To ask how you made the decision between better house or better lifestyle?

[fortunatelynot]

I am interested how people have made the choice between climbing up the housing ladder against NOT having as much money for other things.

I ask because I earn pretty well and have a mortgage on my terraced house but quite a bit of equity. If I carry on paying what I am paying which is about a fifth of my monthly salary, I will clear my mortgage in ten years in my mid fifties. Odds are, I will overpay and clear it more quickly.

I like my house a lot but, in an ideal world would like two bathrooms instead of one and a semi or detached. Moving up to this would obviously make my mortgage bigger and would therefore mean bigger payments or a longer term.

So, I am wondering…. If you have made this choice, what did you go for? Have you regretted not moving up the ladder or regretted actually doing it? If so, why?

I am genuinely stuck regarding making this choice and I know that everyone has different preferences but would be interested to hear different perspectives.

46 and single mum to a 4 year old with a decent income. Took on a very big mortgage 2 yrs ago which after interest rate rises is about 45% of my take home income (argh!), to buy a huge flat with an enormous garden in a lovely small town where I want to bring up my kid. It's really a place that we can grow into and allows us to host friends, have lots of bbqs, grow fruit and veg, and all the things I wanted. It's 100% worth it for giving my kid everything I want and living in a house and community that I enjoy, and I'm lucky that I can assume I will at some point have an inheritance that will pay off a chunk of the mortgage (hopefully not at all soon but realistically probably before the end of my mortgage). However, it has absolutely wiped me financially and it means I don't have the money currently to do some of the "luxuries" I would have liked (foreign holiday other than visiting family; get a cleaner; upgrade car from a beaten up old fiat panda). But we are very fortunate to have everything we need and I'm super happy with my choices.

It’s interesting how split the views are. It really comes down to your own priorities OP. Is being able to just book the holiday, buy the theatre ticks, go for the nice meal out more or less important than the space?

Evening all

Thanks so much for your responses, they are pretty mixed which makes it a really interesting read and so many things to consider.