My wife and I still work – what mortgage should we get?

I already receive two pensions and am due a third and we’re thinking of going for a lifetime mortgage

Q I’m a 64-year-old man in full-time employment earning around £55,000 a year. My wife is 59 years old and a self-employed beauty therapist, earning around £7,000 a year. I already receive two pensions from previous employment which gives me about £7,500 a year before tax and, if I retire in July next year, I am due a further pre-tax pension of about £5,000 a year. I do, however, have the option to carry on working. We have a £190,000 deposit to buy a house but require another £90,000 to complete the purchase. Is it possible to get a lifetime mortgage to cover the extra we need, or is this type of mortgage just for existing homeowners? If it is, are there any alternative lending schemes on the market?
GR

A Yes, it is possible to take out a lifetime mortgage – a form of equity release – to cover the extra £90,000 you need. And you don’t have to be an existing homeowner to be eligible for a lifetime mortgage (where the mortgage carries on until your death or the point at which you move into a care home). However, a lifetime mortgage may not be the best option. According to independent mortgage brokers, Clifton Private Finance, you’re a bit young to be considering a lifetime mortgage. And you could save money by opting for a retirement interest-only (RIO) mortgage instead. Designed “to keep repayment costs down for older borrowers on pension income”, says Clifton Private Finance, RIO mortgages mean that your monthly mortgage payments are repayments of interest only with no repayment of capital. If you went with “one building society which is offering a RIO mortgage at 2.79% interest per month, your monthly payments [on a £90,000 loan] would be an affordable £209 a month”. You would also have the option to repay up to 5% of the amount you borrowed each year should you find that you have cash to spare. Compared to equity release borrowing – in the form of a lifetime mortgage – the building society’s RIO mortgage deal “would be roughly half the cost”.

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Starlings no friend to the gardener: country diary, 17 March 1920

17 March 1920 These birds will set to work and peck a hole in one after another pear, till practically your crop is worthless

The weather during the past week has been quite what we look for in March – stormy, uncertain, and with bitterly cold winds at times. We hear of damsons and a Victorian plum tree in bloom already in a Westmorland valley, but it is in a sheltered spot within a short distance of the coast; no doubt affected, like all that country is said to be, by the influence of the sea breezes passing over the “Gulf stream,” which strikes that part of the coast. On the fells only a few miles away, however, the snow is lying, and wintry weather is checking the too rapid advance of nature. And it is well so, for many fruit trees were getting too forward for safety.

Related: The sad decline of the swirling starling | Stephen Moss

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Starlings no friend to the gardener: country diary, 17 March 1920

17 March 1920 These birds will set to work and peck a hole in one after another pear, till practically your crop is worthless

The weather during the past week has been quite what we look for in March – stormy, uncertain, and with bitterly cold winds at times. We hear of damsons and a Victorian plum tree in bloom already in a Westmorland valley, but it is in a sheltered spot within a short distance of the coast; no doubt affected, like all that country is said to be, by the influence of the sea breezes passing over the “Gulf stream,” which strikes that part of the coast. On the fells only a few miles away, however, the snow is lying, and wintry weather is checking the too rapid advance of nature. And it is well so, for many fruit trees were getting too forward for safety.

Related: The sad decline of the swirling starling | Stephen Moss

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How to move house sustainably Nottingham Estate Agents

If you’re looking for ways to reduce your impact on the environment, one area you can make changes is when you’re moving home. “In 2018, the transport industry as a whole was responsible for almost a third of all CO2 emissions in the UK, and moving house contributes to this total,” says Sam Rose, Company Director at ‘environmentally-aware’ removal […]

The post How to move house sustainably appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Think the world is ending? Grab a shovel, not a shopping trolley | Adam Liaw

As fears of coronavirus intensify, Australian supermarket shelves have been stripped of dry goods – but it’s gardeners who are best prepared

A year’s worth of dried pasta? A hundred cans of tuna? Fist fights over toilet paper? If you’ve been to a supermarket in the past week or so it’s clear that things are not normal.

Earlier this year Australians were reeling from a summer of drought and fire, but we were still keeping it together. The national psyche was fortified by an outpouring of compassion and generosity at home and abroad.

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Think the world is ending? Grab a shovel, not a shopping trolley | Adam Liaw

As fears of coronavirus intensify, Australian supermarket shelves have been stripped of dry goods – but it’s gardeners who are best prepared

A year’s worth of dried pasta? A hundred cans of tuna? Fist fights over toilet paper? If you’ve been to a supermarket in the past week or so it’s clear that things are not normal.

Earlier this year Australians were reeling from a summer of drought and fire, but we were still keeping it together. The national psyche was fortified by an outpouring of compassion and generosity at home and abroad.

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Floor paint and potted herbs: Five inexpensive ways to freshen up your home

You don’t need to spend money on a statement sofa. Instead, think about your lighting and hunt down vintage pieces in markets and junk shops

It can be tempting – and expensive – to want to furnish a house in one go, but Alexandra Stedman, who runs the interiors and lifestyle site The Frugality, advises living in a space “for as long as possible. The best way of making a house a home is to build things up over time, with things that hold memories. It’s not about buying everything brand new, off the rack. It could be a picture you pick up at a car-boot sale and give a frame six months later, but then it fits that perfect spot on the wall that has been missing something.”

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