2022 update 30/52
Living arrangement - some advice appreciated
Hopefully some ERE folk can advise me on our future living arrangement as I clearly fail to keep cool head about it. I feel like I am turning circles thinking about it, need to go one level of complexity higher. So please help with a word of advice!
Fate permitting, we will be moving out from the community where we have lived the past 4+ years. This in itself is a sad event, we love it here. Living in the community is dependent on working for the organization* and since I am moving on to working in statistics in the next 2-3 months, we will need to move on. DW now studies cybersecurity and tells me that working full time and studying full time is too much to bear; she intends to take a break from working for some time and study.
* caveat: a friend of mine will be a manager of one of the houses in the community - this post comes with a three bedroom flat and he already invited DW and I to live with him for some time. So we could actually possibly stay in the community for a while longer, but this would likely not be a long term solution.
We now have two full time permanent contracts that we held for a long time and enough savings to secure a 60-80% LTV mortgage for a property. We have two accounts cash from which could be used for first property or would need to wait until retirement (we got bonus money on the cash).
Additionally, the space I inhabit in the village will be undergoing a major renovation probably early next year, and the manager of the place told me I am free to take any furniture from the house if I wish. So naturally I imagined that buying a place would make sense because I could furnish it with the furniture from where I am at now.
Yesterday we went to view the first property to test the waters. I found the process time consuming and stressful. The flat itself was okay but was in a poor looking neighbourhood with rubbish on the streets that did not look inviting. I tried to speak to a neighbour sitting in her window, but she just turned around and closed the window without saying a word!
That property was on the cheap side, had we purchased it for cash we would have ended up with 40% of our current net worth still in our pockets. There are properties in better looking neighbourhoods that we could still have afforded for cash, but we would have then used up nearly all of our savings.
I am aware of 10% inflation and prices of properties going up, and eventually interests rates for mortgages going up (but without property prices dropping).
If we do not purchase any property before moving out, we would then rent a place or a room in a flat share. In terms of money flow this would be more expensive (£200-300 mortgage installment for a purchased property vs £500-700 for renting a flat / room in a flat share).
What keeps me from having a cool head about this:
- I have an aversion to paying so much more per month for renting vs buying. Renting, me with the new job and DW with no job, our savings' rate would go down to maybe 10-15%.
- I fear the inflation will elevate prices for both buying and renting
- in the same neighbourhood, buying a property will get a better (bigger, better location, better finish) one than renting.
- I don't like the idea of borrowing a ton of money and if I want to keep the mortgage low, the neighboorhood will be sketchy (test: how do I feel about inviting my parents to visit?)
My more general thoughts around the subject:
- we have a good thing going with aiming to specialize, I will be starting the statistics job and DW seems like got interested in cybersecurity. I also think that anyway, due to the sunken cost and her character, she will get the degree and get a job in the field. So why would we bother spending a lot of time viewing properties, dealing with banks etc. instead of renting somewhere and spending the time building professional skills** to have lots to offer to employers that they could remunerate with lots of money soon enough?
**the last few years, we excelled at generalist skill set, it can make sense to spend some time on specializing now.
- staying location independent and maximally flexible might be the best thing for us in this moment of transition
- I read that men in their 30s have this immense urge to get a place, maybe @Ego posted it somewhere on the forum. So maybe this is what is at play and biases my judgement.
- why do I feel that this cash that is for the first property/retirement sitting idly is so uncomfortable? It is okay to have cash, the most flexible financial resource. Wait for a property that is in the right place at the right time. Importantly, not tie oneself to a big mortgage. Keep on putting cash into this account and getting the 25% bonus from the government, then get a better place (finish, area, size) with a small mortgage nevertheless.
Job
My friend will be coming to see his new manager flat in one or two weeks. He will be moving from a different organization, so I am doubly happy that I sourced him. He will be a great addition to this village.
It has been about one month of the pre-employment checks for the statistics post. I heard from a colleague that her dad who works for the same organization waited 4 months (but his post is way more senior). I don't mind the wait, summer where I live is fantastic, stuffing my face with wild raspberries, ha! I also now have time to learn R and do prep for statistics courses.
Tree nursery
We are reviving an (~100 years) old tree nursery. These are huge raised beds above the walled garden. Yesterday we were filling the bottom up with gravel to prevent weeds from growing through, then will fill them up with soil. Beauty of a project.
Concert
The concert will take place in the second part of August as the first part will be occupied by our local Highland games.
Circus
There was a circus last week, folk from the local organic farm organized it. It was great, they have some folk with learning disabilities too and they performed, and splendidly!
Reading
The 'Wild Mind' by Bill Plotkin suffers the fate of all the books I read from the Open Library - it goes slowly as best to read from a laptop on which I do lots of other things anyway.
I have read '80000 Hours', a very quick read, book with tips on how to be a good utilitarian. DW is reading 'Doing good better' and I think I will read it after. We also have the 'Precipice'. This is from @Scott 2's
thread.
From Pigliucci's 'Handbook for new stoics':
Week 29: Review your actions nightly. - this was reminiscent of 'Atomic Habits' and becoming 1% / a small fraction better each day. It was hard for me to establish a routine of sitting down and writing it down each night. But when I think about it, slacking on these tasks is a disservice to me at the end of the day.
Maths and Stats
I finished 'Programming with R' by the
software-carpentry.org. Well presented, I aim to find time to do their other courses. I will be now working through either first chapters of 'applications of probability' or 'mathematical statistics'. Still two months before the start of the third (last) year of uni, I should be able to get lots more work done.