How has this house gone up so much?

Herzlos

Mark_Glasses said:
@Herzlos I'm facing the prospect of not being mortgage free by the time I retire because I'll be 65 in less than 25 years time. What I really want is enough money to quite my job because I hate it so much, I dread the thought of having to work that much longer. 

It sounds like you need a new job then.

I've just remortgaged that'll take me to an expected retirement age of 67, but I'm hoping that with a bit of work and luck I can (a) drop down from 5 to 4 days in maybe 4/5 years time and (b) retire early.

But then I've bought a house that probably cost less than your flat does, because I don't need anything fancier and have no interest in trying to impress anyone.

Mark_Glasses

@sheramber I am looking to buy a house but want to make sure I get it right. I'm at least 10 years behind so if I get it wrong I could be screwed forever.

@herzlos yes I do need a new job. On the employment board I was advised to concentrate on my life outside work so this is what I'm doing. My job would probably be more bearable if I didn't need the money.

lookstraightahead

Mark_Glasses said:

@sheramber I am looking to buy a house but want to make sure I get it right. I'm at least 10 years behind so if I get it wrong I could be screwed forever.

@herzlos yes I do need a new job. On the employment board I was advised to concentrate on my life outside work so this is what I'm doing. My job would probably be more bearable if I didn't need the money.

I bought at 21 - well ahead of myself, with the prospect of being able to retire. Engaged at 22. Married at 25, children soon after. A vision of retiring early. All in a straight line! Then pow, my husband left me to start again with someone else. Then a whole load of life events to turned my straight line into spaghetti including some good stuff.
my now husband is my soulmate etc etc and I will not do a job that either I don't like, or doesn't fit in with my lifestyle. I'm not aiming or retirement I will work through it (hopefully).
really you can't rely on plans, you can only use them as a guide.

Elliott.T123

Mark, what is most important to you.

The size/type of property you live in or living in London?

If the answer is London then basically.... give up now on any dream of owning a large house. It may seem like lots of people manage to do it but it is only a tiny fraction of the population and by your age short of winning the lottery you would already know if it is going to be possible. You would need to be in a career where you are likely to earn £150k plus.

If the most important thing is the property, then move out of London. My BiL recently moved from a 1 bed flat in London to a 4 bed house up north with a garden I can only dream of, he was left with a smaller mortgage than he had before and only took a pay cut of £1,000 a year for a job up north.

Some of your friends may have managed to financially do really well.... that doesn't mean anyone else is going to or is entitled to.

Ultimately you need to accept that you may never reach the levels you want to.

Mark_Glasses

@lookstraightahead putting my lifelong desire to be rich to one side, at the very least I want to be financially prepared for whatever life throws at me. I wish I could pick and choose my jobs but I've had to take what I've been offered and always get rejected for the jobs I actually want. I'm over 40 in an industry where 80% of employees are under 40. Most people who work in this industry are interested in it, I'm not. The future isn't looking good work wise.

@Elliott.T123 I've sacrificed a lot to live in London. If I was to move out of London I'd feel like I'd be giving up on life. My original plan was to buy a property straight after university and I didn't think moving to London was a possibility. When I learned several people from school had moved to London I thought if they can do it so can I. My mortgage advisor told me you can borrow 5x your salary and as expensive as London properties are a lot of them in my area at least cost less than £750k. I just want a house, it doesn't have to be large.

YoungBlueEyes

I'm having another go, so here comes blunt.

Mark think of it the other way round. Start by imagining what you want the end point to look like, then imagine all the steps it takes to get there.

So you're in London and you want a house. Can you afford a house in London? Not some unrealistic house in an expensive area, a house that it would be reasonable for you to be able to afford and move to? Being honest with yourself, is that house in an area you really want to live in? So think about a house that's in a reasonable area that you would live in. Can you afford it? Right, so can you do more hours at work/get a pay rise? Would a change of job produce the sort of wage slips that will get you in the reasonable house?  I've forgotten all the details now it's so many pages long - is you wife working? Would your + her wages get you into the reasonable house? 

