What’s the most you’d comfortably spend on mortgage...

[planforeverything]

I know this is all relative as spending 1/3 of your income on a mortgage when you earn £2k a month is tight as the quantum amount you’re left with isn’t much but out of curiosity, what’s the most per month you’d spend on your mortgage?

I take home £4200 after tax. DH is £4800 after tax so £9000 per month.

We have no children and won’t within next 3 years (and possibly not in next 5), no debt and spend about £1k per month on non household bills.

My friends aren’t in London so even my £2500 per month mortgage now terrifies them. I’ve found a really dreamy house and we were going to wait until next December to move to save more equity but I’m considering ‘gearing up’

Mortgage would be £3750 per month - is it too much?

You could always take a much longer term and reduce the repayments, and then overpay each month. That would give you the flexibility and have something to fall back and revert to if you had a problem. Just check the small print if penalties for overpayments apply on your mortgage scheme. Everything you overpay will reduce the balance and the term.

£9,000 a month after tax is in the top 1% household income in the UK.

Your situation is so unique (you may not feel like it) that very few people actually know what it is like, let along giving advice.

In your shoes, I would advise maybe pay £500 to £1,000 to get a professional independent financial adviser to look through your finance and short/long term risks properly.

My concern is house prices in london and the recent changes to the market. Also, stamp duty is ridiculous. Let’s say it’s £40-50k for this place, plus moving costs- that’s a lot to spend if you are thinking you will leave in 5 years anyway

Thank you Dexiemidnight and shiningstar2. The prices are ridiculous and houses are selling so there is absolutely people out there who have a higher mortgage than that but you never fully know circumstances. We passed on the opportunity to buy a house on our street a few months back at a tiny bit of a discount and then they ended up selling it for £80k more than what we could have bought for.

Bouchie - it may sound like a wonderful situation but I work 8am to very late in to the evenings and usually most weekends, am at the mercy that when someone says cancel plans with your family that you’ve had booked for 3 months I have to and I very rarely see my DH as his job he works away most days. I promise it’s not the best life you’d expect for that amount of income!

Similar incomes as yours and we are thinking of upsizing which would mean mortgage of similar amount as you mentioned and we have kids too. Our jobs aren't as busy though and we are much older than you so sort of settled in life and know that we wouldn't move and no way ever separate. I am more concerned about Brexit and what will happen to the market than income to mortgage ratio. At your age, it might be better if you have more flexibility. What if you do get pregnant. Will you have good maternity pay, can you manage your job with baby in childcare. It depends so much on how your life is than just numbers.

The OP asked for opinions on the mortgage risk, not bitter opinions on her level of income which she has, no doubt, worked very hard to achieve.

OP if your jobs are very secure I would go for it. You are very young and in a position to buy an asset now that will only increase in value (London).

And, in any case, if one of you did lose your jobs, you still have the other income and could either sell and rent or come to an arrangement with the mortgage company for reduced payments for a while/mortgage holiday

Good luck

For me, yes it’s too much. We took on a similar mortgage and took home more than you and your partner did. One failed business later and we were deeply in the shits. We went through 7 years of hell and a lot of it was related to trying to meet that mortgage payment (couldn’t sell, firstly as was in a fixed rate with a huge redemption then because the market wasn’t poor)

For me a smaller mortgage represents freedom. You’ll always be a slave to that mortgages

Our mortgage is 30% of our joint monthly salary, feels massive!

Yes it is fine for just the two of you.

I’d be cautious if I were you, OP. A decade ago DH and I were in a similar boat to you and yours income wise, but with a smaller mortgage due to DH buying before the boom. I got very ill and had to stop working, and I haven’t gone back because I still struggle with my health. We were still able to manage on DH’s salary, very comfortably, but this was helped by the mortgage being around 15% of what he earned - massively helped by low interest rates.

He was made redundant and worked 7 months in 2 years. The high salary, high level jobs are few and far between at the moment and a lot of what is out there is fixed term contracts rather than permanent employment. We’ve just about pulled through intact, but it’s been hard. And if we’d had a mortgage 3 times the cost we’d have been fucked.

At your young age a mortgage shouldn’t be comfortable. You should also be throwing overpayments at it so by your mid 30’s you’ll be sitting smug with enough wriggle room to remortgage to a lower monthly payment.

It’s an old fashioned view I know, but it works.

Someone always comes in with the "worked very hard to achieve - earned it - deserves it" argument.

Overall, people do not earn significantly more simply because they work harder, and people do not earn significantly less simply because they work less hard. Look around you. It's glaringly obvious.

