To think our mortgage is not affordable ?

[Anxiousaboutmortgage]

I am watching another thread on this topic and it got me even more worried about what we are about to do!
We are about to buy a property that costs 680k with a deposit of 115k
Our take home pay (both working) is 7980 per
Month our monthly mortgage (fixed) comes around 2888
Is that too much ? We are moving for better schools our kids are 5 and 7 and ideally this will be our "forever" home
We will have around 20k left from our sale for any needed work and we have another 20k of savings
We don't have any car loans etc . Our current mortgage is much lower though which scares me A-lot !

You are going to be cutting it really fine

5k can soon dwindle after gas, electric and council tax you could kiss goodbye to another £600

so then you are down to £4400 - seems a lot but after food, holidays, savings etc

I can see why you are worried and saddling yourself with a commitment of 3k a month for the next 25 years is not going to be nice especially when your 5k buys you less and less

But it won't be 3k for 25yrs. It'll drop down as they pay more off, and they're basically spending that at the moment with their overpayments and savings.

@2andadog

how does it drop down? It only changes if there’s a rate change

As you pay more off the LTV decreases which means you’ll get better rates. Also the loan amount gets less so you have more flexibility with financing.

It sounds perfectly doable to me (I'm pretty risk-averse too) and if you don't move before your children get to secondary school you may not get round to it until they've left home.
It sounds as though you're both pretty employable if you do get made redundant, so just make sure that you've got a buffer in place to cover your costs for as long as you're likely to take to get a new job. You'll probably need to keep a tight rein on your spending initially just to see how it goes, but a few months on your new budget should give you a pretty good idea of what you can afford to spend on the renovations. After all you don't need to do the kitchen yet if you end up not being able to afford it.

If it scares you such a lot, can I ask why you're doing this? Is it a dream home? How do you feel about it when the kids have left? Would you downsize?

Only if it is interest only. If they're paying off capital too the amount they owe will reduce and so will the interest on this capital.

The kids are 5 and 7. They could still be living at home in 20 years.

Better schools for kids mainly and we will eventually need a bit more space as they grow up we are just thinking doing it now rather than later

I can't believe that you and your partners are such high earners yet can't do the simple arithmetic to work out whether £5k is enough to cover bills and food, possibly add to savings or pay down the mortgage,
Given that you can't do this, why not get a financial advisor, advice on some kind of income protection insurance? Stay put and save a bigger deposit towards your next home?

@ThinWomansBrain was just asking for peoples opinion this is a public forum you know

We have £5,400 left after mortgage. A savings plan and two loans, other fixed monthly expenses come to around £3k.
then there is food, commuting/ petrol about £1.1k. Leaving £1,300 ish. Which is ok can’t complain, but a few unexpected bills in a month plus events and there won’t be much left. Not enough for fancy holidays. We are trying to put some of that aside to fix up our house. It feels like it should stretch further.

Exactly - what would be the point of a humble brag anonymously??

You should be absolutely fine OP. See if your mortgage allows you to significantly overpay but then take the money back without penalty if required. We went for this type of mortgage as it gave us peace of mind.

clarify your point pls

and overpaying the capital is also a sound idea

You'll have £5000 per month after your mortgage is paid and your children aren't in nursery. Of course this is perfectly affordable and you are asking a silly question that suggests you aren't aware of any basic economic facts, or how other people live. Which is quite embarrassing.

We have the same take home as you, but our mortgage is £1k less and I think paying what you’re suggesting is too much.

You could still take the house (sounds like it’s for good reasons) but I think you should look into extending your mortgage by 5-10 years and then saving the difference in a high interest savings account (or using some of it for over payments). This gives you more flexibility for unexpected events and if you don’t have any of them then you can still pay off your mortgage in the same time period!

I also suggest checking out You Need A Budget to get a handle on your outgoings.

Only truly affordable if you could manage on one wage if one of you lost your job or had to stop work from illness.

This is the most bizarre thing I’ve ever read. With the overpayment and the savings it is there or thereabouts what your new mortgage payment will be, so clearly you can already afford it. Why do you need a bunch of random internet keyboards to tell you that?

And I agree with others that your take home split is relevant. Ours is one fifth of our overall income, but only £1000 below my sole income.

I am ok with this because my husband has sickness benefit covers etc and there’s no scenario where he lost his job and couldn’t get another job of any kind, which would make it doable.

I am very loath to go any higher than this.

Gladly. I think that a situation in which a family who have £5k a month after mortgage and feel that they can't afford to live comfortably is cause for despair. Either the OP is assessing her circumstances correctly and the cost of living where she lives really does put affordability at a disposable income of 60k a year; or the OP has been driven by other factors to believe that she needs more than 5k a year, which also would be sad.

In general there is huge wealth inequalities in this country, and the cost of living is very high for people. 5k post-mortgage is 4 or 5 times what I have left over. It's disheartening to hear that even on 4 times my salary, people don't necessarily feel comfortable.