Student Loan Vs Mortgage Savings

Pixie5740

MallyGirl wrote: »

I stand corrected - my apologies. I have it all in a spreadsheet that did all that bit for me so I had forgotten that bit

No worries. It seems as if SLC are determined that no one will ever pay off their student loans. Earn more so that you repay more and you're charged more bloody interest.

MallyGirl

I worked out that my DD was likely to still owe £200k after 30 years (5 year course) at which point it would be written off. That was with a starting salary above the £25k threshold

System

ThePants999 wrote: »

Spoken like someone who got on the housing ladder at a time when "starter" homes didn't cost 10+ times starter salaries.

They don't. My son paid 3 times his salary and less than 2 times their joint salaries for a 3 bed semi detached house in a job he's been doing for less than 3 years and was the last amongst his friends to buy a house. Not everywhere is London.

ThePants999

Tarambor wrote: »

They don't. My son paid 3 times his salary and less than 2 times their joint salaries for a 3 bed semi detached house in a job he's been doing for less than 3 years and was the last amongst his friends to buy a house. Not everywhere is London.

I'm delighted for your son. Meanwhile, in the sleepy Somerset village I grew up in, little 2-bed terraces start at £170K, and jobs for young people in nearby towns are generally sub-£20K. You don't have to be in London for what I said to hold true.

More generally, I'm not particularly interested in anecdotal evidence - you don't reject a statistical hypothesis by pointing at an outlier. The averages are what's interesting, not the luckiest or unluckiest people, and what they show is throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the average first time buyers needed a deposit of ~20% of their annual household income to get on the ladder, and saved for 2-3 years to build it. Now, the average first time buyer needs a deposit of nearly 60% of their household income, and saves for 5 years to build it; consequently, the average first time buyer is 30. 30!

Nearly 50% of first time buyers have financial help to get on the ladder, typically from their parents. I did, and it has made an absolutely immense difference to the quality of life I've had over the past 13 years and the financial security I now enjoy, without preventing me from learning to "stand on my own two feet", as venison put it. I fully intend to do the same for my children, and I think it will benefit them far more than countless years of "character-building" scrimping and frugal living.