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Olliesnana
Posts: 8 Forumite
Hello I wonder if anyone can give me some ideas about what I can do to improve my situation.
I am 54, I live in rented accommodation, my kids are gone and reasonably independent, I now earn a reasonable amount, I have managed to save £15,000 so far. I have no other assets, however I could afford to save £500 a month from April (having just cleared a small car loan).
I really want to buy my own home, no way I can do that in London, where I live and work, and where my children and grandchild live.
My main motivation for buying a home is to help me provide for being retired, I’m not in a hurry to retire and plan to work for a long time, at least until 67. I really want to avoid being poor - I pay in to a pension scheme with the local authority who employs me, I imagine this would be sucked up in rent when I do retire.
What could I do that would improve my options as I move into my sixties? I might not even be able to secure a morgage, what then!
Many thanks in anticipation
Olliie’snana
I am 54, I live in rented accommodation, my kids are gone and reasonably independent, I now earn a reasonable amount, I have managed to save £15,000 so far. I have no other assets, however I could afford to save £500 a month from April (having just cleared a small car loan).
I really want to buy my own home, no way I can do that in London, where I live and work, and where my children and grandchild live.
My main motivation for buying a home is to help me provide for being retired, I’m not in a hurry to retire and plan to work for a long time, at least until 67. I really want to avoid being poor - I pay in to a pension scheme with the local authority who employs me, I imagine this would be sucked up in rent when I do retire.
What could I do that would improve my options as I move into my sixties? I might not even be able to secure a morgage, what then!
Many thanks in anticipation
Olliie’snana
Debt free me!
0
Comments
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Olliesnana wrote: »Hello I wonder if anyone can give me some ideas about what I can do to improve my situation.
I am 54, I live in rented accommodation, my kids are gone and reasonably independent, I now earn a reasonable amount, I have managed to save £15,000 so far. I have no other assets, however I could afford to save £500 a month from April (having just cleared a small car loan).
I really want to buy my own home, no way I can do that in London, where I live and work, and where my children and grandchild live.
My main motivation for buying a home is to help me provide for being retired, I’m not in a hurry to retire and plan to work for a long time, at least until 67. I really want to avoid being poor - I pay in to a pension scheme with the local authority who employs me, I imagine this would be sucked up in rent when I do retire.
What could I do that would improve my options as I move into my sixties? I might not even be able to secure a morgage, what then!
Many thanks in anticipation
Olliie’snana
How much do you earn?
What is your current renting situation? Fixed term? How long? Likely to be long term?
Just some pointers:
1. You would have to move out of London. Feasible?
2. Mortgages for over 60s are available but the Loan to Value is high so you would need a much bigger deposit. Could you take a lodger to boost your savings?
https://www.money.co.uk/mortgages/mortgages-for-over-60s.htm
The term for a mortgage could be a problem. The lender would likely need knowledge of how much your pension income would be and whether this would be sufficient to pay off a mortgage and live!
3. Could your offspring build a granny annex (similar) to their houses? Would you/they want this?
4. If your salary is fairly low have you considered applying to go on the Housing Register? If this is an option then this would give security. May take years to be given a house so good to look into this now.
5. Have you looked at over 60s housing?
Just a few ideas
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You are going to have to do what I did. Move areas. You can't afford to buy in London so find somewhere where you can afford to buy and move jobs. Find a local authority to employ you in a different part of the country. The salary may well be slightly lower than you get now but housing costs will be a lot lower.
2 people earning the minimum wage can buy a house in some parts of the country. I assume that you have a job that pays more than the minimum wage anywhere?
Just for your information my father worked as a valuer in the North West and wouldn't entertain taking a promotion in London because of the reduction in lifestyle. In the North West he had a 4 bed detached house on 1/4 of an acre. In London he might have got a 3 bed semi in a poor area even with the extra money from the promotion. This was in the 1970s.0 -
Thanks for your reply pmlindyloo,
I earn £50,000 a year, I recently got an increase, which made me think a morgage may be possible
I live in a secure tenancy with a housing association, my children both rent, so neither are in a position to help. I hoped that if I bought a place I could avoid rent in the future and then when I die, assuming I don’t need to go into a care home, I will leave them with something to use in their own lives somehow. Maybe a deposit.
