Can we afford this - much bigger mortgage...

ukcarper

mrginge wrote: »

Generally speaking, this the same cycle as we've had previously.
Come out of a recession.
People start to feel more confident (no danger of losing my job ),
They look at what they can afford today.
They add in all the upside as though it was guaranteed (My pay WILL go up by x000).
They ignore all the downside (moving/refurb costs, higher running costs, expanding family costs, risk of job loss, insurance, higher interest rates ...)
They get a mortgage that is affordable today.
'Something' happens in the next five years and they end up in the you know what.

Of course that will not happen to everyone that stretches themselves, but it absolutely can.

Personally i think a bigger house and bigger debt is less favourable than a smaller house and higher disposable income when it comes to the route to personal happiness.

I agree you need to find a balance between house size and disposable income. But we are all different and some people are happier spending the majority of their time at home whilst others like to go out every weekend.


Sometimes you have to take risks to get what you want but you have to realise what the risks are.

RedFraggle

redrabbit29 wrote: »

There is NO DANGER of me losing my job

Is that really true? No job is 100% safe particularly these days.

cherylsurrey

As others have said, that mortgage is too high, and no job is 100% safe, interest rates will go up. Look at your bills, could you afford it if the rates went up/if one of you lost their job.


Do you have savings so that if something went wrong you could cover the bills for say 6 months? Also as others have said a bigger house means more maintenance. Is it an old or new house? does it need much work?


I live in an older property and have to do maintenance yearly to keep the house up to a high standard. More house = higher bills and higher maintenance, I did not appreciate this fully myself until I lived in the house for a couple of years, the upkeep is far higher than my old place.


Really think about this before you jump.

redrabbit29

There is no danger of me losing my job. My GF however is just like most people and could in theory be made redundant.

My current place is alright. It's just not a place I want to stay for years and years. There's no outside space and it's not a great area. That's why I was thinking of moving.

Will read the replies carefully and continue to think about it

redrabbit29

RedFraggle wrote: »

Is that really true? No job is 100% safe particularly these days.

Yea it is - I'm employed by the government. Only risk of losing my job is if I got sacked for misconduct or something

BillJones

RedFraggle wrote: »

Is that really true? No job is 100% safe particularly these days.

It's possible that the OP is pope, I suppose.

Thrugelmir

redrabbit29 wrote: »

Yea it is - I'm employed by the government. Only risk of losing my job is if I got sacked for misconduct or something

Or your job is transferred out into the private sector.

redrabbit29

Thanks for your advice everyone. I'm thinking outloud so all the replies are really helpful.

The mortgages I saw state the monthly repayment would be £1100-1200 a month. Obviously will bear in mind that interest rate may rise.

Noticed the thread title is a bit deceiving - sorry about that!

I know I don't want to stay here for too long so just need to decide what I can afford really, and allow some room for things going wrong!

Thrugelmir

redrabbit29 wrote: »

I know I don't want to stay here for too long so just need to decide what I can afford really, and allow some room for things going wrong!

Then focus on saving rather than borrowing. You earn a good income currently make the most of it. Then the future can be a lot more certain with far less risk.

redrabbit29

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Then focus on saving rather than borrowing. You earn a good income currently make the most of it. Then the future can be a lot more certain with far less risk.

Good advice, I will be doing that.

Do you think I should save the cash in the bank, or overpay the mortgage?

I plan to keep some money in savings just in case something goes wrong, but I thought if I could pay £10k or something extra on the mortgage it may really help long term.