To think £350k is a huge mortgage?

[Isawthesignanditopenedupmyeyes]

I’m mid 40s and looking at buying my forever home, BUT would need a £350k mortgage. The payments would be 38% of my take home pay, sometimes less (up to 10% less) depending on overtime/monthly variation.
On the one hand I think you have to stretch yourself/take risks to get anywhere in life and this is my last chance to flex up as it were. On the other hand it feels a huge amount and I’d be totally irresponsible going for this at my later stage of life.
I’ve no idea what an average mortgage is either.
AIBU to think fuck it, I’m going for it despite the fact my heart is in my mouth?!

Think about what would it cost with the insurance to protect you against losing your home if you lost your job.

it sounds huge to me, but my mortgage is "only" 80k and I've just worked out that my repayments are 42% of my income, so crack on!

May have missed it but how long is the term?

I don't think it sounds too bad. Ours is 28% net pay 20% of gross. We stretched ourselves for it as we are in our 20's and expected incomes to grow etc, which they have. We were much less comfortable two years ago 😳

If this is the perfect home for you at this stage in your life then great. Go for it. It’s the “Stretch yourself/ take risks” comment I am uncomfortable with. Firstly, no you don’t though if that’s what you want to do then good for you. Secondly taking risks is fine so long as you have thought through the downsides of that risk. Risk taking is about calculation rather than leaping in the dark (sorry if that sounds aggressive most of my jobs have been based around financial risk) particularly given we are living in pretty momentous times. Do you want so much tied up in your house?

Anyway. Good luck to you.

I wouldn’t let your age put you off. As PP have said, you can have a mortgage past the standard age of 60 or whatever it was. If you have an outstanding mortgage at that age, it’ll be paid off when you eventually downsize anyway. So I would say age is the only thing that doesn’t matter at all really.

The biggest risk factor is interest rates going up, because they are so low currently. Depending on how low your LTV ratio is, you can get a fixed rate of under 2% fixed for 25 years. That might be a good option, and you can overpay when you’ve done overtime etc.

Just to say I agree with you, SJane. Whatever a politician believes, he/she doesn't stand alone and big decisions are made jointly.

OP, I hope you get your house, it's quite exciting isn't it.

Similar situation as yours. Just under 40 and medical, salary about 90K. Taking mortgage of about 400K although spread over 25 years so monthly a bit less. My colleagues have similar mortgages