How much to keep back as savings

kandfs_mam

Sorry if wrong section wasn't sure if this was better here or in savings section

We are about to complete on house purchase and take a large (£280k) mortgage on a house worth £375k.  We own our current home outright and it is under offer so should complete in September.  I am number crunching and wondering what size of savings pot we should keep back before throwing everything else at overpaying the mortgage.  We are late 40s, both have relatively secure jobs and 3 kids - one over 18 who is not financially dependent on us and two tweenage.  No debt other than mortgage we are taking.

I am thinking 1 year net joint wages to be kept back as savings but I don't know if I am just being over cautious due to us both having made redundant in the past.    

Linton

1 year joint wages seems more than adequate if arguably over-cautious.  When we were working we baaseed our emergency fund on 6 months living expenses.  The biggest risks you face is that you both lose your jobs with no redundancy pay/compensation or suffer life-changing ill health.  The latter can be covered by appropriate insurance so if you can expect to get a new job within a year paying sufficient to meet your commitments then you should be fine.

kandfs_mam

Linton said:

1 year joint wages seems more than adequate if arguably over-cautious.  When we were working we baaseed our emergency fund on 6 months living expenses.  The biggest risks you face is that you both lose your jobs with no redundancy pay/compensation or suffer life-changing ill health.  The latter can be covered by appropriate insurance so if you can expect to get a new job within a year paying sufficient to meet your commitments then you should be fine.

Thank you - yeah we have critical illness insurance cover and have both been in current jobs over 5 years. Once bitten twice shy I suppose.