Would you rather have more disposable income or larger family home?

[Lovinglife45]

I was speaking to a friend the other day. She lives in a large five bed house on a pretty street, good schools nearby, a beautiful park. Friend and her dh stretched themselves financially in order to have more space. This does mean they cannot go abroad for family holidays and have to budget tightly for clothes, days out, food shop. Friend is happy with decision as dc can have friends to stay over, they can lounge in garden, host bbqs, have a separate bathroom to dc.

I wonder if space is more beneficial and good for one's well being than having more disposable income.

Speaking from experience, I would rather more space as it is depressing and frustrating living day in day out in a small house. One small bathroom, poky bedrooms that can only accommodate a bed, wardrobe and chest of drawers, one downstairs living space (talking less than 900 square foot).

Would you rather have more money or space?

I prefer the smaller house with plenty of disposable income. I value experiences over material goods though. A big house doesn’t interest me & I don’t want a huge mortgage either.

Staying in a smaller house also means we can retire early, as mortgage will be paid off at 50 & we’ve been able to put a lot into pensions.

While our children are at home, most definitely more space. The jump in cost is the best money we've ever spent. We spend so much time at home, and it helps that I love it and feel proud of it. I spend plenty of disposable income on our house, it just gives me so much pleasure!

I think when kids are older and out of our hair we'll downsize and spend more on experiences. I'll always be a "housey" person though!

Space. As lots of people have said, lockdown hammered home how much I value having enough space for all of us to live comfortably. We have a fairly standard 4 bed with an en suite and an extra living space so not palatial but our previous home was a 3 bed semi with an open plan downstairs and one bathroom - I couldn’t have imagined how it would have worked during lockdown.

Oh and a bigger house meant we could comfortably get a much longed for dog!

I have bought 1 house and never moved.
It was more important to me to be mortgage free and have savings.

I'd prefer a bigger home as I'm quite happy being home most of my life
It would be nice not to be tripping over each other and having guests to stay over which I can't do at present

Space- my house is small and I think a big house would make life calmer - assuming we could afford all the increased costs

I’d prefer the money. Then it gives you the choice to have space at a later date. But location does come into it too, I’d rather have a small house near lots of other stuff than a big place in the middle of nowhere. So I guess a medium sized house and enough money to have choices, that’s my ideal. We’ve never stretched ourselves financially so life has been fairly straightforward in that regard. Appreciate that some don’t have that privilege.

We've just chosen space. With the thought that we will have three teenagers in the house one day. We also paid more for good finishes, with nothing needing to be done because we are OVER renovating.

Violetbunny
A four bed house for two would be ample for me. Assuming you are living with your partner/spouse and not a dc, you have three spare bedrooms!

How many bedrooms do your friends have? I assume they must be loaded or bought before huge increase.

Onlyfools
Lack of space impacts on my mental health in a way I never expected.

frowned
Despite our small home, our mortgage will not be paid off until I am almost retired. Most people have either a huge home and long mortgage or small home and short mortgage so they benefit in one way.

Camel
What would you describe as a medium sized house? 1500, 2000 square foot?

we've recently made the decision to remortgage and stay put in our current terraced house rather than stretch ourselves financially and upsize to a semi or detached house. With the energy crisis we would be risking having no disposable income if we had upsized and for us, being more comfortable with a buffer for the uncertainty around cost of living and money to be able to enjoy days out as a family and holidays every few years better than having more space.

We have more space and less disposable income. We are happy not going abroad from an environmental perspective anyway, although some UK holidays cost a lot too judging by threads on here! I love not being on top of each other, having plenty of storage space so everything has a home and it feels like a sanctuary.

Also important to add the new place has lots of solar panels where we currently have none, and is in a nicer area with lots of parks nearby.

Sweetpeas
Luckily you were able to opt for a large house and spend on modernising. The thing with having a small budget is you wrestle with buy a smaller house in decent condition or a slightly larger house requiring a lot of modernising.

More disposable income over space. Because with that you can enjoy life, visit places, take holidays and make memories. Having more space would mean more rooms to clean, maintenance and higher bills. As the kids get older they want to be out, not at home. As for entertaining, how many times a year are talking. It would take a toll after a while if you're expected to host all the time due to having more room.

We chose location over space.

@Lovinglife45

Sweetpeas Luckily you were able to opt for a large house and spend on modernising. The thing with having a small budget is you wrestle with buy a smaller house in decent condition or a slightly larger house requiring a lot of modernising.

We were in your position maybe ten years ago but have been very lucky that our property has increased in value outstandingly in the last two years which gave us options we never thought we'd have! We are also giving up a huge garden for a postage stamp for the big house so it's not all positive, I'll admit. Best of luck to you!

We made this choice last year and we picked more disposable income and cash in the bank so we didn't have to stress. saying that we were about to start TTC so knew we'd be strained financially for a while

Disposable income, no question about it.

The trouble with disposable income option is that you end up spending a lot of money trying to escape your house which you don’t like being in. In my case.

Disposable income. We live in a big house and I can't stand it. They are money pits. Can't wait for a smaller house and more money.

You can have both space and disposable income by choosing a cheaper area. Most people aren’t willing to do that.

In your example though it’s not just space is it? It’s also schools, park, pretty surroundings.

I’d definitely choose all that over holidays and clothes etc.

If it was just space it would be a trickier call.

This.
It really isn't just about space.
I would choose the best house that I could afford to suit my needs. A huge amount of that is location - which will be different for different people, and different at different stages of life .... near a station or near a motorway or main road network for a commute...near good schools....near parks or near a beach or near lovely views ......convenient for local services , be that shops or hospitals or being able to walk to work.
I'd prefer to be happy and relaxed in the right home for me for 50+ weeks a year and prioritise that over a fancy holiday or new clothes, but then I'm not a big spender on disposables, or consumables anyway.

It also depends on things like the make up of your family. If you have more children, or if you have family that live abroad or even a few hours away in the same country, and come and stay then space is more valuable than if you are single or just a couple.

If you wfh, space is invaluable.

It's finding the balance, isn't it? I'm more inclined to go for space but if it meant zero treats (no take aways/birthdays on a budget/no days out) it wouldn't be worth it. Space + uk mini breaks just no expensive holidays abroad - fine!

Depends where/who you are. Current house, we chose more disposable, even live in an undesirable (but becoming less so) area. We could afford better but we're good here. We will move to a slightly bigger house in a better area (for schools) once kids are older. But nothing like what some people would choose if they had a similar income.

I have friends who sacrificed space for location, but their rent is double our mortgage, so we have more disposable and live in a bigger house. Their location is amazing though so I see the appeal. It's good we don't all want the same things

I agree about balance and tipping point. Our house is adequate, in an ok area. We have 3 dc, now young adults. 2 girls have always shared a room. We would have loved a bigger house and the girls were always moaning about sharing. But instead of moving we've travelled all over the world to lots of iconic sights and had some amazing experiences. I think we made the right choice. They are now at uni/left home so instead of a house too big for us we have those amazing trips to look back on. Friends in our profession have massive houses...and debt.

I also think it's good to keep your housing costs lower (if you have a choice) as then you can afford to take a drop in income if work becomes too stressful or you fancy a change.