Mortgage free...or?

PParka

It is really up to you to decide what you want from life. Being mortgage free is lovely, but I would say it is the most important thing. OH and I had a three bed semi. We managed to be mortgage free in our early 30s. It was great but then.....

We had our first child....
We moved into our 'forever' house with a massive mortgage... :eek:
We got a rabbit, fish and a dog......

Wouldn't change it for the world.

Snazzy

I was heading towards being mortgage free in two years but last year decided life was too short, quit a reasonably well paid job and went travelling. Now I'm back, living in a different town and probably going to sell my house in order to buy one here. I need to spend more here to get something similar but may even take out a new 25 year mortgage to give me even more options. Of course I'll try to over pay it and don't intend to overstretch myself. For me it's important that my mortgage payments aren't more than could be covered if I rented the house out. That's what gives me freedom rather than going all out to be mortgage free.

Oog - you're taking a gamble with your fertility if you wait so personally I'd prioritise starting a family over paying off the mortgage. Life is for living!

miss_corerupted

Babies aren't that expensive, breast feed its free! reuseable nappies (much cheaper) as soon as you announce your pregnant people will start piling baby stuff on you, the only thing we bought new was a car seat. (£50) ds1 is now 2and half and I have spent less than £400 on him, second clothes and toys he doesn't notice or care.

madalice

miss_corerupted wrote: »

Babies aren't that expensive, breast feed its free! reuseable nappies (much cheaper) as soon as you announce your pregnant people will start piling baby stuff on you, the only thing we bought new was a car seat. (£50) ds1 is now 2and half and I have spent less than £400 on him, second clothes and toys he doesn't notice or care.

LOL, you're right, babies aren't expensive but when they get to teenagers they bleed you dry.;)

But I say to the OP go for it, some things in life are just more important than paying the mortgage off.

miss_corerupted

i'm sure mine won't grow up like that! defiantly not, he will be the best teenager ever obviously lol

atush

OOG, I have a couple of things to say, apart from I am impressed with your efforts to be MF so far!

First of all, don't delay babies if you want them by trying to be MF. I would delay if you were very much in debt but if you have a house and a mtg with wiggle room (ie are overpaying) and are otherwise debtfree the coast is clear. You are already 34 (I am assumng you are female) and fertility will be decreasing.

But in your case, 11 months with your OH and you aren't married (not a judment or religion but a committment and finacial consideration as marrieds are treated better with taxes and other issues) and your OH is starting a new business. And if you own the current house, and will be buying together how much risk/equity will he be able to put in with starting up a new enterprise? And now talking about a new house and fixing it up? Will he have the time if he is starting up a new business?

The 3 things (baby, new house, new business) are conflicting in both time, committment and spending and taking on more than one much less 3 at once could be a recipe for disaster. I would reconsider doing more than 1 or 2 at once and consider how committed you are to each other and if your relationship could take that sort of strain (even just moving house is a huge relationship strain).

I think you can achieve what you want if you don't bite off more than you can chew all at once.

Babies are expensive- I had 3 and all were breastfed. They are totally worth it, but they are expensive-to 100K per head w/o private education.

I wouldn't trade any of them to be mtg free (which I would be by now) but it is something to keep your head out of the sand about.

Oog

Hi,
Well, I put in some offers on the house up to 165k and someone put it another at 170k :-( Aahhh, well. I'm not prepared to go higher so that's that.

Atush - those comments are very astute and pretty much what a friends of mine has told me. I never do things by halves! I am ok with staying put and seeing if babies arrive in the next year or two, however the OH would rather move before babies. Business is up, running and actually paying!! Any new house would be in my name only to start with, for various financial reasons. Getting married is also not an option right now. This is how I want things at the moment. We both have a rather alternative view of partnerships (with or without kids) which we have discussed at length, and which I am more than happy with.

New plan is get busy with the baby making, save more, get my promotion but keep an eye out for bargain houses (now I have a mortgage promise etc) just in case.