NorthernLass
Registered User
- Messages
- 3
Age: 31
Spouse’s age: 31
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 47k
Annual gross income of spouse: 67k + approx 7k bonus
Monthly take-home pay: €6100 approx
Type of employment: Public and private
In general are you: Saving
Rough estimate of value of home: 185,000
Amount outstanding on mortgage: Around 120,000
What interest rate are you paying? 2.9% I think. We pay €550 month variable with AIB.
Other borrowings: None.....paid off the wedding and car loans in full last month which felt great!
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
Savings and investments:
35k savings (plus another €4400 that we're waiting on KLM to refund us due to cancelled flights that we will add to our savings). We can save approx 2.5k a month, it has been closer to 4k a month during lockdown but that won't last.
My husband has a scheme at work where he buys €100 worth of company shares every month deducted from his gross pay, I don't know much about that but I think he has approx €3000 in shares.
Do you have a pension scheme?
Yes public pension scheme for me, not sure what that's worth, only joined the public service a few years ago. My husband pays 5% and his company pays 10% in to his pension, not sure what that's worth either. He's only been paying in to a pension for the last 3 years.
Do you own any investment or other property? No
Ages of children: No kids.
Life insurance: Yes €21 a month.
Hi all,
I'm not usually one to pay too much attention to money but all the downtime during lockdown has made me start looking more closely at our finances and our future. It's been a real wake up call to see how much we've saved while the pubs and shops have been closed. I plan to get much more serious with our savings going forward and think we should be able to save €30,000 a year easily enough since our outgoings are low (€750 a month for mortgage and bills). We have been pretty frivolous with money through the years while half heartedly saving to move up the property ladder someday.
We bought a home in 2014 for €138,000 and we had it valued recently for €185000. We never really planned to stay here longterm but it made sense to buy at the time because rents were on the rise and this mortgage was all we could afford, my husband was out of work at the time and I was on a lower income. Our mortgage is €550 a month which is super affordable for us these days. The house is fine, it's an older house but it's city center (not Dublin), 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a decent garden and walking distance to loads of amenities.
The plan has always been to save towards a deposit and eventually sell this home and move up the ladder. We'll be looking in the €350k-€425k range when we move. We're not in any big hurry to move either, where we are suits us fine for now. Somedays I think we should just stay put because I love the disposable income this place gives us. My main issue with our current home is the one bathroom but it's also cold in the winter and hot in the summer.
Now, my question is......are we better off to stick with the plan, save a bit more and sell this house and use the equity towards our next deposit. Or, would it be worth considering saving an entire 20% deposit for the next house over the next few years and keeping this house as an investment? The thinking being that we could rent this house out and use the rental income to cover at least most of the mortgage.
Is it worth the hassle? Is it better to sell soon while the house is worth a lot more than we paid for it or is there more benefit to having it as an asset for the future? Is there any other smarter options that I'm missing?
Sorry I don't know a lot about any of this but I've been reading a lot of threads on this forum over the last couple months which as really made me start questioning what we should be doing with our money. It's thanks to reading this forum that we decided to get rid of all our loans recently and I've cut down on a lot of bills. Up until now we haven't thought much about finances other than ensuring we always save a bit each month.
Very much appreciate any insight!
Spouse’s age: 31
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 47k
Annual gross income of spouse: 67k + approx 7k bonus
Monthly take-home pay: €6100 approx
Type of employment: Public and private
In general are you: Saving
Rough estimate of value of home: 185,000
Amount outstanding on mortgage: Around 120,000
What interest rate are you paying? 2.9% I think. We pay €550 month variable with AIB.
Other borrowings: None.....paid off the wedding and car loans in full last month which felt great!
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
Savings and investments:
35k savings (plus another €4400 that we're waiting on KLM to refund us due to cancelled flights that we will add to our savings). We can save approx 2.5k a month, it has been closer to 4k a month during lockdown but that won't last.
My husband has a scheme at work where he buys €100 worth of company shares every month deducted from his gross pay, I don't know much about that but I think he has approx €3000 in shares.
Do you have a pension scheme?
Yes public pension scheme for me, not sure what that's worth, only joined the public service a few years ago. My husband pays 5% and his company pays 10% in to his pension, not sure what that's worth either. He's only been paying in to a pension for the last 3 years.
Do you own any investment or other property? No
Ages of children: No kids.
Life insurance: Yes €21 a month.
Hi all,
I'm not usually one to pay too much attention to money but all the downtime during lockdown has made me start looking more closely at our finances and our future. It's been a real wake up call to see how much we've saved while the pubs and shops have been closed. I plan to get much more serious with our savings going forward and think we should be able to save €30,000 a year easily enough since our outgoings are low (€750 a month for mortgage and bills). We have been pretty frivolous with money through the years while half heartedly saving to move up the property ladder someday.
We bought a home in 2014 for €138,000 and we had it valued recently for €185000. We never really planned to stay here longterm but it made sense to buy at the time because rents were on the rise and this mortgage was all we could afford, my husband was out of work at the time and I was on a lower income. Our mortgage is €550 a month which is super affordable for us these days. The house is fine, it's an older house but it's city center (not Dublin), 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a decent garden and walking distance to loads of amenities.
The plan has always been to save towards a deposit and eventually sell this home and move up the ladder. We'll be looking in the €350k-€425k range when we move. We're not in any big hurry to move either, where we are suits us fine for now. Somedays I think we should just stay put because I love the disposable income this place gives us. My main issue with our current home is the one bathroom but it's also cold in the winter and hot in the summer.
Now, my question is......are we better off to stick with the plan, save a bit more and sell this house and use the equity towards our next deposit. Or, would it be worth considering saving an entire 20% deposit for the next house over the next few years and keeping this house as an investment? The thinking being that we could rent this house out and use the rental income to cover at least most of the mortgage.
Is it worth the hassle? Is it better to sell soon while the house is worth a lot more than we paid for it or is there more benefit to having it as an asset for the future? Is there any other smarter options that I'm missing?
Sorry I don't know a lot about any of this but I've been reading a lot of threads on this forum over the last couple months which as really made me start questioning what we should be doing with our money. It's thanks to reading this forum that we decided to get rid of all our loans recently and I've cut down on a lot of bills. Up until now we haven't thought much about finances other than ensuring we always save a bit each month.
Very much appreciate any insight!