I Could Afford an Extra $1,000 a Month in Mortgage Payments. Here's Why I'm Staying Put

On a national level, the average U.S. mortgage payment is $1,768 a month, while the median payment is $1,532, according to the Council for Community and Economic Research. Now, I'm not going to share what my monthly mortgage payment is. But what I will say is that I recently crunched some numbers and came to the conclusion that if I wanted to, I could comfortably spend an extra $1,000 a month on housing without running into a financial crunch. 

But I'm not making plans to move anytime soon, and it's not just because I'm too lazy to deal with packing up a house full of stuff. (Well, okay, maybe that's part of the reason.) I'd rather keep my housing payments low because doing so allows me to do other things that are important to me -- like sleep at night. 

I'd rather not commit to too much house

An extra $1,000 a month would likely buy me a house with more square footage, more much-needed storage space, and perhaps a garage that's large enough to fit my car and all of my junk. But at the end of the day, it's not worth it to me to spend an extra $1,000 a month on housing because I have other uses for that money.

My family and I like to travel. We don't tend to take fancy vacations at all, but we do like to take a few road trips each year. Even though we usually drive to our destinations, it costs money to fill up our car with gas and secure lodging and eat and do things. And I'd rather have an extra $1,000 a month to allocate to travel and other things we enjoy doing together.

Also, it's my goal to build up a nice retirement nest egg and save up for my kids' college education. So by not spending an extra $1,000 a month on housing, it's easier for me to fund my retirement plan and my kids' college accounts. 

But spending less on housing than I can afford doesn't just give me more financial leeway -- it gives me more peace of mind. I can honestly say that if I were to buy a more expensive home, I'd probably be more stressed over money in general. And that's just not worth it.

It's important to know your limits

As a general rule, it's a good idea to keep your housing costs to 30% of your take-home pay or less. So if your paychecks give you $6,000 a month, you'd want to not spend more than $1,800 to put a roof over your head. And that $1,800 should include not just your mortgage, but also, your homeowners insurance and property taxes. 

Based on that 30% rule, I know I have the option to spend up to another $1,000 a month on mortgage payments. But you know what? I just don't want to. Instead, I've decided to be content with the modest but comfortable home I own and enjoy the benefit of having extra money at my disposal.