I appreciate you never really know peoples financial gubbins, but Mrs K talked to another wife yesterday to discover they are moving house.  Now, they are similar to us – typical 3 bed Victorian semi north London, halfway through a £300k mortgage.  Yet they are moving to a £500k 4 bed house the other side of town in their mid 40’s. She doesn’t work, hubby is an Uber driver.

I’m not exactly on low wages but blimey, how they hell are affording that?  I see this all the time and can’t help wondering if I’m doing something wrong by aiming to pay off what we have as early as possible with a view to retirement – surely they’ll have a mortgage forever…?

Inheritance, family money.

Both my brothers had help from my parents buying their homes (I was old enough for houses to be cheap enough not to need any help).

I moved to Scotland 🙂

If I still lived down south there’s no way I’d be living in a 4 bedroom house with a garden that’s too big for us just 100m from the sea like we do up here.

Kids is the thing that I can’t understand, how do people afford that??

i try not to worry about stuff like that

Good advice from howsyourdad1.

Never underestimate how much money some people have.

They bought one 20 odd years and made money from it.

they’re probably drug dealers.

Why are you bothered?

If you’re happy with your house and your plans then crack on with what you’re doing and let them get on with theirs?

I think right purchases, right time, right moves, plays a massive factor in these things.

I’ve been unfortunate on housing stuff over the years and only in the last 5 years have got any real equity behind me in the housing context.

They drive modest cars

people live hand to mouth because they want the ‘better’ things.

keeping up with the jones’

Other cliches are available on request. As long as you’re happy with what you’ve got, why worry?

Mortgaged to the Max. Happens a lot. Even on good salary folk will mortgage /loan to the max. Result = big house, nice car, almost crippling monthly repayments…

I live in Hong Kong, how do people afford really small apartments let alone big houses?

Can’t afford a one bedroom apartment here but have a 3 bedroom house back in the UK, its all relative but I believe the standard property saying applies, location, location, location or they are drug dealers.

I’m with How’s my dad too ,although my missus has had a moan that our house isn’t as lovely as others – I told her she better get another job. Ha.

“they’re probably drug dealers.”
or in witness protection
or secret Russian sleeper agents.

Uber driver gives it away.

Ferrying prostitutes/Drugs/Weapons around London is very lucrative and no tax to pay.

and some banks have fixed rates at 1.6% these days fingers crossed for a no deal and 17% interest again!

Inheritance, family money.

That’s exactly why we have a 4 bed detached with a large garden and en-suite in Harrogate. We could have stayed in our 2 bed terrace and paid off the mortgage but we felt that our growing family (they were 4 years old at the time) would benefit from having a bedroom each, a nice garden to play in and us some privacy when they reach their teens. We currently have a LTV of around 35% although I will be paying it up to normal retirement age (another 15 years to go).

We’ll downsize again once they have flown the nest and hopefully I will be able to retire before 67.

Cheap car?

No Carribean Holidays?

No kids?

No expensive hobbies?

Lots of options of what to spend money on. Choose your own and  be happy.

Harsh Scotroutes 😉

For us we managed to sell our house at three times the price that we bought it. We bought it in 2006 when the property market was really struggling over here and have taken on another mortgage of about the same as we originally paid for our old house so the new mortgage payments are slightly bigger than the old and we have a newer bigger house in a better (for us) location.

Harsh Scotroutes

Not at all. Over on BigHouseWorld, someone has just started a thread asking how their current neighbours are driving around in a flash motor, go on expensive holidays, and “have you seen how much he spends on bikes” ?  Perspective and choice, innit?

If one keeps it in ones pants, one has more money and less need for a large dwelling

Why are you bothered?

If you’re happy with your house and your plans then crack on with what you’re doing and let them get on with theirs?

I’m not.   I’m just inquisitive.  Its not prompting me to change what we have / our goals.

I’m not. I’m just inquisitive.

I have the same thing with shops / businesses, I also wonder what their costs are / how profitable they are etc…

I’d agree with the inheritance thing + getting lucky with the housing market. My brother doesn’t work and his wife is a teacher, they have 4 kids and live in a £500k+ house in London. They got ‘lucky’ with a big inheritance from his wife’s side that allowed them to move into their current house almost mortgage free (also helped in part by having a huge amount of equity from their previous house that they’d bought at the bottom of the market).

I’ve worked all my life, have no kids and live in a 1 bed flat. I have a mortgage and way less savings than my brother – I’m still not sure where it all went wrong :p

Massive mortgage probably.
when bought ours about 6 years ago the companies were willing to offer us 4 times what we wanted.
would have made it so one of our salaries was going on the mortgage each month.
bloody silly idea to me, but works for some

There seems to be some fairly combative, borderline bullying, answers to a reasonable question above.
I sometimes wonder myself, looking at folk you know and their spending. It doesn’t bother me, I’m doing okay thanks.

I reckon a lot of it comes down to simply spending everything that comes in, with nothing being put aside for a rainy, high interest rate, day. I’m just not wired that way, some people are.

