Huge mortgage - ahhhhhgh!

msmoneypennyplease

Hi all,
We have recently bought a house - house value a whooping £600,000 and a £300,000 mortgage. This is a huge house and the idea is that it is our forever house. It needs work though - it's cold and not nice aesthetically inside. We moved from a lovely house a year an a half ago and had no mortgage - it was just a bit small and not in the area we wanted to be in. In some ways, I wonder if we have made a massive mistake as we both feel the burden of having such a big mortgage with two young kids and it would actually be nice to have the option of not working so much (with extortionate nursery fees). We also feel overwhelmed when thinking of the work that needs done in the house. Anyway we are where we are. Sorry that is a rant rather than a positive looking forward story but that is how I feel at the moment and wonder if anyone else felt like this at the beginning?
Cheers,
MsMoneyPennyPlease!

msmoneypennyplease

PS We have actually been in the house for 18 months so a little while. We have a 5 year fixed mortgage at a rate of 1.89%. Feel very worried that we will be crippled if the rate goes up after the 5 years so need to get the balance down pronto!

Maybe I’m just a worrier. My husband is not a worrier. He wants to get new kitchen, new bathroom etc etc now but I would rather pay off a chunk and so feel less stressed by burden on mortgage. Anyone else been at odds with OH? I’ve always liked to have a cushion and right now I don’t feel that we do. Heating, council tax etc are all massive now!! Sorry if this is unrelatable to many. We started off with a goal of paying off our £85,000 flat so have been there...just wondering if we’ve taken a step too far at the moment but hopefully in 5 years time we will look back at this and wonder what all the fuss was about!

mpgsheep

Good morning,

We are at the point you were about 2 years ago - have £135k left on our house, with about £300k equity and wondering if we step up to £600-700k houses and all the extra years hard work etc that entails. The difference is we are both quite worrier's, and not keen on the extra stress so think it is most likely we stay put. I guess it really depends on your jobs, if you happy and you feel unlikely to change, then guess can take more risk and get the stuff done before building that buffer?

tacpot12

Mortgages are long-term commitments; your mortgage will be cleared by the time you retire. Your nursery fees are quite temporary in comparison. In just a few years, the nursery fees will have dropped and you can start to overpay your mortgage. I wouldn't recommend working less. Your mortgage is large and needs both of you to be working as much as you can to clear it. It is greatly reassuring to know that once you own your own home, it cannot be taken off you.

Once you've started to overpay, as your salary increases with time, you can save more towards your retirement. With that extra retirement saving you can retire early and take a well earned break from full time working.

ChipAway

Our mortgage was £280k at the start in 2015 and the house needed a full rewire, kitchen, bathroom en-suite etc... not going to lie the first two years were tough but now we are starting to smash through the overpayments. It's a long term game, it made me feel better to start with just £50 OP each month so I was doing "something", and now the big expenses are done we overpay a lot more.

If you are in secure jobs and you are generally financially prudent (don't have to live like a monk, just be sensible) then it will get easier.

msmoneypennyplease

Thanks - that’s all really sensible and reassuring advice! Thank you! ��

Nichelette

We're in the same boat (288 mortgage), but we're in what I would call a 2 bed starter house so my plan is to aggressively pay down mortgage then hopefully move in about 8 years. I worry too, but we basically had to take the plunge or rent forever. I started a diary before we moved which I'm going to update soon. I'm itching to make the first overpayment once new internet banking is set up. it will work out, just try to overpay as much as you can afford.