Is it too late to buy at 45? Any advice...

ReadingTim

Ozzuk wrote: »

There is nothing wrong with renting

..there's nothing right with it either, as many posts on this very board prove.

abundant1972

Hi everybody and thank you (mostly) for the feedback...!

I had been in debt for most of my adult life, and at my worst was in debt by 12.5K in Dec 2012. I cleared it all by Dec 2014... So It's taken me 3.5 years to save what I have...

Ok so not the greatest perhaps. Forgive me if I opted to live a little when I first got rid of my debt haha. I will clear £1700 approx. when back on 30 hours... but that is this year (pension contributions bring my take home pay down a fair bit). My wage was very different going back a few years and I worked hard to gain a promotion. My health issues are mental health related - as long as I am able to exercise and eat well and get a lot of down time and rest I will be ok. Even with that - sometimes my mood can spiral and that has at times adversely affected my spending habits. Fortunately I have much better coping mechanisms now than I did perhaps 10 years ago. It's been a learning curve - but my health is the best it has ever been.

A suggestion I should be saving 7K a year is somewhat unrealistic... Saving £500 + a month just hasn't always been possible. Life events happen... cars go wrong... and I found out the hard way that buying an old car can sometimes be a false economy - and end up costing you an arm and a leg in the end. I have been a long time member on many debt busting boards and have worked really hard to save what I have, and am proud of what I have achieved on my own.

So I am going to try and not take the criticisms to heart... I was simply asking for advice 'where to from here' - so thank you to those people who offered helpful constructive advice. I will certainly seek advice from a mortgage broker - that has to be the first step. I moved up North and whilst I haven't noticed a difference in renting costs - in fact I now pay more now than I did down south - the houses to buy do seem cheaper.

Thank you for the advice from those of you who have retired too - you have the benefit of hindsight and it's really helpful to learn from your experiences.

Cakeguts

abundant1972 wrote: »

Hi everybody and thank you (mostly) for the feedback...!

I had been in debt for most of my adult life, and at my worst was in debt by 12.5K in Dec 2012. I cleared it all by Dec 2014... So It's taken me 3.5 years to save what I have...

Ok so not the greatest perhaps. Forgive me if I opted to live a little when I first got rid of my debt haha. I will clear £1700 approx. when back on 30 hours... but that is this year (pension contributions bring my take home pay down a fair bit). My wage was very different going back a few years and I worked hard to gain a promotion. My health issues are mental health related - as long as I am able to exercise and eat well and get a lot of down time and rest I will be ok. Even with that - sometimes my mood can spiral and that has at times adversely affected my spending habits. Fortunately I have much better coping mechanisms now than I did perhaps 10 years ago. It's been a learning curve - but my health is the best it has ever been.

A suggestion I should be saving 7K a year is somewhat unrealistic... Saving £500 + a month just hasn't always been possible. Life events happen... cars go wrong... and I found out the hard way that buying an old car can sometimes be a false economy - and end up costing you an arm and a leg in the end. I have been a long time member on many debt busting boards and have worked really hard to save what I have, and am proud of what I have achieved on my own.

So I am going to try and not take the criticisms to heart... I was simply asking for advice 'where to from here' - so thank you to those people who offered helpful constructive advice. I will certainly seek advice from a mortgage broker - that has to be the first step. I moved up North and whilst I haven't noticed a difference in renting costs - in fact I now pay more now than I did down south - the houses to buy do seem cheaper.

Thank you for the advice from those of you who have retired too - you have the benefit of hindsight and it's really helpful to learn from your experiences.

I don't know how on earth you can manage to pay more in rent in the north than you can in the south? I can't think of anywhere in the south that you can rent a 2 bed terraced house for around £400 per month apart from north of Manchester and then you can do it easily.

There is no way round it if you want to buy somewhere you have to save more each month. Buying is expensive. It is much more expensive than renting because you are responsible for all the repairs. Not only do you have to pay the mortgage but you have to have extensive savings in case you become ill and can't work or in case something serious needs mending in the house. There are no benefits that will pay a mortgage so you have to have a way of paying it if you are not working.

MRoss

You get 28 grand for 24 hours per week - well done you! What's your job title??? (I know this sounds flippant but I'm serious, not sarky)

ashe

Could be anything, basically any 35-37k a year job pro rata’d for time. Project manager, business analyst etc

I am a BA and get 37k for 35 hours a week. It’s quite easy to get into if you read into it, with short courses if you want to dive in.

ashe

If you!!!8217;re likely to be buying in over a years time, have a read of martins post about htb isa vs lifetime isa.

AdrianC

Cakeguts wrote: »

I don't know how on earth you can manage to pay more in rent in the north than you can in the south? I can't think of anywhere in the south that you can rent a 2 bed terraced house for around £400 per month apart from north of Manchester and then you can do it easily.

There are plenty of places south of Brum where £500-550 for a nice, central 2-bed is not hard. Sure, they're west (England), but if we're talking simply about latitude...

seeroo

Let's not forget the main benefit of buying.... equity! When you're renting you're paying for the landlords investment when you buy you're paying into your own. Where I live rent is usually similar to a mortgage payment. So if your rent is say £600 per month all of that is going to the landlord. You could buy the same house with a mortgage of around £500pm. Of this £500 about £300-400 pays off the capital and is yours as equity.

Also if he is working in the NHS his pension contributions will be higher than what you might voluntarily pay in the private sector. At least you'll have a good pension at the end of it though. The NHS pension scheme is very generous and worthwhile.

AdrianC

seeroo wrote: »

Let's not forget the main benefit of buying.... equity! When you're renting you're paying for the landlords investment when you buy you're paying into your own.

Flip side: The landlord is paying all the other costs of ownership. Maintenance, service charges, buildings insurance.

Sure, there's a financial difference between owning and renting. But it's really not that big. Rule-of-thumb target yield for a landlord is about 5%, before mortgage costs and tax.

commandomum

My husband and I bought our house at ages of 45 and 46 in 2001. We paid the same monthly payment of £550 through the length of the mortgage. Every time the interest rate went down we kept our payment the same and we managed to clear our mortgage completely by 2016. I do realise that house prices have risen but it should still be possible for you to buy. Go for it and good luck.