MOVE!
Making a combined $138,000 you could live extremely well in Texas, or most anywhere else in the middle of the country.
For real!.................$138k here you would live like a king!..................
I know one teaching couple that just bought a house on a combined income of 130k in San Diego. Town house actually. They are doing fine.
That’s nice, but you don’t take that income with you when you move.
/MOVE!
No kidding. I switched careers, went back to school for a doctorate, and was on the job market. My mother wanted me to come back to the DC area and I said no way - too expensive, too much crime, nope, not gonna do it.
I wound up in a rural state in the Midwest, loving it, and buying a 3 bedroom house for what a 1 bed condo would cost me in the DC area. Sometimes you have to look at reality and act accordingly.