I just spent a while looking at mortgages and came to some realisations:
- I could afford to buy a small house/flat in Reading/Bracknell if I started saving now, so I should do that.
- I need to save around 5-10K to make this practical. I’m 23 years old, would be buying on my own, and could take a 30 year term. Letting out a room makes this cheaper than renting.
- I’ll continue paying my parents (folks) rent for the time being, since I have part of the house to myself and it’s better than throwing money away with someone I don’t know. We seldom actually want to kill each other anyway.
- Even if I eventually moved elsewhere, having a small house/flat in the South East is disirable enough (note the property shortage) that renting it out would be very practical.
- Not commuting to Oxford each day by train/bus/taxi will save me over 75 pounds each week. That’s more than buying/running a cheap car.
I’m having a family lunch, then I’ll go out to London for this party Trevor is having. I look forward to seeing him and it is such a nice day that I should go – I have other stuff to do, so I’ll probably try to get back before it’s too late tonight. I also would like to take my bicycle with me, but one of the tires is suspiciously flat. I should probably buy a decent bike too as/when I switch over jobs and can get to work a bit more practically on bike. I can spend the savings on more tech – like a Mac Mini.
Jon.