To think we can manage this mortgage

[Whistlere]

House: 490k
Mortgage: 290k - 5 yr fixed at 3.86%
Net pay: 3400 per month
Mortgage monthly repayment: 1500

Savings: 90k
ISA stocks and shares: £60k

Looking to overpay the mortgage by 10% a year.

Early 40s with 2 kids in primary school.

I know it’s not sensible but I think it’s manageable, although I am worried what will happen if one of us loses their job.

Yes it will work but you need to be sure it is worth it. So secondary schools? Easy access to pool of other jobs for you/dh? first work, Uni…etc?

We stretched for our current house and pay less proportionally than you do and it's a challenge. What we hadn't entirely considered was how much everything else would go up by moving to a larger house - there are more repairs, higher heating bills, on and on.

We bought it at a good rate and then were really struggling when the rates went up at the end of the 2 years. Fortunately were able to fix it again somewhere in the middle but there's just a lot of expenses in maintaining a larger home. If you need to replace windows, carpets, etc etc it adds up really quickly so I wouldn't risk it unless the house is in really good condition.

My kids are slightly older so we have less childcare costs but more costs for ballet lessons and similar. And my kids eat more and more each year so our food costs are only going up. So I'd model out a few scenarios - best and worst case - and see what happens.