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?

@Lovinglife45 It's 4 beds but the kitchen and living space are small, one of the bedrooms is a single (we use it as an office) and the garden is small as well. It's absolutely plenty of of space for 2 people so I'm not complaining by any means. Several of our friends have bought 3 or 4 bed houses larger than ours, even if the number of rooms is the same as our living space and garden are quite small it wouldn't be hard to find a 3 bed with more space.

We chose space 32 years ago, and were really hard up for about 10 years so foreign hols were out of the question. We've just sold up and downsized, although we're both still working, but the money is banked for when we retire.

I should have also said that in some ways we regret those really hard up years when we had a young family. The benefit now is that we won't be spending that money, we'll try to grow it so it passes to our adult children.

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

Not Camel, but I found a few sites saying that the average house size in England is about 730 sq feet. I think it’s pretty easy to only notice people with bigger houses and not think about the many who are in much smaller.

otherbookmarks if you really are committed to not spending the money and it passing to your adult children please give it to them now! Otherwise they'll (hopefully) be in their 50s+ when they get it and the cycle of hard up years when they have young children will be repeated (or these days they'll be stuck in rental, which is fine in some countries but not so much if you're in the UK where tenants have very few rights and little security - extremely stressful once you have children).

Of course I'm sure your children would celebrate seeing you enjoy your money spending it on whatever makes you happy - so obviously do that! But you say you intend to leave it untouched so it can pass to your adult children - in that case give it to them sooner rather than later!

More money. Most people don't need more space, they need to get rid of things.

Of course, it can be useful to have more space if you have a few kids/dogs/work from home etc.

There's no one size fits all but I prefer having spare money to save, rather than paying a mortgage on a bigger house.

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

or if you lose your job, if you've got no or a small mortgage on a smaller house, it might not be ideal but you've at least got a roof over your head.

We went for space 15 years ago and have never regretted it. We went without for a few years but now the mortgage is paid off so we have space and lots of disposable income and a substantial asset.

@yellowsuninthesky

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

or if you lose your job, if you've got no or a small mortgage on a smaller house, it might not be ideal but you've at least got a roof over your head.

Absoloutley agree here. It's not possible for everyone, but it's incredibly liberating to know that I can pay the mortgage and utilities in full on my own salary (we'd live off beans on toast and ditch the car) - means I can keep dh around because I want to, rather than need to.

We went for disposable income, though within reason, it's still a semi-detached with a garden not a tiny flat. It was a 2 bed when we bought it, but we split one room so each DC has their own space, but all the rooms are on the smaller end, with only one living space downstairs.

Ideally we'd move to a house in the same area that was built as a 3 bed, but as well as extra on the mortgage it would also come with bigger council tax and be more expensive to heat. We could do it, but it would be the end of spontaneous trips to softplay if it's raining or buying treats 'just because'.

My mother is the opposite so I grew up in a lovely big house, which was always freezing and year on year got more run down as she couldn't afford to heat or mentain the place.

Disposable income. There's just the three of us so we don't need a big house.

Disposable income. The stress of getting to the end of every month and being able to cover all the bills is much greater than concerns about space in the home for me, but there are 4 of us in a 30s three bed semi, so we do probably have more space than most.

Disposable income!
I have a small 3 bed semi, tiny bedrooms but due to an extension do have two living rooms.
when we first bought it we didn't have much spare cash and it was hard, over the years we have more money and have a nice amount left each month. we were going to move and we put the house up for sale and everything but then we worked out that we wouldn't have much left over each month and would have to really hardcore save for a holiday abroad, cut down on our days out and really budget so we are staying put. the kids are only young, and especially since the pandemic I want to make memories. in about 5 years when youngest is 11 we will need to move for bigger bedrooms so then will rather have to cut back for more space or hopefully our earnings will go up.

Depends on the space. I wouldn’t want a house so large and expensive, , that I couldn’t enjoy life, but I wouldn’t want a house that was too small either. If I had a reasonable size house, I would opt for more disposable income.

We moved to a larger house a year before lockdown, at the time we did wonder if we'd be better staying put and paying off the mortgage in a couple of years. I am so glad we moved. We have 3DC and now have a 4 bed house (although the DDs share so have a spare room) with 2 sitting rooms, 3 bathrooms, enormous kitchen diner, a utility room, a lovely garden and a garage. All the rooms are larger than the equivalent in our old house. It makes me feel sick to think what lockdown would have been like in our old house, we'd have all been working at the dining table and it would have been hell. Instead in this house we had enough room and space for everyone to work comfortably in different rooms. Of course, we live in the northeast so are not mortgaged to the max and live in the best part of town as well so haven't really had to compromise. So we've got space, plenty of savings and can afford nice holidays.

Janina
Sounds great!
Lots of space, affordable mortgage and plenty of savings.

We are lucky. I agree with the PPs that said the tipping point will vary from person to person depending on their circumstances. DBro and BIL both own a 2 bed flat. But DBro is single so has plenty of room and money to enjoy life whereas BIL has 2 DC so his flat is really too small for his needs. MIL meanwhile lives alone in a very large 4 bed house which is too really large for her on her own whereas it was perfect when her house was full of children.