Wife wants to buy now, I want to wait 5 years+. Advice?

TotallyBroke

Glen0000 wrote: »

Best advive I have read on here. From the horses mouth so to speak.

So take it then. Tell your wife that under no circumstances can you afford to buy a house at this moment or even in the next 12-36 months.
If she does not believe you tell her to come here and we will tell her the same.
Or just show her the figures. Ask her to come up with a solution as to how you could all afford it.

Glen0000

TotallyBroke wrote: »

Ask her to come up with a solution as to how you could all afford it.

She just says everyone has debt and ours is small fry compared to her friends. She sees debt as normal. She says in a few years we will have a grown up child, no childcare to pay and she can work full time. She says she will pay it off then.

DireEmblem

This is what I think you should do :-

A) have a look at bills, which can you reduce without losing any home comforts - people have already suggested your electric/gas is a bit high, and that you can live of 200/400 for food, so what about going for something between say 300 if you cant manage to lose a few luxuries?

Why not even shop online, so you have less attendancy to pick up those 'bargains'?

Now calculate how quickly you can pay off the debt, (thus being able to get a bigger mtge), AGAINST the cost to you of only being able of getting a smaller mtge while paying off the debt over a longer term?

Which way would you be better off?

Waiting a year, you would only need to find an extra say ~160PCM to knock another 2kish off your debt.( assume that now with a further 8k paid in the year that your 10k debt is gone)

Then the second year, given that you would how have freed up your 160PCM and 500 towards debt, you could save 660PCM giving you approx 8k deposit by the end of year 2. Any chance you could rework your finances make this say stretch to 10k, and then in after 3 years have a 20k deposit?

So by waiting, in three years you could be in a much better financial position to get a mtge.

Gazella77

Glen,harsh words you hear here but I hope it may get your thinking right (and your wife's!).

I completely agree with Itzmee and whathavewedone and it's really great to read such posts.
Talking about immigration I have to tell you, if you two can't cope here with such a help (council house, low rent, good salary) then where do you want to emigrate??
As for Poles they are leaving as the situation in Poland got much better and the GBP lost its value so it's not worth working here and sending money over there. However, not all are leaving and those who stay (just like many other nationals) are so much better at budgeting, saving and knowing what they can afford than many Brits.
I have never seen such an overspending culture in my life and I have traveled extensively in my life.

I am a single mum with a baby in nappies, get no housing benefits or any means tested ones and I am not only able to pay £740 monthly mortgage but also overpay a bit and save for my baby and for the rainy days.
But like whathavewedone I am worried about the future and my situation when the current contract ends.

Conqueror_2

Do not underestimate the power of a determined wife. Is she wants to be in her own house next year, you will find yourself in a new house next year

TotallyBroke

Conqueror wrote: »

Do not underestimate the power of a determined wife. Is she wants to be in her own house next year, you will find yourself in a new house next year

I agree she could be in a house next year but if she was my wife she'd be in it on her own!
Unless ofcourse she got a job that doubled my salary or she won the lottery.

seven-day-weekend

I don't mean this nasty, but I think your wife needs professional help if she is really that envious of her sister and cares so much about having a ten-year-old sofa. Why does she think having a new sofa is going to make her happy?

No way do I think you should buy a house at the moment. You need to get your debt/spending/wife's priorities sorted first.

I hope your wife will come to love her Council house, enjoy the fact that the rent is so low, stop trying to keep up with the Jones's and get it into her head that having the best phone isn't going to make people like your daughter any more than they do already, in fact it's more likely to have the opposite effect.

When you've cleared your debt, saved for a deposit and got your spending under control, then you could THINK about buying a house.

seven-day-weekend

Just read another of your posts.

Yes people DO have more debt than that, but why would you chose to do so? It's a no-brainer! I'm not talking about the mortgage here, but other debt (like debt on a sofa or a boob job).

We have an income of just under £11k a year (just the two of us , no rent or mortgage any more) and we owe no-one anything AND have savings. Our car is ten years old and I dread to think how old the sofa is.

BUT we have two mortgage-free houses (that we have paid for ourselves), one in the UK and one in Spain and we have got there by not overstretching ourselves and living simply (but still enjoying ourselves too).

Isn't that better than a load of debt?

Oh by the way we are early retired now, but even when we were working, for most of our working lives our income was only the equivalent of one average wage. So it CAN be done.

Ask your wife what happens if one of you gets ill in the future and can't work to pay the debt off? Or can't get a job? Or is made redundant? Don't say it can't happen to you because it can, it happened to us and my husband (main wage-earner)had to give up his career through ill-health.

So plan your budget sensibly, don't get into a load of debt and then maybe one day you will have enough to sensibly think of buying a house.

bryanb

Glen0000 wrote: »

Yes, but maybe not for much longer.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5120047.ece
This news worried the wife a lot.

This refers to NEW tenants, not you.

itzmee

Glen0000 wrote: »

I have £350ish that goes into my pension.



Best advive I have read on here. From the horses mouth so to speak.

OH also pays into a pension and we don't have any debt as we pay off credit cards after using them. There is no reason or excuse for debt, if we want a large screen tv then we save up for it - simple as that! We don't overstretch ourselves and live within our means. We have a mortgage, and a loan but these are paid off each month. We get on with life and don't moan about it and still have a comfortable life for which I'm truly grateful.