How much payment can you afford?

Hey, it's Craig back with another Mortgage Minute. And a question that I get asked a lot is, hey, look, I'm thinking about buying another home, but I'm just, I'm not real sure how much of a payment I can really afford. I know what I'm paying now, but I'm just not sure what I can afford, you know, for the next purchase. And so I've got a really cool idea, and this is so simple, but it's something that can be truly helpful. So if you currently own a house and you're thinking about buying a bigger home, or you're having to buy in a different neighborhood that the price of that house is gonna be more expensive than what you've currently got, yeah, that can make you a little nervous if you think, hey, you know, I'm not sure how much more we can go higher on the house payment. So here's a real easy plan. Step one, call me. We can figure out what an estimated payment would look like, okay? So if you're selling your house, I can help you estimate how much you might net from the sale of your house. Therefore, we know how much you would be putting down on the next purchase, which you don't have to put all of what you net down on the next purchase, but that's beside the point. Regardless, I can help you estimate what that payment would look like. Now, that's step one. Here's step two. Take a little bit of time. And so for example, let's say that that new payment is gonna be $2,800 a month. And let's say that you're currently paying $2,200 a month. That's a $600 difference, okay? So easy way to tell whether that payment's gonna be a comfortable payment for you or not, start taking $600 a month and set it aside into a completely separate savings account, okay? Here's what I have found. If you can do that month after month after month, guess what? That tells you, you know what? I can afford that $2,800 payment, okay? But if setting that $600 aside, you then realize three weeks into the month, oh, wait a minute, you know, I need additional money to pay for this or that, or it doesn't matter what it is. Okay, I need to dip into that savings account. That might indicate that, you know what? That $2,800 payment may not be a comfortable payment for you going forward. So like I said, that's a real simple idea, but it's really effective if it's a situation where, say, you're married and your spouse and you both work and maybe one of you wants to start staying home with the kids, and you're like, hey, I'm not sure if we can make that work. Again, easy fix there to kind of figure that out. Start taking the person's paycheck that is thinking about staying home, set that aside in a totally separate savings account and see if you can make it work with what's left over. Again, simple, but it's an easy way for you to kind of tell that. So listen, if you've got questions about that, give me a call, 615-498-5626. Would love to help you take that next step, buy that next home, or would love to help you kind of walk through the numbers and allow one of you to stay at home if that's something that's important to you. So give me a call and I appreciate you watching.