How best to fund house extension

Collie0708

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Age: 41
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 42

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 140K
Annual gross income of spouse: 50K

Type of employment: e.g. private industry

Saving approx 2-3K per month

Rough estimate of value of home: 375K
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 0
What interest rate are you paying? N/A

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc - 20k / 700pm

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? N/A

Savings and investments:

Do you have a pension scheme? Yes I have an old defined benefit pension worth 17k per annum when I reach 65 and a DC pension worth 120k currently contributing the max amount within revenue limit and expect this to increase substantially over the next number of years . Wife also has pension value approx. 70K. Both of us are maxing pension contributions

Do you own any investment or other property? No

Ages of children: 7,10

Life insurance: Yes 500K each and both have 3 times salary through work


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

We are looking to complete and extensive refurbishment and extension of our current house which we plan on staying in for good we are starting to build our plans at the minute and forecast this will cost us 200k.

We currently have cash savings of c100k and an investment fund with 160k where we add 2k per month.

I had previously planned on using all the cash savings and borrowing money to fund the extension but obviously this is quite expensive and it probably makes more sense to sell some of the investments to fund the project but this makes me feel nervous about the dramatic reduction in our savings.

Any advise of what to do?
 
You're in a very good financial position with excellent pensions and mortgage free to boot. Well done and at what is quite a young age so impressive !

I would fund the extension with €120K from your investment fund and say €80K from your cash savings. No point in borrowing or taking out a mortage when you have cash earning little to no interest and an investment fund where gains are subject to 41% tax. I'd also clear the car loan with €20K from your investment fund as no point in paying interest at close to 10% when your investment fund is probably returning <3% pa after tax.
 
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Without knowing the details 200k sounds light for "extensive" renovation AND extension. That may well be your budget but may not get what you want.
 
You're in a very good financial position with excellent pensions and mortgage free to boot. Well done and at what is quite a young age so impressive !

I would fund the extension with €120K from your investment fund and say €80K from your cash savings. No point in borrowing or taking out a mortage when you have cash earning little to no interest and an investment fund where gains are subject to 41% tax. I'd also clear the car loan with €20K from your investment fund as no point in paying interest at close to 10% when your investment fund is probably returning <3% pa after tax.
Thanks for the reply, for some strange reason I thinking I needed someone to tell me what I already knew I not know why but the thought of depleting the savings and investments makes me nervous
 
Without knowing the details 200k sounds light for "extensive" renovation AND extension. That may well be your budget but may not get what you want.
Thanks pricing it at the minute once I appreciate I may have to adjust the scope of what I’m doing to match my budget
 
Thanks pricing it at the minute once I appreciate I may have to adjust the scope of what I’m doing to match my budget
We gave our architect a budget of €350k for a refurbishment and extension and they came back with aa lovely design. The QS then costed it at €700k and the builder costed it at €550k. You'll always spend more than you think.
 
We gave our architect a budget of €350k for a refurbishment and extension and they came back with aa lovely design. The QS then costed it at €700k and the builder costed it at €550k. You'll always spend more than you think.
Well I'm presuming your 'budget' meant total project spend. So that would include VAT, professional fees , alternative accommodation cost ( lost rent if the Alt is your own), moving/storage costs. etc. In my experience people are woefully under-prepared ,financially and mentally for the journey they're about to begin. At least you got a QS on board....many people don't.
 
We currently have cash savings of c100k and an investment fund with 160k where we add 2k per month.
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 140K
Annual gross income of spouse: 50K

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc - 20k / 700pm
this makes me feel nervous about the dramatic reduction in our savings.

What do you have savings for? To be able to buy stuff. With a two good incomes and no mortgage, you should not be remotely nervous about running down your savings. Most people your ages, have mortgages and the dilemma facing them is whether to keep savings or pay them off the mortgage.

If you €20k loan is attracting interest, you should pay it off. If you were about to start building immediately, I might leave it just in case you need the cash, but you are at the early stages so probably won't do anything until at least a year. So just clear it.

With your level of income, you should not worry about running down your savings and, even, if necessary, taking out a mortgage to complet the job. While you should not go overboard on the extension, don't scrimp on it either.

In case you need to borrow to complete the project, you should both open credit union accounts. They would be the best source of short term lending which you might need.

Brendan
 
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