If nothing you can do will produce your end result in your current location you need to change the location or accept that nothing will change.  You won't be "giving up on life" if/when you leave London. You'll be taking a step back and choosing to do what you need to do to put you and your family in a better position. 

Have a look at some property sites for the sort of house you'd like. Lets say 4 bed detached (I think I remember kids in there somewhere?) So start searching for 4bed detached, nice garden, garage/off street parking, add your wish list here. Look at how many there are! And how much cheaper they are! They're available in all kinds of different places, and any one of them is a possibility! Maybe use the mortgage calculator thing to see how much one would cost you per month, how does that compare to what you're paying now per month? Imagine what you could do with that extra money..... 

So take a deep breath, get a few properties together to discuss with your family. Pros and cons. Show of hands. You might be out voted!

Or you absolutely have to stay in London. So you look up job sites, start putting some figures together. You could be working in a job you prefer and doing something different, with people your own age, and being happy about it. Imagine that! If you go this route then have a look at some houses you could cheerfully live in if everyone was contributing to the pot. Important point, that. You've all got to want it to make it your new reality. Start working smarter and saving harder now you've something you're ALL aiming for. Trim that fat, live smaller for a short while for the long term gain. 

Time to sh*t or get off the pot. 

Just as an aside - what sort of life would you be living now if you hadn't run into your old school friend?  What if your parent/s (?) never said 'that's the life you should living' or whatever it was? You can go anywhere and do anything, so why are you spending your life trying to live someone elses?! 

Mark_Glasses

@YoungBlueEyes around where I live you're looking at £500k+ for a house. When we bought this place the mortgage advisor told us we could borrow £300k. We've since had pay rises, have paid some of our mortgage and have savings. I'm not sure exactly what the combination of the latter 2 is but I do know it's more than £150k. We might be able to afford a £500k property based on that, but then that would mean being able to afford a more expensive property than my boss which doesn't seem realistic because he obviously makes more money than me. If we do buy the £500k property though I want to make sure it's worth over a million at some point in the future. 

I did think about moving somewhere close to London and commuting prior to learning of people from school moving to London. Had I done that I would have learned that the benefit of cheaper housing would have been eaten up by commuting costs and probably moved to London anyway. This person in particular did turn my head though because we also went to the same primary school and he lived around a 3 minute walk away. 

sheramber

So you are still  comparing to others- you want what your friend has but that would men your house ws better than your boss's.  So what. Does your boss care? He is probably happy with he has.

When you find the way to buy a house now and guarantee it will be worth a million in the future  share with the rest of us.

Do you realised thst house prices are dropping at present. there are no guarantees. 

Accept you will never be satisfied.

YoungBlueEyes

Here comes blunt again. 

Put your big boy pants on and ring your gp in the morning and tell them you need someone to sort your head out. Otherwise you’ll be letting this chew you up for years. 

I’ve posted sarcastically, I’ve posted seriously, I’ve posted bluntly. All a waste of phone’s battery. I’m out. 

[Deleted User]

Some of the people I went to primary school with are dead. I know not one who has bought a house and doubled their ACTUAL asset price ( yes they sold for more than they originally paid for a house , but still had to pay that amount to buy somewhere else) despite having worked hard for a lifetime they will only ever be 'comfortable' if that.

 I know some people who have lost close relationships because all they thought about was  'status'  amd how other people had done better than them. It's pointless, there will always be people who appear to have more and have acquired it more 'easily'  ( but think of those who do... how many can you name that despite having wealth, fame etc are a mental and emotional disaster zone and bring misery to their families also).

Bluntly, you could be hit by a bus tomorrow, or by disease or disablement or  any other of life's random misfortunes. Your friend's family will not say at his funeral, "Pity he didn't make more money" or "yeah he did make a lot of money"  they won't say that at yours...hopefully they will say something along the lines of "I will miss the kindness, the constant friendship, the laughs, the shared stuff we did"...you get the drift.

 If you don't like what you do and where you live now, try and change it, but even if you can't change the big things you might be able to change the smaller ones to get more pleasure out of the days. Save money on what you can save on, then think outside the box.. London is NOT the only place to have a life.