Generating an income

[Peanutbutterytoast]

Neither myself or my partner are able to work (I don’t want to disclose reasons why) We have no income, savings or pension. The only asset we have is our mortgage free house. What would be the best way to generate an income to live off?
If detached house was worth £280-£300k. We could possibly buy a semi detached house for £150-£180k, leaving £100k approx.

We are not financial savvy at all (see no pension or savings)

Options I can think of are:

Buy a property in auction and rent it out.
Invest in stocks and shares (but haven’t got a single clue)

I think the reason is relevant -if it's disability for example you can claim PIP. - are you not claiming uc?

If you have a spare room in your current property, you can rent it out tax free for up to 7k per year

If you are in UK the info is on www.gov.uk

I am suffering from anxiety. My husband has always had manual/labour type jobs. So while he isn’t disabled, he can no longer do these types of jobs any more. He doesn’t have any qualifications, experience, social skills, know how to do anything else.

You could rent spare room to Ukrainian people as per the Government initiative too

You could rent your driveway, your loft too

I don’t have a spare room in my property.

I was also thinking of making and selling crafts from home.

Car boot sales
vinted/seller sites
dog walking
babysitting
rent out a property

tbh there’s no fast or easy fix, it depends if there’s any skills you can utilise.

A £100k house would only bring in maybe £400 a month in rent though (plus all the upkeep of it)

You can claim universal credit ?

Or you could sell your house and rent somewhere for possibly 10-15 years on the amount you'd make from your house - and then you could claim universal credit and pension if you're old enough (how old are you ? Are you at all close to pension age?)

You say your house isn't big enough to rent a room but could you live upstairs and rent out the downstairs? Sort of divide it and keep it?

I think you'd be best getting benefits advice to start with as selling your house would stop you claiming most benefits and then when you run out of money what do you do?
Also if you claim benefits it will go towards your state pension.
Could dh work? He might be entitled to support/funding with retraining.
I wouldn't buy a house to rent you'll not generate enough income to live on and if you have a second home will be limited to what benefits your entitled to.
Are you getting support/treatment? Is this a short term or long term issue?
How old are you both?

Are you not claiming Universal Credit? Do you have any children?

Making and selling crafts only works if you hit on an idea that’s very cheap and quick to produce but that lots of people want to buy and are willing to pay quite a lot for.
I like knitting, but handing anything is not a viable business model really. It takes too long and the materials cost too much. There’s a reason why there was a fashion for giant arm-knitted blankets a few years back - they were quick to make and unusual enough (in the beginning) to command a high price. Do the sums carefully before buying materials if you decide to try this.

You could loose everything on stocks and shares - and it certainly doesn't sound like you are able to manage a loss. Similarly, if you rented out a house, could you afford to cover bills of your tenant refused to pay, then pay the legal costs to get them removed? Could you even afford to replace a broken boiler?
For most people an income (sufficient to live on) comes through employment

How old are you? I think that will make a huge difference here.

In your position I wouldn’t sell the house because it is giving you a huge amount of security, and massively reducing your outgoings.

One option which you could consider would be to both apply for a few hours a week in a supermarket. If your husband was working in the same place as you then you might feel less anxious, and they offer good training. You don’t need a huge income if you’re mortgage free.

If that’s completely impossible then benefits will be your best option. Again, with no mortgage you can probably live reasonably comfortably on universal credit.

If you are retirement age then equity release might be an option to top up your pension. This gives you a lump sum in exchange for a percentage of your house which only goes to the company after you pass away.

Learning how to manage and plan your finances is something you can do that will make a huge difference to how you view money and life choices. There are lots of resources online so it's well worth one or both of you starting here. Your choices and attitude towards money are key to making smart choices.

It's also likely that of your husband has been working, albeit in manual jobs then he has some private pension. It's been law for a while that employers have to provide, so it's worth looking into.

You also don't mention your ages, this will make a huge difference to what the options might be for you both.

You are lucky that you've an asset, but until you've got skills in how money works don't make any major decisions with it.

Any arts selling will be a small top up, could help but you need an income.

Could your DH become a delivery or uber driver? Something like Ocado?

You should also think of what you think you could manage. Anxiety is terrible but getting out of the house could help amazingly and totally improve your life.

It sounds like your husband can work, just not in his previous trade. There are plenty of unskilled roles out there, everything from bar work to supermarkets, warehouses or delivery driving.

Absolutely this.

I would not sell your house. You will run through the money and end up in a smaller house.

you need an income now and got a long time yet.
Could you work from home?
my sister does, 16 hours a week, lovely company and they provided all training.

could you retrain?
could your husband retrain?
by this time next year he could have a qualification along with his building experience and walk into a great job.

do not sell your house. There is definitely a job out there for you.

I’d advise you to steer clear of investing etc anyway; but even if you did look into it you wouldn’t really be able to generate a decent income from it.

If you invested it into an index fund the typical drawdown rate recommended is 3% to be comfortable it’d last you. (And that’s “comfortable” in investing terms, which still means you could lose everything). With £100K that only gives you around £3K/year income, so £250/month.

I’d advise you both to chat to a career advisor.

I completely sympathise with your husband that he feels wrecked and cannot continue on in his manual job. But that doesn’t have to mean “no job at all”. If he’s been in the trades then he could work part time at the likes of B&Q/Screwfix; and combine that with looking at local colleges who are screaming out for casual tutors with trade experience.

Can he drive? He could look at delivery services.

As for you - are you claiming PIP for your anxiety? Depending on your severity, there are some jobs that lend themselves more to people with anxiety - flexible, working from home, even cleaning offices at night where you don’t have to see or talk to anyone.

Trying to sell crafts etc is a lot more work than you first realise if you want to actually make a decent profit, and often that energy and skill can be better put towards a job with guaranteed better income.

First step is to sit down and create a budget - all your monthly outgoings, accounting for annual stuff like insurances etc. With no mortgage you may find you can get on quite comfortably with you both only picking up a few shifts a week.

How old are you both? When you say no pension, do you have state pensions? Is equity release an option? I’d look at local delivery driver or supermarket jobs for your DH.

£100k is not enough to invest (in a house or stocks/shares) and be able to live off the income.

Obviously you could live off the £100k for as long as that lasted you - if you are a few years of state pension age and would then be able to live off state pension that may be enough.

Renting a room to a lodger would be an option but you say you don't have a spare room. Can you make one by rearranging sleeping and living arrangements?

Agree with pps that if you/dh have a driving licence could look for delivery driver roles.

It's hard to earn a living from crafts.

How old are you both? Could you or he retrain? Work from home job in customer service?

How old are you?

Of course you can both work. You need do.

Why don't you do dog walking? Would get you exercise, boost your endorphins and get you out of the house. Help massively with anxiety. Cash in hand. Keep you fit at the same time.

Husband could get supermarket work, or B&Q type work.

If you both pension age, you should get state pension and pension credit if it's not enough.

As for you - are you claiming PIP for your anxiety?

I have an issue with people with anxiety trying to claim pip - when they're sometimes not even giving support to people who have lost limbs!!

Everyone is anxious to a degree. I think filling in a PIP form would bring out anxiety in anyone!! You can't expect the state to fund people who get stressed easily and don't want to work - that's nonsense.

Agree with you 100%

If the anxiety is bad enough to claim PIP then it can be completely debilitating.

in fact, I’ve known people who have lost limbs through trauma and they’ve said that at times the mental health impacts have affected them more than the missing limb.

FFS. Anxiety habit getting stressed easily. What an ignorant comment.

I'm fully better now after having anxiety a few years ago but at the time was absolutely debilitating.