Maxing our budget on family house now, to plan to downsize at 60?

[user1471549018]

We will be looking to move within 2-5 years to our 'long term family home'. Currently we have a small mortgage, but we're thinking of buying as much as we can afford, with a view to downsizing to release equity at 60. This would (part) fund our early retirement (we also have pensions and savings), and also potentially allow us to gift the DC deposits for their first homes. The benefits of this plan imo is it allows us to also enjoy a fab home while forcing us to 'save' every month ie pay the mortgage. Are there any negatives we should consider? Has anyone done this? Or planned to and changed their mind?

Watching this with interest as this is what I am thinking of doing at the moment. Pensions are flat and downsizing to release equity for retirement seems to be the only thing I/we will have to fall back on.

The negative I have nagging at the back of my mind is - what happens if one of us loses our job and we can't get another at the same pay point. How do we service the mortgage? I'm not so worried about increased interest rates or negative equity as prices haven't dropped In our town/borough ever, even in 2008/9.

How old will the DC be when you are 60? The age adults can afford to move out to buy themselves is every increasing...

Eldest will be 30. Hmmm I hadn't considered the age range between DC and being 'fair'- good point for consideration...

That's what we are doing. We've just maxed out our mortgage to enable us to get our house exactly as we want it. We plan to live here for the next 15 years or so and may or may not still have a mortgage. We will then downsize and free up the cash. It's the best use of our money given current interest rates. Caveat is that we already have over 50% equity before we even start our work and anticipate that going to over 70% on completion of the work. This is in an expensive part of the country so worst case scenario is to sell and still be able to buy outright. It makes sense if you're prepared to take a risk.