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 …

This. For me theres a balance.

If "house poor" meant a small terrace, with the kids in little single bedrooms, a small garden, smaller downstairs rooms but in tidy nick & in an ok area - no prob.

If it meant being overcrowded in a tiny flat with mum &dad on a sofa bed in the living room... thats a no.

But then im not that fussed about:

• posh cars or holidays
• expensive beauty regimes
• takeways & meals out
• expensive clothes etc.

Id sacrifice a bigger house to ensure my kids got swimming & music lessons & money for decent food etc.

House rich and cash poor for us, but then again we upsized because a 3 bed with 5 children was too small no matter how organised we were and how big a garden it had. It was never meant to be 7 of us there but house sale falling through last minute meant last baby was almost 1 before we could move. We all love the space we now have and it is absolutely worth it.

No better feeling than owning your house mortgage free! I struggle to understand the need to buy larger houses when they're only for vanity purposes. Particularly now when no job is 100% secure no matter what employers tell their employees. We've never had to worry about increasing mortgage rates and were able to afford great holidays and hobbies for our DD because although we both worked full time, we geared our outgoings to a single lower salary. People need to learn to be comfortable with what they have rather than always wanting to keep up with the neighbours.

We chose to buy a smaller house than we could have afforded, not because we wanted to be cash rich, but because we wanted to be able to protect against "something" happening in the future for peace of mind. If you put all your money into a house, you have very little wiggle room to cope with things that life throws at you.

It depends what you mean by it eating up most of your income. I wouldn’t prioritise a big house if it meant no days out, no foreign holidays and constant stress about money if bills increase etc.

But if I could have small scale holidays (eg a few days abroad or in the UK rather than an expensive all inclusive) and some days out, I’d happily spend a
large chunk of our wages on a nice house. We both WFH and my son is home by 3:45 so we spend more time at home than many people. So we benefit from space for office set ups and a playroom. If we were all out the house 8-6:30, it would be less worth it. And we only have one child so don’t need as much for days out, holidays or general cost of living etc.

The few people we know who retired under 60 have miscalculated. They haven’t got enough money now they are 15 years beyond that. They aren’t doing what they thought they would do. What seemed to be good savings wasn’t that good. Working is better than not having enough money. DH worked part time from 68 and it’s meant we haven’t touched his pensions which have done very well. Our savings portfolio has too and we’ve taken sums out to buy cars as it’s done very well! Holidays too. If we had needed it earlier it would not be the very healthy sum it is today. We haven’t yet downsized either. So plenty in property too!

If savings provide sufficient income to give up work then they do change your life eg dh retired at 53.

Cash rich, house poor - which I suppose I am already.
Its only me and DD, there wouldn't be much point in the two of us rattling around in a big house.
I'm much happier having money in the bank for a rainy day, especially as I dont have a husband/partner to fall back on in case redundancy etc. Plus, we can go on nice holidays, days/meals out, buy clothes when we want/need to, and we can afford good food.

We’re in a similar situation re 300k plus for the next step up

Unfortunately we do need to move, we have 2 DC rapidly heading towards secondary but only in a 2 bed

We may need to become house rich (relatively speaking) cash poor but it’s a very scary prospect looking at interest rates & the state of the economy right now

Somewhere in the middle.

We have been in both situations but in the end opted for the house.

It really depends on how small the house is. We live in a very average sized 4 bed semi detached with a decent garden. My kids all have their own rooms and we have enough space. I’d love a utility room and a big shed for storage but wouldn’t give up holidays for it either.

I'm currently debating this myself. I don't really know what to think. At the moment I have a moderately sized house on a busy road without parking. The next step up wouldn't be that much of a benefit and you're probably talking about 75,000. At then the next step up to get a big benefit would probably be 150 more than my current place. I thought I knew that I wanted to do it but I'm just getting so twitchy about interest rates. I'm busy trying to work out what I can do to optimise the space I've currently got to make the most of it instead of spending all of that money. But I'm also aware that if I invest too much in this house, I will be hitting the ceiling price or maybe already am hitting the ceiling price for a small house on a busy road.

I’ve done both. Owned a £3m
house that gobbled up cash and needed an army of trades to maintain. Struggled to find spare money for travel. Now own a small house and doing heaps of travel, ticking off bucket list trips, time & money for self - way better !

‘House poor’ is an odd idea. A smaller cheaper home doesn’t necessarily mean that. I’m probably moving next year, selling my three bed terrace (worth around £1.25m) for a smaller two bed flat closer in to central London (about £700k). I will free up some funds to help my kids. That doesn’t make me ‘house poor’ though. I’ll have a lovely home in an area I want to live in. Yes it will be smaller but I no longer need the space with one child off in their own and the other at uni and planning on going abroad for a year.
But I have had homes of 3000sq ft down to 1200sq ft with my family and I still didn’t feel poorer for having a smaller cheaper home. I love having space, but the house I have now, half the size of my last home, feels cosier.

\i prefer the cash any time.