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How to be mortgage-free, prosper and increase
Comments
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OK another "20's something" person - I would love my own place, but as I'm currently between jobs and a strong possibility of having to move out of the area for another decent job (I may even be considering emigrating) it hasn't been worth it for me to get my own place yet. Yes I still live with my parents. Yes I know I'm going off tangent from OP.
I've had 2 opportunities to move out and get my own place - one with my bf at time (since split) I was very lucky I didn't do this as he would've probably taken most of the things in the house and left me to carry the debts - he intentionally looked into a place where we could survive on my wages - and he intended to leave his job move all his family into house and me pay for everything! I realised this before we bought a property so I was glad to be out of that relationship. :mad:
The other time was last year, when I had enough of a deposit and good job for my area my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and at time we weren't too sure of treatment and prognosis. So again that fell by wayside - yes I know that I should've got a place and rented it out but at time we had other worries to deal with. But still kick myself every now and then! :mad:
Now I've lost my job, so having to relocate or even emigrate, have a good amount of a deposit and have more or less cleared my student loan (which will be paid off within year - which I was told not too bother to clear it by them as it was better off in a savings account). I have no debts, I do enjoy a good holiday but normally it's every 2 - 3 years and I don't overdo that either, I work hard and play hard, always saved up for holidays before I went.
When I get another job (probaly relocate) I will have to rent somewhere - probably get a house share or see if the company where I'd get work has someone who wants to share before I can get my own place after probation. Hopefully I can be able to continue saving more of a deposit and manage to find out about good areas to live and do a bit of the work myself anyway. I hope that I can rent a room out when I buy a place of my own too so that will help with mortgage.
Yes I do have a car - but one which I hope should last another 3 - 5 years for me (it was 4 when I bought it and it was a bargain then) it's 7 now, yes it is a luxury but having an injury forces me to have a nice car which isn't going to antagonise my injury, and I value my health a lot.
As I was supposed to be moving in with bf when my parents downsized, we kept a few things much to my bf's horror, wardrobe, table and chairs, old washing machine, old microwave, couch, got a TV which shouldn't need replacing for a couple of years (I hope) so all I've really got to buy is a bed, and if needs I will sleep on floor or couch until I have enough money for a bed, I buy things that I'd need - kitchen items in sales and buy decent quality so don't need to buy twice later on. My ex's family always paid on credit and they were always in debt, he wanted us to buy his mum's 3 piece off her and I refused as the dog had done so much damage to it and it stank as the dog used it as a bed! That was the only thing he wanted 2nd hand! My parents always taught us to be careful with credit and always pay it off straight away. If friends / family are selling items that are of any use to me I buy them, yes dad's garage is full to bursting so's the attic (doing car boot tomorrow - first one ever :eek: ) just to get rid of some of the clutter we have in house and I will put any money from that into the "house deposit account". Yes, when I get a mortgage I will be overpaying it, as much as possible and all my bonuses will go into it too.
I do have some luxuries, but I try to save as much as possible - I used to see my peers at work go to pub 2 - 3 times per week and get totally drunk, I'd prefer to spend it on the mortgage!0 -
I havent read all of this so apologies if someone else has pointed this out.
the "Luxuries of yesterday" such as tvs, videos, microwaves were in real terms a lot more expensive 20/30 years ago than they are now.
affordability of these items, as well as food, has increased over time as house prices have become less affordable.
my parents stretched themselves to the limit to buy a £30K house in 1978 (on one salary), partly in the knowledge that high wage inflation would erode the cost of the mortgage quite quickly. however we still had to scrimp and save. we had second hand car and clothes, no foreign holidays or expensive gadgets throughout my childhood. they only got a VCR in 1989.
wage inflation now is nowhere near those levels now, and the costs of motoring/holidays/electrical goods have decreased while house affordability has become a real problem.
so success stories like the OP dont really help anyone who cant go back in time Im afraid. to afford a similar house to my childhood home, both DH and I have to work fulltime whereas my mother was able to stay at home.0 -
clairehi wrote:to afford a similar house to my childhood home, both DH and I have to work fulltime whereas my mother was able to stay at home.
