HowMuchToBorrow
Registered User
- Messages
- 4
Age: 30
Spouse’s/Partner's age: N/A
Annual gross income from employment or profession:
110,000 (though 15% of that would be split between bonus and vested stocks - the latter of which can vary...Ignoring stocks, let's say only 100,000 would count towards regular income for mortgage borrowing)
Annual gross income of spouse: N/A
Monthly take-home pay
After pension contributions and AVCs, about 4,200/month. (Excludes annual bonus, vested stocks etc.)
Type of employment: private sector (IT)
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving 2,000/month on a regular basis. I try to add the money from the ongoing sold vested stocks together with a portion of the bonus into savings as well to target 30,000/year savings (on track).
Regular spend is:
I do use a part of the bonus as a holiday/gadgets/fun account - though generally I would probably redirect a majority of it into savings.
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: None
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? N/A
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? N/A
Savings and investments
Savings account: 76,000
Investment account (stocks, not related to my employer): 34,000
Do you have a pension scheme?
Yes, pension fund is: 78,000 (100% in a global equities fund)
I'm maxing out my contribution to get the max employer's matching and I contribute an extra 300/month in AVCs; currently adding close to 15,000/year to the pension fund.
Do you own any investment or other property?
No
Ages of children: N/A
Life insurance
I have (some?) life insurance through work (as well as health insurance).
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I'm currently conflicted as to what would be a responsible amount to borrow for a mortgage to buy a property to live in, given my financial situation.
I'm decided on getting a property to increase my comfort level and get away from the ***** rental market with little security of tenure, Bargaintown furniture, appliances and fixtures and tiny apartments/flats with bad noise or heating insulation. (Not to mention the high rental prices..)
While initially I was considering the starter apartment route, given my increasing income levels over the past couple of years and banks willingness to grant me a LTI exception, I'm considering getting a "forever home" now, which for me would be a 3-bed house (the type doesn't matter much) in a decent area of Dublin, preferably not incredibly far out in the burbs.
The two banks I've been talking both seem willing to grant me an LTI exception to borrow more than the usual 3.5x times salary and it looks like I should be able to borrow between 400,000 (max for bank 1) and 450,000 (max for bank 2 - though I haven't yet finished the application process with them and gotten approval from the underwriters) if I desire to do so.
I have read the horror stories about the 100-110% mortgages from the boom times though and I'm keeping them in mind.
I'm somewhat tempted to take advantage of that so as to not fall in the potential "starter home" trap as I don't know how the economy and housing market is going to evolve.
400,000 borrowed over 35 years is around 1550/month at current rates (~3%) and about 2300/month if I stress test to 6% rates.
Even if I lose my current job (to note: I have a stable position), I don't think I'll have any issues finding a job that pays 70,000/year which translates to 3900/month (but realistically I should be able to get something within 80% of my current pay or more).
Thus, If I lose my job and get hired at 64% of my current salary and interest rates also increase by 3% at the same time - given my current spend - I should still be able to afford it, as that leaves me with a spending budget of 1,600/month (from which I'd also need to sort out pension contributions, savings etc.). I could also rent out a room in that scenario for a bit of extra cash if it's bad..
That's certainly not the worst case scenario that I can think of, if rates go like they did in the late 80's/early 90's then I'm goosed - but I guess everyone else is as well if that happens..
AAM - given the above, what would responsible borrowing mean in my case?
To some extent, I'm keen to buy a property, move in and start spending a bit more to live a little more and somewhat reduce my savings rate - though I don't feel too comfortable reducing my savings rate while renting while wanting to buy and seeing house prices increase 10% yoy and feeling them slip out of my reach more and more.
Another side-question would be: if I do get a mortgage, should I eliminate AVCs and redirect that money to mortgage over payments until I've dropped LTV significantly (say under 70% - as I've seen advised on another thread)?
Spouse’s/Partner's age: N/A
Annual gross income from employment or profession:
110,000 (though 15% of that would be split between bonus and vested stocks - the latter of which can vary...Ignoring stocks, let's say only 100,000 would count towards regular income for mortgage borrowing)
Annual gross income of spouse: N/A
Monthly take-home pay
After pension contributions and AVCs, about 4,200/month. (Excludes annual bonus, vested stocks etc.)
Type of employment: private sector (IT)
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving 2,000/month on a regular basis. I try to add the money from the ongoing sold vested stocks together with a portion of the bonus into savings as well to target 30,000/year savings (on track).
Regular spend is:
- about 1,000/month rent (equivalent accommodation if I were to move would be around 1,500/month currently)
- 1,200/month for all of the other regular living expenses (no car).
I do use a part of the bonus as a holiday/gadgets/fun account - though generally I would probably redirect a majority of it into savings.
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: None
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? N/A
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? N/A
Savings and investments
Savings account: 76,000
Investment account (stocks, not related to my employer): 34,000
Do you have a pension scheme?
Yes, pension fund is: 78,000 (100% in a global equities fund)
I'm maxing out my contribution to get the max employer's matching and I contribute an extra 300/month in AVCs; currently adding close to 15,000/year to the pension fund.
Do you own any investment or other property?
No
Ages of children: N/A
Life insurance
I have (some?) life insurance through work (as well as health insurance).
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I'm currently conflicted as to what would be a responsible amount to borrow for a mortgage to buy a property to live in, given my financial situation.
I'm decided on getting a property to increase my comfort level and get away from the ***** rental market with little security of tenure, Bargaintown furniture, appliances and fixtures and tiny apartments/flats with bad noise or heating insulation. (Not to mention the high rental prices..)
While initially I was considering the starter apartment route, given my increasing income levels over the past couple of years and banks willingness to grant me a LTI exception, I'm considering getting a "forever home" now, which for me would be a 3-bed house (the type doesn't matter much) in a decent area of Dublin, preferably not incredibly far out in the burbs.
The two banks I've been talking both seem willing to grant me an LTI exception to borrow more than the usual 3.5x times salary and it looks like I should be able to borrow between 400,000 (max for bank 1) and 450,000 (max for bank 2 - though I haven't yet finished the application process with them and gotten approval from the underwriters) if I desire to do so.
I have read the horror stories about the 100-110% mortgages from the boom times though and I'm keeping them in mind.
I'm somewhat tempted to take advantage of that so as to not fall in the potential "starter home" trap as I don't know how the economy and housing market is going to evolve.
400,000 borrowed over 35 years is around 1550/month at current rates (~3%) and about 2300/month if I stress test to 6% rates.
Even if I lose my current job (to note: I have a stable position), I don't think I'll have any issues finding a job that pays 70,000/year which translates to 3900/month (but realistically I should be able to get something within 80% of my current pay or more).
Thus, If I lose my job and get hired at 64% of my current salary and interest rates also increase by 3% at the same time - given my current spend - I should still be able to afford it, as that leaves me with a spending budget of 1,600/month (from which I'd also need to sort out pension contributions, savings etc.). I could also rent out a room in that scenario for a bit of extra cash if it's bad..
That's certainly not the worst case scenario that I can think of, if rates go like they did in the late 80's/early 90's then I'm goosed - but I guess everyone else is as well if that happens..
AAM - given the above, what would responsible borrowing mean in my case?
To some extent, I'm keen to buy a property, move in and start spending a bit more to live a little more and somewhat reduce my savings rate - though I don't feel too comfortable reducing my savings rate while renting while wanting to buy and seeing house prices increase 10% yoy and feeling them slip out of my reach more and more.
Another side-question would be: if I do get a mortgage, should I eliminate AVCs and redirect that money to mortgage over payments until I've dropped LTV significantly (say under 70% - as I've seen advised on another thread)?