At what point is it a good time to buy a second (vacation) home? Don’t plan to use as a rental. Would be great to get advice from those that have done it. Wife and I have great income, max retirement, primary home is half paid and worth about $950k, late 30s with net worth just north of $1m. We have been talking about this for a while, we are both super cheap given how we grew up and are having a hard time pulling the trigger.

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Purchased a 2nd place (townhome) for wintering in late 2020.

Wife and I in our early 50s. No kids, total income this year will be around 300k. Pretty frugal, which can be a blessing and a curse.

Chicagoland residents, purchased in Charleston SC. Started actively looking about 3 years ago. spend about 4 months here out of the year, so driving back and forth is manageable. Also keeping a car at the SC place to allow easier fly in short visit. My wife has family in the area which simplifies things a bit.

Did scale down our primary residence by about 150k before 2nd place, but that was more opportunistic than planned. Total real estate value of both is around 650k, mortgages about 75% of that. Low interest rates, Inflation and tax dedications basically making the mortgage interest “free”.

Took us a few years of casually looking before settling on location, home type, etc. Do feel fortunate to have gotten the place when we did, as the market in SC is crazy.

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Need to figure out how to get our sc neighbor to take down his windchimes though, so not all is delightful. 😉

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How far away would the home be and how often would you stay in there? I've had this discussion with my husband - if we bought something close by (less than 2 hours away), we'd probably go every weekend, but further, it would be maybe monthly at best and the costs just wouldn't be worth it - a nice hotel would be more cost effective.

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So we are thinking 2-3 hours diving from where we are currently. Location somewhere on the coast of NC, near outer banks, but looking at other locations.

Covid drove up prices of second homes. Who knows if that’s permanent. If I thought I wanted a second home, I would Airbnb in the area several times and figure out if it’s the right thing to do. I do have two friends with second homes and they use them a lot but they also can wfh and just stay in the vacation home for full weeks at a time.

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I'm in a similar position, and each time we've chosen vacation/weekend flexibility over a 2nd home. We just can't quite see ourselves going to same place often enough to justify time+$$ overhead.
We recently started returning to same airbnb and that feels easier, yet still gets that feeling of familiarity/hone.
If we ever do it, it will likely be together with another family

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Makes sense and is exactly the same alternative we are considering. Problem is we don’t like to plan far ahead for airbnbs…and good options seem very limited. So we wanted a place of our own that we could just get up and go to whenever we like.

I'm in the same boat as Glassdoor. Vacation homes can become expensive and then you feel an obligation to always go to the same place. We would rather have the freedom to go to different places and not be on the hook for payment on a second house. YMMV however, some people are into it.

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Appreciate the insights all. Helps to validate some of the considerations that we are kicking around.

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Not sure what you are looking for? If you want it and can comfortably afford it, that seems like a good time

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Would probably say it depends on the price of the home if it was a 1m+ home I would say no since you’d have over half your net worth tied up in your personal houses, if it’s less say sub 400k let it rip

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Our thinking as well. Our goal was 300-450k given our current mortgage balance.

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If you think you can get a better ROI on it than the market and bonds sure. If not I'm not sure that it would be worth the extra work maintaining it.

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Any particular reason you are not considering short term rental property so you can make money when you are not there?

We have strong beliefs about freedom, being able to get up and go without tons of scheduling and coordination. It’s not that we will never rent it, but renting (and rental income) is not our focus for this property.

I think its all about the numbers and job security. If you can float the extra mortgage, why not... This is a hit or miss item to consider, but you may want to consider refinancing your primary and extending it out over a longer term to get a lower monthly payment - a lot of people do not like this idea because you are capitalizing extra closing costs, but you can refi that into a lower monthly payment and always continue remitting larger pmts, or stashing the extra savings into a separate account, should you ever need it.

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Hello Fishes,
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3. Utilise all leaves for Vacation.
4. Utilise all leaves for Upskill/Reskill.

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Trying not to jinx it but it feels like the market is finally turning... prices are down in 77% percent of US metro area's baby! Bided my time and hope it finally pays off when I buy.

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Want to do a sanity check. I’m making $110K and single. Right now max 401K, 50/50 traditional/Roth split. If I know I’ll be in school next year and will only work 6 months next year, should I aim to maximize Roth *next year* ? And therefore, maximize traditional this year? Thoughts? Thansk!

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Is this reasonable or am I missing something?

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My reasoning is that I would pay 35% tax now and my remaining 65% would grow tax-free in ROTH 401k…. versus traditional 401k where I deposit 100% but every distribution will be taxed 35% assuming I make a lot in retirement.

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I ran into my ex a couple days ago and it’s just all screwed with my head. We are kinda talking and he invited me to his company holiday party to be his +1.

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Studies show, Friday pizza parties are better than vacation.

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