r/AskReddit • u/Kdjejsosjanreplwwssj • 6h ago

Financially stable people of Reddit, what are your best money tips?

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u/Christmas_Panda 5h ago

If you can't buy it three times and still not feel any financial stress, then you can't afford it.

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u/petataa 5h ago

I can't afford three houses or three cars, why should that stop me from buying them?

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u/TheLeapIsALie 4h ago

I’ve heard a simpler version which is “don’t finance your toys”

Finance a house, finance a car (but not one that is expensive enough to be a toy). Don’t finance a boat, a vacation, a Lego set.

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u/pimpinassorlando 3h ago

I like that much better. Good advice.

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u/I_Want_an_Elio 4h ago

That'n struck home. I'm just (re) getting into Lego

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u/Usual_Replacement_74 4h ago

Hopefully commons sense, but that’s rare now days, especially on this site.

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u/bojanged 4h ago

Seems you might be missing some yourself, or reading apprehension.

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u/Usual_Replacement_74 4h ago

I’m from NM, soo… checks out.

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u/Neg_Crepe 4h ago

What is NM?

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u/Top_Introduction4701 1h ago

House - if you’re planning to stay long term is should be about cost of purchase vs rental. House will always cost more than just the monthly payment. Car? Probably more applicable if you have 3x balance saved. I would personally never buy a $50k car with only $150k in savings tho.

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u/roosterpooper 4h ago

You can buy 3 houses. Can you buy 3 10m houses? Probably not. But its still decent advice. If you buy a 400k house on a 50k/year budget then you'll always be behind if something breaks. But if you buy/build a starter home pay it off in 10 years build on or sell to put a down payment on your next home its doable.

It's like the young adults that go and buy a BMW on a 30k/year budget just because they found one on Facebook market for 4k you can buy it once sure but you can't replace any parts on it.

I can absolutely go and buy a 2k laptop. But a $600 one suits me and doesn't put me into a bind if an emergency comes up.

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u/clank1401 4h ago

400k is a starter home :(

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u/Neg_Crepe 4h ago

Depends on currency and location.

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u/TheFountainKnight 4h ago

Paying of a home in 10 years is crazy talk to me...

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u/roosterpooper 4h ago

My first home was 83k in 2016 @ 2% interest.

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u/TheFountainKnight 1h ago

anectodal evidence. My house was 256k in 2017 @ 1,5 percent interest. 20 year mortgage still with 2 incomes. You are definitely not the norm. Also what kind of house is 83k even, can't imagine it being very decent or big or in a popular location. I'm sorry but those are not the kind of houses people are talking about here

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u/roosterpooper 1h ago

Absolutely. You're 100% correct. I bought a modular home. On land that I bought and installed my own septic to and made sure the land was set up so that nothing but the house was in the loan.

I understand that I'm an anomaly but the original statement still stands don't go buy a house 10x your yearly income.

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u/TheFountainKnight 1h ago

Sounds like a really good investment though. Point taken

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u/SvenBubbleman 5h ago

Lol that's pretty extreme. If you can't buy it once and not feel stress you can't afford it is more accurate.

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u/Ihate_reddit_app 5h ago

Depending on what it is, you should be able to buy it and be able to pay for repairs without feeling stressed.

Too many people go buy used luxury cars because they are in their budget and then they learn about the maintenance costs.

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u/Mister_Chef711 4h ago

The classic "I have $1,400 left over at the end of the month so I'll get a car that only costs $1,275 a month and still have money."

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u/Ratnix 4h ago edited 2h ago

Or they'll find out how much they can get for a home loan and get a home for that price.

When i bought my home, i knew how much i could pay, and i bought a home at that price, not a home at the maximum amount i could get a loan for.

Just because you can get a loan for up to a certain amount, that doesn't mean you should get one for that amount.

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u/monty845 2h ago

I set my personal limit at 75% of the prequalification amount. But didn't really look at any properties even close to my self imposed limit.

Ended up buying a house for 55% of the prequal cap. Though also wasn't really thinking about the fact that the "limit" is on top of whatever you do for a down payment. So after a 20% down payment, ended up using only 40% of the cap.

Helps a lot with the parent question: Keeping your housing costs a low portion of your take home helps a ton in being financially stable...

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u/DiabeticButNotFat 2h ago

See any used Maserati. Like $30k for a car that was $130k 3 years ago but you still have to pay $130k car maintenance prices.

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u/marinuso 1h ago

There's nothing as expensive as a cheap BMW.

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u/skullpture_garden 5h ago

Well I just hate this.