2nd step on the property ladder - when?
Discussion
Hey folks
Bit of a ramble this so hope you'll stay with me. Thinking out loud and driving myself nuts so would appreciate an outsiders perspective on the situation.
We bought our first house this time last year and in hindsight I kind of regret it. Not the house as such but down to location - overlooked badly and although the area we are in is nice it borders on a less pleasant area. Nothing major but just nagging away at me that with the benefit of hindsight I feel we rushed in a bit and our judgement was clouded.
So we are only 1 yr into a 35 year term - the long term plan was to start a family here (we both turned 30 this yr) in the next couple of years and then look to move to something bigger as and when we could afford to. The fact that we bought with a 5% deposit wasn't the brightest move either but hey ho.
Part of me is thinking that if we committed to a plan, we could put the baby making on hold and save hard for another three years and save c. £1k a month to be used in conjunction with any equity gain in our house over the 4 years and use that as the deposit on the 'forever home' before starting a family. Based on a couple of assumptions and a quick scout of mortgage deals we would pay roughly what we pay now on the mortgage.
Another part of me thinks we'd be better off accepting that we will be here for a while, pushing on with the family plans and then looking to move in say 10 years or if and when finances allow - bearing in mind we will lose a salary when we are avec infant so saving will go out the window (however this time next year we should be able to knock ~£300/m off our mortgage payment as we can hopefully switch from a 95% product to 90%
I'm also not so naive to think that starting a family is a doddle and is guaranteed to happen especially with us both being the wrong side of 30 now so it could be that we can continue to save for longer than we thought anyway.
I know it's hard to make decisions without full knowledge of the finances but just interested to hear some general thoughts.
Ta
Bit of a ramble this so hope you'll stay with me. Thinking out loud and driving myself nuts so would appreciate an outsiders perspective on the situation.
We bought our first house this time last year and in hindsight I kind of regret it. Not the house as such but down to location - overlooked badly and although the area we are in is nice it borders on a less pleasant area. Nothing major but just nagging away at me that with the benefit of hindsight I feel we rushed in a bit and our judgement was clouded.
So we are only 1 yr into a 35 year term - the long term plan was to start a family here (we both turned 30 this yr) in the next couple of years and then look to move to something bigger as and when we could afford to. The fact that we bought with a 5% deposit wasn't the brightest move either but hey ho.
Part of me is thinking that if we committed to a plan, we could put the baby making on hold and save hard for another three years and save c. £1k a month to be used in conjunction with any equity gain in our house over the 4 years and use that as the deposit on the 'forever home' before starting a family. Based on a couple of assumptions and a quick scout of mortgage deals we would pay roughly what we pay now on the mortgage.
Another part of me thinks we'd be better off accepting that we will be here for a while, pushing on with the family plans and then looking to move in say 10 years or if and when finances allow - bearing in mind we will lose a salary when we are avec infant so saving will go out the window (however this time next year we should be able to knock ~£300/m off our mortgage payment as we can hopefully switch from a 95% product to 90%
I'm also not so naive to think that starting a family is a doddle and is guaranteed to happen especially with us both being the wrong side of 30 now so it could be that we can continue to save for longer than we thought anyway.
I know it's hard to make decisions without full knowledge of the finances but just interested to hear some general thoughts.
Ta
Edited by BRISTOL86 on Monday 13th June 15:34
It's easy to over analyse stuff like this. If you want kids then go for it, there is never a right time but IMO the sooner you have them the easier you'll find it.
And the other bit of advice I'll give is that if you are having kids don't over commit yourselves financially. When me and the missus moved to our current place we could have spent so much more and got the dream place but we'd really be suffering for it now. As it is the that fact that we scaled down our expectations a bit and two kids later it has allowed my wife to quit her job which would have been impractical for her to hold down now our eldest is at school. She will go back to work at some stage but there is no immediate rush even though our finances are tight at the moment. To have that flexibility with the kids is very useful.
So I'd say stay put and start you family, you never know what's around the corner. And on a more sobering note my wife's sister and partner left it late, were unable to conceive and now he's fighting cancer so any chance of kids for them is completely out. Live for the now.
And the other bit of advice I'll give is that if you are having kids don't over commit yourselves financially. When me and the missus moved to our current place we could have spent so much more and got the dream place but we'd really be suffering for it now. As it is the that fact that we scaled down our expectations a bit and two kids later it has allowed my wife to quit her job which would have been impractical for her to hold down now our eldest is at school. She will go back to work at some stage but there is no immediate rush even though our finances are tight at the moment. To have that flexibility with the kids is very useful.
