Does spending 70% on household costs seem too much for a move?

[Stad86]

I’m going to move to a new house which is going to be a lot better for the family as it will be safer for the kids to play out as we currently live on a busy road as well as being a much nicer house which we can enjoy for many years to come. It would also mean the kids can walk to school and see there freinds which will be good as we are currently isolated.

iv always been a saver which is now causing me some issues getting away from that mindset

i read online a lot about the 50/30/20 way of allocating your income but this house would put me at 70% of income into the property bills , food, car insurance and bills and other fixed costs of home ownership including transport.

The remaining 30% is £1650 a month and where I’m struggling is that £1650 seems fine but 30% seems like a low number.

We holiday in a touring caravan which is fairly inexpensive and we don’t have any expensive habits so we are pretty frugal.

we don’t have any other debt or finance other than the mortgage which may help with any advice

any advice would be welcome, has anyone stressed over similar things?

That doesn’t sound too bad. I do think that 500 savings isn’t the best though. Will your dw be going back to work at some point? 3 dc and one approaching uni (possibly) it might be needed.

She might look at getting a small job during the day to allow school drop offs and pickups but it wouldn’t be any thing to significant if she did.

Id like to add more into savings each month and anything left over will go directly into it to top up what we already have

I think you already sound far better off than most people. We made a couple mistakes when buying a larger house - not considering the extra maintenance costs and not thinking about how to manage our mortgage doubling when interest rates burst. The one thing that would make me very anxious is being a single income household nowadays, it’s much more risky than it used to be.

However your kids are older so there are options for your wife to work if needed, and being able to walk to friends and play out is a huge benefit. Personally id go for it but cut back on everything you can to bump up your cushion for a while just in case since you only have one income coming in.

If your wife isn't working, have you considered starting a private pension for her? That would help protect her future much more.

It would also be more tax efficient than having to pay tax on the interest of accounts not in ISAs (which I'm assuming may be applicable to you?).

I had a session with a financial advisor a while ago and he made me list all income, all expenditure (including things it had never even occurred to me that I pay money for!) and future expenditure eg in early retirement and old age. It was really useful to see it all written down.

Seems fine and I’m in a household where money and how it works has been at the forefront of our minds since we got together. I could tell you all our incomings and outgoings since we got together in 1997, meticulous records.

As sole breadwinner what’s the policy like for your income protection and do you have any death in service benefits? Plus what a household with a PlayStation and an Xbox, who’s the PlayStation player? I hope they are given grief by the Xbox player.

Second car is a luxury, assume it’s needed for drop offs to school, that is a cost that could always be cut when you move. We could afford two cars and still can but I chose to give mine to DS when I retired early as I could manage without and if I really needed one I just dropped DH at work.

For us, I decided it wasn't worth it. We have about 200-300 of one-off expenditure every month. They are non-fun semi-optional things like dentist bills, car repairs, friend's wedding, parts for the cooker, replacement pan. After food, that leaves almost nothing left to pay for holidays or saving on 1600 (I'm in an expensive area). We could let the house, teeth and friendships crumble, but it's not a good investment! We decided to stay in the smaller house and keep more of a buffer.

That really good and I’m please to hear a success story

Scary times ahead

Hi

The Xbox/playstation argument is real in our house but the Xbox seems to be ruling at the moment

the second car is my toy and isn’t required at all so that could be sold if things got tight and would free up around £25,000 plus reduce instance etc , with the kids age my wife could also go back to work so I suppose we are currently at worst case scenario and we could improve things.

if I was to pass away my wife would have the house paid off and also take the shares in my company which would be then purchased by the other shareholders at the market value. A paid off house and also well invested money from my shares sale should give her a comfterble life I would think

Tbh your in a very secure financial position. Would you as a couple have enough money if you got sick and were unable to work?
I grew up poor always worry about poverty.

Hi

Yes we would about 18 months from savings

With income protection and my wife getting a job we would be ok

we could always downsize if required as well

i worry about the buisness failing and ruining everything , it’s a horrible feeling

Yes i get it.

do you have term life insurance it is much much cheaper than whole life insurance?most people take it until either mortgage ends or youngest child is financially independent or capable of being so about 21 so as youngest is 6 about 15 years, you should have life insurance for your wife too so you could pay someone to do what SAHM does, not just childcare but housework and planning

If it will not cause you stress, then go for it.