To think we CAN live on the mortgage

[JaneEyre40]

Advice please -

Couple - Earn £10,500 a month
Mortgage - 3,700 a month
Nursery - 1,000 a month

Considering all other possible outgoings, do you think we can afford this and not feel pressured each month. What am I not considering? We've done the spreadsheet but I'm still unsure.

We will have about £65,000 in savings at the beginning of this venture.

Thanks in advance. House of a lifetime.

Some great replies, I don't give a shit about the rest. It is amusing though.

I think it’s perfectly doable and you should go for it OP. Enjoy it! Don’t listen to the naysayers- I agree people seem intolerant of people who have done well in life. You should be proud that you managed to earn so well as a state educated women as it is hard and takes a lot of graft to achieve that.

for reference- our take home is about £8.5k per month. Equal split between my husband and I as two doctors on same salary. Our mortgage is £1.8k but that’s on a low rate and I expect it will go up by about £400 a month if rates don’t go down. Nursery fees £500 a month for one child and will increase when second goes Altho we get funded hours. So mortgage similar proportion to you but less money left once paid. We are very comfortable on that and manage to save although we have always been frugal people. That’s for a relatively small three bed in the south east.
i really think a lot of people who say “I would never spend that on a house” struggle to comprehend the gravity of the housing crisis and the cost of housing in the south east and London and how it’s changed in the past few decades . The average property price where I live is over £400k, the reality is that if you want a family home ur mortgage will be huge. Compare that to my parents in the 1990s who bought a 4 bed detached in the south east (prime commuter belt) for £100k on one very average public sector salary . It’s a different world now. I think you will live very comfortably and enjoy what you have earnt.

Ah ok, I'm so blinded by London prices, I have never bought a property anywhere else.

Thank you. I think we are going for it. Really good to hear similar situations.

@Todayisadaymy son is also high functioning ASD/ADHD and had an EHCP. Aside from unnecessary housing costs to move in catchment it went through to 6th form and also made DSA at uni unproblematic. Your funds may have been better spent securing DC the help they needed in the long term.

Unless your DC would never meet diagnostic criteria in which case buying assumed privilege you can afford is a justified course of action. Albeit not an option open to all.

Re 5 year fixes I personally like them as if you can afford the monthly payment now you should be ok for the next 5 years on the assumption you keep your job/possibly even have some wage inflation or promotions in 5 years. I like the peace of mind personally. Also remortgage fees can be £1k so that eats into any saving from a possible (no guarantee) rate reduction if you had to remortgage in 2 years.

Yes, no echp, but so have a diognosis. The other school had really bad problems and with ADHD my son is prone to shall we say, spontanious actions.. which as me and DH know from our own schooling (and both of us were expelled , DH from a boarding school and me from a grammar) we now know we had undiognosed adhd. So we were fearful our son, in a school of hard knocks would end up doing somr very stupid things.
Thankfully, the school we moved near is super strict and very calm in comparison and he is doing really well now, albeit with a large number of detentions. But this school doesnt have the fighting in the corridors, the kids threwing chairs etc that the other school had. And we know it has issues as I still speak to the parents of his primary class who went there. Their kids are doing ok there, but add adhd and his personality for being in the centre of things into the mix of chaos and you have a recipe for disaster.
I do feel guilty about being able to afford to move when others can't but I guess its not much different to going private. Which we did apply for several private schools and were refused due to the adhd diognosis.
With no echp as they say he is tracking above academically, then our options were to move or take our chances with the other school. Home schooling not really an option and he is super sociable, with the personality of a whole circus in one person

5 year fixes taken into account the markets view of rates in the next 5 years anyway, therefore unlikely to change a whole lot.

Haha me too 😂

We have just lost our dream home because my husband was made redundant and hasn't been able to find something else at the same level. Think through the worst case scenarios and try to mitigate the risks eg critical illness insurance. What would your exit strategy be if the worst happened? And certainly worth sitting down with a financial advisor to give you some certainty before you take the plunge.

We are absolutely getting this. Thank you. I'm so sorry this happened to you!

😘

Can I ask if the schools you refer to are in London. Happy to hear the new school is better. Can I ask what the detentions are for given his diagnosis? I ask on a professional level.

EHCPs are given much more quickly to parents that apply than they are to schools that apply.

Detentions are for all sorts of things. But mainly, yes adhd related.
I was advised by the primary and secondary that they dont recomend an echp. That it wouldnt make a difference to what they have in place aa they are doing everything they can do anyway. Do you have some tips?? Would love to hear if you do :)

Is there a teaching assistant in his classroom at all times?

Very interesting that they advised against it, I wonder why, it means quite a bit of money for the school.

Not sure really. Your mortgage and childcare is almost half your income. Your insurance, energy bills, c/tax, cars won’t be be cheap I assume (assuming you’re not driving around in a second hand 1litre that’s 19 year old)

You don’t say in the OP if that’s after tax and if it’s not then no, I don’t think it’s manageable. If that’s after tax then yes probably

Or (first) bought a long time ago, like us. Plenty of people on mumsnet will be in their 50s and will have paid off or almost paid off their mortgage not now having bought 20-30 years ago. Even if they live in an expensive area, the value of their mortage is pretty irrelevant when thinking about your options now.

Yes, that's us too.