Bigger mortgage or travel?

[JohnM]

Please don't take out a bigger mortgage unless the interest rate reflects the true cost of borrowing including house price growth. Overall, 10% would be my expectation.

[Niels]

17 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Crunch time for the Bronco, his filly and foals...... I'm in my 40s with two young kids. House big enough but we have the ability to upgrade.... So do I?

1. Take much bigger mortgage for bigger house/garden. Holidays will be UK or cheap Spain etc.

2. Keep house (which is big enough but small garden and no garage) and take kids travelling each year -e.g. safaris and Australia etc. Probably retire 3/4 years earlier too

Thoughts? 

Anyone in same boat? 

Any oldies who already went one way or t'other? 

 

 

 

I went for holidays which we all enjoyed. However now I could do with a larger house. 

Your first option has potential for you to do both. 

 

[Gerrumonside ref]

Travel and experiences beats bricks and mortar everytime.

[SSoutherner]

Personally given predictions of possible negative interest rates to come and definate bigger taxes on the horizon I would keep current house, live comfortably without spending any extra cash you have, literally put that somewhere safe in a physical means (even if that means taking £500 a month out of the bank as cash) then if the country goes to hell in a handcart, buy physical assets fast with your hard cash and you are protected from both govt tax grabs, loss of income and inflation

 

If it does not you have the cash to buy things/experiences for the children

[bobbruce]

On 20/09/2020 at 07:54, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Crunch time for the Bronco, his filly and foals...... I'm in my 40s with two young kids. House big enough but we have the ability to upgrade.... So do I?

1. Take much bigger mortgage for bigger house/garden. Holidays will be UK or cheap Spain etc.

2. Keep house (which is big enough but small garden and no garage) and take kids travelling each year -e.g. safaris and Australia etc. Probably retire 3/4 years earlier too

Thoughts? 

Anyone in same boat? 

Any oldies who already went one way or t'other? 

 

 

 

We had a mortgage on a terrace with 8/9 years left on it. Payments were low so we could go to nice places on holiday Australia / Mauritius. We had that same discussion on whether to stay or sell up for bigger house and re start a mortgage again. I know everyone’s situation is different but we sold and moved and for us it’s definitely for the best. I think the argument that swung it for us is holidays are a few weeks a year you spend a lot of time in your home. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, bobbruce said:

We had a mortgage on a terrace with 8/9 years left on it. Payments were low so we could go to nice places on holiday Australia / Mauritius. We had that same discussion on whether to stay or sell up for bigger house and re start a mortgage again. I know everyone’s situation is different but we sold and moved and for us it’s definitely for the best. I think the argument that swung it for us is holidays are a few weeks a year you spend a lot of time in your home. 

And that's what a few of my friends have said / done

I guess some of it is that I used to backpack a lot. All over the world in fact. I like the idea of doing an attenuated version of it with the kids while they are still kids. Our house is actually big 'enough' but that pull of more is there 

I would guess if we already in our 'next step' house we would be thinking bigger/better again..... I suspect even some millionaires with mansions have the idea of the 'next step' 

It boils down to having about an extra grand a month or so.... With that we can do some amazing travelling /things as a family all year round potentially 

 

[Robin Evans]

At my age I still want an adventure.....

Its what motivates me. Being travel restricted is killing me. Seriously.... im on a proper downer.

[bobbruce]

1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

And that's what a few of my friends have said / done

I guess some of it is that I used to backpack a lot. All over the world in fact. I like the idea of doing an attenuated version of it with the kids while they are still kids. Our house is actually big 'enough' but that pull of more is there 

I would guess if we already in our 'next step' house we would be thinking bigger/better again..... I suspect even some millionaires with mansions have the idea of the 'next step' 

It boils down to having about an extra grand a month or so.... With that we can do some amazing travelling /things as a family all year round potentially 

 

I think you are probably answering your own question. In the end each individual/family have to do what suits them. I think we made a good choice with the house we bought. It needed a lot of work which wasn’t actually something we considered at the time. Due to that we’re in a good position with the equity which makes the higher mortgage less scary. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

55 minutes ago, bobbruce said:

I think you are probably answering your own question. In the end each individual/family have to do what suits them. I think we made a good choice with the house we bought. It needed a lot of work which wasn’t actually something we considered at the time. Due to that we’re in a good position with the equity which makes the higher mortgage less scary. 

Yes I think I more or less if have made up my mind on choosing the travel. However its been very interesting getting peoples views on this!

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, Robin Evans said:

At my age I still want an adventure.....

Try Luton at 10.30 on a Saturday night.... Thrills, spills and all the fun of the fair! 

On a serious note I understand where you are coming from.... My worry is now that we are just getting in a place we might be able to travel with the kids we now can't due to restrictions 

It's a cliche but there really is loads in the UK to discover for now.......e.g. Barnard Castle

[Bob8]

4 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Yes I think I more or less if have made up my mind on choosing the travel. However its been very interesting getting peoples views on this!

To be fair, if you were genuinely going to do as strangers on the internet advise, I would be far more worried about you!

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

Just now, Bob8 said:

To be fair, if you were genuinely going to do as strangers on the internet advise, I would be far more worried about you!

Ha ha.... Its funny how big decisions can be made on a whim and affect your life though.... 

I chose my university purely on the basis of the high female to ratio with absolutely no other consideration.... Turned out to be a good whim! 

[Bob8]

Just now, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Ha ha.... Its funny how big decisions can be made on a whim and affect your life though.... 

I chose my university purely on the basis of the high female to ratio with absolutely no other consideration.... Turned out to be a good whim! 

There are few better way of choosing.

The old way is hte best. Give the job to your head, think about it deeply and then rely on the heart.

[gazza77]

Is there a halfway house? We were looking at this a couple of years ago. No kids, but at around 40 and with decently paid jobs, we could stay in our little terrace or look for somewhere a bit bigger. We could have looked to take a far bigger mortgage over 25 years again, but decided that we'd only look to what we could comfortably afford over the same time period as our then existing mortgage (10 years). That way we could both continue to holiday, pay off the mortgage at a decent rate and have the opportunity to downsize if required later in life. 

It doesn't necessarily have to be all or nothing. 

[Red Willow]

We did that with our mortgage, in our case it was 20 years, early days wer tough but now sitting pretty

[SSoutherner]

30 minutes ago, Red Willow said:

We did that with our mortgage, in our case it was 20 years, early days wer tough but now sitting pretty

So did we - found we could overpay first mortgage so cleared it in 6 yrs (was only £40k) which as the house went up in value form £50 too £90k meant we had a £90k deposit to get the current house (£176k purchase) which again we overpaid and cleared in 15 yrs (5 yrs ago) and so we own a house worth c£400k outright and so if/when my/wife's job dissapears we have none of the worries of many despite the fact we have never had a joint gross income over £55k in any year and had 3 children of which 1 went to a private boarding school (ok that was on a huge bursary) and 2 are now at uni

 

We didnt do foreign holidays but we did trek all over the peak district and dartmoor