To have thought our lower income was enough?

[BraOffPjsOn]

Ok so after all these posts where people with huge monthly incomes are worried about a mortgage payment, am I being mad to think that an income (after tax monthly) of around £3500 is enough for a mortgage of around £1200-1300?

I had thought it would be ok but after those posts I feel like maybe I’m wrong!

YANBU. People on here are bonkers and think anyone earning less than £100k is a "low earner". I saw someone say their DH earned £57k and a poster said he was a low earner. The average UK salary is £37.5k!

Usually you don't want to be spending more than 25-30% of your take home income on housing costs.

Mine is 21.5% which means I don't struggle as much as other people on my income despite it being very low (single person on disability).

30% for you would be around £1k so you may well struggle at £1.3k.

Thanks! Needed this! We are careful but I still thought it would be enough to save for a rainy day/home improvements/holiday!

We both work hard and aren’t high earners but the mortgage posts lately have been a bit sickening. Especially as we’re looking to move.

On the whole I think a mortgage payment should be no more than 25% of your monthly income. That’s a pretty solid general rule.

That being said there are exceptions and that’s largely down to what your other expenditure looks like. How much do you pay monthly in misc debt? (Credit cards, car payments, childcare…etc)

Essentially I think you want no more than 50% of your income accounted for before it hits the account. So add up all your monthly repayments, direct debits…etc and see what that looks like.

You could have two couples on £3000 per month incomes wanting to take on £1200 mortgages but if one couple has no other debts or repayments per month whilst the other couple have £400 car payment, £400 credit cards and £800 childcare on top then they are in very different affordability brackets

So I am looking to buy a house next year. I am renting, have for years, as I live in the South East and my youngest is for to uni next September so I am returning to my native north. I take home currently around 4k a month (single income household) and my rent is £1400 and I can comfortably pay this. I don’t want my repayments to be more than £1500-1600 max though really, as rates could change etc. Plus I like to meet friends, eat out etc, plus go on holidays etc. But £1500 I can easily afford. My dog currently costs me £450 a month, so when he is no longer with us (hopefully that day doesn’t come for a few more years at least) i’ll have a lot more spare cash but don’t want to overload myself

You're fine that's plenty people on here live on a different planet

I think it's fine if you don't have children, a stretch if you do.

It depends on your other expenses though. 2 kids in nursery and no, you wouldn't be able to afford that mortgage. Or if you had huge commuting costs or private school fees or very expensive hobbies.

We only pay for one before and after school club a week for 2 children (£90 a month).

No debt other than the mortgage.

current mortgage: £810 monthly.

Now no nursery fees and I’ve increased days we can easily save £900-£1000 a month so I thought investing in a bigger house would be the best use and most enjoyable use of the money before we get used to it.
I know Council tax will go up but had thought paying an extra 4-500 a month on the mortgage would still leave us with enough of a buffer?

Save yourself a 6 month (minimum) emergency fund first if you're tempted.to up your mortgage payment.

That would be too high for me with an extra £1K a month coming in but there are 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 kids so it would be a lot harder for us to live on than just one adult.

It could be doable but it would mean scrimping to pay for a bigger house. No more lamb roast dinners, running coaches, shopping in Morrisons and having premium Spotify. We do have pets that cost us almost £100 a month though but our childcare is a lot more than yours and that's only with school holiday childcare and breakfast club once a week.

I certainly wouldn't want to try it just for the sake of a bigger house and it's discussions we've had because we would like a bigger one but it's not a need since ours is adequate and we can survive although it can feel a bit small sometimes.

I would think that is really tight. A larger property likely means higher council tax and energy bills. You also have to consider how you would afford things if bills and mortgage rates go up. I take home £3300 and my husband a bit more than that and our mortgage is £1500. I wouldn’t want to spend any more than that because we have enough money for holidays/ house repairs and decorating etc. you have to budget for unforeseen costs- car repairs, house repairs

But UK average is a pointless number without looking at where people are. £57k is vastly different in London than it is in Lincolnshire

It wouldn’t be comfortable for us I don’t think and we don’t have any kids. However, we like to spend a lot on holidays and I also like to put a lot in savings. Still, I think spending over a third of your income is risky. If one of you loses your job or can’t work for whatever reason you’re in a tricky position

If current mortgage is £810 and potential new mortgage us £1300, have you managed to save at least £490 comfortably very month?

If you haven't, then it's too much.

Kids only get more expensive though as they pick up hobbies and their clothes and food get increasingly expensive. Holidays get much more expensive as they get older.

Personally I think. 1300 mortgage on a 3500 net income is a touch tight, I'd want to go no higher than 1000,maybe 1100 at a proper stretch.

As a pp has said, a good rule of thumb is 25% of income to be on housing costs and not generally more.

Save a 6 month buffer, take into consideration your kids will get older and want things. If you literally have 400 left it’s more than some but can easily be wiped out at Christmas, birthdays, winter coats, new shoes, sports activities etc

Why don’t you try overpaying the amount of money your prepared to increase your bills to to overpay your mortgage for a few months and see how it goes or put it in a completely separate account you can’t touch or dip into

Personally it would be too high for me to take on.

We try to follow the 50:30:20 roughly, 50% of income being bills/food/essentials so on your income that would mean £1750 allocated. A £1300 mortgage would only leave 450 for every other household bill, transport costs, food shop etc which isn’t possible so would be a no from me.

Thanks all - this is really useful and now I’m thinking we don’t go to the top of what our budget was (even though the bank would give a lot more!)
We have been saving a lot each month but I guess it’s working it out as the kids get older.

Yes, this. I've just checked on zoopla: round our way (South London, zone 3, decent postcode) the mortgage you can get with a £57k annual salary and £30k deposit will buy you a 1-bed, 1-bath flat, (probably leasehold) usually with the kitchen and sitting room as one open-plan space. In certain other parts of the country it'll get you a freehold 3-bed 2-bath house with parking and a bit of garden.

its all about the percentage of your income. It was years ago but the highest percentage we paid was 16%. We went nowhere near the top of budget ever, the goal was always more time to do the things that we wanted which we have achieved by retiring early rather than a bigger house.

@greatyak Agree but what tickled me was you named my two least favourite UK places for vastly different reasons.

Totally depends how you live. For ua our outgoings are huge, we spend a lot on things such as holidays, cars, days out, takeaways, food bill is 800 a month alone. and have children who do clubs, need sports equipment etc. So we couldnt live on it in our current life. But definitely could if we didnt have kids and was careful with our money.
Are you also likely to increase earnings or decrease over the term of the mortgage.

Word of advice- never, ever, ever use Mumsnet as a way to guage the norm. Ever.

Yeh never use mnet in terms of salaries

Youll see idiots on here saying they are earning 50k and strugging when they are just bad with money

I even saw one thread a while back saying struggling on 150k idiots.

If you are on over 50k and struggling you are bad with money.