Question 1

Why do I need a personalized calculator? What does this calculator do that I cannot find elsewhere on the internet?

Accepted Answer

Home buying is the biggest financial decision that most people will make. But home affordability calculators on the internet use generic data like debt/ income ratios or 2*income, etc.
 
While these are nice benchmarks, the reality is that your home affordability is influenced by many variables that are very specific to you and your family:
- Income,
- Expenses,
- Do you want to apply some of your bonus or stocks to your mortgage,
- Kids’ college,
- Retirement plans,
- Travel and other hobbies.
 
Our model factors in all of the above variables and allows you to run 'what-if' scenarios on them. Ultimately you can find the right home value personalized for your family.

Question 2

What scenarios does this tool support?

Accepted Answer

Option 1: Fully-personalized based on your own financial picture and goals.
Option 2: Industry standard debt/ income ratios.
 
If you already own a primary home, you can run 2 additional scenarios
Option 3: Sell your current home and use the equity for downpayment on a new home.
Option 4: Rent your current home and buy a bigger home.
 
What if I already own a home and am looking to upgrade to a bigger home?
​
We got you covered.
 
We offer 2 scenarios to help you make a decision about a bigger home:
What if you sold your current home and used the home equity on the current home to make a downpayment to buy a bigger home?
What if you rented out your current home and bought a bigger home?
​

Question 3

Why do you need me to fill in so much data? How long will this take?

Accepted Answer

It might take about 15-30 minutes to input all your income, expenses and assets data & and run the what-if scenarios.
Buying a home is probably the biggest financial decision you will make. It is a good crunch the numbers using your family’s real data. We believe the effort is worth it to make an informed decision for your family and making sure you are buying the right amount of home while achieving all your other goals.

Question 4

How does this work?

Accepted Answer

1. Start by entering basic information regarding income, expenses, assets and loan payments.
 
2. Then enter your goals:
How much would you like to target as retirement nest egg?
How much would you like to spend on your aspirations such as Travel?
How much do you want to save for kids’ college?
 
3. Get home affordability & monthly mortgage results tailored to your personal finances and your goals. Compare this with standard debt/ income ratios.

Question 5

What if you wanted to buy a bigger home and were okay with less travel or less money for retirement?

Accepted Answer

Go back and tweak your Goals section to run a bunch of what-if scenarios until you arrive at a mix of home affordability, retirement nest egg and other goals that work with you.
 
Bonus: Share these numbers with family members to jointly discuss what goals are important to your family and how much you can allocate towards each of these.

Question 6

What if I find that my home eligibility is not as good as I might have hoped?

Accepted Answer

The beauty of this tool is that you can run a lot of what-if scenarios until you find the right combination of goals that works for you and your family.
 
So if you find that you are not able to buy a home for as much as you might have wanted, you can go back and tweak other variable such as Retirement nest egg, spending on Travel or other goals, kids’ college or even your ongoing monthly expenses.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I need a personalized calculator? What does this calculator do that I cannot find elsewhere on the internet?

What scenarios does this tool support?

Why do you need me to fill in so much data? How long will this take?

How does this work?

What if you wanted to buy a bigger home and were okay with less travel or less money for retirement?

What if I find that my home eligibility is not as good as I might have hoped?

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