Life Situation: Married filing jointly. One child.
Gross Salary/Wages: $270k. I work, my wife is taking care of our kid full time and takes no salary.
Individual amounts of each Pre-tax deductions 401k, HSA, FSA, IRA, insurance, etc.: We max out 401k and two IRAs. We also invest in a vanguard index fund each month. We have a small-ish college fund that auto-debits for our daughter. I have no stress hitting those deposits each month.
Other Ordinary Income: No other income, save for the index dividends.
Qualified Dividends & Long Term Capital Gains: I don't have anything to worry about here, I don't think. All dividends are auto reinvested.
Rental Income, Actual Expenses, and Depreciation: none yet.
Adjusted Gross Income: $230k or so. I am self employed and have a home office deduction among others.
Taxes: Federal, state/local, and FICA.: not sure. I live in a relatively high-tax state but get a small refund each year because of my self-employment deductions.
Current expenses: Mortgage $2391 (including tax withholding). Health insurance $707. Student debt maintenance $960. Also have car insurance (300), life insurance (140), cell phone (160), internet (65), etc. We spend a fair amount on food but only eat organic, etc.
For mortgage payments, separate the P&I (which stop when the mortgage is paid) from the T&I (and anything else) which continue as long as you own the property.: $1919 for mortgage. $472 for insurance and tax withholding. Rate is great: 3.875% fixed.
Expected ER expenses: Not sure what this is.
Assets: Two cars owned outright, sum value $30k. Have $85k in various retirement stock accounts in addition to $50k in cash. On-hand cash and non-retirement stock accounts are a bit more than our total student debt, which is why, although our debt is high, it's not a stress point for me -- we could pay it off at any time but choose to invest at the moment.
Liabilities: $93k in student loans with weighted average interest rate of 4.6%. Long terms. Monthly payment is $960/mo, which is large but easily manageable for me. I understand that looks like a lot, but again we have more cash available than outstanding debt (we invest instead.) No other debt including cars.
Specific Question(s): I bought the house I'm in for $457k in 2014. It now comps for $650-700k. A local property evaluator said he could manage our property for a 6% annual fee. I like that price, because even after the fee, the house would run at a profit. He says he can rent for $2800 a month, charge the fee, and that would still keep us something like $200 in the black each month. Plus there would be approx $650/mo principal repayment on the mortgage, plus the appreciation on the house, which has been significant lately (7-10% annually on a house that currently comps for $650-700k.) So this looks like something like a $40-50k per year net worth increase. I'd like to move, rent our current place, and save for a down payment on the next place. But we do have a lot of debt (though cheap) and the new place would be expensive. Maybe $1M or more.
I have one big variable, which is that my wife wants to live in a house we own, price be damned. But our only child is 1, and won't need a decent public school for at least four years.
Thoughts?