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!

My friend prioritized traveling. They have found it impossible to buy a house. And yet spending more on rent than a mortgage.

A 6 month leave of absence, backpacking (which is very cheap) with a guaranteed job to return to is hardly the same as several 3K holidays a year. The former shouldn't have prevented you getting onto the property ladder before having children, which is the important bit.

Yes this! Everyone prioritises differently and that is fine, but it is so annoying when someone prioritises holidays or other things over saving for a deposit then complains about not being able to buy a few years later.

You have an advantage if you buy, you can always rent it out to go travelling proper if you want

However what you are talking about is holidays, you can take holidays and be creative about them and afford a mortgage as well

Travel! You're so young!!! I remember being 24 and I couldn't give a fuck about a house!

I worked abroad multiple times, travelled solo and still managed to qualify in my chosen profession and buy my first home age 29.

Get your budget together and go from there!

I'd love to know where in Ireland you are that it's even a possibility to buy at 24.

The housing situation is extremely challenging in any urban location or commuter town.

It won't improve in the short-term, in the period you specify.

If you really are close to affording a home, then I would definitely prioritise it.

Rent is insane here too - you'd most likely get a cheaper mortgage than your rent. There's no reason why you can't go on holidays too.

@EarringsandLipstick in the west. It’s less because of the age and more because there’s two of us meaning two incomes, wouldn’t be as doable if either of us was a solo buyer. Upon toying with the mortgage calculator, a mortgage would actually be a bit more expensive than renting depending on purchase price and term, but of course that’s if our rent stays at its current rate for now.

Personally I would say house.

Get on the ladder and buy young, in a few years you will find you have more available spending money and can pick up where you left off.

Just my own tuppence. I travelled all over the world between 20-35 but I had kids late. Able to get on the property ladder mid 30's but house prices in London were much lower then.

Now I'm mid 50's and have one or two chronic health conditions, have slowed down considerably and definitely couldn't do the sort of travelling now that we did then ie, cheaper back packing/adventurous type stuff. Now I prefer 'safer' destinations, more comfort (which is more expensive) and long haul is a bit of a chore. Also once you are settled in a career, have young kids, mortgage it is undeniably harder to go off on a whim to somewhere more exotic. It can be done but it's harder.

We spent a lot of money travelling and I don't regret a thing as we have wonderful memories as well.

Travel now when you are young and free. I am now nearly 33, have a house etc but no kids — we really want to have kids and I regret not travelling more in my 20s.

We had such hopes of travelling more in 2020 and 2021 and of course COVID dashed those.

Try to really see the world — I have never been to Africa or South America at all and would really like to go and now not sure when that can happen.

I have also lived my life across three continents, which meant a lot of time and money that could have been used for “travel” was spent attending weddings etc all over the place or just going back to see my family.

I dont know much about the Irish housing market, but are your salaries going to rise significantly?
If you can just about afford a starter home on both your incomes, will you be able to buy a family home?

The problem with buying later is that you’re likely to be doing it with kids, which reduces the amount you can borrow + childcare (again I dont know if childcare in Ireland is as expensive as it is in England), and as you’ve not already got a property whose value rises/falls at the same time as the one you’re buying. You’re stuck with just cash

Any chance you can work abroad for a time? I worked abroad from age 24-36 (travelling extensively at weekends) and then bought a house when I was about 38 (with DH). If I had the time again and the means I would buy a house, rent it out to cover the mortgage and work abroad.

But easier said than done.

On the other hand my parents worked their socks off and bought a house and when they paid the mortgage off when I was about 15 that was when we started to travel. Just little trips 2 weeks in the summer sort of thing and some camping.

Same. I bought at 24 and nearly doubled our money. You wouldn't be too old to travel lots if you bought now... and you'd save loads in rent so could use that to holiday