God I am hopeless at this. DH and I both work full time in good jobs (and have done for passed twenty years). Have three young DC and a (big) mortgage on a house we love.
We are both first generation Uni grads for our families and come from quite cautious family backgrounds. We did not take risks early on with buying a house and so haven't benefit as much as others in terms of property (but I know we are in a fortunate position).
We have an expensive couple of years ahead (DC childcare high whilst not in school, eldest has some additional needs which we are funding privately, though the need for these should decline).
We would also like to extend our house, now seems like the righttime, interest rates are low etc, but I am getting super nervous about extending our mortgage.
We are currently 56% ltv, with 20 years to go (we're early 40's), and would extend to 65%.
We don't need the extension, but it would make living here better (we have no intention of moving) .
DH is very much of the view that there are other things we could cut to save money if needed and if one of us lost their job and couldn't find an equivalent , the amount borrowed wouldn't make a difference (we'd be screwed anyway!).
I am just torturing myself with lots of friends who made money early on property/ have family money/ all of whom seem to be reducing their mortgages!
Am I being risk averse ? Realistically it would take another 4-5 years to save the amount and then build (by which time we'd also be over the childcare bump).