Hey folks - looking for input on my living situation. Trying to determine where to settle down and finances is a big part. Recently bought an expensive house and looking for another pair of eyes. Background: Married, 1 kid. Expecting another kid in a year or two. Spouse and I are mid-30s. Current HHI: 200k base + 50k bonus (self) + 150k (spouse). Total of about 375-400k being conservative. Spouse is decently underpaid and could grow to 200k within a year or three, bumping HHI closing to 450k. Monthly income after taxes/healthcare and maxing 401ks: 15k (doesn’t include 50k bonus) Expenses: 7.7k PITI, 4k other. Total of ~12k (doesn’t include childcare) Once we have kid #2, I expect expenses to go up by at least 2.5k/month. When that happens, our income is basically flat with expenses (15k for each). The only additional savings are the 50k bonus, which is more like 30k post-tax. So financially that isn’t amazing but could be worse. Good news: our house is in a great neighborhood. Super safe, walkable. Great public schools right down the block, lots of parents and kids on the street. Other houses in the neighborhood are typically 2m or higher. It’s awesome. I can see us living here for 20 years. What I’m struggling with is: 1) not being able to save as much for housing improvements since it’s an older house (in good shape). 2) not having a ton of cash to pay down the mortgage faster (would prefer to get mortgage under 800k vs. 1m). 3) not having a ton of savings to put towards other investments or college. We have a good bit in retirement accounts and then close to 200k in cash, but not too much else in other investments. It’s a conservative allocation right now but I’m not convinced we’re out of the woods economically and don’t mind our 4-5% interest on savings. I expect that my TC will continue to grow over time, same for the spouse. So I’m willing to be a bit frugal for a few years. But I also feel stressed about buying stuff, since we’re trying to keep expenses low. One other tidbit is that I expect to inherit a decent bit from my parents - probably $2-3m. That probably won’t happen for a while (I hope), but could be a cushion to pad retirement savings and/or college costs. Low risk that this inheritance diminishes since parents aren’t even dipping into retirement money due to pensions etc. Thoughts? Stretching too much? Will be fine in a few years? Move to lower COL?