I’d go for a mortgage sustainable on one salary too. Is this going to be a really long mortgage? For less than 10 years I’d probably risk it, but not for a longer one.

@Squarepeg29 it's what has worked over the past few decades, but nobody knows if that will work now given Brexit uncertainty etc.

From your updates and seeing what long hours you work (and that the lifestyle isn't all that) I would think very carefully about a mortgage of this size.

@wotsittoyou I totally agree! Saying high salaries are due to working hard(er) and being (more) deserving implies the belief that those on low incomes deserve to be poor - they would be rich if they had tried harder. Absolute BS!

Thanks for all the comments re: mortgage. I really appreciate them as it’s a lot to think about. Brexit is a tricky one - I think if prices fall we could buy lower however that would also assume our property would fall in value too, which if our equity goes down substantially we won’t be in a position to move. Neighbour has just put Flat on the market so I’m going to watch and wait and see what happens.

Re: income - Jesus Christ, we all haven’t inherited or sat on our arse and I am NOT ashamed to say I’ve worked hard to get to where I am. I’m from an extremely low income family, lower than what those who are posting about my income would consider low, my non-house related bills are me paying money back to my parents to make their life better, I’ve had a job since I was 15, my parents had no money for extra curricular activities so I spent all my time learning through boredom, got a first at uni with no financial support on tuition fees, passed the hardest professional qualification out there and now I work hard. I’m not saying people are poor because they don’t work hard - my parents worked very hard. But did this money land on my plate whilst I sat with my feet up? No.

No further comments on income, just mortgage risk please. I feel guilty for posting now :(

I'm from a similar background, OP, and think this is an important consideration . For me, that level of debt would be too much risk - I'd be scared of being out on my arse (with no family to swoop in and bail me out) if things went wrong.

If you are paying 2500 mortgage for an apartment, my guess is it is somewhere central in city. Do think about long term for the house in that area. Will it work when you have children, in case you can't move because house got stuck/lower in price after you have paid 40-50k in stamp duty etc.

Wotsittoyou - it isn't an 'argument' it is simply fact in many cases (as in this case).

Yes not everyone that has a good income has earned it, some have inherited etc. But that doesn't apply to everyone. And vice versa with regards to low incomes. Some people work really hard for low incomes, some people sit on their arses all day scrounging off the rest of us.

But we shouldn't judge a situation without knowing the full facts (in fact, we shouldn't judge it whatever the facts are, full stop!).

The OP came on asking for advice on mortgage risk, why do some people have to then make comments on her level of earnings?

We all have different obstacles in life, eg the OP has given us some very personal info that it is unlikely she will be able to have children. Is she then making bitter comments about people that are so lucky to have them (and indeed haven't 'worked' to be able to have children, and in many cases don't 'deserve' to have them).

I was simply making the point that why can't we just stick to the question the OP has asked, rather than making snide comments about her personal circumstances?

OP - I appreciate why you have put your last post but PLEASE don't feel you owe anyone an explanation for your life. And don't feel guilty for posting

OP, anyone with a healthy income has their arse handed on a plate on MN. You’re not alone. I earn more than your household income, I don’t ask for financial advice on here due to the the catty comments. There’s no need to apologise or feel guilty for being well-off.

I think it sounds fine. Make sure you don’t completely drain your savings to buy and always save a good emergency fund and you’ll be fine.

With your jobs, I’d presume that you don’t intend on working that hard for too long so it’s good to get a good asset.

I’d be cautious with brexit too though, it’d put me off buying at the moment

Well you’re still left with way more to live on after the mortgage payment than many families have to live on for several months and pay for everything out of so I’d not worry too much.

£4K a month take home 😬 sometimes I wonder where I’ve gone wrong slogging my guts out to qualify and work in a “proper” profession to not even earn a fraction of that

I think posters are being really unfair going on about income here. OPs salary comes out at about £75-80k- she’s hardly phillip green! I would say around 50% of my friends earn this or more, it’s quite standard in a profession. Why does she have to pretend she’s some kind of super slogger for it?

I agree Capri.

Mumsnet is generally a brilliantly helpful place. But unfortunately it also provides a platform for people to vent their jealousy and bitterness. People are so brave on a keyboard, probably wouldn't say half the stuff face to face that they do on a keyboard.

Bakedbeans - you probably haven't gone wrong anywhere. Presumably you have chosen your profession as that is the profession you wanted to go into. You probably also went into that profession with knowledge of what the earning potential was. If earning lots more money was what was important to you then why didn't you chose a profession that paid you more? All your choices