GirlyGeek
Well-Known Member
RIGHT - this might get a bit long winded so please bare with me. Me and my partner aren't seeing eye to eye about this at the moment and we both see the merit in each others ideas so thought we would get some outside advice to give us more food for though.
Partner has £15k of savings.
I received £20k inheritance recently[ish]. Spent £5k on buying things for our home we needed, paying off some bills and treating us. I spent £10k on setting up my salon and the first years running costs. Remaning £5k is being used to top up our income over the course of the year so that we can afford to live without me drawing a wage. I'm only highlighting this to show that I have used half of my savings on 'couple' things and 1/2 on hopefully setting up my future.
We currently rent a 2bedroom terrace house for £425 per month. It's bigger than we need and it is a MESS. It was always supposed to be a temporary house while we were finding somewhere more permanent to rent - but with us deciding that now was the time to try me having the salon we are now resigned to staying here longer as it is so cheap.
HOWEVER....recently a ground floor, 1 bedroom flat has become available a stones throw away from where we live now, 5 minutes walk from my salon, 5 minutes walk from the town centre and 5 minutes drive to partners work - for £20,000 due to owner circumstances! They have said they would be willing to accept £18,000. It isn't in bad nick ... cosmetic work needed but nothing structural. Lease etc. is all great nothing to worry about.
Our families are prepared to loan us another £15k so that we can A] buy the flat ... B] do all work needed ... C] cover all the legal costs etc. and hopefully still have a little bit left over for emergencies.
I'm really up for this. I think it makes sense. We can pay them back within 3 years at £425 per month. So to me - we're saving a lot of money fast. And after that 3 years we can continue saving. Yes it's a small flat - but we're a small family and we don't need oodles of space. Other flats in the same street of the same size have previously sold for between 35k - 50k so we could make a good profit when selling in the future too. When you add in the money we can save not paying rent too - plus extra savings when I start taking a proper wage from my salon - then we can potentially set ourselves up to never need a mortgage etc. even when we want to go bigger.
I've even said to partner that I have no problem with signing something to say that if we split up and need to sell - he can have all of his savings back and we will make sure that nobody is short changed etc. I'm not out to steal his savings/profits etc. (Not that he accused me of being - I just wanted to be thorough)
Partner feels that we are not in a position to buy at the moment....that it would be too small and that we need the 2 bedrooms and dining room that we have (we only use dining room when we have family round - but now that my dads house has finished having massive refurb could easily be hosted there instead) (spare room is only ever used by 1 guest at a time on a single bed - isn't used or storage etc. Our sofa can easily be used as a spare bed).
He would rather get a nicer, newer - new car now (both of our cars are absolutely fine - no problems - cheap to run - getting old but no problems whatsoever) and carry on renting indefinitely and then at some point way down the line look into mortgages etc.
I just think this is a really short sighted view and that we could potentially be setting ourselves up for a really secure future if we do it my way and are savvy with our money now rather than getting into debt etc. later in life. My partner is 34 ... if we wait 10 years to move and get a mortgage then we could end up paying a mortgage off on one wage after he retires or something!
Like I said - we are looking for impartial outside advice. SO - what do you guys think? If it was you - what would you do?
Partner has £15k of savings.
I received £20k inheritance recently[ish]. Spent £5k on buying things for our home we needed, paying off some bills and treating us. I spent £10k on setting up my salon and the first years running costs. Remaning £5k is being used to top up our income over the course of the year so that we can afford to live without me drawing a wage. I'm only highlighting this to show that I have used half of my savings on 'couple' things and 1/2 on hopefully setting up my future.
We currently rent a 2bedroom terrace house for £425 per month. It's bigger than we need and it is a MESS. It was always supposed to be a temporary house while we were finding somewhere more permanent to rent - but with us deciding that now was the time to try me having the salon we are now resigned to staying here longer as it is so cheap.
HOWEVER....recently a ground floor, 1 bedroom flat has become available a stones throw away from where we live now, 5 minutes walk from my salon, 5 minutes walk from the town centre and 5 minutes drive to partners work - for £20,000 due to owner circumstances! They have said they would be willing to accept £18,000. It isn't in bad nick ... cosmetic work needed but nothing structural. Lease etc. is all great nothing to worry about.
Our families are prepared to loan us another £15k so that we can A] buy the flat ... B] do all work needed ... C] cover all the legal costs etc. and hopefully still have a little bit left over for emergencies.
I'm really up for this. I think it makes sense. We can pay them back within 3 years at £425 per month. So to me - we're saving a lot of money fast. And after that 3 years we can continue saving. Yes it's a small flat - but we're a small family and we don't need oodles of space. Other flats in the same street of the same size have previously sold for between 35k - 50k so we could make a good profit when selling in the future too. When you add in the money we can save not paying rent too - plus extra savings when I start taking a proper wage from my salon - then we can potentially set ourselves up to never need a mortgage etc. even when we want to go bigger.
I've even said to partner that I have no problem with signing something to say that if we split up and need to sell - he can have all of his savings back and we will make sure that nobody is short changed etc. I'm not out to steal his savings/profits etc. (Not that he accused me of being - I just wanted to be thorough)
Partner feels that we are not in a position to buy at the moment....that it would be too small and that we need the 2 bedrooms and dining room that we have (we only use dining room when we have family round - but now that my dads house has finished having massive refurb could easily be hosted there instead) (spare room is only ever used by 1 guest at a time on a single bed - isn't used or storage etc. Our sofa can easily be used as a spare bed).
He would rather get a nicer, newer - new car now (both of our cars are absolutely fine - no problems - cheap to run - getting old but no problems whatsoever) and carry on renting indefinitely and then at some point way down the line look into mortgages etc.
I just think this is a really short sighted view and that we could potentially be setting ourselves up for a really secure future if we do it my way and are savvy with our money now rather than getting into debt etc. later in life. My partner is 34 ... if we wait 10 years to move and get a mortgage then we could end up paying a mortgage off on one wage after he retires or something!
Like I said - we are looking for impartial outside advice. SO - what do you guys think? If it was you - what would you do?
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