So I'd say stay put and start you family, you never know what's around the corner. And on a more sobering note my wife's sister and partner left it late, were unable to conceive and now he's fighting cancer so any chance of kids for them is completely out. Live for the now.
What are you going to do if you move house ready for kids to arrive and ... they don't?
Otherwise,
Otherwise,
- If you think property prices will rise faster than your income and/or inflation it's a good idea to trade up as soon as possible.
- If you think property prices will rise more slowly than your income and/or inflation it's a good idea to wait.
Go for the kids, see what happens.
I put things off against my better half's wishes and parental advice. I wanted to sew up practical matters, moving, trying to convince the wife to get into a big firm job with peachy maternity package, getting her to pass her driving test to ferry the nippers around etc.
Some years down the line now, we actually had little trouble in the end and have 3 sons, but being a couple of years younger wouldn't have hurt. It seems so silly now to have worried about such inconsequential and material things, because my perspective changed so much the children actually came along.
You simply cannot buy the joy and pride your children can bring you. Why wait?... statistically speaking it only gets harder to conceive and less likely things go smoothly. Think about the other end of your life, you will actually die one day and you have the opportunity now to be able to choose to spend more of your life (and active young running around with them life at that) with your kids. Maybe you'll get to see your grand children get that little bit older.
You've got years to fret over schools, you can move house while pregnant or already have kids or both.
I put things off against my better half's wishes and parental advice. I wanted to sew up practical matters, moving, trying to convince the wife to get into a big firm job with peachy maternity package, getting her to pass her driving test to ferry the nippers around etc.
Some years down the line now, we actually had little trouble in the end and have 3 sons, but being a couple of years younger wouldn't have hurt. It seems so silly now to have worried about such inconsequential and material things, because my perspective changed so much the children actually came along.
You simply cannot buy the joy and pride your children can bring you. Why wait?... statistically speaking it only gets harder to conceive and less likely things go smoothly. Think about the other end of your life, you will actually die one day and you have the opportunity now to be able to choose to spend more of your life (and active young running around with them life at that) with your kids. Maybe you'll get to see your grand children get that little bit older.
You've got years to fret over schools, you can move house while pregnant or already have kids or both.
Bullett said:
Schools.
What is your current local primary and secondary like? You said you are one the edge of a dodgy area. If the primary is ok and you have the space I'd stick and look to move before the kids go to secondary.
We went through this.What is your current local primary and secondary like? You said you are one the edge of a dodgy area. If the primary is ok and you have the space I'd stick and look to move before the kids go to secondary.
Managed to get my son into a good primary school so decided to hold off until secondary school.
When he finished primary we managed to get him into one of the best secondary schools in the local area( plan was to move if we couldn't get a place).
Finished secondary and he wanted to stay at the adjoining sixth form college. For continuity we stayed.
Went away to Uni but my wife wanted to stay 'in case he doesn't settle' and needed 'somewhere familiar' to come home to.
Son decided to stay at Uni and do his masters. b
ks - we're only now moving. Only took us 22 years!!Morale of the story is do not under-estimate what kids can do to throw a spanner into your carefully laid out life plans.
I dont understand people who say you can never be ready for kids. Me and the missus have been together for nearly a decade and have been working with a very particular goal in mind - financially comfortable, nice house etc. We are now ready and are expecting our first in december. We are both just under 30.
My advice is move to a better area, then go for kids.
Its very limiting on the amount you can borrow once one of you isnt working. Dont over stretch yourself but go as big as comfortably possible.
We waited until we had the house until we had kids. Couldnt be happier with the way it worked out now we are in a lovely area and have 4 beds so never have to move effectively. Id be devastated if we had kids in our last house (ex council in a crap area) because we would be stuck there now for several more years.
My advice is move to a better area, then go for kids.
Its very limiting on the amount you can borrow once one of you isnt working. Dont over stretch yourself but go as big as comfortably possible.
We waited until we had the house until we had kids. Couldnt be happier with the way it worked out now we are in a lovely area and have 4 beds so never have to move effectively. Id be devastated if we had kids in our last house (ex council in a crap area) because we would be stuck there now for several more years.
Edited by p1stonhead on Monday 20th June 14:13
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