiped out. Whatever happens, you must pay it back. You cannot even sell before having paid back the debt, so if you're in negative equity you must be able to give a check to the bank to pay off. That's one of the reasons why we think about getting out of neg eq ASAP : even if we don't sell it, we will have the opportunity to do it if we want to. Of course, investing would probably let us have enough assets to give the bank the check it would want, and maybe keep a little (or a lot) of theses assets after that, but that's not guaranteed.
We bought the 2nd house 75 000 € ; it is now worth about 40 000 - 45 000 € and we still have to pay 52 000 € (I'm speaking in euros, but you can read "dollars", both moneys are quite close). It would take some more 14 years to pay all back and about 3-4 years to quit negative equity at current prices. It is a week-end house, not a rental one, so it does not provide income. We actually use it to grow a few vegetables & chop some wood, mainly. Some of the wood is being sold, but that's a very low income. Negative cash-flow, but we learn a lot in the process & actually like that kind of physical exercise. Renting it is not allowed for administrative reasons. As for taxes, they are quite low (about 300 € / year). For the maintenance of this house, we save 50 / month.
We are currently saving 15-20% of our after tax income, which is roughly equivalent to the monthly mortgage payments for the second house. 15-20% might seem quite small for mustachians, but that does not include health insurance, job loss insurance and retirement pension that are mandatory in France. Using all that money would let us get out of negative equity in one year & a half and it would pay back the whole mortgage in about 5-6 years, but with no liquid asset beside the equivalent of 4 months of income we currently have in cash, gold & stocks.
As for expenses :
- income (after taxes) : 3500 / month
- mortgages : 1000 / month
- food : about 400 / month
- clothes, health : 150 / month
- electricity/fuel/water : 150 / month
- internet/phone : 35 / month
- home insurances : 50 / month
- car insurance, gas & repairs : 250 / month + saving 100 / month for the next one
- house maintenance costs : saving 150 / month
- second house maintenance costs : saving 50 / month
- books, holidays, gifts, restaurants, other such expenses : about 600 / month
That's about 500 left.
We do not plan moving or changing jobs in the next 10 years.