re: Buying a home

Also, don't use every dollar you have on your down payment. Make sure you have an emergency fund. AC systems love to go out in the summer when you just purchased a new house..... I'm 2 for 2 on that

My wife and I always used the term "house poor" to describe our situation after buying our first house, and a couple of them since. We didn't put ourselves at risk, but we had to make decisions, like putting off buying a new car for a couple of years, stop going out to eat every other night, etc... We both started taking our lunch to work, instead of eating in the cafeteria. We changed our lifestyle.

And then we became "kid poor" when we had four children. We had to buy a minivan and move into a new house when we hit 4 kids. We thought we were past being house poor. Having the kids did make it easier to stay home, though.

We were never set back financially, and house choices we made were financially beneficial down the road. We bought most of our houses because they offered us a chance to make money on renovations. And we did, for most of them.

Calling yourself house poor and being house poor is two difference things. Never going on vacation, never eating out, buying groceries to survive nit Gracie’s you want. Not being able to save any money. That’s house poor