Money and affording things

doublehelix2

doublehelix2

doublehelix2

Associate
Joined
5 Jun 2007
Posts
299
This is a bit of a ramble more than anything about affording things like a house. It has been mentioned a few times about how a wage of 50k isn't even enough to get you a house in some (increasing) parts of the country.

My ramble is what are you supposed to do? There are only so many jobs/careers that pay 50k + and what if you can't do them or find them mind numbingly boring? Ahh, it just gets to me. Maybe I should just go to to uni and become a dentist.

/Rant
 
TBH I find it amazing how some folks manage , I have a mate with 2 kids who earns about £15k a year ( his wife works a few hours a week so probably doesn't earn much )
 
im on about 13k a year, the gf on about 12k a year, we have a house together and £600 a month mortgage+300ish bills...we seem to be managing fine, we are only 21 and 20 but have had the house for about a year now and not run out of money :p
 
It's do-able on low to medium earnings but most people seem to think that as well as a house they must have big plasma TV's, flash cars, bling and so on.

You can't have it all.

Our household income is £40K and we have a nice house with good decor and reasonable new car and a couple of flat panel tv's but we don't use HP or credit apart from the house and maybe a small loan towards the car. I want a new DSLR a telescope and a few other Mac related goodies to compliment my MacBook but cannot at the moment without resorting to what most people do and borrow, borrow, borrow because I have had to save for a couple of holidays early this year and the wife has had to save for a oak bedroom suite.

I still want an expensive road bike but it's a way off as other items must be saved for first.

See how I used the word save for and not borrow. We hope to be able to have enough saved to buy our next car outright. Nothing wrong with using credit in a sensible way after all I bought my MacBook on a 0% APR credit card so I can spread the cost over a few months.

Many people nowadays need to stop living beyond their means.
 
I'm amazed too... especially on Eastenders where they all are down the pub and using the launderette and most don't seem to work :/

Seriously though... I've got my own flat and didn't realise how many extras there are that you have to pay... its INSANE! I seriously envy people who have bought together (couples) though if you bought a house you wouldn't have the problem of Freehold managers who want £100 in arrears for last years ground rent, even though you weren't even contacted last year... and part payment isn't good enough and its not their fault but the solicitors' fault that I am in arrears so I need to pay everything now.

Well... they will be sent back the original cheque and another one for the other half of the cost.

****heads

/rant

BB x
 
I'm on £11,500 myself, living in a shared house in Worcester (which isn't the cheapest of areas) so just over half my wage goes straight into the rent. On top of that the £30 a week food bill, one night out a week, and the odd train to see the gf or parents and I still have a little left over each month.

So how much is a smallish mortgage a month? £800-1k? I can see no problem in affording it myself on around a household income of £25k.

After saying all this though, I'm not sure how much a car would contribute to my outgoings, or how I would save up the deposit to put down on a house.
 
Welshy said:
So how much is a smallish mortgage a month? £800-1k? I can see no problem in affording it myself on around a household income of £25k.
Click to expand...

Define small. Our mortgage is £500 a month so I'd say that is small. However it ain't the mortgage that is the problem rather the death-by-papercuts from the many thousands of other bills. Car, life, home insurance. Loans and CC payments. Council tax. Food. Utilities. TV. Broadband and on and on and on.

Mortgage? Pah!
 
LordSplodge said:
Define small. Our mortgage is £500 a month so I'd say that is small. However it ain't the mortgage that is the problem rather the death-by-papercuts from the many thousands of other bills. Car, life, home insurance. Loans and CC payments. Council tax. Food. Utilities. TV. Broadband and on and on and on.

Mortgage? Pah!
Click to expand...
hmm you may have a point, I don't have to pay for half of them right now :D
 
LordSplodge said:
Define small. Our mortgage is £500 a month so I'd say that is small. However it ain't the mortgage that is the problem rather the death-by-papercuts from the many thousands of other bills. Car, life, home insurance. Loans and CC payments. Council tax. Food. Utilities. TV. Broadband and on and on and on.

