Buy a house or have a baby

[LimeAnt]

DH and I are talking about having babies and buying a house. Thing is, we can't do both, certainly not at the same time.

What would you do? What did you do?

I know buying a house is an asset but who can actually do that without rich family and with how expensive life is.

Buy the house first..... no brainer then have the baby.... better rates with no dependants

If you both have shiftwork I guess but it's utterly gruelling.

House first, then kids. Wanted us to have our own place before having kids.

THIS in abundance

Babies aren't expensive?! You've clearly never paid for childcare if you think that

Funded childcare is available in most of the UK from nine months.

No it’s not.

Depends on your age and the amount of time you’d need in between.
If you are in your twenties and could buy a house imminently and be ready to try for a baby by thirty, then maybe that.
If you are 32 and wouldn’t be trying for a baby till 34/35 if you put the house first, no way.

The thing is that having a child is far, far less predictable. You might well conceive right away at 38, have an easy baby and another soon after. You could have got the house first after all. On the other hand you could have difficulty or tragedy with conception, miscarriage and loss, recovery times, health issues affecting either parent or a child that then might delay any further potential pregnancy. I know people who got their child 13 years after starting to try, and many people who took several years. It hopefully won’t be your situation, but if you really want a child you can’t afford to assume it won’t.

How long is your remaining fertility window? Do you already have children?

How old are you? How long until you can buy? We chose to have the baby first as buying was at least 5 years away and I didn’t want to wait that long which would have taken me to mid thirties. In the end we made the sacrifice of moving to a cheaper area to buy after baby was born and I have no regrets about our choices.

House first, or you probably won't be able to afford it later

Buy the house. Once you have to pay nursery fees it's very hard to manage let alone save.

Buy a house. Don't have a baby - it's propaganda.

Buy the house first as you will be offered better mortgage deals. I dropped my hours after my first and though I can still afford the payments, the amount offered if my salary had been based on my part time hours would have been waaaaaaaay less and I wouldn't have been able to afford to buy anywhere in my area.

Started trying for a baby about 4 months after buying and got pregnant straight away. It took almost 1.5yrs of trying before I got pregnant with baby 2.

House first.

You can have a baby soon after you’ve sorted that if you want and can afford to,

"Babies aren't very expensive"??? Have you seen the cost of childcare!? And that's just for starters!!

Unless you are like 38, the house!

House

I disagree, having kids is really expensive. Yes babies clothes and stuff aren't, but childcare is extremely expensive! We spend around £12,000 a year per child in nursery fees, for 2-3 years each, then a little less u till they go to school! Depending on your age, I'd go for a house 1st (yes fees are expensive but then it's usually cheaper per month than renting. But if time isn't on your hand, then you might want to prioritise trying for having children.

Nursery fees are expensive even with government help!

Yeah my DD and her husband have done it for 7 years