# 33 year old saving for my first house



## Philip S (15 Nov 2019)

Age: 33
Spouse’s/Partner's age: N/A

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 39,000
Annual gross income of spouse:

Monthly take-home pay €2,586.34

Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed private sector

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving? saving

Rough estimate of value of home N/A
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: N/A
*What interest rate are you paying? N/A*

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc. overdraft €600

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? dont have one
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?

Savings and investments: 12,045 in two savings accounts, 1,143 in P2P financing.  Winding P2P down to keep all in savings account

Do you have a pension scheme? paying 500 a month not matched. worth around 11k

Do you own any investment or other property? No

Ages of children: N/A

Life insurance: death in service with work

*What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?*

I am looking to get my first house late next year. I am savings €1,200 a month towards this.  This will give me 25-30k in savings when i got to buy. My monthly outgoing are around €900 inc pension rent (i live at home). I am helped that travel and health insurance is taken out at source. I have around €400 a month for day to day spending. I am hoping to get a promotion by year end that will push me up to 45k salary. under the rebuilding Ireland propgramme i should be able to get a mortgage of €225,000 and i would be looking at around €250,000 total spend on the house. 

Is there anything else i could be doing to help me towards my goal. I am thinking about freezing the pension for the year and adding that to my savings.


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## Easel (15 Nov 2019)

How much is left on the car loan?
How much are you looking to spend on a property?

I would reduce/stop the pension contributions until you have purchased a property and you can revisit then. You are only getting 20% relief on some or your existing contributions at your current salary and €500 p/m contribution.


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## Philip S (15 Nov 2019)

Easel said:


> How much is left on the car loan?
> How much are you looking to spend on a property?
> 
> I would reduce/stop the pension contributions until you have purchased a property and you can revisit then. You are only getting 20% relief on some or your existing contributions at your current salary and €500 p/m contribution.



How much is left on the car loan? no car loan only borrowing is a €600 overdraft
How much are you looking to spend on a property? I am looking at around €250k


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## Easel (15 Nov 2019)

Get rid of the overdraft today, makes no sense when you have money on deposit.

Sorry but even with an increase in salary to €45,000 you will not be able to purchase a property worth €250,000. At 3.5 times your current salary you can borrow €136,500. If you add in your projected savings of €30k you are still €85k short. Baring in mind that there are additional costs involved in purchasing a property this will be closer to €95k

What can you do?
1- Bring down your property expectations to a more realistic figure
2- Try to increase your salary/saving potential
3- Purchase with another party. Patent/Sibling/Partner

I would also look into what your entitlements may be via social/affordable housing


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## Brendan Burgess (15 Nov 2019)

Agree. 

Stop the pension contribution and clear your overdraft. 

Liam Ferguson wrote a geat piece on the topic and I think it's still valid.






						Key Post - Preparing for a mortgage application
					

If you're considering applying for a mortgage in the future, there are some steps you should take now. If anyone wants to add to these, please do and they can be incorporated into the post.    You are unlikely to get a mortgage if...   You cannot show a history of being able to pay the proposed...



					www.askaboutmoney.com
				




Brendan


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## Alkers86 (15 Nov 2019)

__





						Local Authority Home Loan
					






					rebuildingirelandhomeloan.ie


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## Philip S (15 Nov 2019)

Easel said:


> Get rid of the overdraft today, makes no sense when you have money on deposit.
> 
> Sorry but even with an increase in salary to €45,000 you will not be able to purchase a property worth €250,000. At 3.5 times your current salary you can borrow €136,500. If you add in your projected savings of €30k you are still €85k short. Baring in mind that there are additional costs involved in purchasing a property this will be closer to €95k
> 
> ...




Under rebuilding Ireland i can get up to 5 times my salary and that is the road I am looking at but also means my max earnings as single person would be 50K. Based on where i am looking a conventional bank mortgage will not buy me any properties. I have updated the OP to include rebuilding Ireland and the amount i am looking at.


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## Easel (15 Nov 2019)

The rebuilding Ireland loan seems to be a great option for someone in your position.

As you can only borrow up to a max of 90% of the purchase price I would aim to have €35k saved if you are looking at a €250,000 property purchase. You will need the extra cash to cover, stamp duty/solicitors fees/valuations/engineers report/furniture for the new house etc.

If you cut the pension contributions it will boost your savings by over €300 p/m so I would do this asap and look at reducing all other outgoings for the next year.

In relation to the potential promotion is there anything you can do to increase your chances of getting it? As the additional 6k in salary equates to an additional 30k mortgage I would be looking to do anything within my power to try and get this over the line. Communicate your desire to managers, take on extra responsibility and go above and beyond where possible.


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## Neek01 (19 Nov 2019)

Defintely get rid of the overdraft. Rebuilding Ireland loans require 12 months statements so you want to show a strong 12 months. Make sure your rent paid at home goes through bank accounts rather than cash and is consistently paid. How much will your repayments be monthly on the loan? Make sure your putting aside that + a couple of hundred every month between savings & rent. Use a seperate savings account and try not to withdraw from that account unnecessarily.


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## Philip S (20 Nov 2019)

Hi Everyone thanks for the comments. 

I was not aware of the 12 month rule for RBI until this year. so i will meet the 12 month requirement in August next year. Currently saving €1,200 per month between 2 accounts. The mortgage payment from RBI will be under €1,000 a month so i have built in wiggle room to show i can pay more. 
Paying rent via a bank account is not an option it the parents like it in cash. I am trying to take it out on the same day each month on its own so at least you can see the consistent amount coming from an ATM. 

My main main takeaways from above are


Pension is ceasing for 2020 and money to be added to savings instead  
Clear overdraft   
Do not touch savings in either account


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## EvenStevens (27 Nov 2019)

I just recently bought a house through the RBI scheme. Sounds like you're doing all the right things. They'll look at your savings per month if you're not paying rent. I was living at a relatives house and was purely saving, saving a good bit more than the potential mortgage, and not paying rent and that was fine.

Just be sensible. Put the credit card in the freezer if you have one. Be consistent with the saving and don't go near savings no matter what happens. Close any Paddy power type online accounts you might have. There's a lot of paperwork involved in applying for RBI so might be easier to have savings in just one account. Best of luck


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## Philip S (24 Jul 2021)

Age: 35
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 33

Annual gross income from employment or profession: €57,500
Annual gross income of spouse: €0

Monthly take-home pay €3100

Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed private sector Private 

In general are you: Savings
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving? 

Rough estimate of value of home N/A
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: N/A
*What interest rate are you paying? N/A*

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc. overdraft No borrowings

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? dont have one
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?

Savings and investments: 32500 in prize bonds  14,069 in savings savings increasing by 1650 pm

Do you have a pension scheme? paying 500 a month at source. worth around 18k. From August employer will match 250pm, 

Do you own any investment or other property? No

Ages of children: 1 (9/7)

Life insurance: death in service with work, 

I decided to update this as it has been 18 months and a few things have changed. Mainly i no longer qualify for RBI as I am over the 50K. I have also become a father since I started this thread. The aim is to buy earlier next year as I recently moved job so I am back on probation. The new plan is to buy a bigger house most likely a 3 bed semi as my partner, and her kids will move in with me so will be 2 adult and 3 kids in the house. The way the figures are working it is likely I will have to apply as a single buyer as banks will not give me enough if I apply with the partner. I am hoping for a promotion when i pass probation that should put me on around 70k.  I have run the maths and the mortgage is affordable on my salary and with the expected level of expenses for a family of 5.


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