There seems to be some fairly combative, borderline bullying, answers to a reasonable question above.

Then

I reckon a lot of it comes down to simply spending everything that comes in, with nothing being put aside for a rainy, high interest rate, day

?

the best ways to own a large house are:
Earn a 6 figure salary
dont have kids
drive a 15 year old car
buy a big old wreck of a place and renovate it. Do this right and the value you add to the house will be greater than the cost of the renovations.
borrow more money over a longer time frame.

Massive mortgage.
Interest only mortgage.
Other income streams that aren’t mentioned.
Inheritance
Medical insurance payout
Good timing

Could be any number of things, or a combination of things.

A lot of people do a good job though of hiding just how near to being absolutely skint they are.
A friend of my brother’s appears outwardly successful; nice car, well dressed, good social life, living in one property with another rental property.
But chatting with my brother, it turns out that she could barely afford the second rental property, was constantly living at the limits of her overdraft and relatively frequently went without eating properly as there was no money left for food. Sounded like she was on a constant financial knife edge & was close to a nervous breakdown.
But you would have absolutely no idea about any of that from just chatting with her.

Maybe they dont go Mountain Biking

Well firstly you have no idea what he/they did for a living before they moved to where they are no… and just because he’s an Uber driver doesn’t mean he’s always been an Uber driver.

Example:

I know someone who used to be an Investment Banker in the early 90’s. He made about £5m thereabouts before he burned out and his wife took him to the cleaners and got the house.. and a decent pay off..

Yet now, and for the last 18years, has been pootling around Chichester Harbour in a massive Rib providing rescue cover for all manner of sailing craft 365 days a year, winter/summer whatever the weather. He sleeps in an Army bivi and Army sleeping bag in the back of his Rib 365 days a year and eats cheese and drinks Gold Top Milk..

And is still a millionaire.

So, whilst you may feel “how the hell” I’d start to consider the back story before making any judgements about others ability to buy/live the way they do.

Keep your own nose clean, live within your means and live a happy life.

just because he’s an Uber driver doesn’t mean he’s always been an Uber driver.

This is true – on a recent trip to Australia I got chatting to a driver and he was an ex-accountant and wanted out. His wife works as a special needs teacher (so very vocational) and he had children at university. However it made him happy and he could afford to have that lifestyle.

On another note, a very good friend recently came into a very large sum of money (properly life-changing, but not quite ‘lottery jackpot’ stuff). They paid off their mortgage and now rent the house along with a couple more they have bought then bought a new family home for themselves in full. They both have brand new Jags (he’s got an F-Type just for the weekends as he also has a company car). Although I wish it could be us, I don’t begrudge him it as he borrowed a substantial sum to buy into a company and that has paid off after the company was sold on to an investment company.

However they have already said they are getting lots of snidey remarks from their ‘friends’ in the village they live in, along with direct questions about how they can afford all this and it’s really upsetting her (he’s a ‘water off a duck’s back type of guy and doesn’t care). So basically what I am saying is that it doesn’t necessarily matter if you have lots of money or not as it won’t always make you happy.

My sister has a huge mortgage, and a huge house. No real equity as her flat didn’t appreciate in 10 years, and husband didn’t own anything when they got married. Both earn good salaries, but everything is borrowed. Also, no expensive hobbies or kids. We have kids and two ‘expensive hobbies’, and a static caravan, which eats £4k a year in ground rent/insurances.

before making any judgements about others ability to buy/live the way they do

He wasn’t making judgements… he was asking a question.

Simply by asking, he was making a judgement.

“how can they?” “he’s an Uber driver” implies a judgement.

Most of us couldn’t care less what others earn, how they live their life or make an judgements on how others spend their own money.

I moved to Scotland

This^^ *

*just to be clear, I don’t live with phil5556 😉

many routes available –

few round our way earn exactly(ish) what we do, but, that big old 5 bed detached house is bought on a shared ownership mortgage with them paying interest only, proper knife edge live for today spending

inherited land and houses and farm, also somewhat common (its farming country round here), farmers get to build their own place with less restrictions

a few were individual house owners before marriage from exactly the right time in the property market – sold up and pooled resources and bought a single big house

others are exec band earners

others have two decent incomes, so about double our resource

a few more “do property renovation” and have done since when it was easy to get into pre- house price boom, so their savings are all sunk into the latest project which they’re living in

or maybe, have little savings, everything but everything goes on the house, downsize at retirement “the house is the pension”, but all the time and money and effort is going on keeping the place maintained on a shoestring

I’m still not sure where it all went wrong :p

Should have married an heiress!

However they have already said they are getting lots of snidey remarks from their ‘friends’ in the village

Are they asking about why they have a posh car and a modest house?

“how can they?” “he’s an Uber driver” implies a judgement.

Or just curiosity…

I defy anyone to honestly say they’ve never wondered about someone else’s finances. It’s perfectly normal and perfectly harmless (in most cases). It’s really not a big deal…