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

[Horcrux]

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?

I'm a single parent private renting and I'm buying a house this year. It was my dream to buy, I am a low earner and won't have much in the way of a private pension so at least I'll have security this way.

A colleague of mine in her 50s rents and is happy doing so indefinitely but I'm not sure of her financial situation, she may have plenty of savings instead.

I'm retired. The big difference in retired people, is whether or not they own their home. Those friends of mine who donown, are confident of their futures. Those who don't own, are not. Renting means they never know how long they've got before the landlord decides to end their lease and they'll have to move ..... again . And their rent goes up at the whim of the landlord . No thanks ! I might have " wasted" money in interest over the years, but my home is all mine now and I've got the confidence of knowing that I can never lose it .

I’m renting and happy.

I like where I live and couldn’t afford to buy here. I don’t want to move as my job is here and I like it. I don’t plan on retiring, happy to work for the rest of my life. I’m not materialistic and have few belongings I care about so when my dc leave home I will be happy to downsize into smaller and cheaper rental accommodation.

I agree @Sonichu... my grandad never owned but he had a lovely landlord who hadn’t put his rent up since the 70s!

My sister doesn’t own and never will, she just can’t afford it.

Least you haven't got to pay for repairs to be carried out that's the only good thing about it.

We certainly need to reduce our outgoings. We are living within our means atm but have very little to play with at the end of the month. We can’t even buy new sofas! The sofas we have were here when we moved in 5yrs ago!
My dh is very unhappy when working on the rigs, we want to reduce our outgoings (mortgage!!) in order for him to stop working out there. He can then concentrate on more sailing jobs, which doesn’t pay as much but is much less stressful.

You’re either on a bad mortgage rate or have a mortgage of +£380k to pay £8k interest per year. Presuming it’s either a pretty huge house or it’s London.
If London...I doubt renting is much cheaper. If outside London; would downsizing be a better option?

That can't be true, no lender would have let you taken a term that went past retirement age

My mum’s mortgage runs until she’s 70. Halifax.

We phoned the mortgage company the other day, they won’t change the rate or put us on interest only unless we’re earning over £75k, which we’re not!

I loved renting before having DS, I moved about alot with my job and as you say, the freedom was much better. I was also in the fortunate position though that if I was given notice by the landlord we just had ourselves to think about and finding a 1 bed was fairly easy. Now we have a child I would only sell and rent if absolutely no other option. The stability, the investment in the future, and we arent looking to move whilst he is in school (I moved schools a lot when younger and dont want the same), and knowing we could access some of the money if needed in an emergency. Each to their own though, with regulations for landlords changing I wouldn't be surprised if rental stock falls in the next few years as many sell up.

You are mad. Don't stop being a homeowner. Move somewhere cheaper if you have to, but own not rent.

That seems a high amount on interest over the year

We pay off more capital than interest

Rates are very low

I didn’t realise there were areas where rent was cheaper than mortgage

Mortgages for 3 bed houses around here are £900 vs £1500 rent for the same thing and you can’t even do it up how you like or have a dog or cat if you fancied it

I know what I’d rather

Your mortgage isn't your only outgoing, and you'll always have to pay to live somewhere so that's a false economy. Is one of your children due to start school soon? Just a guess that it might be behind this.

I have a mortgage. So I'm currently renting my house from the bank.

Our youngest is 6, eldest is 10

Sorry that was a bit over simplified. I was trying to say I don't OWN my home. Yet.

Yes @Bluesheep8 but it will eventually be yours.... eventually! Being an owner of a home in my 70s is not something I can get excited about...what do I do then?

Could you not downsize and release equity before retirement age?
You say you have nothing to show for paying a mortgage (despite equity) you’ll have sod all to show for renting. Plus rents will inevitably go up over the years as your earning potential goes down. Seems madness to me.

Live the same life I’m living now? I may well have paid my mortgage off, my income is reduced as I’m now on my pension. I get ill so have to sell my house, that I’ve spent years buying, to pay for my care in a shitty nursing home playi g chess with the lady next to me who has free care because she never owned a home

Yes we potentially have equity. Our house is currently on the market for more than we bought it for, it depends what it sells at.
The 1st house we bought we lost 8k on it when we sold it so I’m sceptical about it all

Don’t do it. My mum sold her mortgage free flat about 8 years ago and it’s her biggest regret. She now lives in the same city as us
In rented, the money is gone and she can’t afford to buy. We are having to buy a house with a granny flat for her as we can’t see her working her fingers to the bone until she dies (she also only has the state pension) Don’t allow yourself to be a burden on others.

Me! I sold up when I divorced and rented out of necessity. Now I continue to rent the social housing property I have been in for 12 years. Not sure I would feel so happy and secure in private rental though.

I'm with you OP. Both DH and me have owned property. Or rather lived in mortgaged property. Both sold due to various circumstances.

Lived in private rented for many years. Had a decent landlord but a shitty house. And then a shitty landlord and a decent house. But are now lucky enough to live in a beautiful HA on the edge of a naice new build estate in an area we absolutely love.

My husband is self employed, I am too but he's the main earner. He has had 2 incidents of serious ill health, to the point he nearly died. We have gone though a recession/credit crunch (he's a builder) and if we had lived in a mortgaged property we could very well have lost it. People think life insurance and critical illness covers you for shit like being ill, but it wouldn't have paid out for the first illness. There are no policies that insure against recession for a builder.

My kids won't inherit when we die. But they will have had a fabulous childhood, and 2 parents who don't worry about paying the mortgage. Our rent is £103 per week for a 3 bed property. To buy similar in our area we would be talking about 150k. We couldn't afford it and even if we could I wouldn't want to.

People think that having a mortgaged property is more secure. It's really not. Not unless you have £££s saved or family that could help out if bad shit happens. And bad shit happens to anyone. You rely on a salary to pay your mortgage, but that salary can disappear overnight. If we couldn't pay the rent because of illness or redundancy it would be paid and social housing is imo more secure than mortgaged property.

I am very lucky to have this place.

Not owning a house and having a secure tenancy is rather different to what the OP is talking about.

Is this totally stupid?

Yes