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.

i NEED another stroppy woman
is full of wet men

I would buy. Maybe get something like an offset flexible mortgage. That way as soon as you get your salaries paid into the bank account attached to the mortgage, they reduce the interest. Even if you spend your entire salaries every month, it will still help as you can get the interest calculated on a daily basis. Also, it means that on the occasion that you have surplus money, it will reduce the interest even if you don't pay it off the actual mortgage. Also this type of mortgage allows you to take a payment holiday if you get in a mess.

As well, I would buy a property that will sell again easily, should you need to sell it for whatever reason.

And with the job - bite your tongue and get your payback in another way (even if you have to wait a long time to do it!).

You can take out insurance against being made redundant I believe, although I know nothing about this. It also may be very expensive, so not worth it.

Where I work is full of men with penises but no balls. As my (female) boss is fond of saying. OK will email you CD!

Foreign students that Pruners suggested also an excellent idea. My godmother did it - she did it where you have the child for a week at a time. Each is very short term, so even if you get one you don't like, it's still fine! The kids she had were about 12 or 13 years old.

£950 on presents? Can I be your new best friend please
I vote for buying. Do you just have one dd? For a family of three, if that's right, I would live without the spare bedroom and extra bathroom unless there's some particular reason why that's especially important to you all, and go for a smaller house with a smaller mortgage.
With job uncertainty and mortgage interest rises, I think it would be better to have a smaller mortgage if possible.

Buy.

Get a fixed rate mortgage that you can switch to interest only if you need to.

Quit frittering

Be stroppy to your friends and family et voila! fewer presents to buy.

Seriously, buy.

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We have 2 children so that's a bedroom each and 2 bathrooms (we nee dthem, 2 of us working ft)

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Oh and a spare room if we go for what I want.

Thanks for all of this you lot, you're fab. Dh is risk averse and wants to wait a yr til prices drop. I think sod it I WANT A HOUSE! Mostly. Am ambivalent. Gotta go, dd wants me

You're all fab, thank you.

NOW EMAIL ME FFS [ANGRY] [WINK]

I would buy.

Either get redundancy insurance or insure the amount you need to have on a monthly basis to pay the bills (income protection)

Get a low rate fixed rate mortgage. When it finishes switch to another one.

If it goes tit up you can always sell

Message withdrawn

Well, it is a Lotto Rollover tomorrow!

Flats also don't do well in crashes, particularly new builds.

We've been waiting two years in rented for prices to drop, and they haven't. We're now buying...

i would look to buy and then pay intrest only (lock in for two years) morage plus extra just in case of redundancy.

then, save up to come off interest only and find a decent job to cover morgage.

consider that a morage company might not take you on, if only one of you is earning....

This is what we did....

oh pruners i think that maybe my dream house - i shall now spend as much time looking at that website as i do on mumsnet

Oh, sorry, with a school age dd and ds then it's got to be 3 beds.
I would still have 1 bathroom, if it made a difference to property price. I see the quality of life thing more as having lower outgoings, more choice over working hours and feeling less of a wage slave rather than having a bigger property.
But each to their own.

right I have given up on email
I am off to the gym to run off my hangover

Hey CD (sorry to but in IF) - I am a vvv good (and modest ) PM looking for lots more money for fewer hours........anything for me???

Have emailed you cd
There are 2 of us in ft employment atm Casbie

oh weird i don#'t ahve it
did you send to my hotmail? i don't use that now, send to countessdrac at gmail dot com

Waynetta we are looking for f/t really

i think id buy now. banks will get all arsey with you if you have redundancy/job change/contract work in recent past.

any advice from me is practically useless tho as ive never made any grown up financial decisions before. i was a footloose and fancy free bummer arounder and casual worker before i met dp. hes the one whos all financially secure. id be right up shit creek if we broke up!