What would you do??

mrs_simplify

Currently we live in a nice home in a nice area. If we sold our property now we would have probably £190,00.00 equity currently have £70,000 mortgage. My predicament is even though we live in a nice area and we have 2 kids. We dont seem to be able to afford holidays , treats. I know it is a fact of life but we just have enough to pay bills , petrol ,food, mortgage and not much fun stuff. Hubby works full time and I work part time. If you could wipe your mortgage out by moving a little further out and have no mortgage. Compared to not having hardly anything day to day and having a mortgage in our current situation

Quality of life and more fun or live in a nice residential tree lined street strugggling to pay bills.

thanks:cool:

globalds

Is your mortgage fixed or has it dropped with interest rates ?

mrs_simplify

hi its fixed

themull1

If there was no penalty to do this, i would do it.

globalds

How much longer is it on at a fixed rate ?

I have benefited from the drop in rates.I also made a decision about 3 years ago to overpay my mortgage.This has helped me to pay for a few more nice things.

I really don't know what I would do in your situation....holidays aren't all they are cracked up to be ...but not having a break especially if every day is felt as a chore, is not good ....But there is a large amount of people who would like to be in the position you are in with so much equity built up.

As I don't know your circumstances I would have to throw more questions right back at you.

Is it easy to sell your present house ?
Have you seen a place you could buy ?
Is the new neighbourhood going to have a bad effect on your kids as they grow?
Schools are usually better in better areas ..Is this a factor in your case ?

It is a shame that with the state of the pound , your holidays are going to cost more now than a few years ago.

mrs_simplify

Not sure about the penalty

It would be easy to sell the house as a popular area local schools etc
With regard to the schools where I live is a good area but the local school is thought to be the worst from the others. Its quite bizare really as school is in a nice place but as with any school you get kids shipped in from all areas. One of my children goes to the juniors and it would be natural progression to go to the high school. We have spoke about it with them and they want to go the local high school and would not want to leave. So child would be dropped at school as other area is not within a walking distance at school.
I guess I would worry to start with about new friends in new area in new area you could buy a property from £180,00. upwards house or bungalow.
The new place would be more close to the sea and at the moment we are more inland.

thanks so far everyone. We are really considering changing our lives. Also another thing that scares me and I know alot of people are in that situation is when things go wrong like car etc and today the boiler! we dont have any funds for them apart from overdrafts. Its like we are always a month away from being homeless technically as no emergency fund;)

*Jellie*

I think it also depends on how long you will be paying the mortgage for. Sometimes you can put up with a decreased quality of life if you can see an end in sight when you will own the house and not have to pay the mortgage any more. If that feels too far away then maybe downsizing is a good idea.
I guess it also depends on the age of your kids and long term plans.

mrs_simplify

Mortgage term is 23 years takes hubby up till 65 and me to 59. Long time to be skint I guess! Good point x

Lottebear

I would go on the Debt Free part of the forum and see if you can pick up some tips on reducing your OD and CC, which in turn could free up some cash for a rainy day fund.

adwat

Firstly, I would draw up a budget showing incomings and outgoings and the balance spare at the end of the month. Then see what savings you can make on your outgoings (switch gas/electric/phone tariffs etc., identify things to cut e.g. Sky subscriptions and go Freeview etc. etc.). Then see if you can increase income, maybe a part time job an evening or two during the week. This should give you a much better spare cash balance which might be enough without moving - we often spend more than we think if we don't have a proper budget to work to.

If this isn't enough, then you have your answer - sell up and move to a cheaper area further out.

I suspect that house prices are going to decrease over the next few years, if that is the case then you would be better off moving sooner rather than later in order to clear as much as possible off your outstanding mortgage.

dimbo61

You have given your mortgage as £70K and equity as £190K so house is worth £260K but the problem is stamp duty and it will only sell for £250K MAX.
Now the costs to move and do up new house to your tastes is about £15/20K and then the transport of the kids to school every day can be a pain.
The kids dont want to move either!
When does the fix end and what does the mortgage revert to then (READ THE MORTGAGE PAPERWORK)
If you can overpay a little each month and use this website to save money on everything you buy or spend money on IE gas/elec/water/insurance/food/clothes etc.
Look at eurocamp and weekends away with people like legacy hotels for cheap holidays