A few opinions please ... buying a house or horse?

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melmo1313

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Sep 5, 2009
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OK, so I don't post on here much but I do 'lurk' and reply to posts and I like a fact that a lot of you are opinionated! Having a bit of a crisis moment and cookies for those who get to the end.

A bit of background - I'm in my mid twenties, well paid if low ranking job and love horses though don't own one. My OH also has a fairly well paid if equally meaningless job. Neither of us can drive at the moment but we are saving towards a house. We currently are renting a cheap place in a bit of a crappy area that we have been in for a few years now.

We have about £20,000 in savings accounts and cash ISAs but with the current mortgage situation will probably have to save towards £25,000 to £30,000 if not more. This has taken around 2-3 years of saving every little bit extra to get to £20,000 without depriving ourselves too much. One of us at least will have to drive and own a car which will cost extra to be able to get to work and back as we want to live around 20 miles away from where we both work.

We really want to buy a house to be able to call our own, and decorate and furnish as we like, and have a garden.

My question is whether I do the sensible thing and keep saving towards the house/car etc or whether we just move into a nicer rented accommodation with a garden that we can decorate ourselves and pay more every month? Really would LOVE to buy a horse as well, but my 'sensible' head keeps pushing it further down the list ie once car, house, furniture bought, but if we were settled into renting instead I would be able to use some of the savings to buy a horse (also perhaps to get married? Again, that keeps sliding down my list!).

I keep looking at other people that I work with who are quite happy renting and spend way more money on that every month to live in a gorgeous place and seem to have more disposible income to play with. I sometimes feel I am old beyond my years in that all I want to do is settle down with my OH, buy a place that's close to the countryside and ultimately have a horse to call my own. I know there are a few of you that have bought horses later in life and I would love some outside opinions on this?
 
OH and myself only ever wanted to own our own house - so we opted for saving and then getting a mortgage (many) years ago. Now, these days, I do know that house prices have rocketed and to be honest, even though we both had good jobs back then, I doubt if either of us would have managed to own a property in our mid 20's if the prices were like they are now. There is nowt wrong with renting, I think young people are going to have to take that option if they want to leave home. Two of my younger nephews / nieces are renting, it is the only way they could afford to leave home and move in with their partners.
At the end of the day, mortgages are a huge mill-stone around ones neck - and unless you are lucky enough it will be a bloomin long time before it gets paid off in full!! My advice would be to live for the here and now. If you found a nice place to rent then carry on renting (you mentioned you weren't keen on the place you're at now). A lot of people say, "well, its dead money renting" but at the end of the day, you are "living" and yes, it costs, but thats the way it is.
I am sure there are lots of different opinions on here, but that is my two-penneth. If renting a nice place rather than skinting yourself saving for the elusive house to buy means you can have a horse then why not????
 
I would have to say house first and horse later. You have almost got there and just a little while longer and you could have both.
 
I think that you are so near your dream of getting a house, then you should just keep going and do it. It's great that you have managed to save up £20,000 and in a year or so you will have enough for that deposit. I think that you have to balance between saving money for the 'sensible' things in life, and living for the minute. If you long term goal is to have a family, then you need to have a secure place to bring up your kids. There is nothing nicer than having your own home and creating an enviroment that you love to be in. My home is far from perfect but I just love being here. Once you have your house, the monthly outgoings will be similar to what you pay in rent (I imagine anyway) and it's so much more satisfying seeing such a large amount of money going out of your bank account towards your own debt rather than paying off someones elses mortgage.
 
I'm in a similar position to you, I live with my OH in a rented house but we do have the advantage that we're renting off my Dad and we will buy the property once we've got enough saved for a deposit. We're slowly doing the house up to how we want it.

For me having a horse right now is off the agenda, my priorities are to buy our house first and then maybe get married (if I get asked!) then I'll look at getting a horse once all of that is out of the way. It's going to be a good few years yet but I'm prepared to wait.
 
I was in my mid 30's before I could afford the time and money for my first horse.

Imo it's the best time to be able to buy a house if you are in a position to do so. House prices are low, interestest rates are low (although budget to be able to afford the repayments when interestes resume their normal much higher levels, they are being held artifically low at present). Historically we've never had such favourable circumstances to buy in. Even after the last big crash of the late 1980s the interest rates were high. Low prices and low interest rates are unique historically.

I personally couldn't wait to become completely independent and self sufficient. Renting can be a cheap way to live compared to housing though. I know what it costs me as a landlord to have a rental property and maintain it.

In this country we are very much biassed towards buying our homes. This came about after the Maggie years. It ceratinly never used to be so prior to then and it isn't the part of the culture on much of the continent.

I personally think it's a given that in 7 years or so the house prices will have picked up considerably. I myself believe that it would be wise to buy something in the near future you can afford and you can always sell it at the top of the market and resume renting again having made a tidy profit.
 
For me life is too short to be saving all the time and not enjoying life to the full, so I would buy the horse and not get married lol! :biggrin::wink:
 
Personally given that you have done so well so far in saving for a house deposit, I would carry on with that and look to buy your own place first before looking to buy a horse. You'll be settled without the risk of tenancy being ended and you can really feel at home in your own home, make it just as you like.
 
