bigger house and mortgage or stay and live abit?!

peachyprice

Same estate, just a bigger house? I wouldn't bother TBH, not to stay in the same place but with more rooms you don't need.

For me it would have to be to a better place, better house, more space.

sassyblue

F_Bear wrote: »

thanx for the replies.

our mortgage at the mo is a variable at 2.99%. we can get a 4 bed on our estate, kingswood, hu7 for £140k.

could we afford to still have kids if we moved? i sure we could afford it but its the level of 'comfort' we'd want thats the problem. we'd still want the holdiays, meals, cars etc which we could have in the 3 bed......

im sure once we had kids our 'selfishness' of wanting will change, but once the kids come we wont be able to afford to move!

You'd make yourself afford the things you want. you can cut down on essentials, go down a brand name these forums are great for ideas.

You'll find when kids come along that your priorities change, it's lovely to have a big holidays but a trip to the park with them is just as enjoyable. You'll get happiness from them and not with 'stuff'.

We've saved so much since having our child as its made us knuckle down and make the effort. Now I'm annoyed that we could have paid our mortgage off before our little one came along but hey no, it's still small-ish.

Goldiegirl

We were in a similar situation in the late 80's.

We'd been living in our first home, a 2 bed EOT house for 8 years. We'd got to a point where we had a lot of disposable income and were having good holidays in Europe each year.

We liked our house. But we knew it wasn't our forever house. In early 1989 we decided to buy a new 4 bedroom house just up the road from our previous house.

We took out what was considered a large mortgage £82,500.

It helped that I had a bank staff mortgage, but the monthly payments were still big, and we didn't have money for all the things like holidays, new clothes and meals out etc.

We never wanted children, so there was never the worry that one of us would have to have a drop in income, in order to look after children.

For six years it was tough. We managed a week away every other year, and we once had a weekend break, but that was about it.

However, after that things got better. From the mid 1990's we had holidays in the USA, and from 2000 onwards we had cruises.

We've both had to deal with redundancy, but we have managed to live comfortably, but not extravagantly, and have treats and holidays. Our mortgage is now paid off

We now both work part time, with a view to full retirement in 3-4 years when I'm 56.

We have savings, but we also know we could downsize our house if needed.

I think you'll have to decide what is most important to you now, as it's usually not possible to have everything you want all at the same time.

Is your current lifestyle most important to you, or are you willing to put that on hold for a few years while you establish yourselves in a new home.

If you can make sacrifices in the short term, you might find, in the long term you can have everything you desire.

osian

I'd stay and save/ live a bit.

In a few years you should have enough money saved that you'll have plenty of choices.

Don't bog yourself down with more debt, especially when you don't need to.

onlyroz

If you want more space can your existing house be extended? There is a lot you can do under permitted development rights (e.g. loft conversion or a single-story extension out the rear) without having to apply for planning permission, and these rights are likely to be increased in the near future. In general the cost of extending is less than the cost of moving when you take estate agent, solicitor fees and stamp duty into consideration.

Kaz2904

We live in a 3 bed semi. I'm 35 and DH is 36. We have two children (one of each) so they have their own bedrooms. We overpaid our mortgage from 8 months after moving in here as our kids were little, DH worked days and I worked nights so we didn't have a wild social life. We have just cleared our mortgage and it's a tremendous relief that nobody can make us move anywhere even if DH or I are made redundant. Our house is big enough for our needs but I regularly go through it and declutter. The benefit of it is though, that it's a 1900 house so has good room sizes.
A few times over the years my MiL has suggested we move as it's horrendous parking in our road and we have no drive or garage. DH and I are both of the opinion that we have fab neighbours, live in a nice area in a tucked away cul de sac with kids who all play out in the road so why would we move? We couldn't get all of that and a garage and drive unless we bought a different house in our road and they don't come up for sale very often!
How about thrashing your mortgage now, whilst you have the disposable income and then you have so many more choices available? If you are saving to move, you could put your savings in your mortgage as overpayments. It is fairly hard to get a savings account which pays out more than your mortgage costs. You do need a little pot of money for when the boiler dies, the car explodes or the roof caves in though.

CH27

Childcare is very expensive so remember to factor that into your calculations.

racing_blue

I'm quite a frugal guy but have always believed in moving a big house as early as possible. We moved to a really large house in our early 30s and have never looked back.

In my mind, mortgage capital repayments are a form of saving plan & mortgage interest is an alternative to rent, with the advantage that it is usually for a finite period only.

This is such a good deal- a couple buying their final house aged 30 with a 25 year repayment mortgage, and living into 90s, could live free of housing costs for the last 35+ years of their remaining lives. The amount of interest they pay will decrease year on year.

It might take some belt tightening at the beginning, but this can be a good thing too as it encourages cleaner, more frugal, targeted consumption

Just make sure you buy in the place you end up living...

Hang on...

F_Bear wrote: »

... choc lab ...

You already have a house with a chocolate laboratory??? I take it back - stay put!