Nervous first-timer

lightspeed

Myself and my partner are also in the very daunting (but exciting) position of buying our first home. We have also pushed ourselves to the upper limit to secure our ideal home but feel comfortable with the decsion(s) we have made. Our calulations are as follows:

House = 154000
deposit = 15400 (10%)
Mortgage = 138600
Solicitors (inc. stamp duty) = 2500
Valuation = 320

Mortgage = 533pm (interest only for first 2 years @ 4.59%) We felt that this was the most suitable option while we modernise the house (needs quite a bit of work) and become use to the "home owner" life before switching to a repayment mortgage.

We have calculated that after all of the household bills as well as petrol, food, tinternet, mobile phone bills and saving £200pm (for savings/overpayments) we will approx. £425 each per month as disposable income.

This is going to be a big shock to me as i am 24, lived at home (with parent) paying £150 board and having approx £1200pm disposable income, however, recently i have cut back (due to the impending move) and realised how much of my wages i actually threw away on needless rubbish. That money is now being put into our future and i feel a sense of actually becoming an adult and am looking forward to the challenges ahead. lol.

If you feel uncomfortable about how much your mortgage is and how much you will have left to enjoy life, i would say thats normal for all FTB's and you are only human. However, you must consider every eventuality and the consequences of the decisions you have made. If interest rates increased how would you manage then? Our situation is simple, if IR's doubled (10% +)we would be on the bread line and would have to consider selling. We are fully aware of the consequnces of what we are doing but are happy to take that risk. The very worst that can happen is that you cant afford to live the life that you want, therefore you sell and rethink your budget (its allpart of lifes learning curve).

On the otherhand things might actually turnout fine after some slight adjustments to lifestyle etc...

It might be intersting, if people dont mind,to see how much disposable income other homeowners have for comparison purposes.

Good luck and i hope everything works out.

tomstickland

I've gone for the minimal spend approach - buying well within my affordability margin. I've searched out a totally acceptable flat in a location that I like, but my aim is to maximise my expendable income which I'm then going to split between savings, overpayments and a bit of spending.