Is Our Mortgage Sustainable? Advice Needed

Lets_fly

We are first-time buyers, and our mortgage for a house of £575k has been approved with an interest rate of 4.44. Loan term is 28yrs. Got it with Nationwide with 5.5x of salary and they counted my annual bonus. We are putting down a £110k deposit(19%).So the mortgage amount is 465K and rest balance we are paying as deposit.  We are about to exchange the contract in 1 or 2 weeks.

 My take-home income is £4,200 per month, and the mortgage repayment will be £2,430 per month. I am 46yrs old and the only earner; my wife does not work, and we have a 13-year-old son.

Given the current cost of living, I would like to know if this setup is sustainable. Any advice or insights from those in a similar situation would be greatly appreciated. Any thing I can do to make it sustainable 

ChartAcc

Seems a rather odd post to me. 
Mortgage at 4.44% for how many years?
Stamp duty £7500?
How much do you spend other than on the mortgage? 
Totally impossible to give you an answer.
You must know it's not a sensible question.

AgathaSquirrel

It’s a lot of money but as a first time buyer in your 40s you are more restricted with mortgage length.
It really depends on your other outgoings. Will you be able to save? Pay into a pension?
Is there any potential for you or your wife to earn more in the future?

longestgame

There are general recommendations about mortgage costs as share of household income. Originally, it was the idea that mortgage costs alone should not account for more than 25% of take home. Nowadays, a third is often the case. 

It is an expensive house. Are you buying a huge place, or a reasonably sized house in a very expensive area?

Appr. 1750 per month for all remaining costs sounds quite tight to me. I would also be worried about receiving a lower bonus one year or interest rates rising when you need to renew. 

Lets_fly

AgathaSquirrel said:

It’s a lot of money but as a first time buyer in your 40s you are more restricted with mortgage length.
It really depends on your other outgoings. Will you be able to save? Pay into a pension?
Is there any potential for you or your wife to earn more in the future?

Wife is looking for Job and I might get a promotion but not sure when that will happen. With rough calculation I will not be saving much may be a £100 or £200 will be saved every month after all out going. 

AgathaSquirrel

You need some form of buffer but if you are confident your wife can find a job and your income covers all the outgoings you should be fine.

lulabelle1

I would worry immensely about taking on such a large mortgage on a single income. (Unless you have a few hundred thousand to fall back on that you haven’t mentioned?)

Is £1700 enough to cover:
Food and supermarket spends
council tax
gas, electric, water 
house insurance 
life insurance 
clothes/shoes teenager (and 2 adults)
christmas/birthdays
tv license, sky, other subscriptions such as Netflix, Amazon 
phone, broadband, mobile phones
pet food, pet insurance (if you have one)
Occasional meal out
kids clubs, hobbies, school trips
pocket money
house maintenance 
car/car insurance/maintenance

and thats before thinking of things like building an emergency fund, pension contributions, holidays, fun etc etc….

Do you have a budget for your currently monthly spends so that you can see if £1700 is enough to cover?



Edit to add… I’ve just seen a previous thread about the survey, you’ve mentioned a list of things that will be costing you money to rectify, do you already have funds set aside for this? 

thegentleway

Duplicate post: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6587020/is-our-mortgage-sustainable-advice-needed#latest