Crazy plan to buy dream house?? AIBu ?

[Hatmadhatter]

Just need some perspective and experiences please. And opinions on if I ABU.

we are mid 30s and have a mortgage of £300k. I am thinking that in order for us to buy our dream home we should do the following:

overpay mortgage for the next 7yrs so we will have £150k left and £270k equity.
Then take on another £400k mortgage and start overpaying this so we pay it off in 10ish years. Our salary will increase in the next few years as I move up the career ladder.

has anyone and advice or experience to share please ?

thank you

Depends if you’re going to have enormous childcare bills or not.

Oh yes, I agree but as you get older things can go wrong which could have am impact on earnings. I got cancer in my 30s,much more likely to happen in your 50s. I suppose you can get insurance for that type of thing.
I suppose most people assume they'll live healthily in to their 80s but sadly life can throw some 5hit at you!

Yes to overpaying your mortgage. If you can afford to do this but don’t you will just be getting used to a more expensive standard of living which will be difficult to come down from. And if you are already thinking of your dream home it sounds like you are prioritising this over pricier food, clothes, holidays etc.

I’m amazed how many people are voting that you are being unreasonable!

Who knows what the next 7 years will bring. But you aren’t committing yourself to the dream house now. When the time comes, you can make a decision then based on your income and career and family circumstances whether to move and what to spend.

You have little to lose by overpaying on the mortgage now, IF:
1/ you can afford it on your income
2/ you are also saving a sensible amount in a pension
3/ you have paid of other debts which charge more interest (eg credit card, car loans)
4/ you have a “rainy day” savings pot of 3-6 mths living costs (if it is an offset mortgage you may not need this as you can offset the rainy day money)

if you don’t have the above sorted then sort them and get some financial advice.

Short term you should def check mortgage rate vs savings rate in car you are better to stick the “overpayment” in a savings account.

Do the maths on an offset which gives you flexibility to take the overpayments out again if you need it.

This is really good advice and I also think the overpay / clear your mortgage advice isn’t always right for everyone.

We were lucky enough to fix in 2021 for 5 years. I can now get over 7x my mortgage interest in regular saver accounts, and not too far behind that on other savings products. I’m saving hard so I have a lump sum to pay down at renewal time if needed, but overpaying would be the wrong decision for me and many others.

That should have tagged @Nordicrain

Exactly this^

you realise there is more to life than property, at that rate you'd have to have an amazing house because you'll never have funds to ever leave it... nights out, days out, holidays, experiences... nope Mortgage payments... then too old, house is too big so downsize.