Upscaling lifestyle

[HaggisMcKilty]

Hi folks,
Looking for your thoughts on lifestyle choices as I now enter my thirties. It's a complicated subject, but I'll do my best to explain my situation below. I'll caveat by saying its very first world problems, but it's stressful for me..!

About me:
I'm a 31 year old professional grossing around £100k/year with two properties. My home is worth around £270k (mortgage free in 6 months) and my rental flat is I.R.O. £300k (50% leveraged) 1.6% APR fixed for 4 more years. My other half earns £50k and is 30 years old, now expecting our first child in 6 months..! Very excited. I have a career average pension scheme, and £700/month PCP car for another 3 years. My other half has very little in the way of pension however.

The ask:
I have a number of options open to me:

1. Continue living within my means and pay off the second mortgage over 4 years. Budgeting for small weekends away domestically within UK (really enjoyed visiting York, Bath, London, Oxford). I could then pay down the car and own it outright at end of term, and begin investing heavily in S&P500 to augment my pension, with aim to retire early (55). The disadvantage is we really dislike living in a terraced house with no driveway. We also hate brick architecture and want a sandstone house (I'm from Scotland and always found it so beautiful). We also find it hard to make friends where we are (it tends to be older people with grown up kids), OR;
2. Relocate from N. England to buy a more expensive property around Oxford (doubt we could afford much for our budget, but we really love the area & weather). It would be much closer to the lifestyle we're looking for, but the obvious disadvantage is being locked into the trap of much greater cost of living;
3. Relocate to colder Scotland, get more for our budget and be closer to family & friends but take jobs with reduced pay (though money really isn't everything). The tax in Scotland is also currentlt higher, and I'm concerned what may happen if they somehow hoodwink people into independence. The upside of this option is, well it feels like home (as dumb as that sounds...)! Somehow this option feels a bit like moving backwards though and I get a gut feel that I might live to regret it?

What would you pick in my shoes? And how important is being debt-free relatively early in life?

Ps. Preference on Edinburgh vs Oxford vs Manchester?

Best,
Haggis

"if they somehow hoodwinked people into independence". Dearie me.

Don’t underestimate the value of having family around when you have young children…it’s soooo helpful! Get what you mean about feeling like going backwards but in your shoes I’d choose Scotland with the other benefit of cheaper cost of living.

For a baby, near to family absolutely. Could you not keep your current job at least until after maternity leave and WFH more to enable the move?

The whole tone of this is strangely joyless. You are so well off, just do what you will enjoy and try to loosen up about it all?

Do what makes you happy! You sound like you are in a privileged position to have all these options available to you, so enjoy yourself particularly once baby arrives. Personally I’d go off travelling and live abroad if I had a passive income like a rental property…

Love it 😂

I love Edinburgh, I’d happily live there

Buy a larger house in Scotland, a better support network and more space for your upcoming DC.

I wouldn’t make any major life decisions until after you’ve had the baby. Things change and people change. You might find you yearn for home or have more of a drive for the lifestyle. You might find you hate the thought of going back to your current job and want to be a sahm or hate May leave and be desperate to return. You’ll likely need to get on waiting lists for nursery while still pregnant so also bear that in mind re any location change.

Edinburgh - definitely!

Manchester is a dump. And Oxford/ London will be too hot in the coming years. Global warming is happening in a major way now.

PS maybe give some advice to the 22 year old midwife trainee who wants to be rich

Go home, if you have a decent relationship with your family you’ll want to be close to home once the baby is here. Also what is it you do to earn 100k in your 30s if you don’t mind me asking? I totally need to retrain to earn some more money!

Don't assume your work will pan out as it currently is pre-child. You may well find your work weren't as welcoming to new mums as they'd made out, getting a new job might also be tricker and even with the best childcare going it means you won't be as reliable because the child will be ill for most of the first year (in my experience). I wouldn't make any major life choices until youve had a chance to bed in as parents for a bit and see how the world changes.

You are in an excellent position to make choices that will really give you a good quality of life in the long term. I wouldn't let thinking about even longer term financial betterment determine what you do when you are young , financially sound and can make a life anywhere. Some things are priceless and it seems you can have those things. So Scotland for me. You xan easily get stuck somewhere you don't really want to be in once you have children.

I'd wait until you have your baby and then decide what feels best, your life is about to change alot. Also you don't have to live next door to your family like everyone else is saying. We live overseas, 1 hour flight away from our parents. It means they spend more quality time with our son as they fly out for weeks at a time and we fly back for 2 weeks. You must live where you want to live.
Also well done - you're obviously very successful and a big achievement being able to pay off your mortgage.

Childcare ( x2?) is expensive and so is living in a nice part of Edinburgh. Have you factored these costs into your options?

Are you guaranteed to remain on 100k during mat leave and as you RTW with a baby?

Hi everyone,

Thanks for getting back to me, much appreciated!

It sounds like most of you are in favour of a move to keep family and friends close (that's probably my preference if I'm honest with myself). I think what holds me back from this route is just the fear of lack of jobs in Scotland. Its been very rough since the Indyref up there and all the major employers have moved head offices South of the border. With the whole WFH I will probably be able to keep my current job, but it will hinder my chances of upward mobility if that makes sense... Conscious I'm only at the start of my career journey! Another 25-30y to go (how depressing) haha!

Edinburgh every time out of those three. But then I live the other side of the Forth so would say so.

Are you married or civil partnership ?

When you have children your priorities will change

When you are 50, your priorities will be different from when you are 30

Your family - close to them?

If you retire at 55 what will you do with your time ?

At your age, personal pensions will not be assessable until 57 or 58 the age is being increased

Hand is it your partners family and friends too? And does he have any thoughts?

I think what holds me back from this route is just the fear of lack of jobs in Scotland.

and you should be. Especially £100k plus

Well Edinburgh clearly as it is lovely, would provide a better quality of life, nicer atmosphere, near your family and friends, probably bigger house, nicer area for your DC to grow up etc etc.

Just because you have already lived in a country doesn't mean living there again is going 'backwards' unless you are going to base life decisions on the teenage 'status' of distance from home town.