Personally, it took a lot for me to come to this conclusion. Wrapping my head around the numbers and making deciding this may be the right fit for me was hard enough. An equally big part of my struggle has been reconciling feelings of shame and guilt.
My decision goes against what many articles in personal finance community, especially financial independence section, recommend.
People ask me about this rule of thumb fairly frequently because they want to check whether their housing spending makes sense. My response is nearly always the same, and comes swiftly:
An emphatic ‘I hate that rule!’
And I do. I hate that rule.
It’s not just about the cost– environmentally and financially– it’s about optimization. There is no point in having a big house that is a big waste of space.
It’s about money but it’s also about time. How quickly can you see a return from either cutting back or increasing your income?
I strive towards frugality because it wasn’t that long ago when I was very financially stressed. I learned my lesson the hard way, and although my friends sometimes give me crap for being “stingy,” I don’t ever want to repeat going through that experience again.
So whether your home buying journey takes 12 weeks or 6 months, once you understand step-by-step how to plan properly, it demystifies the entire process and provides a clear road-map on how to become a homeowner!
After doing some research on the housing market and what it actually takes to own a home, we started to realize that this might not be the best place for us to stash our cash.
Forget the numbers, forget the idea that you NEED more or NEED less for that matter. Step back and look at what’s important to you, TALK to your partner, and make a decision based on your values, goals and financial plan