@Watchmann wrote:
You should be able to get funding with 5% down. I guess the question the system will want to know is if you have no debt, and are making $200k a year, why don't you have any savings in cash? There might be very good reasons for this but it does beg the question.
IMHO, original poster and anybody else who has a good income but little savings is skating on very very thin ice financially especially in the current economy where very few jobs are truly safe unless OP is something like a Tenured Professor at a major University. Were I in that sort of situation my top financial priority right now would not be making a real estate purchase but cutting living costs rapidly and radically in order to accumulate cash.
My favorite way to think about budgeting is to focus on fixed expenses, like mortgage, taxes, utilities, basic food, auto costs, etc. and keep those below about 60% of after-tax income. Stuff like eating out, entertainment, travel, and so forth are much less dangerous in the event of an income decrease than are fixed expenses because discretionary spending can be cut back immediately should there be a need to cut back.
TU 791 02/11/2013, EQ 800 1/29/2011 , EX Plus FAKO 812, EX Vantage Score 955 3/19/2010 wife's EQ 9/23/2009 803
EX always was my highest when we could pull all three
Always remember: big print giveth, small print taketh away
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