Are you financially comfortable?

chelseablue

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Sort of another way to look at this whole question would be = what do we feel is a reasonable standard of living/home/etc to have and we will be satisfied with that and not look to have any more.

My suspicion there is that many would "set the bar" for that at a rather higher level than I personally regard as reasonable/fair enough. I wouldnt want a "mansion" if I could afford it - and wouldnt believe it was fair to have one either. 3/4 bed detached with 1/2 bedrooms and I'd stop at that even if I had loadsa money. It would be "Enough".

Though, on the reverse side of the equation, I'm well aware that a house of my own has been there from Year Dot in my mind as something that is "birthright" for me (my parents have their own house, my mothers parents had their own house, my mothers grandparents had their own house....dont know how far back that line goes.....). My mother would see it that way - my father probably wouldnt.

I agree, if I was a millionaire I'd still buy a 3 or 4 bed detached, my family of 3 would be rattling round in a 7 bedroom mansion!


When my grandparents were in their late 50's with no children at home they went and bought a 5 bedroom detached house, didn't think anything of it at the time but I do wonder now what their reasoning was

martinsurrey

chelseablue wrote: »

When my grandparents were in their late 50's with no children at home they went and bought a 5 bedroom detached house, didn't think anything of it at the time but I do wonder now what their reasoning was

problem with houses is that as bedrooms go up in number, in general, so does plot size and living space.

3 beds may be enough, but if you want a hobby room, a separate formal dining room, a separate living room and a large kitchen diner, that's going to be under 5-6 bedrooms in general (I know there are rare houses with huge downstairs and small upstairs).

add on to that wanting a good sized garden and bedroom count becomes a bad way of of understanding which house to buy.

chelseablue

martinsurrey wrote: »

problem with houses is that as bedrooms go up in number, in general, so does plot size and living space.

3 beds may be enough, but if you want a hobby room, a separate formal dining room, a separate living room and a large kitchen diner, that's going to be under 5-6 bedrooms in general (I know there are rare houses with huge downstairs and small upstairs).

add on to that wanting a good sized garden and bedroom count becomes a bad way of of understanding which house to buy.

Thank you, didn't think of it like that.


Out of the 5 bedrooms, one they slept in, one was my Grandad's office, the other 3 were spare :rotfl:

cyantist

chelseablue wrote: »

Thank you, didn't think of it like that.


Out of the 5 bedrooms, one they slept in, one was my Grandad's office, the other 3 were spare :rotfl:

Did those 3 spare bedrooms allow them to have guests over a lot? If just my parents, my sister and partner, and her children came to visit there is no way we could put them all up and we don't have kids ourselves. Living far away from all my friends and family I really value space to be able to put people up overnight. That means if we have 2 children we'd want at least 4 bedrooms, ideally 5.

chelseablue

cyantist wrote: »

Did those 3 spare bedrooms allow them to have guests over a lot? If just my parents, my sister and partner, and her children came to visit there is no way we could put them all up and we don't have kids ourselves. Living far away from all my friends and family I really value space to be able to put people up overnight. That means if we have 2 children we'd want at least 4 bedrooms, ideally 5.

In the 18 years they lived there I think me and my brother stayed over twice.


We lived about 10 miles away


Their other children and grandchildren lived about 100 miles away, I think they only stayed over a few times

chelseablue

I think my granddad bought it as a kind of retirement plan, as they sold it and downsized to a flat and banked quite a bit of money

SmlSave

This is so interesting, anyone have a calculator handy which works out household percentages?

We've a 2 year old and almost 5 year old and I think often we are more financially stable than 5 friends with similar families. I work 3 days a week while they work full time as they'd simply got used to spending two wages.

Some weeks I feel very financially comfortable, we spend lots of money on wants

Some weeks I feel like we'll never have enough savings/be mortgage free/fancy holidays/diy etc...

Andrew_Ryan_89

SmlSave wrote: »

This is so interesting, anyone have a calculator handy which works out household percentages?

We've a 2 year old and almost 5 year old and I think often we are more financially stable than 5 friends with similar families. I work 3 days a week while they work full time as they'd simply got used to spending two wages.

Some weeks I feel very financially comfortable, we spend lots of money on wants

Some weeks I feel like we'll never have enough savings/be mortgage free/fancy holidays/diy etc...

http://www.percentagecalculator.net/

Spirit_2

We feel financially comfortable, no mortgage,no debt, I retired at 54 my husband continues to work. We have nice cars, mine less than a year old, and the much mentioned kitchen aid. We shop for clothes at the highend of the high street, have money set aside for a deposit gift for our daughter. This year so far we have had weekends away, a caribbean holiday and 3 weeks in cyprus . Our biggest expenses are healthcare for me and our social life.

It has not always been like this, and we are still a little amazed we have got to this point. At times in our married life we have had financial challenges. I first joined this site on the DFW board . We have always lived well, perhaps too well relative to our income sometimes, but I have made pension contributions my whole workinglife, increasing to 30% of my earnings from aged 40, and we have a comfortable but modest semi detatched cottage. No massive multiples of income mortgages nor big inheritances for us, rather we have supported other family members.

I have have had very serious heath issues which have left me with some limitations and put my husband and daughter in the position of being carers to me until very recently.Financial security has definitely helped us cope with life changing illness. However there are no regrets about living at financial stretch when we were younger and healthier. Doing things is more important than owning things.

SmlSave

Andrew_Ryan_89 wrote: »

http://www.percentagecalculator.net/

Thank you

Last year we spent:

45% Basic living costs
25% Childcare
10% Personal/Misc
10% Savings
5% DIY
5% Holidays
5% Clothes/shoes/glasses