Bonniewoo

Hello everyone

We keep reading threads about so many people going out to NZ being able to buy homes outright or being left with very small mortgages because of their UK equity.

Have many of you taken the big leap without all this excess cash and have bought a home and still been able to make ends meet?

We will have a deposit but it won't be nearly enough to end up with a tiny mortgage like so many of you. My hubby Lee is 43 and I'm gonna hit the big 40 this year so we still have a few good mortgage years left in us, but we don't want to end up in the same position as we are here. We're from Poole in Dorset which isn't a cheap place to live, bought out first home when the kids were older, so big mortgage, high outgoings and not so great salaries.

Has anyone made the move with a similar situation to ours?

Lisa

bourbon-biscuit

we've got a whooper of a mortgage

Bonniewoo

glad to hear someone has!

Maz

Bigger mortgage. Don't give a toss as long as it gets paid. Happy as a friggin' clam here.

dreamfish

yep mortgaged to the hilt here too!
we made about £29k on the sale of our house in UK

lizard

We have a much bigger mortgage here and earn less money, have hardly any social life and miss the pub.

Maz

We made about US$100K off our house in Chicago, but that was only because we remortgaged 5 years into our 30-yr mortgage, after paying 5 years of pure interest.

A big chunk of that went on moving here, buying cars so we didn't have car payment debt, etc. etc. etc.

Move down to Welly, the social life is rockin' here.

Bonniewoo

Oh god! Well I guess things might not be too different on the money front and we can look forward to spending lots of time with our lovely kids, HELP!

Bonniewoo

Hi Maz

We went to Chicago for a long weekend last year, what an amazing place! Great for a weekend, but must be a scary place to live.

Well after paying off everything here & taking into account moving costs we should probably make about £50K. With no debts and just a mortgage to pay maybe things shouldn't be too bad eh

Lisa

Lemon Bear

Yeah! We have over double the mortgage we had in the UK & approx 1/3rd less money coming in. We just have to budget more carefully

RobClubley

Yep - in the UK we had a 10 year mortgage with 7 years left. Here we have a 25 year mortgage with 24 years left and it's over three times as much.

But it's nice here!

Bonniewoo

Blimey, it must be a big one!

Maz

Depends where in Chi-town too. Remember, 10 million people in Chicagoland!!! 2 1/2 times fewer than that in this entire country.... mmmmmm bliss!

Yes it damn well is!

RobClubley

It certainly is!

The mortgage is quite substantial too.


Sorry, couldn't resist

Marjol

Hi there, looking to sell as soon as possible to get it out of the way. Should hopefully end up with around £75k. We will have to pay all of the moving costs etc, but does anyone know what the tax situation is? i.e. capital gains etc or do we take the money and run.

Martin