mine is £378 with 15 years left, owing 50k on 160k house

Oh how true, basically after my split I am buggered.

I have about 3 weeks left in the house before the new owners take possession then I am going to be staying in my mates house.

My current mortgage on 165k (2 bed house, valued at a bit more), is around £850 per month which I am paying now and finding things tight.

Looking to purchase a 1 bed flat, as the rates have changed (and lets be honest they are still relatively low) a mortgage on 120k over the same term is around about £750 a month now, add ground rent and I am back at square one - no chance of downsizing from there.

I could do it, if I didnt want to do anything stupid, like say - eating or drinking. Renting is about the same per month. I could take all the money I got back from the house sale and stick it on a horse, or go to Vegas and chance my arm?

Oh and from recent experience -

You love your girlfriend now, but if you put money into this place - get a declaration of trust (trust deed) set up so that if you do split there is no margin for falling out over money.

Oh and if you do split, expect to buy the same things back off her you bought in the first place....

I think working it out on percentages is a better way of seeing if it is affordable - if your mortgage payments are more than 25 - 30% of your take home pay each month, then you need to be wary.

It also depends on the sort of job you have - how secure is it, are you likely to be made redundant / lose hours etc... ( my wife is a teacher, so basically has a job for life unless she murders one of the little gits, and can always do supply work at £100+ per day if she ever did lose her job. I'm self employed though, so my income is more uncertain ).

When we took out our mortgage we could have borrowed a huge amount based on our joint income, but decided we didnt want a huge debt hanging over us, so ended up borrowing just over 2 x our joint income.

What this means is that if either one of us couldnt work or lost our job, then the other could afford to cover the mortgage and bills on their own - it would still be tight, but we wouldnt end up getting into debt or losing the house.

The other benefit of a smaller mortgage with a larger income is that you can reduce the mortgage quicker by making overpayments from your left over money, which can save you huge amounts in interest over a few years.

i need to pay £300 a week into my personal account to cover direct debits LOL


but.........

i will be debt free from next march :D (except around 3k left on a business loan = not an issue)


happy times :D

All to do with the area you live in aswell.

My mortgage is £176k (£1200pm) for a new 4bed detached house in NE Scotland. The same £1200pm will get you a 1bed flat in the south. Swings and roundabouts really, hence the reason i earn £40k year compared to the £55k my same counterpart earns in London. Pretty much guarantee i am more financially secure than him though with more disposable income assuming same quality of life. House/car etc

You do need to factor in the wifes wage, or loss of when she gets pregnant. More and more people are putting careers in front of raising a family. 1st kid mid 30's, early 40's:eek: Kids should be over and done with by 30 in my books:thumb:
Im 24 and having my 1st now, ill have the snip by 30 :lol1: Seriously though, our joint income has dropped by £20k with her off work. With the cost of childcare vs her monthly income, just not worth going back for so P/T work is the only answer.

Think some couples may be trapped and cannot risk the chance of starting a family due to need of BOTH incomes for mortgage. The old saying goes a long way, the male should be the main breadwinner :)

When I was paying a mortgage a few years ago, it wasn't the mortgage figure that caused the problems, it was the insurances and stuff on top that comes with owning.
Payment protection insurance, drains cover, boiler cover, house and buildings, buying and maintaining appliances, service charges, decorating.
It was also when there was a run of interest rate rises as well and each .25% was costing an extra 75 per month, by the time you've had three, that's a fair chunk extra to shell out.

Obviously careful financial planning and not overcommitting yourself can overcome all those but we sold up after 3 years, pocketed the equity and are now renting a cracking riverside flat that is valued at approximately 2.5 times the mortgage we could get and pay less than the mortgage on our place ever was. No extra costs - washing machine went noisy the other week, quick phonecall to the landlord and a new one arrives two days later.

There is a lot to be said for buying but at the moment, it's not the right thing for us, we couldn't buy at the standard we want to live at - so we rent and will do for the foreseeable future.

Problem with doing that is future planning.

At 65 when the pennies stop rolling in, the landlord will still be wanting his rent.
With buying, its only a 25yr payment. 25yrs out of a 50yr life (assuming you buy at 25) sounds reasonable compared to the full 50yrs of renting.
You wait until the housing market comes more affordable, you risk being stuck in a big hole and not being able to buy at all.

Unless of course you have big pensions and other funding in place

One of the benefits of employer contribution matching ;)

It is a (minor) worry but having been burned before, the conditions will have to be perfect before we jump in again, can't see that for a couple of years yet...

About £900/month on a £155K mortgage (house worth about £280k). This is a bit less than 2x our combined salaries, and I still feel a bit uneasy about it. How people with 4 or 5 times their salary mortgages sleep at night I don't know!