Mortgage? Pah!
Click to expand...

Ground rent, buildings insurance, contents insurance, service charge... tv licence...argh!!1

BB x
 
If you can't afford it, you probably shouldn't be buying it.

Options are to get a better paying job, or move somewhere cheaper.
 
BrightonBelle said:
Ground rent, buildings insurance, contents insurance, service charge... tv licence...argh!!1

BB x
Click to expand...

Then there are the unplanned for bills:

car repairs.
boiler breakdowns.
house repairs
bike repairs.

:( :(

Add to this the planned, semi or irregular bills such as:

MOT
Car service
Bike service.
New bathroom/kitchen etc.
new furniture.
decorating
gardening
new white goods.

:(

Wonder if there is any money left at all for pointless gadgets and gizmos! ;)
 
I'm amazed I managed it but I got incredibly lucky. Straight out of college and into a very well paid job. I bought my own flat in November, new car last week and I'm supporting my girlfriend through uni in September (though she works part-time herself). We're living quite comfortabley at the moment and I'm due for another raise in a month or 2 but we're still not exactly rolling in cash.

The plan is to live in our flat for a few more years until she's done in uni then buy a run-down place in the countryside to renovate (go trade skills! :D) and then rent the flat out for extra income. Then we might be able to live comfortabley and have some cash left over at the end of the month for once.
 
i think to be fair if you are on 50k you should be pretty comfortable and indeed in most areas pretty affluent. I'm not near 50k at the moment and was comfortable with a fairly large rented property and all the bills. I think in most areas of the country a household income of around 40-45k would be a comfortable amount to live on.
 
This makes me happy I'm joining the forces, I shouldn't have anywhere near this much hassle with house prices etc :p
 
doublehelix2 said:
My ramble is what are you supposed to do?
Click to expand...

Be more frugal and savvy with money. And if home ownership is the holy grail, then adopt realistic ambitions in terms of what sort of property one is looking at. People who are earning £50k+ a year should be able to afford to commute, even in they work in central london or whatever.

£50k works out at over £2.9k month after tax and NI. Unless you want to live in a very posh area that should be easily enough to cover a mortgage on a reasonable home - in fact pretty much any loan you can get over 20 years or more should be easily affordable. For example you probably won't be able to borrow more than £250k which over 20 years at 6% would still leave in excess of £1100 to live on per month. Plenty of people don't even take home that much cash never mind already having their accomodation covered!

My personal philosophy is that there is a very big difference between being able to afford something, and it being good value. If I wanted to I could go out and buy a nicer house, a brand new BMW M3 for my gf, a 50" TV, a fancy quadcore pc with sli gfx, or a round the world holiday in decent hotels or whatever. But just because I can afford those things which are of course desirable, it doesn't mean to say that I think it is a good idea for me to buy them. I would rather keep my cash (and avoid borrowing more than necessary) in order to secure my longterm future.

In financial terms, life is a balancing act and people need to realise that spending more on luxuries limits your funds to spend elsewhere. Likewise, spending more today means you have less to spend in the longterm. It's one reason why I never understand people who are in serious/expensive debt who continue to spend - they would be better off limiting their spending until they are debt free because then they can actually get MORE luxuries in the long term due to not being hit with massive bank charges and interest.
 
As a single person it's very difficult to get on the housing ladder these days I'll give you that, but as far as our standard of living we have totally lost sight of all reality. Half of the population of this planet live on $2 a day or less....how do they cope?
 
£30 a week for food? Who said that? lol You must live on your own? The other week I did a food shop for 2 adults and two young children and it came to a horrifying £140. :(
I earn average to just below average for a wage in the South East and I also have concerns over the cost of living in this country. Wage increases do not even match inflation and cost of living increases. British Gas just increased prices by 15% which is disgusting. Petrol is just a **** take and the property ladder is practically impossible to get on. We pay the highest in Europe for child care as well.

I know what the OP means. Somestimes it is quite stressful as it doesnt seem sustainable even when you are working your arse off :(
 
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