How much to live on

louby40

I'm back from my cruise…. the eclipse was STUNNING! I can't put it into words. Don't know if cruising with that particular cruise line is for us as it was a bit too formal. But I'd happily try another company. Loved spending time with my parents though - special memories made!

Mortgages and saving for a deposit is a nightmare. I have two sons in their 20's and both are saving (plus trying to live and have some fun) for a house deposit. It's staggering how much they need for a deposit and then the monthly mortgage amount is still eye watering.

Enjoy the sunshine, the weather has definitely turned now and we have flash flooding in Staffordshire.

MarzipanCrumble

The mortgage thing and student loans are so unfair on our younger generation. I am (un)lucky enough to qualify for IHT when I die. I now make sure that I gift out of excess income to my children. One (IT) is OK (2 incomes, 1 bed flat London); other is Teachers Assistant dealing with autistic children in a secondary school and isn't so flush.

I have a substantial SIPP which is not crystalised, but will be if the policy does not change. I fully intend to up the excess income thing and pay off the mortgage owed by the TA. I will gift the London one an equivalent.

But what if our PM/budget changes everything? I HATE IHT. I would rather tax increased and/or 10% of all estates was used for social care and/or there was an affordable insurance policy that covered possibility of social care.

Umm I have strayed into the Pensions Board content, methinks!

middlewife

My daughter is a teaching assistant in London, 33, she currently has no hope of buying any time soon. DS1 and his wife earn 3 times her salary, both lived with parents for a while to save money, and bought last year, I was able to gift each of my 4 kids £10k from mums inheritance, DS 2 was able to buy in Cornwall inland, as his partners parents gifted them a deposit from inheritance money, their joint earnings are about two thirds of DS 1. DS3 still lives with us, pays £300 a month which is roughly a third of bills. The average age of first time buyers has continued to rise to around 34 years and in London, it's 35. Just over 75% of first time buyers do NOT rent in London, unsurprisingly.

My daughter pays around £850 a month rent, has never defaulted but because her earnings are below £30k she can't get a mortgage, even if she could put down a 10% deposit. She hates renting, but unless she meets someone wealthier than her, wins the lottery or an unknown benefactor leaves her money, she's not likely to be able to own. We may downsize and gift some more, but she will still fall foul of minimum earnings. In keeping with this topic thread, although you can't take it with you, as our family all seem to live into their 90s, we can't afford to give it all away, much as we'd like to.

She's a qualified teacher, but doesn't want to do whole class teaching, she may consider retraining as a children's psycholgical wellbeing practitioner which would bump up her salary , as you say, it's hard for them with student debt piled on top, they need to earn a reasonable salary or earn a pittance and not have to repay....

Alnat1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82117363#Comment_82117363

My daughter (aged 32, NHS Band 2/3) has had a mortgage in her sole name for 6 years, renewed last year. Her pay now is only £25K. Property is a 3 bed terrace.

It's more to do with the price of the properties in the area your daughter wants to live, the amount she would need to borrow, than a £30K cut-off for all lenders.

middlewife

Thanks Alnat1. Flats are cheaper, but often come with hefty management fees which rules them out, never mind the whole leasehold issues. The cheapest 2bed mid terraces are north of £500k, so although she might be able to save 50k eventually, she will still have to borrow in excess of 400k and therein lies the problem, she will probably end up trying shared ownership as she will meet the residency qualifications, time will tell but it's hard if you're on your own.....

Organgrinder

Those prices are eye watering! Where I live that buys a large detached house!

I've just done my monthly accounts. Moved some money around to better deals. Eg Spring offer a 5% saver and Lloyds offer an 8% regular saver.

My personal pension continues to perform well and my stocks and shares isa is 11% up in a year.

On the downside my car insurance renewal came through. They wanted £450 so I said no. They immediately dropped it to £360. I shopped around and got £311 with added bonuses of RAC breakdown and £45 cashback.

Currently looking at solar and there's a company offering a remarkably cheap 3kw system with 8kwh battery for £4k. We only use 2500kwh a year (non EV), so pushing all our use to the 7p overnight tariff and getting some export (makes sense to charge battery at up for all home use and sell the solar back to grid at 12p per kWh) would mean a 5 year payback. I'll look into it later.

louby40

My dad was telling me about 'plug in' solar which is going to rolled out from September. Places like Argos, Lidl and Amazon are going to sell these units that are going to cost £400-600 that you can attach to a shed or wall.

There are certain checks you need to do beforehand to make sure your house can support them - I don't think older houses can take them.

But it's certainly worth considering if you don't want a massive £££££ layout.

I'm definitely going to look into it.

Organgrinder

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82119061#Comment_82119061

As it turns out this is a glorified "balcony system". The panels are the same as a standard installation just slightly fewer. The big plus is the battery.

Sadly it doesn't support the export tariff without additional cost but.....it should be able to support all our electricity needs on the 7p overnight tariff. If so payback would be approx 7 years.

However, it may be that I can get a battery only system that covers our needs for approx £2 - £2.5k. Payback 5 years. Currently I estimate our peak usage at about £600 a year. This would save around £450 a year if charging overnight.

Time for some detailed research!!

QrizB

I'm definitely going to look into it.

There are a couple of live threads on the topic of plug-in solar, one on the Energy forum and the other on Green and Ethical.

The best bang for the buck at present seems to be the Octopus kit for £650, currently on pre-order for delivery in late September once they've sorted out the certification problems with their inverter. But it's only been legal for three days and there are new kits coming onto the market all the time, so by the end of September there could be better options.

Organgrinder

Well it seems there is a new device on the market. A 5Kwh battery with a built in 3Kw inverter that comes with a monitoring device that clamps to the main feed.

Current cost £1399.

Needs to be installed by an electrician.

It's not quite big enough for our total usage (2500kwh per annum) but assuming a 4.5kwh discharge per day the figures look encouraging.

Cost to charge per day approx 35p. Offsets electricity of £1.47. Savings per day approx £1.12. Savings per annum over £400.

Assuming £600 to install that's a 5 year payback.