To prioritise travelling over buying a house for now?

[FuzzySock]

Just that really. I’m 24 and DH is 29, we’re married and both work full time, are renting without children and love to travel. By travel I do mean more frequent holidays as opposed to backpacking, and we we like to go away a few times a year whenever possible. If anyone has similar interests and is renting, do you ever feel like you should be prioritising saving for/buying a property? I feel a bit torn between that and feeling like we’ll never get these years back to see the parts of the world that we want to see. Do you think it’s sensible to get going with the house side of things now or did you adopt a more relaxed approach? If you own your own property, do you regret not doing it sooner if you could? Thanks!

It's a difficult one because I was 24 when we bought our first house and I'm now very glad we did as we paid £123k for a house which is now £200k. We travelled a lot in our early 30s when we had more money, before having DS at age 34. Depends what you mean by "these years". When would you think about buying?

I think it's very short sighted. House prices aren't dropping any time soon. If you know where you want to be, buy now. You'll regret it if you don't and are priced out of your area in 3 years time.

It depends on a whole host of factors

Whereabouts in the country are you in terms of house prices, if you live somewhere affordable then its more likely that buying later wont impact you too much
What do you expect to be living on closer to retirement or in retirement, if you have enough money to be renting/payment mortgage then buying later or not buying at all wont impact you too much
Are you in high paying jobs so you can afford for buying later

On the other hand, why not see how you can afford to do both, buy somewhere but go on much cheaper travels

And on the other hand again (more than 2 hands in this discussion) people think that prices will fall, Im not sure about that but some people do think that.

Personally buying very early in life and working 3-4 jobs for decades has paid off and we are now near to the end of the mortgage so that provides me with a lot of security that in old age I dont have to worry about finding mortgage or rent payments.

I love holidays but we travel very cheap!

Ultimately life is a balancing act, and focusing exclusively on one of these avenues will be at the detriment of the other

I would try and find a healthy balance, but I wouldn't subscribe to stopping holidays just to accelerate a house by a few years

You are right these are the best years - don't fritter them away just to get on the ladder, life is for living not for collecting things

Equally don't spaff 100k on needless exotic destinations, backpacking is cheap and allows you to see the world

We live in Ireland. I don’t expect house prices to fall for a while, but at the moment the interest rates are very high and the country is in the middle of a housing crisis, so I guess we’re hoping for things to calm down in the next few years. We’d be looking to buy in I’d say 2-3 years. Have a good bit of a deposit but still need to save about another 10k I’d say.

Yes we do tend to splurge on holidays, think 2-3k per holiday but the last one we went on we really did think it was worth it and we won’t go again, stayed in a central location so it was so convenient so it’s really hard to say that it wasn’t worth the money!

My dad is 76 and still travels multiple times a year. He's going to Australia at the end of tge year.

Why exactly are you afraid that you can't travel later on?

That’s so lovely to hear! I suppose I feel that once we have the commitment of a mortgage, and hopefully children one day, that these holidays won’t be as accessible, and even if they are, that they won’t be quite the same!

I would prioritise buying a house, personally.

You can always continue to travel once you're home-owners - especially as your mortgage costs which probably be much cheaper than your current rent.

We have this argument/conversation often.
I need holidays to have something to look forward.
I have a help to buy isa and help to save account which I put money in however OH keeps saying there's no point as we'll never be able to afford it. We're also working at clearing all our debts to increase our chance of getting a mortgage.
Could you do both? Start saving say £100pm in a pot and still go on holidays.
So far this year we've done a cheap trip to peppa pig world(£66 each) and will be doing a similar trip to legoland in october time. Our big trip that we've been paying for since last summer is to disneyland paris. Its over £5k-we've gone all out since our youngest 2 have never been. We had 3 cancelled trips then gave up and waited for the 30th anniversary.
We have 5 children so rarely get to go away as a couple.
Depends when you want to buy and how much you both earn and when you plan to have children. Do whatever makes you happy.

Would you not consider doing cheaper holidays and spluging once you're older and the mortgage is paid off

I suppose it depends on your personal priorities and circumstances - and earning potential.

you are really young - hubby less so!

I bought my first place at 24. Cheap flat, small(ish) mortgage. The holidays were downgraded for a few years. I have since been to Australia, Singapore, New York, Boston, and a lot of Europe.

I am take a break for the holidays again now as I have bought my dream home and am planing a very expensive building project.

against this I have friends who traveled a lot in their twenties and thirties and who are still renting in early forties. They are absolutely fine with that - have two small kids now so saving for a deposit has taken another back seat. But life isn’t all about owning a house and I am more into property than they are.

travel!! I did and I have zero regrets

I bought my house at 32

travelled from 21 - 30ish and now I’m back on the travelling with my husband and our new baby tagging along too

for me life is grim without travel tbh it’s what we love and you can always save as well as keep some cash for holidays (just takes longer to save for the house!!

I'd travel while you have the chance.

Buy Something really small in an area which is popular with first time buyers so it’ll be easy to sell on. Then hopefully you can still travel. You’ll regret not buying as early as you can.

I would travel. We travelled around the world in our early 20s and now in our late 30s with DC and a mortgage we remember our adventures fondly. We do travel a bit with DC but it isn't the same as the carefree travels we used to have.

Can you afford at least a flat?

If you can have several 3k holidays a year you can save the 10k very quickly though? Mortgage then will probably be less than your rent so you will be able to travel just as much. Once you are paying creche fees that's where the travel stops for a bit. We bought in our 20s in Dublin, have travelled loads since buying and have by now just 160k mortgage outstanding on a 450k house...

Buy as soon as you can.renting from a private landlord has no security at all.Far better to really save and just buy a small property that needs some DIY.You Will know that you are on the ladder.Travel is wonderful but the security of buying would be my choice being mortgage free gives you so much more freedom in the future than always thinking you could be out of a rental in 2 months.

It depends what you value more. If you aren’t fussed about buying a house then keep going on holidays now. If you really want to buy a house then prioritise that first. Once you have a house you can spend on holidays.

If you want to buy in 2-3 years, I'd prioritise saving for that. Esp if you're only 10k off your target and can spend 3k on a holiday - it sounds like it's hopefully a fairly achievable goal.
You can still travel when you have a mortgage!

Also mortgage is much cheaper than rent, even accounting for intrest rates and the costs of home ownership.
My mates who bought early are happily enjoying life with the security of a home + actually had more monehy to travel

Travel! You get one life and owning a house is not the most important thing, if you have an itch to see the world make the most of it before you have bigger responsibilities. I took a 6 month leave of absence from work at 24 and spent it backpacking, have such wonderful memories. I was lucky to work internationally once I returned to work, and am now in my late 30s with a husband, mortgage and 2 children where the spontaneity and disposable income is limited. I look back fondly at my travels but also accept it was the right time for me to do that in my 20s as it is out of my system for a while as my priorities have changed. I appreciate this isn't for everyone but for me it was worth the life experience to delay getting on the property ladder.

Travel. But please don’t whine in a few years how hard it is to get on the property ladder when you have made the choice to prioritise something else

I would always pick travelling first, see the sights!!