Hello all,

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We are 30yo couple wanting to buy a house to start a family on the South Shore of Montreal.

Gross income is 140k with no real way to get more (shes a nurse and won't get any promotion or huge salary increases since its based on time and its goverment) but upside she has a defined pension plan so she doesn't rly need to save for retirement.

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I am also kinda at the top, currently an accountant without CPA and no intention of getting my CPA, nor getting into managerial position, I also aspire to retire early, as I don't like working.

I have around 100k on the side for my retirement, and 20k as a downpayment as of today (can save more if requires), while my wife as 0$ for downpayment, but she owns a small cottage in the region worth 200k (160k left mortgage on it, so 40k in equity) that she intends to use for the downpayment

we are looking to buy on the souht shore of montreal but we have 0 clue about what price we should be looking at... my wife kinda scares me sending me some 500-600k house...but I think shes knows its not affordable and just find them pretty or cool.

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As someone who wants to retire early, i'vebeen looking and ppl recommend 3x gross income for a house...

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but 3x140k = 420k and we already have 160k mortgage in the cottage... which leaves 260k for a house? problem is there is 0 house for sales at 260k...the cheapest we've seen that doesn't have mold is near 400k...that would be 560k (400k 160k) total mortgage for 140k gross income, so 4x our gross income...

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is this crazy?!?! we intend to have kids too someday (3-5years)

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we hate to "stretch it" or feel "trap" with our money.

how crazy is having 460k mortgage debt on 2 houses (double internet, double electricity, double property tx, etc) with 14k gross income?