Hey all!🥰 This is a bit of a random one lol but I’m just curious. For anyone on here who has bought their first house - how much savings were you left with afterwards? (If you’re comfortable answering) Me and my partner have just bought our first home a couple of months ago, and we both paid the same amount towards the deposit from our own savings. My partner earns a lot more than me so insists on paying more of the bills - I want to pay my way as much as I can, so we split all bills apart from the weekly food shop and the home insurance which he covers himself. Since we have the house finished and have been moved in for a few months my personal savings fluctuate between 2-2.5k and I try really hard to make sure it never goes under 2k. But sometimes I get very stressed as my partner has way more savings than me even after the house purchase due to his higher wages, and I often think if an unexpected large expense came up or we wanted to book a holiday or something I don’t feel as though I have a lot to stand on - but find it hard to increase my savings due to our household bills etc. it’s all still very new!🙈 just really curious to see if my situation is similar to many others, I’m in the UK btw☺️ Thanks in advance🩷

Congratulations on your new house! I can't give you any numbers as of right now, as my bf and I are currently looking into either to buy a new house together or to take out a mortgage to do huge renovations in the house that my bf bought years ago (by himself). With all the fees that come up during the process, it seems like it will eat up all of our current savings and we would be left with maybe 2-3k remaining (depending on how much we can save up until then, currently we have enough to pay all the fees which are ridiculously high (10-15k). About your situation, are you splitting everything 50/50 or is more proportionate based on your incomes? Is there a chance for you to potentially earn more in a few years time? It can also be a smart move to pay more on top of your mortgage at the beginning (maybe first 5-10yrs) since a lot of it goes towards interest % and less towards the house loan repayment. After some years it evens out, but doing this can shorten your mortgage by several years in the long run. If you decide to have children, they're going to be another huge expense which makes it even more difficult to save money. Also there's a lot of hidden costs associated with owning a house such as maintenance, or issues occurring throughout the years of living there. What if the washing machine or fridge breaks down? Calling a plumber or an electrician in can also be annoyingly expensive (not to mention takes forever to find one). All these little things add up over time and it sucks if you're not prepared 😂 I've been in similar situations before (and partly still am) that I feel a little inferior or insecure due to earning less. But for me it helped switching jobs/career and dividing our expenses more proportionately. But I'm terrified for when the kids are going into the picture because the stories are true: kids (and childcare) are expensive af and single-income families are generally a thing of the past due to the costs of living.

Congrats on the house☺️ I personally think you should try to balance your finances a bit more. While I think it’s good not to be fully reliant on a partner financially, you’ve clearly been together for a while and are serious as you’ve bought a house together so you should be a partnership at this point. One person in the ‘team’ shouldn’t be living their best life financially while the other is struggling, that’s not equitable. I recommend splitting outgoings proportionally to your salaries, so if he’s on a much higher salary then he should probably cover all the bills, while you just pay for your part of the mortgage and your car as long as that leaves you and your partner with similar disposable incomes afterwards. As @xnymphadora said it’s important to discuss these things ahead of time and not be too prideful. If you plan to have kids maternity leave pay tends to be low in many countries and the burden shouldn’t only be on you to keep yourself afloat while on it x

@xnymphadora @awg1 thank you both so much!🥰 So yeah the mortgage and household bills like electric and WiFi we split 50/50 - then my partner pays the full amount of the home insurance and he covers the weekly food shop/household products. I personally think it is a pride thing on my side - which is silly as I know myself it does make sense for the higher earner to pay more of the bills etc. My partner has always said he will pay more than me and when any extra costs come up he’s very quick to say he’s covering it so I can’t fault him at all - from the start I said I want to do 50/50 as much as possible but if I found myself struggling then I would agree for him to pay a little more, so maybe that could be something I want to look more into in the future. I was just curious as everyone’s situations are so different and it’s hard to know what the ‘norm’ is for left over savings after a house purchase🙈 I do plan to look for a different job shortly and would hopefully be going for something with increased pay than what I’m on now. And totally agree with you both about maternity pay/child care costs. We don’t plan to have kids for another few years but it’s definitely something to think about and be prepared for! Thank you both again🩷