We're thinking about maybe having a kid next year, which will well and truly put a spanner in the works :(

Mortgage is currently costing me 20% of my wage.

Just about to come out of fixed term deal, and jumping to an Offset mortgage in November. Maybe looking to move in the next year or 2. My rule is nothing above 30% of my wage should go on Mortgage payments, as I want to live, and not work just to pay my Mortgage.

£470 a month on a £350k mortgage. So not much really either in outright terms or as a percentage of earnings. :)

How does that work? Either your missus is paying all the rest or you've got your sums wrong. If it was £470 a month on a £350k mortgage I'd be buying that Penthouse appartment I've got my eye on tomorrow. £325k.

Some dodgy foriegn mortgage IIRC. Tax free or something :wonder:

Almost. EUR denominated loan fixed for 10 years + Employee discount + interest on primary residence is tax-deductible = mucho cheapo mortgage payment. Also, majority of the loan is redemption-free, so no nasty principal being repaid each month either. :wonder:

If my calculations are right, the remaining sum will be immaterial compared to income, house value and savings at the end of the term. :smug:

I think you'll find he's required to pay tax on his 45k meaning his missus earns a lot more than £250 a month.

Can you afford any more interest rate hikes?

18% of income here, over-paying mortgage trying to pay it off before I hit 40.
Small mortgage, small income!

Thats a good deal, what kind of interest rate you got fixed for that? (Sub 5%?)

At todays rates, £155k will cost you about £1000-1050 based on between 6-6.5%

Thanks Matt. Just read that. Yes Fiancees on 15k a year. My basic is 45k with saturdays being a bonus and I do work most saturdays.

I currently have a £154,000 mortgage and paying £990 a month.

I've just had the phone call and i've been accepted. Halifax said I could have £260,000 if I wanted:eek: but I'll stick with the £240,000

The deal is I pay my existing mortgage (£990) plus £395 on top. Not bad!

£980 & £80 bridging loan on £155k & £1k in monthly bills. Wish it were less, but we're coping...

To the OP: How you're surviving off £4k and paying £1450 mortgage alone is good going. I take it you don't drink, smoke or blow it gambling. :)

£380k house. paid

Gaz,

£4000 - £1450 = £2550.

Say £550 a month on food and bills leaves us with £2000 - £140 for the fiancees car. £1860 Still left over for sweets. Well thats how its meant to be but i'm sure there will be a few extra costs in there.

I drink but don't smoke or gamble. How do you manage to pay so much each month on bills. My gas and electric is only £50 a month together?

i take home anywhere from £1200 to £1400 a month small fry compared to most, i can't afford a house so i squat!:D

£550 on bills and food, is that all?

My bills are roughly....C-Tax £200. House Ins £30 G+E £50 Telephone+BB £40 Sky £50 Mobile Ph x2 £100. Car insurance both cars £100. Credit card payment £50 (£620)

Then i spend about £75 a week on shopping so around £300pm (£920)

Then car loan (£200) and petrol (£200) Car tax and maintenance probably averages out at around £100 a month over the year (£1420)

Your doing well to get all your expenses down at £550. Im near enough 3x that amount:eek:

+ £1200pm mortgage (£2620)

Outgoings £2620pm

No I have no car. Just a company van with free fuel:D

This is how I worked mine out:

Mortgage £1400
Mobile phone bills £60
BT phone and broadband £35
Council Tax £150
Gas and Electric £70
Food £400
Tv Licence £10
Home insurance £20
Fiancees car £140 (insurance paid up for year)
Fuel for car £60 (only works up the road)

TOTAL £2345

£4000 - £2345 = £1655.

I can see a new car coming along. :norty:

I'd also factor in mortgage protection insurance in case you get made redundant seeing as it's pretty much your salary paying it. It doesn't have to cost much per month. I'd use a mortgage calculator to work out how much it would be in the event of an interest rate rise should you not fix a rate, again it might not happen so you can cover that too. If you can, also make sure that you can cover misc things needed for the house e.g. new boiler or any other mishaps that may happen.


PS - watch out for the kiddie scenario....I always said 'nooooooooo!' but I'm 5 months now! It doesn't sound as if it's worth gf going back to work in what you describe though!

Scoob Babe,I understand where you are coming from but my job is very secure so I don't think protection will be needed. I know there are other factors that could stop me from working but its a chance i'll have to take.

The property is brand new, well in-fact its not even built yet (ready next september) so all utilities will have full manufacturers warranty.

As for the kid congrats I'm really looking forward to having a kid but moving into a house now will give me and gf time to settle in and get used to paying the big mortgage.

brand new? Check the covenants you may not be able to park your company van there!