Would you rather be Cash Rich and House Poor? Or House Rich and Cash Poor?

[rootsandwings89]

What’s more important to you? Is a big family home worth it if it eats up most of your income?

Or do you prefer to have more disposable income to enjoy holidays etc. but have a smaller home?

We are currently trying to weigh up our next house move …

I think it was the right choice for us - I love being at home. It’s probably a negative in a way as I’m not as motivated to get out and about.

We are childfree by choice, so we don’t need a big house or the costs which come with it. We live in a compact 3 bedroom barn conversion in a naice village in the midlands. We could have had a much larger 4 bedroom detached on a suburban estate for the same budget, but this hits us much better.

I’d rather have a small home and have money to live a life.

House rich and cash rich please. Why would I want to have no money or a rubbish house?

Cash rich house poor 100%

House every time. Eventually it becomes easier. You do have the option to downsize later.

We stayed in a smaller house than we could afford to have the extra cash. We have multiple fabulous holidays with our children each year that we could not afford if we moved to a larger home. Our children have a bedroom each so it’s fine for us, I’d love an ensuite and utility room but prefer my holidays more!

Cash rich and house poor because then I cpuld throw money at doing up the house, or move.

I’ve been on both sides. Cash rich and house poor in my 20s and house rich and cash poor in my 30s and I’d much prefer to be house rich and cash poor.

The thing is when your kids leave you have a house that’s too big. So in our case lots of empty rooms in our mid-50s.

True, though I'm planning a small library at some point with a huge chair, a fire, a puzzle table and shelves and shelves of books...

We have the big house and less disposable income. Best decision we made. We love it. So much space and a fab garden. We still get a holiday most years, still eat out occasionally, and aren’t right at the edge of manageable.

We’re realistic that if our circumstances changed we would need to downsize and aren’t frightened of that so we’ll love it and live in it until we can’t then move to the next adventure.

Why can’t you have a big house and disposable income?

I love my house.
Its definitely my happy place and it means I don’t need to spend money escaping it.
Do definitely house rich, cash poor.

I would always have said house rich but now sure with the what labour are doing to the economy.

We bought a house, that is big, because we wanted the land for our business.
It was 5 bed but only 1 bathroom when we moved in. We altered it to 4 bedrooms.
We have since had a downstairs bathroom and utility room added into a barn attached to what was originally the parlour. This is to future proof it into our old age.

So I guess we are house rich and cash poor but we have never been profligate and have always had enough money to do what we want.

Neither - well both in a way! Decent house and holidays! No extremes. Definitely could have had a more expensive house but we’ve got a pretty decent one. DDs went to private school and we had great holidays. So I’d compromise.

Neither. If I were cash rich I’d invest until I was able to be house rich. If I were house rich I’d have to either downgrade or save to invest.

Being both is much more ideal

Depends on what you have, or mean by 'larger home'.

I wanted my dc to have their own bedrooms.
I wanted a downstairs toilet.
I wanted a garden big enough for them to play in.
I wanted parking.
I would really have liked detached.

Those things were more important to me than buying new clothes, or cars, or lots of consumables, iPhones etc. I didn't want a pet. I like going on holiday but we chose not to spend the £££ some people do. We've always taken my own lunch to work, taken our own water bottles / coffee mugs with us. I've never been bothered about make up or nails or other beauty treatments, so it wasn't a sacrifice, but we weren't spending on them. We've never smoked and aren't big drinkers.

But, OTOH, I have never tried to buy a house just for the sake of 'it being the next stage'. I don't see the point of having rooms I wouldn't use, or additional land I'd just have to maintain.

We choose the small house and I have no regrets. It would be lovely to have more space but not at the cost of sacrificing other things.

The cost of living has sky rocketed since we bought our house and if we'd gone for something more expensive we'd really be struggling now.

I’ll always pick the house. We moved country so we could buy a big house. All of our children have their own bedroom and there’s several spare for guests. We could never, ever have achieved this in England.

The best decision we made financially was not to move up the housing ladder. We are in a very nice home. Would we like something fancier? Sure. What we have though is great and the savings we have by staying here are life changing.

@Ponderingwindow Life changing for whom? Do you enjoy counting your money? Are you expecting a rainy day? I have huge savings but unless you spend them, they don’t change your life.

We have a 4 bedroom semi in a nice location. 2 children. We had the option a few years ago to move and upsize but we decided to stay put and got an extension.

We are glad we did as our mortgage then increased by £500 a month when we renewed and with the COL, everything including house maintenance and bills are ever increasing.

Would I like a bigger house? Of course, but we prioritise holidays, investing and working towards an early retirement which are more important to us.

As long as my house is big enough and not struggling to fit what I need, then definitely cash rich.

I spend all of my money on holidays, and even though I could/should have upgraded to a bigger home when my husband and I had a couple of good years that doubled our wage, I decided that I would rather have several holidays a year and stay where I was than put all of the extra money into a house.