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Original poster

mortgage-free, or house of your dreams?

112 replies

Squiffy · 04/02/2008 17:36

So we are in the really really fortunate position of being able to downsize enough to be mortgage free and still live in a reasonable house, which seems like a really cool deal to me, so I enthusiatically clicked through some property details on the internet and found some nice stuff.

And then I saw it. The house I dreamed of living in when I was a snotty-nosed kid and hanging round outside where the bus stop was, nose pressed up against the railings.

And it is on the market and just at the upper limit of what I can afford to buy if we sold our current house. But i will end up with a slghtly bigger mortgage than I have now so will have to kiss goodbye the vision of having a choice about whether or not I haul my ass into work every day (although would probably still work anyway).

So what do I do? The house of my dreams, or the mortgage free idyll? I'm in my 40's so it's now or never in terms of being able to do it. Please let me have your honest opinions...

OP posts:

tiredemma · 04/02/2008 20:21

I would love to be able to have my dream house.

I would also love to be mortgage free.

The chances of either of these happening are pretty remote!

StressTeddy · 04/02/2008 20:24

I'm afraid at your age I would opt for the house of my dreams
ALthough you may be terribly disappointed when you go in
If you're not....then you'll know it's the right thing to do

NewYearNewStart · 04/02/2008 20:28

I guess for me it would depend how big the mortgage was. There's no point having your dream house if you have to work all the hours you can to live in it.

NomDePlume · 04/02/2008 20:32

House

tiredemma · 04/02/2008 20:35

Didnt you buy a lovely house fairly recently Nom? IIRC- it was a lovely house.

NomDePlume · 04/02/2008 20:42

2 years ago now, TE

NomDePlume · 04/02/2008 20:42

Emma, that's prob why my answer was 'house', our mortgage is heinous.

Niecie · 04/02/2008 20:44

Quattro - as a voter for 'buy the dream house' we don't have high net worth and we don't have public sector jobs. In fact DH is starting his own business had is currently earning a fraction of what he used to and I don't currently earn anything at all. We have a big mortgage as well.

However, I would rather have a nice house to live in than not. We don't have great pensions so the plan is to have a lovely family home whilst the children are growing up and then a smaller house when they have left home, hopefully releasing lots of equity to live on in our dotage! Still working on the dream home though.

Those of you who are voting mortgage free, what would you do with the extra money?

tiredemma · 04/02/2008 20:45

Gosh - two years? that has flown!

Lovely house though.

Dp wants to get a 'heinous' mortgage so we can get some extra space. Im erring on the side of caution at the mo...but would love a dream house.

NomDePlume · 04/02/2008 20:49

Space is such a luxury.

MrsRecycle · 04/02/2008 20:51

Oh Squiffy - I'm in this situation at the moment. Am really not sure what to do, can carry on working and afford a dream house in a beautiful location....or give up my stressful work, be mortgage free in a not so nicer area....

tiredemma · 04/02/2008 20:55

Space certainly is a luxury when you have to keep household stuff in the shed!

One day we will have the space. May just have to sell a kidney though to get it!

NomDePlume · 04/02/2008 20:56

Kidney Schmidney, plenty of people live with 1, don't they ?!

Quattrocento · 04/02/2008 20:57

Niecie

Are you in your forties, though? Because it seems such a gamble to be doing this without either job security or the security of youth?

PaulaYatesbiggestFan · 04/02/2008 20:58

home is crucial to my idea of a happy family
we have a dreadfully large mortgage comparable to what we earn and our house needs a lot of work but it is a great house and hopefully many family memories will be forged here
we are 40 self employed and can ill afford the hideous monthly payments - but this situation will hopefull not last and at the end of the day 25 (gulp) years from now we will own a fabulous home for grandchildren to visit

jura · 04/02/2008 21:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Niecie · 04/02/2008 22:32

Sadly I am in my 40's (I'm 41, DH is 43).

Mind you I am not suggesting we do it at the moment just that, if I were in Squiffy's position, which seems more stable than my own, then I would do it.

