5.85 percent tax free vs 7 percent before tax.

Depending on the taxes you would owe liquidating investments, paying cash seems better to me.

What a lender will accept and what is actually doable are two different things.

I once had a 70,000 household income in HCOL. That is $5800 gross per month.

I borrowed $216,000 at 9 percent. That is $1700 per month. Taxes $250 / month. Insurance $100 / month (earth quake insurance required in those days)

2050 / 5800 = 35 percent debt to gross income.

No kids. No other debt.

The banks and realtors convinced me I could afford this.

5 months into ownership I realize I was being lied to. My cash in the bank account was declining each month and I realized I had 4 months left.

I hustled a new job that brought household gross to $7900 / month.

2050 / 7900 = 26 percent.

After that I everything was better.

175 * 0.11 / 12 = 1600 a month retirement savings.

1600 + 1700 = $3300.

I suggest

• lowering retirement contributions to the level needed to maximize employer match,

• pay off your debts, and

• then save more toward a down payment to reduce this ratio:

(mortgage payment including insurance and peppery taxes) / (Take home pay + retirement) to 25 percent

3800 / 7500 = 51 percent dti. No you cannot afford to buy the home you want.

Including retirement savings how much do you save per month?

> A credit score in the low 500s definitely needs to be addressed. It's not going to fix itself overnight

Where did I say it would fix itself over night?

Don’t put words in my mouth that I didn’t say.

Why do you care about a higher credit score? I’ve had an 850 score. The promised dancers, marching band, ponies, and magicians didn’t show up. And I waited all day.

You should be less concerned about your credit score and more concerned about preventing a reoccurrence of problems that resulted from going into debt when you lost your job. You didn’t have a sufficient emergency fund. It took you 6 months to replace your income in an economy with low unemployment rates.

After you pay off your debts, you should focus on a 12 month emergency fund.

Pay all your credit card balances in full and your score will recover over time.

Wills can be contested

Thanks for telling me I am psychotic. That is so civil of you. OP is ready to purchase the house and OP should not take the financial risk of joint ownership with someone who is not a spouse.

There is no rush to marriage because the decision to marry has already been made. Having a marriage service performed at the county office protects OP and source legally, and they can still have the planned cultural wedding service and reception.

Blocked for your lack of civility

Because anything can happen between now and the scheduled marriage dates and I’ve seen enough disasters on this sub.

You can easily Google for it.

https://www.interest.com/mortgage/buying-a-house-with-your-significant-other/ explains all the pit falls.

Only married people should be joint owners

It’s happened to me before. I never make a claim through the my insurer now. I notify but that’s it.

The other insurer might decline coverage as the other driver didn’t comply with the terms of the policy. Since the driver accepted fault, you can go directly to that driver for reimbursement. If both the insurer and the driver refuse to pay, report the diver to the state dmv for not having insurance. Then sue the driver and insurer. Your insurer might pay for your legal fees.

Take your car to the dealer or the dealer’s authorized body shop and give the body shop the name of insurance adjuster. Your body shop will handle it.

If you go through your insurer you risk a premium hike.

Ultimately the only way to force change is to be on the HOA board. It is fairly easy to join the board if state regulations required fixed terms and elections. Usually you end up in by default.

Once in the board, for something like OP’s issue, a director can ask the property manager why is there a discrepancy and if the answer is that it should have always been $3.25, the director can make a motion to require the property manager to refund the excess fees and a separate motion to stop collecting the excess fees.

Attend the next HoA meeting to complain

So you are getting free points?

Dunno which drug store you use but cvs and Walgreens happily just accept my phone number.

The security risk is that this other person can redeem your points as neither drugstore chain has any authentication. This problem has been around for at least a decade and it’s clear neither drugstore cares. And grocery stores operate the same way and they don’t care.

Your broker should let you select specific lots of shares to sell.