I never mentioned my income....so I don't know how you can conclude we live too high a lifestyle, but I guess one could infer that. Our house is a starter home of 1500 sq ft. I see that you are from Ohio. Our house in Ohio would sell for about 125k, here in Va Beach it is worth about 210k. I paid 325k for it in 2006 and put 60k down. Rent on an apartment here (2 BR since we still have a child at home) that you would actually set foot in is about $1400 per month. I don't think lowering my housing costs by $300 per month is going to solve my problems...it might help some, but it's not going to be a long term solution unless we move to a rural setting when we retire. Selling the house is also not an option since we a 40,000 underwater in it, with an additional 10,000 in deferred maintenance to do to sell it.