I find the statement above slightly amusing.
My parents live in a 3 bed semi overlooking open farmland with a decent sized front and back garden - its worth about £240,000
Myself and the girlfriend could never afford something like that even though we are both graduates and both working. Therefore backing up your point above.
You seem to ignore though that my parents DID both work when the were my age, and they lived in a much smaller and nowhere near as nice house.
I don't know many people at all that can get their dream house, you have to work hard and save hard to get your dream house but I am sure that being in the positions we are, myself and my gf will soon be able to start thinking about our dream house!
M0 -
MORPH3US wrote:I find the statement above slightly amusing.
My parents live in a 3 bed semi overlooking open farmland with a decent sized front and back garden - its worth about £240,000
Myself and the girlfriend could never afford something like that even though we are both graduates and both working. Therefore backing up your point above.
You seem to ignore though that my parents DID both work when the were my age, and they lived in a much smaller and nowhere near as nice house.
I don't know many people at all that can get their dream house, you have to work hard and save hard to get your dream house but I am sure that being in the positions we are, myself and my gf will soon be able to start thinking about our dream house!
M
why is this statement slightly amusing to you?
I dont understand why you say I "seem to ignore" your situation - I wasnt commenting on you, but the OP.
For clarification, my point was to compare the standard of living with the previous generation to show that houses are less affordable now than they used to be.0 -
Ok, i didn't mean that you ignored my situation, that was a typo, trying to do lots of things as once. I meant comparing your house to your parents in general!
Ok, so your point is that houses are less affordable now than they used to be, but to back that up, you say that you cannot afford now, the house your parents live in. Fair enough, I agreed with you on that point, same for most people, but then most peoples parents have worked hard for years whereas someone just buying their first house can't afford as nice a house!
M0 -
I think we need the Cadburys Caramel Bunny to calm things down in here a little......Smile!0
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clairehi wrote:so success stories like the OP dont really help anyone who cant go back in time Im afraid. to afford a similar house to my childhood home, both DH and I have to work fulltime whereas my mother was able to stay at home.
Exactly, I agree totally or is it I totally agree?0 -
seven-day-weekend wrote:One: we bought a house we could afford on ONE salary. I know it's not as easy as that these days,
You got that right!
but the lesson to be learned, I believe is, don't go in at the top. Lower your sights a bit - have a house in a slightly less desirable area, or consider a flat instead of a house.
One thing not to compromise on though...it has to be big enough for you not to have to move. But try to get something that is suitable without being stretched to the top of your limit.
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Arent these two pieces of advice contradicting each other - dont overstretch yourself so consider a smaller property - but get somewhere so big you will never need to move???
I0 -
Have read this thread with interest. We are currently considering moving which will mean increasing our mortgage, but we are planning to take a large chunk of equity out of our current home and let it out. We bought our 3 bed terraced house 10 years ago for 44k. It is now worth around 170k and we have recently remortgaged back up to 39k to pay my husbands course fees (he is retraining into a trade at 37 years of age). We are living on my part time salary with mortgage payments of 330 per month. I always read MFW because that is our dream to be mortgage free. However with two children who are growing at an alarming rate we need to seriously consider moving into a larger property and concentrate on paying that off. We figure that our rental income will pay off the mortgage on our current home over the next 25 years which will serve as our pension when the time comes. If we take say 100k out of our current home that will serve as a big deposit for our next home which will mean that we will have a smaller mortgage (although the repayments will be more than we are paying at present). Hopefully when my husband qualifies we will have plenty of surplus cash left over to make overpayments. I can sympathise with FTB, I am really worried about how my two children will be able to afford a home when they are older so I am trying to do all I can to set us up financially now to be able to help them out. We dont do luxuries, although we do have one holiday a year. I would be interested for any comments on our proposals - or any pitfalls along the way that we shuld be looking out for. Sorry for hijacking the thread.0
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