Please wise ones, tell me what you would do in our financial postion? All views welcome.

[WideWebWitch]

We are renting a (nice enough) house. But we don't have a garden and dd's bedroom is a cupboard. We could buy a house soon-ish. BUT If we buy our mortgage will be 40% of our net monthly income, when it's much, much lower atm.

And there's a possibility I will be made redundant at some point. If I am the payoff will probably give us enough to live on for 6 months.

If I'm not made redundant then we can afford to pay this sort of mortgage on current income. My salary contributes c60% of our income.

Best case is that I'm made redundant AND get another job.

Worst case is that I'm made redundant and don't get another job for a while. I'm a bit nervous of this as I spent 8 months out of work before taking this job.

So, never mind house prices, we'd like another bedroom, another bathroom, a garden and to paint dd's room pink.

Would you buy in our circumstances? Or wait to see what happens with jobs?

One of the things that worries me is that atm if I wanted to tell my employer to stick it (always a possibility when you're a stroppy mare like me, I'd go contracting if I did this) then I won't be able to given a larger monthly payment to keep a roof over our heads. So I guess the larger committment scares me a bit.

All views welcome, sorry this is so long.

40% is a lot but not uncommon atm I believe. Have you factored in what you would do for interest rate rises?

I would say buy now. You will get another job, there are always jobs for PMs (I am looking for a systems one if you are interested?!) If you go contracting it will be more difficult to get a mortgage and you will not have the choice of rates that you get when you are employed. That would be a big concern for me.

Basically I would think sod house prices, we need a home that suits us and that one day we will own outright. FWIW when we bought our first house in 1998 lots of our friends scoffed and said we were mad and that it was the top of the market We said we didn't care we just wanted our own house that we could do what we wanted with!

In your position I would look for a house. If you find the right one then the other concerns won't matter and if they still do then it obviously isn't the Right House.

Hmm.

I think I'd buy.

In fact, if I were ever in a position to buy, I'd do it.

I would buy now. Things are never guaranteed at work anyway,no jobs for life any more.
I would buy now and then go hell for leather to get the mortgage paid off early or at least clear a chunk of it
Good luck

yes, I agree with cd - you have to do what is right for your current situation and if you're in the position where you can get/need a house now, then it's worth looking.

There's no crystal ball when it comes to jobs but I would say your fear about suddenly becoming a stroppy mare and thinking you'll tell them to stick it is a VERY common anxiety feeling when making a major purchase like this!

When you say 40% of net monthly income, do you mean before or after essential bills (council tax, insurance, car etc.)?

Mortgage would be 40% of net salary BEFORE anything else is paid at all. Atm all direct debits for all bills are the same as dh's salary. Then my salary pays rent and er, frittering.

Also it depends on your other outgoings. Do you have big childcare costs? For eg our mortgage payments are about not a huge percentage of our income but we pay a lot on childcare

Oh and yesterday felt v v v stroppy at work and seriously wanted to tell them to stick it. Dh talked me down.

Childcare costs are big but dd goes to school next Sept at latest, Jan potentially earliest. Which frees up another £243 which is deducted from my salary at source, so gross, then another £400 odd from our account. Plus we have a loan ending in Dec, £160 a month. Hmm.

WWW can I just say I have just done a search on what you do and I am seriously looking for someone like you!

email me! countessdrac at gmail dot com

(if you want to work in London)

oh and just exactly HOW stroppy are you

Do you think that if you had a mortgage then you might be less likely to throw a strop and walk out of your job? And if you were to be made redundant, could you do the contracting until something else comes along?

In all honesty I would go for it. The longer you leave it, the more expensive a house will be. If you think you can manage on the remaining 60% then definitely go ahead. There is always the option of redundancy insurance too, or choosing a mortgage which will allow payment breaks.

Cd, seriously don't tihnk I'm right type of pm CD, am much less qualified than you, honest! I will email you though! I

you are
I need someone with finance exp

i am totally UN qualified btw

less frittering and better house can = happy family all round, particularly if you love the house. we are just about to take an enormasly sacrey mortgage and i work as a contractor so no guarentee of work all year but i love the house so much will gladly give up my mini boden habit etc for it, though am making the most of last few weeks of spending

Frittering ! Dont fritter away your chance to own your own home. Tighten your belts now and buy the house and in a few years time you will be able to fritter for the rest of your life without having to fret about the roof over your heads.

Oh god, redundancy insurance is GOOD IDEA, my boss has just taken it out knowing it's a pos for her, although she hasn't officially been told anythign so as long as her boss doesn't tell her anything for 60 days then it's fine!

An example of frittering, I have my analysis of last 3 months bank ac here,

£3k to grocry (i.e. £1k a month
£950 on PRESENTS ffs!
£750 on eatibng out/take aways
£1.7k cash, god knows what that was spent on, not the faintest!

just check how expensive it is (and the terms etc.) - we tried to take it out once for dh and were laughed off the phone. In some cases, it's more financially prudent to put a small % of your salary aside than it is to pay for the redundancy insurance (but then again, dh is a journalist and insurance companies hate them ).

Our mortgage is slightly less than 40% of our net income and it's manageable (and we have London living costs which I imagine are higher than yours) but you do have to watch the pennies.

your spending looks just like mine , where oh where does it go

Start being a bit more of a skinflint and you will have this mortgage paid off in no time!

Message withdrawn

CD, am v stroppy but effective. and professional. And as a contractor almost prefer it, am paid to do job and do it well and not get involved in the crappy politics.

As an aside, someone who works for me said yesterday "grrr, I want to reply to this email saying DON'T BE SO FKING RUDE TO ME but I can't, can I?" I said ooh, we've got a meeting with that bitch next week, tell her we'll discsus it then. Sign off with "See you next Tuesday"

So she did geddit? Oh how we laughed!

yes you sound like me

well email me now then!
Are you looking for perm or contract?