Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Who doesn’t own a house and isn’t bothered?

344 replies

Horcrux · 25/01/2020 18:16

We are trying to sell our house and we have very little intention of buying another. We have 2 children and jobs and plan to rent as it’s cheaper in our area. But it will also give us more freedom to travel.
Is this totally stupid?

OP posts:
EveryFlightBeginsWithAFall · 26/01/2020 16:34

I worked in nursing homes run by bupa, we had people who paid their own fees and people who were paid for

Give me the council run home down the road any day of the week over bupa though

I hope i never have to private rent again. It was bloody awful. Im in council housing now. When im a pensioner ill be the same as many other pensioners and getting housing benefit. Unless they do away with it and bring back work houses

If i was you op id look at buy to let just incase.

At the end of the day many people have to sell their homes to pay for their care so end up having nothing to leave their children anyway

MimiLaRue · 26/01/2020 16:34

the standard of care often doesn’t look different

Sorry but this simply isn't true. I had to find a care home for my dad a few years ago and the council ones I saw were pretty horrendous- tatty, and stunk of urine. Luckily, my dad had enough savings for a posher, "nicer" home and it was very luxurious. I'm afraid you get what you pay for, just like you do with hotels.

MimiLaRue · 26/01/2020 16:36

God how depressing to think some poor fucker has grafted their entire lives to leave a bit of meaningless cash for someone to spunk on a holiday

What an odd view of inheritance. I used my inheritance to buy a house. Its what my nan and parents wanted me to do. They didnt view themselves as "poor fuckers" and they wanted me to have some financial security. I didnt blow it all on holidays lol

Original poster
Horcrux · 26/01/2020 16:41

@MonkeyToesOfDoom are you my DH?

OP posts:
Original poster
Horcrux · 26/01/2020 16:46

@MimiLaRue I can’t imagine ever having much inheritance to leave my. Plus at that point I, say I was 70 when I died, my eldest would be 45. So hopefully already set up, not waiting for me

OP posts:
MonkeyToesOfDoom · 26/01/2020 16:47

Horcrux

Not as far as I'm aware.. not.many people want to marry me.. can't think why. Grin

MimiLaRue · 26/01/2020 16:50

I can’t imagine ever having much inheritance to leave

I get that. I'm responding to the other poster who claimed inheritance was for "poor fuckers" to give to their kids who will apparently fritter it away on holidays. I think thats a deeply patronising and rude way to look at people that wanted to pass something on to their kids.

MonkeyToesOfDoom · 26/01/2020 16:58

Patronising and rude.. well.. how rude and patronising..

Doobydoo · 26/01/2020 17:00

I have worked/still do work in Nursing Homes..the bling hotel type ones still have issues re standards of care,reruiting and retaining staff. A person can pay £1200 a week whilst another will be paying nowt or have a small top up paid by family. Unless you have been fast teacked ( death iminent) or have fully funded nursing care etc...this is not means tested.

MimiLaRue · 26/01/2020 17:00

Yes, it was rude. Nice to know my lovely dad who saved his whole life and whose final wish was for me to be settled and safe was a "poor fucker".

Thanks for that.

Doobydoo · 26/01/2020 17:00

Fast tracked...soz for typos cooking

2monstermash · 26/01/2020 17:08

We don't own.. but we have sizeable investments in other areas that are equivalent of a house. Buying a house where we live just isn't a great investment, so what's the point? We are perfectly happy where we are, have a builder/electrician on speed dial that we don't have to pay for!
The paying someone else's mortgage thing is a load of rubbish used to shame renters.

adaline · 26/01/2020 17:10

I often wonder why many people have mortgages, we have been sold a rat race dream which many of us will not benefit from. We will spend years paying off a mortgage, fearing losing our jobs as we are not entitled to housing benefit. We may eventually enjoy a few short years mortgage free until many of us will end up in care homes whilst the local government uses the collateral in the house to pay for £2K month care home fees.

Most people don't end up in care homes, though. And if they do, it's not as soon as they retire - most people have a good 20 years of retirement between leaving work and needing any kind of care. Personally I want to spend the healthy years of my retirement not needing to worry about paying for a roof over my head. I want to spend it enjoying the freedom!

But different people have different wants and needs. I just think it's important to think ahead - while it's nice to live the life of Riley, I don't want to be in poverty in my seventies, nor do I want to be working at that age just to pay the rent.

