We try to make sure that focus includes what they can truly afford as well as what makes sense in the context of everything else they want to accomplish with their finances. To give clients definitive answers, we created two critical guidelines to follow. 1. Keep your housing costs to 20% of your gross income Our definition of affordability must take into account what you can actually afford and the money you need to have available to fund other needs and goals throughout your life. That's why we advise, as a baseline recommendation, to keep annual housing costs to 20% or less of your gross household income.