I was born at an unfortunate time. By the time I could afford a house the housing market was already very bad. I’m just glad I’m able to buy a house but it is very expensive (we bought at the end of 2021)
I live in Canada so we can’t lock in our mortgage for more than 5 years. I just went with the variable rate because in the long term it’s generally better. However the interest rates skyrocketed. I was able to pay my mortgage still but I was pretty much house poor.
Now the rates are finally dropping so I feel a lot less pressure. With our current budget we should be able to afford one kid comfortably. I’m not sure about a second.
I’m very fortunate and grateful though. Most people my generation cannot even afford a house. It’s just insane that despite my great job it’s still so hard for us I can’t imagine what others are going through.
We aren’t broke. I have some retirement saved but I had to stop putting money in due to our mortgage. I also have an emergency funds account with enough money to sustain us ~6 months if I were to lose my job.
Having a high paying job is unsurprisingly the main reason for my financial success. Otherwise I’d say joining some personal finance clubs helped a bunch. I have my savings diversified and invested so I’m at least not losing money to inflation. But my investments will never make me rich either.
One critique I have for myself is maybe we overspent on the house but at the same time I love our neighborhood and I love our house and we have no plans on ever moving so I’m not too upset by it.
I use all three. Is there one for me :x