Live for the here and now or the future ?!

[LifeLessons102]

Hi everyone, I would love some personal opinions on this.

Me and DH are 28 with two children (8 & 5). We have 18 years left on our mortgage (we make a £450 over payment each month). So we will be 45 by the time we are mortgage free and our children will be grown up. DH full time & I’m part-time.

After bills, food, car, overpayments etc are made we have around £800 left per month in the pot to spend on what we want. IF we didn’t over pay on mortgage we have £1,250 left in our pot to spend on what we like but this adds another 14 years onto our mortgage.

We have been thinking about buying a caravan but this type of expense would be £500 per month. But this would mean lots of holidays whenever we like (great for school holidays) and lovely memories. Or do we scrap the idea, keep paying our mortgage and go on the days out here and there and the once a year holiday ?

I know we are in a very fortunate position and I promise I am not trying to brag to anyone. I just don’t know if to live for the here and now or save for my future. I just think you don’t know when your time is up on this earth so my heart thinks make memories while you’re here.

Thanks for your time.

I think there needs to be balance

The children will get more expensive as they get older but then you will have paid off more of your mortgage anyway...

Is there a mid cost option?

Thanks for your reply - that is the mid cost option unfortunately. These things aren’t cheap !

I would cost up booking a few weekends and weeks away on the same caravan site before buying one tbh...

The novelty could wear off?

How about a camper van?

When I was a child my parents owned one and we loved it. I think that’s what makes me want one as you can get in the car and go, then the continuity feel down there. It is obviously ALOT cheaper to go down a few times here and there but it’s not the same as having your own is it?

No but that is £6k per year.

What if your DC want to do an activity on a weekend or birthday parties?

I was just thinking do it a lot one year without sinking costs into buying one.

Not sure why a caravan would cost you that much? Ours is £450 per year storage and £69 insurance. Service costs around £100. 4 berth caravan cost £4K. (Second hand) Already had a tow car. A week away costs around £130 for a week. I don’t include food as you would have to buy that if you were at home anyway. The only other extra would be diesel. But once in site - we don’t use the car. A lot less than £500 per month.

It’s a static on a premium site

I think op means a static caravan @Bargebill19

I would want to pay off the mortgage. We have a camper and don’t use it as much as we could/should. When the children get older they get bored with it.

£500 a month on holidays is a lot, factor in all the other costs too such as travelling, food, entertainment.

You could spend half of that and have nice weekends away with the children on a regular basis.

How much are you putting in to your pension OP?

Additional pension payments rather than mortgage overpayments should be considered especially if you can use salary sacrifice.

@LifeLessons102 @Yankathebear

Ah! That makes more sense.

In that case I would hire/rent one for a few holidays and see if you really really like it enough.

When you are lying on your deathbed, would you rather think yay I paid my mortgage off at 45 or we went to a premium site regularly to stay in our static caravan with the kids? Personally I would add £30k to the mortgage and buy a posh second hand camper Van and got t lots of different places in that but I am a bit biased

Personally I'm all for enjoying the here and now!!

I wouldn't buy a caravan but would go in nice holidays. Keep overpayments going though it saves you in interest

I wouldn't buy a caravan or camper van as it's a asset that depreciates and requires maintenance/insurance etc.

I would stay flexible so you can go on holidays wherever and whenever you want.

And use any spare cash to overpay the mortgage when you can. It's great to pay off the mortgage but I did most of the hard saving pre DC so wasn't having to compromise on family holidays.

It’s the sort of idea lots of people are getting following a long hot summer and the pandemic.

To me the expense of having a caravan seems disproportionate to your earnings and wouldn’t leave you with much disposable income. So the sort of option that @Bargebill19 describes sounds more sensible.

I’d prioritise putting money into pensions and building up your savings/investments in case you want to help your children through uni or onto the Property ladder.

Unless you are genuine miserable now, I would say, future, future, future.

I'm very close to the true future and OMG, am I over the moon for the decisions my oh and I made. The sense of freedom first from paying the mortgage and now to be able to count the years to early retirement is amazing.

What you have to consider is that the pressure to support yourself and family increase as you get older, because you gain experience in one field and you become stuck in it. When things go wrong, you start being unhappy with your job or you are at risk of redundancies, your options are not what they were in your 30s and your commitments much higher.