Thank you guys!! Knew I could rely on you for some honest opinions.

Just feel like a fish out of water sometimes with other people my age who are only focused on getting from month to month without getting too much into the red and run out of money halfway through the month. Only debt I have is student loan ... and I won't be paying that off apart from what comes out of my wage packet as the interest is sooo low.

Will have to think about it some more but I'm pretty sure my sensible head will kick in. Just seems an awful long way off at the moment :)
 
The old fart in me says go for the house and get on the property ladder, You have done so well budgeting for your down-payment I am certain once you have your house and have settled you'll budget and save to get your horse soon enough. Bricks and mortar is the best way (usually) to invest your savings - having said that, this climate is very strange.
 
weddings - waste of money! i would use the money for buying a house. I too rent in a cheap but improving area and am saving to purchase my rental (am lucky that right to buy is still in place here ;) ). I think on this occasion a horse can wait :)

Don't compare yourself to others, you sound like you are so much more sensible! i despair of some of my friends who pee their money up the wall on a friday and saturday night. leave them to it, they'll regret it when they are older!
 
I agree with Joyscarer that now is a good time to buy. You have done so well with saving, and with your two salaries you could probably manage the mortage easily. It would be a shame not to take that step while you can.

But there would be nothing stopping you from looking for a house where you could keep your horse when it arrived!

http://www.primelocation.com/uk-property-for-sale/details/id/RURA999002417/

I waited until I was 50 to get my first horse. In some ways I don't know why I waited so long. In others, I think I'm better equipped for the adventure now than I would have been when younger. Everything except bounceability, I think.
 
My personal opinions/experience of renting are that its dead money. We rented until November last year when we bought our first home together. Our renting experience put us off for life.

Sounds like youve done really well with the saving, may as well stick it out another couple of years and invest in a property of your own. Plus the more you save for a deosit the lower your repayments will be, so in theory you could then save for a car/horse/wedding afterwards. Plus see it as some kind of inheritance for any possible children you may have :)
 
I have this discussion with my hubby and friends on a regular basis and TBH I think it's entirely dependent on your own circumstances and plans - there IS no right or wrong thing to do.

We have rented for 5 years, moving regularly as our budget improved and in that time we bought our first car and got married. We now live in a lovely little house in a decent area that our friends are envious of :devil: People we know who have bought houses shed blood and tears to get them and are generally miserable now they are saddled with the cost of monthly repayments :(

My personal choice to rent is based on:-
We plan to move abroad when hubby's career turns in that direction
Landlord's job to fix everything
No need to save a monstrous deposit
Extra income will pay for holidays and a car while we are young enough to enjoy them

I'd be interested in what your gut feeling is melmo1313??
(Only interested - not saying you should listen to it! ;))
 
I'm not going to offer you advice, just tell you what we did.

We saved and saved to get a deposit on our first house in a nice area we wanted to live in. We raised our kids there, and did not have much in the way of luxuries but I cannot say I regret not having holidays and nights out.

We had a tiny wedding, I could not justify spending money on fripperies for day that cannot be seen as an investment. Teh investment was in OH! It was a nice wedding with all the people we really loved there, but we certainly did not break the bank.

We have just paid off our mortgage and there is no feeling like it, knowing that we actually own our house and whatever happens no one can take it off us. It really was worth all the scrimping and saving over the years to over pay when we could.

No I am in my late forties, established in my job, and thinking of doing the horse thing. I am glad I left it until I was financial secure.
 
I think by dead money it is more that you are paying out and not getting long term pay back like theinvestment of a house.

I too would buy (am buying :dance:) though I'm lucky that I had horses before though :)
 
LOL my own personal thought on weddings is also that it's a waste of money spending thousands on one day, I'd b*gger off somewhere, get married and have a big party when we come home!!

JANE ... OMG that house is amazing!!! SOOO tempting ... though I think we'd be scraping by on the £150,000 mortgage tbh.

Renting .. there's a big part of me that DOES think it's dead money. That's part of the reason we haven't looked for a nicer rented place before now is because the place we have is at least £100 cheaper a month than other places nearby and we figure that extra money goes into the hosue fund.

Beakysian ... you do bring up a good point that the landlord has to fix everything that breaks at the moment (and we have had quite a few things break!). Thing is in winter I would love to have somewhere that was double glazed, with decent insulation, unlike our current rental!! If it was my house it would be double glazed already.

Gut instinct is to keep saving as we ARE very close to getting there, just don't know if I can spend another few summers in this flat that has no garden or park nearby. I'm just being impatient really, as I want it all NOW lol but the patience is wearing thin after 3 and a half years renting (but the price has never changed for rent in that time :D)
 
I am 28 and OH and i bought our first house when i was 18. We recently sold it and bought our dream cottage in the country. I also have 2 horses. I have had 1 horse since before we bought our first house and the other appeared around the same time we moved last year. I love my horses and my house, but am permanently skint. I currently have £6 disposable income to last me until a week on Monday when i get paid :unsure:
Wouldnt swap my house or horses for more money to splash around though :wink:
 
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