Mortgage free or forever home?

jenni_fer

@Zerforax both, therefore double the price!

redundantmortgage

I'm on track to be mortgage free aged 40 in just under 2 months time. Joint salary is more than £70k but my wife's salary is considerably lower than mine.

When we first moved in together we lived in a decent sized house. When we relocated and then bought it was a one bed flat which has always been too small. We could have possibly stretched to a 2 bed flat when we bought but not a house and we've always wanted to move back to a house eventually.

I'm completely fed up of my career though and I discovered a couple of years ago it's not the stable career I thought it was when I got made redundant. The prospect of having to continue doing what I do for the next 25 years to keep a roof over my head fills me with dread.

spoovy

Woolsery said:

Noneforit999 said:

I am not sure a large mortgage is the way to go at the moment with interest rates and the cost of living on the rise.

I'm sure it's not, for the majority.

US and UK due to enter recession at the same time, major dislocation of supply chains, shortages worsening by the day, prices rising fast and people still say they're optimistic.  It's nice people are still so positive, I suppose, but what's that based on exactly? All the charts I see are going one way.

I don't know what you're looking at but the IMF forecasts 3.7% growth in 2022 for both the UK and US. 2023 forecasts are 1.2% and 2.3% respectively.
There's no recession on the horizon for either country.

Woolsery

spoovy said:

Woolsery said:

Noneforit999 said:

I am not sure a large mortgage is the way to go at the moment with interest rates and the cost of living on the rise.

I'm sure it's not, for the majority.

US and UK due to enter recession at the same time, major dislocation of supply chains, shortages worsening by the day, prices rising fast and people still say they're optimistic.  It's nice people are still so positive, I suppose, but what's that based on exactly? All the charts I see are going one way.

I don't know what you're looking at but the IMF forecasts 3.7% growth in 2022 for both the UK and US. 2023 forecasts are 1.2% and 2.3% respectively.
There's no recession on the horizon for either country.

We will see. I trust my MiL more than the IMF, but each to his own!

spoovy

I'd be interested to see the contradictory charts you referred to. Sorry I'm not familiar with MIL.

jonnydeppiwish!

spoovy said:

I'd be interested to see the contradictory charts you referred to. Sorry I'm not familiar with MIL.

Mother in law.

Whilst growth maybe forecast, we’re in for a rough few years imo.

jonnydeppiwish!

I cannot stress how liberating being MF actual is. We got out of ‘keeping up with the neighbours’ last year when we realised the house, although in a beautiful location, was too big, as was the garden.

We sold to a downsizing couple (they had a 2,500 sq ft previously!) and just looked at other properties that we wouldn’t normally look at.

An ugly, small semi came back up for sale that we purchased cash, and had enough to put a decent sum away after renovating. We’re now in a really lovely, if a tad overcrowded, town with the harbour 700 metres walk away.

The kids have left home though, but in our early forties, we have the ability to do what we want, work when we want and enjoy it all without the pressure of having to.

grumiofoundation

jonnydeppiwish! said:

spoovy said:

I'd be interested to see the contradictory charts you referred to. Sorry I'm not familiar with MIL.

Mother in law.

Whilst growth maybe forecast, we’re in for a rough few years imo.

What did you do to annoy her?

jonnydeppiwish!

grumiofoundation said:

jonnydeppiwish! said:

spoovy said:

I'd be interested to see the contradictory charts you referred to. Sorry I'm not familiar with MIL.

Mother in law.

Whilst growth maybe forecast, we’re in for a rough few years imo.

What did you do to annoy her?

Married her daughter?

Woolsery

spoovy said:

I'd be interested to see the contradictory charts you referred to. Sorry I'm not familiar with MIL.

You certainly don't want to be familiar with my Mother in Law!

The slightly longer answer is that it's not in the IMF's nature to predict anything bad.

But to be specific, just take the US GDP for the first quarter of 2022 and you'll see it fell by 1.4%. That was against the prediction it would rise by 1%.

Meanwhile, invesment in just about everything fell, which doesn't augur well for the rest of the year.  I dare say investment is being pumped into arms right now as the US embarks on a proxy war with Russia, but I think more bad than good will come out of that, especially now Russia is cutting fertilizer exports and threatening the petro-dollar by demanding payments in roubles. We're seeing major re-alignments in world trade, not to our advantage.

Already US and British farmers are reeling under shortages in fertilizer and the high prices for the same, without which yields will fall dramatically. They're also being hammered with fuel prices. In the UK and Europe that means less home production in cooler months ofthe year. Even mainstream media and Biden himself are saying food shortages by the year's end. Does that sound like a buoyant situation?

Then there's the strange melt-down in China which is resulting in more than just a shortage of cheap chips. President Xi cannot be wrong, so if Beijing goes into lockdown to prove he's right about zero Covid things there will go totally paridae-up. Shanghai is trying to move ships, but there's a massive log jam of containers that will take many months to sort out. Meanwhile, the Chinese housing boom is collapsing too. I suppose you've heard of Evergrande's problems?

In the States and over here consumer prices have risen around 8% and dont show much sign of slowing down....and so on...I think there are about 6 countries that are likely to default on their debt payments any time soon and we're only just into May.

But yes, there will be people saying it's all just a blip. No one wants a sudden meltdown, especially not me as my funds are doing rather badly t present and they're supposed to be lower risk!