Hey Iced. It sounds like we are talking at cross purposes.
To recap: In the first quarter of the year, my paystubs give a very misleading picture of what my net income is annually, because the net income on those Q1 paystubs is much MUCH lower than it would be if you looked at paystubs from the rest of the year. The example I gave in my initial post is that a paystub from July would show a $2000 net pay, whereas a paystub from February would likely show around $300.
I call that misleading because indeed I have far more than $300 per pay period to cover housing, utilities, food, entertainment, etc. (As it turns out I always have a big cash reserve -- it's very big in early January and by early April it's a good bit smaller, though still far bigger than most people have. Then it gradually builds back up to its huge level by December.)
If mortgage lenders looked at the net pay (as listed on the paystubs they request) as a partial guage for how big of a home loan you could afford, then the highly misleading $300 would result in a highly restricted loan size, one far smaller than I can comfortably afford. This is why I was asking the question I originally asked, and which in your first response you seemed to not have fully understood. (You basically told me I needed to not go for the biggest loan I could, but instead consider a smaller loan based on what I could comfortably afford.)
Fortunately (based on what Jville says) it sounds like no lenders use the net pay on the requested paystubs as even a partial consideration in assessing loan size. And thus the $300 net-pay figure won't have any effect on what they offer, leaving me the freedom to choose a realistic home purchase price that best accords with my realistic available pay (after retirement, after taxes, etc.).
PS. It sounds that like me you too may push more into your retirement in Q1 than in other quarters. You mention that your monthly net is 3k in Q1, whereas (it sounds like) your monthly net in (say) July is higher. You then conclude that the 3k becomes the constrainer for realistic loan size. I think that only follows if we assume that you (or someone like us) has a small cash reserve. If we assume, however, that the person has sufficient cash in Jan 1 to ride out the lower monthly income from Q1, then what really matters (in planning for a realistic ceiling on the biggest house one should buy) is one's annual net pay. Given that your monthly gross is 13k, my guess is that your average monthly net is (say) 6k -- even after assuming some big outlays for retirement and taxes.
Regardless, like you I am a huge proponent of saving. One of the biggest talking points for me on the forum is trying to address the common advice to make sure that you are only spending what you bring in. My view (and yours) is that actually people need to make sure they are spending far FAR less than they bring in, so that they can push the difference into various kinds of savings: 401k, Roth, rainy day emergency funds, save-for-my-down-payment funds, etc.