Knowing that you have some flexibiity, and options become priceless in your 50s.

This time comes so much quicker than you'd anticipated in your 20s, so again, unless you feel your life is miserable, keep it up as it is and invest in the future.

I am old enough to have bought my first home in the mid-80's. GB was toying with the idea of joining the Euro, but it all went horribly wrong and my mortgage interest rate shot up from 7.5% to 14.5% in a matter of weeks. It was hard. Lots of families lost their homes.

Interest rates are very very low these days, so I would take the opportunity to pay off a lot. Life is a lot less stressful when you have a roof over your heads - mass redundancies are likely in some sectors.

If your employer matches pension contributions, maximise this.

Pop some money in ISAs for yourself and the kids.

Do you really want to go to the same place every year? Aren't the kids inundated with party invites and sports/clubs?

I'm not a fan generally of static caravans as they're depreciating assets, however I would say you need to balance the now and the future. I nearly died this year and it's changed my perspective. We are investing in a holiday home by the coast, but it will cost less than £500 per month. I want to do it while DS is young enough to really get the most out of it, build memories and enjoy life now.

You're not guaranteed to have a future. It's a bit naive to assume you are guaranteed to live to the average life expectancy.

Don't postpone your peace, happiness, joy, contentment - whatever word you prefer - off into the future at the expense of the present. That's pointless and foolish. There is no point having life if you waste it.

I get so frustrated at people who make all their nice life plans "for when I retire" - why! Why do you not want to do anything joyful in the present when you are guaranteed life!? Why assume you will have a retirement or be healthy enough at that point to do those things?

I have seen too many people I loved do that and then die decades before retirement age, never having had the chance to realise any of the lovely plans they'd deferred into the future.

You're 28, so what if you're paying a mortgage you can afford a few years longer?

I don't like the "live like it's your last day on earth" type mantras because I think they're idiotic and out of touch with the reality of dying, but I do think it can be constructive to consider how you would feel about your decisions if you were to receive a life-limiting diagnosis of 1-5 years and then to use that in assessing whether you have an appropriate balance between living in the present and securing your future.

With your 'disposable income' I don't see that it has to be an either / or choice.
Firstly, 45 is still very young to pay off your mortgage. I don't think you need to aim to pay it off earlier, or, in truth, worry about adding on another 5 or 10 years.
But still having £800 of disposable income every month after you have overpaid so much each month, is still a lot of money. It sounds like a LOT to have "just for spends".
The caravan idea is a lot of money to spend on holidays. If I were spending £6k a year, on holidays, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be treking back and forth to a caravan for years. I'd be wanting to see a lot more places. A static caravan is an expensive thing to buy and to maintain and will depreciate very quickly. Some sites make you replace the caravan after a relatively short time too.

Personally, it isn't something I would use the money for, but I guess we are all different. It is your money, it is your 'treat' money, and if that is your treat, then go for it.

Thanks all for your replies ! Very interesting reading all of the above opinions. I think lockdown has got to me too, I’ve been stuck in for 5 months working from home and no holiday at all. Last week we went away as a family and it made me realise I want more ! So for now, I’ve booked back to go the same place in 7 weeks time for the October half term. We are going for 3 nights and I will see how it is. The caravan site did say the interest in caravans has gone crazy since restrictions have started to lift - I guess that’s because people can’t go abroad right now without isolating and next year isn’t looking promising either.

I also want to add, had a few young deaths around me recently (due to cancer) and it does make me think what am I saving for. I think lockdown has made me unsettled.

If you can find someone that rents their static out privately and uses it themselves on the site that would be a great way to try it out for a year so without being hit for the costs of buying one.

Buying one can be a huge rip off due to depreciation etc, having to replace it when it gets to a certain age. Book holidays far enough in advance and you could go all over the country as well as regular stays and probably work out cheaper.

I think it's great to make more plans and spend the money but my hesitation is it being a static from talking to people that own them, most have to rent it out to help cover the annual site fees. After staying in a "luxury" one in a nice location on a site I certainly wouldn't fancy spending lots of weekends at the budget end where they were packed in like sardines in comparison 🤷🏽‍♀️