Buy a house or go travelling?

eddddd

Hello All,


This is my first post on these forums and was after some advice.


Myself and my girlfriend are in our mid to late 20's. We both have a desire to own a home, but would also would love to do some more travelling around the world, potentially taking a year out to do this. We currently rent and try to save as much as we can each month. We've built up a few thousand pounds each in savings.


We currently have a couple options:

1. Use our savings to go travelling, when we return start saving again for a house once we get new jobs, potentially moving back in with the parents in the interim.
2. Buy a house/flat with our savings we have now. Start saving again and then go travelling, renting out our property while away.

I was just wondering if anyone had been faced with a similar decision, and had any experience or words of wisdom.


Option 2 would provide a base for when we return, but would renting after just getting a new mortgage come with a lot of hassle and expense, would a mortgage company allow this?


Any thoughts are welcome.


Thank you.

Nobbie1967

Go travelling now and enjoy yourselves, you'll probably learn a lot more about each other after spending 24/7 for a year together and it will be much more fun without worrying about whether your tenants are paying the rent/trashing the place and having to deal with all the issues being a landlord entails. You may also have problems getting CTL after only a short time in the house.

The other advantage of travelling is that you realise how little of the crap we buy, we actually need or derive pleasure from. When you get back, keep your life simple and you'll save up the deposit much quicker.

Don't be frightened into buying now because 'prices are only going up' they said that in 1989 and my sister and her boyfriend choose buying a house over going travelling. Let's just say it didn't end well.

pmlindyloo

OK some things to think about - no particular order!

At one time it was very easy to take time out to travel, return home and walk back into a job just like that. Nowadays much depends on your jobs. Would it be easy to secure a new job at the same salary as you are now? Would your employers give you a year's career break/sabbatical so you have the security of a job when you return?

As regards housing. Would you be able to live with parents? Do they want you to? do you all get along? Popping back home and living together are two very different things.

Buying a house now, if you intend to rent it out, would mean changing to a Buy to Let mortgage with all the responsibilities of being a landlord (absent ones at that) - income tax to consider, expenses if something goes wrong etc etc.

Difficult to comment beyond generally as we don't know both of your circumstances.

Personally I would go for it but then I spent years abroad, allbeit in jobs, and have never regretted it but this was many years ago and I had a career that I could fall back into when I returned home.

Once you buy a house, perhaps have a family, spending a year travelling is an option for just a very few so if the sums/jobs/housing works then I say 'go for it'.

xxJudexx

This question jas been asked quite recently and as I remember had a good mix of responses.

You just have to work out were your priorities are. Would you be happy living with parents for a couple of years when you are approaching 30? Some people are fine with that, others wouldn't be able to cope.

Just remember that to travel for a year without finding a job while away you would be looking at around £20000 between you. It would be a good idea to make a list of where you want to go and what you want to do and actually make a budget and see how far you could go on the savings you currently have.

I'd love to go away for a few months but being a carer I just can't do it So i'm in the camp of if you can do it go for it!

Innys1

Whatever you decide, the grass will probably end up looking greener on the other side a few years down the line.

somethingcorporate

Travel, you only live once! At the end of the mortgage when you're approaching retirement you won't remember the extra years of paying a mortgage but you will remember your travelling for the rest of your life

ognum

How soon do you want to go travelling?

Could you buy somewhere and live there for a couple of years. Get a lodger or two to help pay the bills and mortgage (maybe not what you want but just for a couple of years).

Then go travelling with your house let and a responsible person who can manage your property in you absence.

I think you need to thing outside the either/or and come up with a creative way to do both. I am sure there is one.

No one knows how house prices will go but it would be sad if you had a fantastic year travelling only to find you can not catch up with the market.

Think differently!

SailorSam

It's great to be sitting here with no mortgage and debts paid off 'cos i saved so much when i was younger. But then i read all the threads about all the exciting places people have been; the things they've done and the things they've seen and i think to myself i wish i'd lived more for the day and not worried about having a house paid for.
You're only young once, travel, see the world and enjoy yourself. the memories will be worth it as you get older.

jhyt89

Think how long it took to save that money. Will you regret not travelling or not saving the money for a house. That's the question.

mum2one

for personal : family reasons I never went abroad (bar a day trip to France) but once I stepped on a plane it was a new world for me. Although I prefer hotel based holidays -

You never know what is around the corner - if your prepRed to start afresh with savings / house plans on hold / even live with parents

Grab it - enjoy yourselves xxxx

moneyistooshorttomention

My main concern would be what the prospects are for taking up equivalent jobs or careers when you come back from travelling.

As in - have you got skills that are highly valued and still likely to be in a years time and is your area a good one for having reasonable number of chances to get jobs/careers with those skills.

That would be my first and foremost question. If you only have jobs (rather than careers) then I would tend not to do so in your position.

Anyone who has done this some years back was in a rather different position to now. There are a couple of online articles in "The Guardian" right now about the number of types of jobs (even careers) potentially vanishing to technology. On the other hand they counted how many new types of jobs/careers are surfacing to replace the outdated ones. The analysis was not a positive one - there are rather more types of jobs/careers vanishing than new ones coming.

Are you in low or mid-level jobs on the one hand - or do you have careers on the other hand?