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.

got it!
have replied

Good, WWW.

I look forward to seeing the photos.

Stop spending fahsands in Waitrose

When dh was saving for his first flat he found it easier to be paid directly into his savings account, and then withdraw a certain amount to live on for the month - rather than having the whole amount tempting him in his current account. Worked for him, he saved a huge deposit pretty quickly. (And he was a good fritterer before then)

I personally would wait till the next financial year to buy. Save as much as you can between now and then and work like buggery to find a new better paid job in Jan. Then be obnoxious so you are the first to get axed from your present job ready to move seamlessly into the new one, pocketing the redundancy money.

I foresee a rise in interest rates in November coupled with an early election in 2008.

Buy - and get www.hrbs.co.uk/index4.htm this mortgage from Hinkley and Rugby - we have just remortgaged with them and they are brilliant - all the features of an offset (you can pay interest only to minimise your outgoings, and have a seperate savings account that you can access money from any time, but any balance left in it earns interest at the same rate as you pay on your mortgage) and for an offset it's an incredibly competitive rate.

I wouldn't buy before next spring as prices are beginning to falter and interests rates have a couple more rises it seems.You will be in a good position though if you are in rented so wait and try to get a good deal.

Thanks for these new posts!

We're seeing a house tomorrow, it's not ideal but it's a start. And I did a fab spreadsheet today showing cash out of our bank ac over tgge last 3 months and with columns showing OLD WAY OF LIFE and NEW WAY OF LIFE, with the difference in weekly and monthly figures and calculations to work out what cumulative savings over the next six months. Which are enough to pay the stamp duty

Whomoved, it prob will end up being next fin year, so April before we are ready to move. Unless we see house of dreams before then.

as someone else said, pay off as much mortgage as poss as soon as poss. get a flexible mortgage if poss. if you lose your job you can then say - we have overpaid, 7 are good customers, give us a 6 month mortgage holiday, or reduction.
if housing market & everything crashes, it is better ofr a bank to have you paying them some money, even if only just covering the interest, than to have an empty house & no way of selling it.

Sounds like you've a new project to manage [hazy knowledge of project management]

Good luck with it - looking forward to fraught posts re bastard estate agents and blissful posts re candy floss paint

lol@hunkermunker's predictions for you.

WWW, I think you are doing the right thing by looking round now and thinking of buying. At the very worst, if you buy, you lose your job and it takes 8 months to get another, you can miss or reduce a few mortage payments. It won't be good for your credit rating but AFAIK you won't lose your home that quickly.

Redundancy insurance is a really good idea. It has saved us twice in the past in a big way.

But you must look into it carefully and possibly act quickly. If there is anything tangible about you personally facing redundancy you many not be able to take out the insurance. I took out redundancy insurance after the boss had a general talk at work to all of us, telling us that redundancies in some teams were possible. I could still take out insurance on that basis, and when I was made redundant six months later, got a payout with no problems. But had I waited till I was persomally undergoing the redunduncy process it would have been too late to take out the insurance. From what you've said, it looks like you'd be fine - the possibility of redundancy is just in the air, not on paper.

I think the spring sounds a good time to buy as I agree with Noddyholder that another interest rate rise is on the cards,the previous ones are beginning to bite and the level of personal debt there is unfortuntely going to be some financial pain around . I think your money will go further in the spring, so if you get your stamp duty etc saved up that will work really well for you, good luck.

Thank you
I have actually been told it's unlikely re redundancy but will take it out anyway.

Sorry to be blunt but if you cant commit to your job (said you might walk out ? ) then should you commit to a mortgage ?

fakeblonde, even if I walk out I should be able to get a contract paying enough to cover the mortgage.

But I take your point. However, the fact remains, that stroppy or not, I do have to work and so will prob not walk out.

Just thought I'd update this, found it while searching for something else.

We've considerably tightened our bets and saved thousands already
We didn't find anything we wanted, just as well as
I AM having a strop and am prob leaving my job next week
BUT have contract lined up which will pay much more and will allow us to save thousands/stockpile cash over next 6 months
Also have various other perm job possibilities on the go so intend to get perm job again next yr so am mortgage worthy again
AM jittery about house prices so glad we're waiting