MonkeyToesOfDoom · 26/01/2020 17:15

Thanks for that

You're very welcome indeed. Let us hope you have plenty to leave to your kids when you drop dead too. Smile

Oblomov20 · 26/01/2020 17:16

The British are obsessed with owning their own home, mortgages. No other country cares. The Americans aren't that interested. Europeans, Swedish, Swiss, Spanish don't care.

Yes it makes sense. To eventually own your own home. Instead of paying your landlord, who will eventually pay of his mortgage and own this as a second home. Whereas your'll own nothing.

But. Now, most parents can't give their children any inheritance because they use they mortgage to eventually pay nursing home fees.

Whereas families in benefits will themselves get nursing homes fees paid.

So you have to question whether it's all worth it?

It's so complicated!

Original poster
Horcrux · 26/01/2020 17:17

Personally I want to spend the healthy years of my life, let alone retirement, enjoying myself and enjoying the freedom. Rather do it the other way around

OP posts:
Berrymuch · 26/01/2020 17:20

@Oblomov20 probably the state of the rental market here plays a part. The cheapest comparable rental in the local area here is £300 more a month than our mortgage. Yes we do repairs which costs money where a rental doesn't, but there isn't much control on what landlords can charge. Rightly or wrongly I suppose, depending on where you sit.

My parents could not afford to buy, and it was one bit of stability I really wanted if I had the opportunity, which fortunately I have. But if you want to go off sailing then why not? Each to their own, you know the reality of it by the sound of it and you know your children and whether they would be enriched by it.

MonkeyToesOfDoom · 26/01/2020 17:22

most people have a good 20 years of retirement

That's a bit of a stretch, unless they're retiring at 50? I'd imagine people retiring at 60,65,70 don't get 20 years of good health afterward.

adaline · 26/01/2020 17:24

The British are obsessed with owning their own home, mortgages. No other country cares. The Americans aren't that interested. Europeans, Swedish, Swiss, Spanish don't care.

But rents in those countries are much for affordable and it's much more tightly regulated.

In England you have little to no security as a private tenant. You need to play by the laws of the land you live in. Saying "well it's different in Spain" is irrelevant.

adaline · 26/01/2020 17:27

That's a bit of a stretch, unless they're retiring at 50? I'd imagine people retiring at 60,65,70 don't get 20 years of good health afterward

But there's a difference between bad health and being so unwell you need to go into a care home. Plenty of elderly people manage just fine in their own homes with carers coming in to help occasionally, or with the help of family members.

MonkeyToesOfDoom · 26/01/2020 17:31

But there's a difference between bad health and being so unwell you need to go into a care home. Plenty of elderly people manage just fine in their own homes with carers coming in to help occasionally, or with the help of family members

Oh yeah that sounds much better...
Fuck..

I'm with OP

Personally I want to spend the healthy years of my life, let alone retirement, enjoying myself and enjoying the freedom. Rather do it the other way around

With the addition of:
I'd rather not wait until it was too late and I was house bound and reliant on my daughter changing my adult diaper.

ChainsawBear · 26/01/2020 17:33

But. Now, most parents can't give their children any inheritance because they use they mortgage to eventually pay nursing home fees.

The proportion of people who actually go into a care home is somewhere around 25%. The proportion who are self-funding is much smaller again.

Most people never see the inside of a care home. Are you really ready to gamble everything on the minority chance your children might not benefit from it? Because even in your nursing home, you still will.

The actual problem with inheritance is more that most people don't receive it until midlife at best, verging on elderly themselves in some cases, because of longer lifespans.

wildcherries · 26/01/2020 17:39

I say do it. I wish I could. I don't have the health, but I would if I could.

Charley50 · 26/01/2020 17:39

Leo - that isn't 'so true.' People who I know who have paid off their mortgages aged 50-55 can afford to go on amazing holidays, they can work just 1 or 2 days a week to cover the utility bills, they can afford to live in another country for 1 or 5 years if they like, with the security that they can come back to their own home if they wish to, they can pay to do a degree as they have such small outgoings. Paying off a mortgage gives so much financial freedom, that translates to actual freedom. Nothing to do with care homes. Have you seen the age of the people at the till in your local supermarket lately?.

OP, haven't read the whole thread but if I were you I'd rent out your house and rent a boat.

newbingepisodes · 26/01/2020 17:40

You must be on a crazy interest rate for that get to a broker, interest rates are rock bottom at the moment you can easily get mortgages for around 1%. I paid 13000 off my mortgage and for every £1000 we pay we pay £300 interest so paying just over £12000 a year and £3600 is interest.