Balancing not just the budget

RosaBernicia

MuffinTops wrote: »

Hello Rosa,
Wow. I'm off here a few weeks and you've decided on lots of changes. I got quite excited about your home buying plans. I hope the viewings go well.
Your mortgage call made me smile. I had a similar thing a few years ago when I took the mortgage over from my ex. I was asked if I could prove affordability and I handed over my cash bookmwhich tallied perfectly with the account I had with them. He actually burst out laughing! But I got the mortgage agreement there and then.

Good luck on the eBay decisions. I have so much I need to put up for sale!

MTxx

Hello MT, good to see you back!

Yes, I am oddly in the mood for new things. A friend reminded me that Hallowe'en / Samhain is the Celtic new year and I very much feel that fits for me this year - things are coming up for consideration now and I suspect by January things will be different. Of course the US elections will have happened by then so goodness knows what the world will be like :eek:

That's a wonderful story about your mortgage approval :rotfl::T. Aren't we lucky to have learnt these skills though? I am finding recently that people I thought were sensible actually turn out not to be where money is concerned - friends have much extended mortgages, have suddenly realised the purpose of pensions, have no idea of their job security rights... I thought I was way behind on getting myself sorted, and yet perhaps the hares up ahead aren't so clever!

I am partly excited and partly :eek: about house buying. I am so fed up with not having space to do anything, but also did think that when I moved I would move much further away. I am still wondering about that, but as I can't currently see a way of doing it that would also be secure, I think I may have to live with keeping the job and working on a plan. Either way something will turn up... it's time for things to happen.


Rosa xx

EssexHebridean

When I rang to make the final payment on the mortgage, they went through the standard questions as ever, for security, one of which was "do you know roughly the amount outstanding on your loan" - I told him down to the last penny - there was a moment of silence before he said "Yes!" in a voice which suggested he'd never heard quite that level of accuracy in the answer to that one before! :rotfl:

I commented to someone recently that judging yourself against others, when it comes to matters financial, is not usually a good way of doing things. You simply never know of the unseen stuff behind the scenes.

RosaBernicia

EssexHebridean wrote: »

When I rang to make the final payment on the mortgage, they went through the standard questions as ever, for security, one of which was "do you know roughly the amount outstanding on your loan" - I told him down to the last penny - there was a moment of silence before he said "Yes!" in a voice which suggested he'd never heard quite that level of accuracy in the answer to that one before! :rotfl:

Brilliant :T:rotfl:

EssexHebridean wrote: »

I commented to someone recently that judging yourself against others, when it comes to matters financial, is not usually a good way of doing things. You simply never know of the unseen stuff behind the scenes.

Yes, very true. I only started to discuss things more openly once I felt I was making progress with debtbusting, and before that I just kind of assumed other people hadn't made such a mess of their finances and were smugly stacking money away :rotfl: seems perhaps I was being a touch paranoid. But that's another part of the value of MSE :money::A - getting to talk about this stuff.

I'm totally inspired by you mortgage free people and raring to get started... despite having not found the house yet :rotfl:


Rosa xx

ZTD

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I've been thinking about this quite seriously for the last six months or so as I finished training and have some brain space and money freed up. I've concluded that I need more space to make any use of my training in even a part time business. I've also found that there are very few jobs at my level in the area of the country I was thinking of moving to, so that can't be a short term plan.

Which area is that (just curious)?

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I am already on about the best rent I could get in this area, and moving anywhere with the extra space I need will cost an arm and a leg and leave me less secure. So I think it's time to accept that my current job enables me to have security and will - if I want later - enable a transition plan. Start where I am, use what I've got,, do what I can.

Yep - sounds like a plan.

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Also, rationality and emotion are not necessarily opposites.

Rationality should *enable* your emotional decisions. Ultimately, anything much beyond buying food (buy or you'll stave to death) and clothing (buy or you'll freeze to death) is an emotional decision. You buy stuff because your life will be "better" with it. You can't really define "better" unemotionally, but look up "consumer surplus" for economists trying to put numbers on that... :rotfl:

But once you have made your emotional decision, your execution of it should be a logical one to get the best for what you're spending.

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Some of my friends have had an awful year and without going into details, I have realised that there are situations where owning a house gives a security that just isn't available when renting. So it's both an emotional and rational reaction to protect myself from those situations.

It is. Just be careful that the emotional side doesn't blind you to the liabilities you're bringing in alongside the opportunities. It's the job of the rationality to bring balance and an eye to the future.

It's the whole SWOT analysis thing, and luck isn't a part of that. (or it would be TOWLS )

RosaBernicia wrote: »

ZTD

RosaBernicia wrote: »

things are coming up for consideration now and I suspect by January things will be different. Of course the US elections will have happened by then so goodness knows what the world will be like :eek:

Did you worry when Putin was up for prime minister/president or whatever it was that week? Or when Xi Jinping became Paramount Leader? No? Then why worry about the US where at least the Presidential powers are constitutionally limited?

EssexHebridean wrote: »

When I rang to make the final payment on the mortgage, they went through the standard questions as ever, for security, one of which was "do you know roughly the amount outstanding on your loan" - I told him down to the last penny - there was a moment of silence before he said "Yes!" in a voice which suggested he'd never heard quite that level of accuracy in the answer to that one before! :rotfl:

:T :rotfl:

That's amazing! He's probably more used to dealing with people like me...

RosaBernicia

Second viewing of potential house arranged for the weekend. I asked a couple of friends if they'd be free to come with me and astoundingly both are, and so is the friend who might want to be a lodger for a while next year, so it looks like we will be turning up mob handed :rotfl:

I am really getting ridiculously peeved that I have no reason to fiddle with YNAB on a daily basis any more. I suppose this is a good thing and clearly I need to get a life


Rosa xx

ZTD

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Second viewing of potential house arranged for the weekend. I asked a couple of friends if they'd be free to come with me and astoundingly both are, and so is the friend who might want to be a lodger for a while next year, so it looks like we will be turning up mob handed :rotfl:

The neighbours will freak... :rotfl:

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I am really getting ridiculously peeved that I have no reason to fiddle with YNAB on a daily basis any more. I suppose this is a good thing and clearly I need to get a life

Or something else to fiddle with instead.

EssexHebridean

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Second viewing of potential house arranged for the weekend. I asked a couple of friends if they'd be free to come with me and astoundingly both are, and so is the friend who might want to be a lodger for a while next year, so it looks like we will be turning up mob handed :rotfl:

I am really getting ridiculously peeved that I have no reason to fiddle with YNAB on a daily basis any more. I suppose this is a good thing and clearly I need to get a life


Rosa xx

Exciting! :T:j:T Quite right to turn up with people who'll give you feedback too - means you see it through someone elses eyes as well as your own.

As for your feelings of YNAB loss - MrEH was quite unhappy when he realised he wouldn't have a mortgage spreadsheet to tinker with any more! :rotfl:

RosaBernicia

ZTD wrote: »

The neighbours will freak... :rotfl:

:rotfl:

ZTD wrote: »

Or something else to fiddle with instead.

A mortage spreadsheet, maybe

RosaBernicia

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Exciting! :T:j:T Quite right to turn up with people who'll give you feedback too - means you see it through someone elses eyes as well as your own.

That's what I figured - though I suspect the two 'advisors' may have quite different opinions so this could wind up with a broad spectrum of input...

EssexHebridean wrote: »

As for your feelings of YNAB loss - MrEH was quite unhappy when he realised he wouldn't have a mortgage spreadsheet to tinker with any more! :rotfl:

:rotfl: It's just as well we have MSE, where else would we find like minded people on these kinds of things :rotfl: