So....just how much money is 'enough' ?

SoozieSoo

msmicawber wrote: »

Yes, I'm with you SoozieSoo. However, I do think that when people could manage on one wage most people rented their homes, didn't own cars, didn't have TVs or even telephones half the time, lived the Old Style life, and if they had holidays, they were very modest.
!

I don't know anyone who has ever rented in our working class family, apart from people of my generation. My parents and in laws both managed to buy on one very modest wage. Both bought their first homes in their lates teens. My parents always had a car and a telephone. Even got sky tv when it first came out. Holidays were something we did not have until I was about 13. Then again my son did not have his first holiday until he was 9.

My dad was on the equivilant of about £10k to £15k when I was younger. On that he raised 3 children, bought a large semi, ran a car and my mum stayed home for 16 years.

mrsspendalot

My hubby earns £11,500 basic, but with overtime can touch £13k. He had a better paid job but he lost it, although is about to start a new job which should be £13,500 minimum. We get tax credits, child benefit etc for our 3 children. I don't work at the moment, but graduate at the end of the year so next year I will have an income as well.

I think our perception of 'enough' money would be a level of income which would allow us to get a mortgage - so anything from £30k upwards for where we live. Anything less than that and we have no chance of getting a mortgage because house prices have shot through the roof.

msmicawber

SoozieSoo wrote: »

I don't know anyone who has ever rented in our working class family, apart from people of my generation.

Funnily enough some friends and I were talking about this the other night, and we're all in our mid- to late-forties and come from working class backgrounds and our parents were all the first generation of home owners. We were wondering about the relative proportions of home owners to renters when our parents were growing up, and now as their grand children are growing up. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: "After the Second World War 60 percent of people in Britain rented their homes. Today 68 percent own their homes or pay a mortgage."

I suppose there could be wide regional differences in renting versus home ownership, of course.

ZTD

msmicawber wrote: »

Funnily enough some friends and I were talking about this the other night, and we're all in our mid- to late-forties and come from working class backgrounds and our parents were all the first generation of home owners. We were wondering about the relative proportions of home owners to renters when our parents were growing up, and now as their grand children are growing up. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: "After the Second World War 60 percent of people in Britain rented their homes. Today 68 percent own their homes or pay a mortgage."

If you want more details on that - there's this page. You'll need a spreadsheet like excel or openoffice.

msmicawber wrote: »

I suppose there could be wide regional differences in renting versus home ownership, of course.

Spendi

My rent is a killer, 2 bed semi £525 a month, house prices in this street average at £110k, i got no chance of ever getting a mortgage, im 33 now and would need a mortgage in the next 2 years if i wanted it over 25 years, and i need at least 6.5 x my income !

Every year thats passes by its another year where i cant get a mortgage as i dont earn enough and higher payments as the term would need to come down...Depressing !

But on the subject of how much money per year would i like ?
£25k and a company car would do me nicely

ZTD

Spendi wrote: »

My rent is a killer, 2 bed semi £525 a month, house prices in this street average at £110k, i got no chance of ever getting a mortgage, im 33 now and would need a mortgage in the next 2 years if i wanted it over 25 years, and i need at least 6.5 x my income !

Every year thats passes by its another year where i cant get a mortgage as i dont earn enough and higher payments as the term would need to come down...Depressing !

Don't worry about that - it's not sustainable, so you just have to be patient.



Either your wages will rise to meet prices, or prices will fall to meet your wage - or maybe a little bit of both.

petetidball

Right now we earn £19,200 basic with both of our full time wages. But as I'm seconded to uni I work extra and get paid more. Taking into account our mortgage, bills, food for four, etc, we could do with earning this each!! I can understand what people are saying about housing being a huge cost. We bought last year and mortgage+insurances takes over half our monthly wage. But the wife wanted to get on the housing ladder and I'm glad we did. So our enough would be about £40k a year between us.

debbycatz

Some very interesting replies. Intruiging to see that some would be very happy to earn £18,000 and others are earning more than that and feel they need to earn more like £30,000. I appreciate there are loads of factors to consider tho'.

Not sure how to word my next question as I am rather dumb with maths but I'm wondering what the 'average' proportion of one's monthly pay goes on the mortgage/rent payment in comparison to say 20 or 30 years ago ?
For example, did we used to pay 30% of our monthly pay towards rent/mortgage and now we are paying more like 50% of our monthly income
Can anyone help - ZTD perhaps ?
Sorry if I've not made myself clear. I just find it difficult to compare in figures as I know that wages have risen and inflation and stuff like that.

Bogof_Babe

Spendi, you should be able to get a 25 year mortgage until you reach age 40, as your retirement age is now 65 since recent changes.

Also, you say a house in your road is £110K, so does that mean you might be able to get a flat in the area for quite a lot less?

I'm assuming you live alone, as you seem to be the only wage earner, so do you really need a 3-bed place? Also, if you do meet someone in the future then there would be two wages which would bring your mortgage ratio down considerably.

When I started reading this thread, I was confused by the term "spare money" (at the end of the month). Surely if you have such thing as "spare money" then by definition you have enough to live on. Or did people mean before they had paid for food, clothes, Christmas, holidays etc?

We are among the lucky ones who managed to buy our house and pay off our mortgage before it got silly, so we are able to live on comparatively little. I could do without Council Tax of £167 per month, but only because I can't see what we get for it. Our water rates are separate too - another £50 a month .

My husband's pension is only £215 a month, and all the rest of our income is savings interest. We try very hard not to dip into the capital, so it is a bit of a juggling act. We don't have an expensive lifestyle though, which does help a lot.

pippo

Hi debbycatz, Our mortgage is only about £300 per month which is less than 10% of our joint income - but we are now stuck in a 2 bed terrace in the northeast. We do so want to trade up or extend but at 50++ the added costs seem just too much! However my theory is no unecessary spending for at least 6 months - clear off the cc and look again.