It is feasible to move away although a rench leaving the kids and my grandchild, it would also mean a change in circumstances, I would need to look for alternative work.
Other than a morgage, not sure how to create a viable financial future, I could look at taking a lodger to boost my savings though. Debt free me!0 -
You are going to have to do what I did. Move areas. You can't afford to buy in London so find somewhere where you can afford to buy and move jobs. Find a local authority to employ you in a different part of the country. The salary may well be slightly lower than you get now but housing costs will be a lot lower.
2 people earning the minimum wage can buy a house in some parts of the country. I assume that you have a job that pays more than the minimum wage anywhere?
Just for your information my father worked as a valuer in the North West and wouldn't entertain taking a promotion in London because of the reduction in lifestyle. In the North West he had a 4 bed detached house on 1/4 of an acre. In London he might have got a 3 bed semi in a poor area even with the extra money from the promotion. This was in the 1970s.
Hello cakeguts,
Thanks for your reply, maybe looking elsewhere in the country is my only option although it would be hard leaving the kids and friends etc.
I’ll explore it
Thanks for the ideas Debt free me!0 -
Something does not add up here.
You earn £50K (something most of us would regard as a fortune) yet you have only amassed savings of £15K, can only afford to save £500 per month, and have recently borrowed money for a car.
What the hell do you spend it all on?
Address that first. You should be able to save a whole lot more than that. Just how much is your rent?0 -
Something does not add up here.
You earn £50K (something most of us would regard as a fortune) yet you have only amassed savings of £15K, can only afford to save £500 per month, and have recently borrowed money for a car.
What the hell do you spend it all on?
Address that first. You should be able to save a whole lot more than that. Just how much is your rent?
Kids!
message too short!0 -
You have a secure tenancy so do you really want to buy a house if it means moving away from friends and family and finding a new job?
If you are concerned about security in old age, had you considered making additional contributions to a pension?
If you want to help your children and grandchild, how about contributing to a JISA for the child and making regular gifts from income to the children?
For example, £250 a month to a pension and say (if you have two children), £100 a month to each child and £50 to the grandchild?0 -
Something does not add up here.
You earn £50K (something most of us would regard as a fortune) yet you have only amassed savings of £15K, can only afford to save £500 per month, and have recently borrowed money for a car.
What the hell do you spend it all on?
Address that first. You should be able to save a whole lot more than that. Just how much is your rent?
Thanks ProDave,
Obviously I don’t bring home 50,000, i only recently got a new job, 12 months ago - prior to that I was stuck in the 30,000 to 39K pay band for YEARS, educated myself in my thirties in order to earn better money, so paid student loans off into my forties and I’ve also bought up my kids on my own, which wasnt cheap, but you’re right I should be able to save more now
One of my kids has also been struggling financially and Ive been helping and London is not cheap!
OlliesnanaDebt free me!0 -
You have a secure tenancy so do you really want to buy a house if it means moving away from friends and family and finding a new job?
If you are concerned about security in old age, had you considered making additional contributions to a pension?
If you want to help your children and grandchild, how about contributing to a JISA for the child and making regular gifts from income to the children?
,For example, £250 a month to a pension and say (if you have two children), £100 a month to each child and £50 to the grandchild?
Xylophone, thanks Thees are good ideas,
I do make gifts to the kids, but I could do this in a more structured way, and I will certainly look at JISA’s for the little one Debt free me!0 -
If you earn £50k and are in the local government pension scheme then you will be well provided for in retirement.
50k may sound like a fortune to some people but isn't enough to buy in or around London at your age, even if you were younger you would struggle to get a big enough mortgage. And why do you want to? You have a secure tenancy with no worries about major repair bills. Your financial future is assured.0
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