I do reckon we have one more move up the ladder in us though. Just a question of when. I think DH and I take the view if it doesn't work out we can always sell the house and downsize. We have got to the point that we have enough equity that we can buy a very small 2 bed house outright which is all the security I need - I won't be homeless even if we had not earnings at all.

Some people are more risk averse than others. We are not 'put all your money in the stock market and make a killing' types but at the same time, we don't leave what little we have sitting in the bank waiting for a rainy day. Neither approach is right or wrong, just what you are comfortable with.

My only proviso for Squiffy is that she should only do it if she could still afford the mortgage repayments even if the interest rates went up a couple of percent.

Niecie · 04/02/2008 22:35

It is also a question of what you want out of life. We don't really have an extravagant lifestyle, we don't yearn for exotic holidays, designer clothes or expensive meals out so what would we do with more disposable income? Its all very well have a nice holiday for 4 weeks a year but I think I personally prefer to live in a nice house for the other 48 weeks of the year. But that is just me - a bit of a home body, and not a little bit boring.

PaulaYatesbiggestFan · 04/02/2008 22:36

bloody hell you cannot do that to a house obsessed woman.........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

jasper · 04/02/2008 23:28

I did exactly this a year ago.

Took on stonking hugest mortgage in the world at a time in my life I should have been approaching a tiny mortgage.

All to buy the house of my dreams I have lusted after for years and years.

I LOVE it.

sunnylabsmum · 05/02/2008 07:10

Got mortgage free through a combination of loads of saving hard and a financial settlement and have been like this for 3 yrs. Lovely not having to think of mortgage payments and think do I want to do this job or do I have to do this job is lovely. We are able to spend loads of time with DD which is especially precious. After years of saving every penny to buy house and pay morgage we now find that we don't know what to spend the spare money on!! However, now thinking of remortgaging to buy our dream home and continue to rent old house out as an investment.It rented as we are overseas for 2 yrs- another life choice thing I suppose! Part of me is wary of having another morgage but the other house has so much more potential. Am playing the waiting game for prices to come down a bit, as I reckon in 6 mths they will be cheaper....hey but what do I know???!!

Heifer · 05/02/2008 08:13

6 months ago I would have said go mortgage free...

That was our plan.. We had been there before, but got another mortgage a few years ago to buy a house to do up and sell at a profit.. It was a lovely house (in a crap town mine) but I had my dream kitchen.... but mortgage free is a good place to be...

So I stopped looking at the lovely houses that we could afford with our existing mortgage and looked around for 1 that we could afford with no mortgage.

Found a nice one, much smaller than our previous house but lovely location and hell I thought we will be mortgage free and be able to afford to DO things so well worth it..

BUT although we sold our house immediately in the summer, the house at the bottom of our chain kept falling through.. so we couldn't go anywhere and risked losing our new house.

DH got a new job away (near to new house) and had to start so he was working away from home all week, and we were no nearer to actually being able to move.

So we ended up buying the house at the bottom of the chain also to rent out (excellent rental property). And although we have rented it out no problem and do get double rent v mortgage, we are now living in a much smaller house, and have no more spare cash each month than before...

And to top it all I have to walk past 3 houses that I really liked each day and wish I had bought that one (although I guess we still wouldn't have been able to move until we resold our previous one)..

So after all this waffle by advice would be go for the dream house, you only live once and you may well regret it forever after....

Page62 · 05/02/2008 08:47

Squiffy,

Send me the link too!!!!
I haven't seen it yet, but knowing myself, i would go for the dream house. Especially if it's the one you can imagine growing old in with you grandchildren coming to stay etc etc.
But then again, i am also a shallow, materialistic woman. Which given i am an unashamed capitalist, is probably ok

noddyholder · 05/02/2008 09:07

I think those who are saying house of your dreams are definitely in a situation where they can have the house and the life.We couldn't as we would be so skint if I sought out a dream house.

Heifer · 05/02/2008 09:21

When I said go for the house of your dreams I am assuming that it is one you can actually afford! that usually means not upping your existing mortgage... or not my much if you really have to...

Hell the house of my dreams wouldn't even let me in the door to view...

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