House or family - what is your choice?

AliaDawn wrote: Family - Seb wasn't planned, but I would still choose family first... Mike would've probably picked the house though! We couldn't afford a house whether we had a kid now or not, so not that different.

My DH would like a house too (it's the kiwi dream) but after reading that article in the weekend he's decided that goal is too way out for us and it was his idea to start TTC again this September (and he told all my aunties so he must be serious this time).

He is now warming a bit more to the idea of building a home on my mum and dads section in Featherston which would give us the best of both worlds, kids & a home, but would mean we'd have to find work out that way.

sally belly was so right - But to answer the question - I'd choose family over a house. I believe that life is too short to wait until the "right" time to have kids because it will never arrive.

I had bought a house way back in 2002 when my wage was under $40K...a lifetime ago it seems....and I made it work....then 3 years ago i bought an investment property also on a wage where i cant believe i made it work....both with my mum - so basically on two wages like most couples....now my wage has increased big time and mortgage seems small in comparison really....good timing on our part...and very rentable properties luckily that have risen in price in value too

Had i wanted or needed IVF etc to have ella or another bubba then i would have borrowed against my equity no worries....no question about it....

a home and a family is where we are at.

We bought our house first (on our first wedding anniversary) and concieved six months later. It worked well for us but that was way back when you could get a 3brm house on a full section in Auckland for $155k.

If we were starting again I would definitely say family over house. In fact we are currently renting again as with three very busy boys it made sense for us to move closer to dh's work but we can't afford the houses in the area.

We brought our home in 2004 for $280,000 back in the day when you could get a home with three bedrooms and a two rooms sleepout for the much..
Its a really tough call, because I am dieing to have a baby but DH's main concern is the mortgage, whcih take up 36% of our income, but if I have a baby, it means my salary is kinda out the window for a little. It would be hard but we could still do it.

If i had to choose between owning and our home and having children, i would give up the home in a heart beat! but ig we can have a family and keep our house then Id rather do that, as the security is a pretty good reason to keep the house!
<we pay $525 for our mortgage a week in auckland..>
Edited to include last three zeros in housecost :P $280?? I WISH!! lol

Edited by almostthere

Ours just worked out that we had the house before kids..

But our mortgage isn't far off rent I don't think. We only have a 160k mortgage (300k home in palmy) as DH got into the housing market when he was single and made a huge profit on that house to get our current home. Our mortgage is only 560 a fortnight which isn't too bad but bad enough.

We're getting so much crap for our decision not to buy a house yet, I really wish people would understand that if we could, we would!!!

At the moment the plan is kids first, maybe a house later. While we would love the security of our own place, we would need my ENTIRE salary to pay the mortgage on even a very small place, which means having any maternity leave would be extremely difficult. As we are, I should be able to take a couple of months off once we eventually have a baby. I really hope that we will be able to save a deposit while bringing up kids, but I'd rather have a chance at SAH for a short time now.

We didn't choose, Maya chose us. So we rent. But I'm still pretty impressed with how far we've come since having her. When I had her we were living in a crappy 2 brm Housing NZ place in a crappy area. We're now renting privately from great landlords in a fairly decent area in a huge 4 brm place with access to decent schools etc. so we have progressed.

I guess I'm a bit complacent about buying too coz we have a family trust set up to help us buy when we're ready so I don't see the great rush. But I do appreciate how lucky we are to be in that situation.

We pay $400 a week in rent, mortgage payments for a house the size we'd need, even in a not so good area, would be nearly twice that.

We bought our first house 7 years ago when kids were something that was gonna happen in the distant future. We then came out here 4 years ago and pretty much spent all the money we had made on the property in England having a good time We did still have enough for deposit though and after renting for nearly 18 months I was dying to get into our own house again. I also wouldn't have thought about starting a family in rental accomodation because they never felt like home, just somewhere to live till we got a home.
We are also lucky that we bought a property that has a 2 bed self contained unit attached, so our mortgage is $530 per week but we get $170 in rent (which includes all her electric etc) so that really helps us out. When I was working we didn't rely on that money but now we do so if our tenant decided to move out then I would have to go back to work (properly not just tossing around like I am at the moment). I really hated handing over my rent knowing that it was just paying someone elses mortgage. I hate paying my mortgage as well, but in the long run it is worth it.

Having said all that, if our incomes were at the level that we couldn't afford a house and a family but we could afford to rent a nice place and have a family or to have a house and no family, then without a doubt we would have chosen to have the family and the nice rental.

I was just finishing sixth form when Lesieli decided it was a great time to come and play lol so by seventh form I had a new baby girl and was studying my way through 7th form. I dream of one day buying a house but for now I am renting as that is all I can afford being a single mum on one income. I have a great job and get paid well for the hours I do  but just cant afford to save for a deposit yet. I dont have much debt and am currently doing kiwisaver so once I have a small deposit I will start looking for a first home for me and the kids