True Mortgage Calculator

My parents instilled a strong sense of frugality in me from a young age. I like expensive things, I just can't bring myself to pay for them. Hence I've never paid much more than 15% of my gross monthly income towards housing costs.

I've never believed the mortgage industy 28/36% rule, as in my experience this doesn't leave you much money for savings after you've paid 40% of your income to tax, transportation, food, etc.

So we went looking for a 'True Mortgage Calculator" and came across this one:

http://www.truemortgagecalc.com/

It takes into account a few other factors, such as your down payment, other debts, and the 3x income rule (your house should not cost more than 3x your gross annual income).

We just ran the numbers for ourselves and came up with a number right around the budget we're looking at, confirming that we're hopefully not going to spend too much, when we finally do buy.