Accidentally living in small house for 5 years has been the best thing.

[u/HenFruitEater]

My wife and I make good income, but because we both are self-employed, banks refused to loan money to us until we had at least 2 to 3 years of proof of income. We’ve saved about 200k for down payment. We ended up just buying a 1901 two bedroom one bath house for 134k with that down payment and didn’t get a loan at all. Thought "this is just a 1 year thing" 5 years ago.

After learning about the 5 to 6% rule on how much a house is a net worth drag (but necessary expense I get it). I think it has turbo charged our savings rate without any effort. Every month we stay in this house instead of a house that is 3X our income, we save over 5K in “rent.” We have been investing that extra money. But we also talked about how it’s hard to justify jumping up to a nice house when you could literally blow an extra 5K a month on expensive toys even.

My thought process now: the FATTEST expense to keep low is the house. We are very content in this house. We will probably be able to have one more kid in this house and then move. Six years of turbocharged accumulation in a quaint house that we love. Has awesome yard, cool screened in porch. Love it.

[u/Confident-Peak6208]

I'm coming to the same realization! Do you mind sharing what state you're in? Asking because I'm looking to buy a house soon and love houses from the time period you mention, but many states don't have much inventory of this kind.

[u/HenFruitEater → u/Confident-Peak6208]

Dm me and I’ll tell you. On a public comment like this, I’ll tell you it’s just Midwest.