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The new school year is always a time of hope for me, much more so than the actual changing of years on 1 January. I always feel refreshed and reinvigorated and ready to plan out the year ahead.
It’s also the time when we mark another anniversary of living in our current home. We moved in when we were just us two, and now we are five. We have certainly grown into the space! I remember when we were selling our old house, it was all so much hassle and such stress!. We had, for a little while looked into keeping it as a rental property as a means of investment for the future. We had got as far as checking out the local letting agents and looking into getting a landlord insurance quote, but in the end, we got a buyer for the house and things then moved pretty quickly. I sometimes wonder if that was the right choice and whether we would have been better holding onto it. But I think, on balance, it was the right thing for us at that point in time to not pursue the rental property. We had a fresh start in our current home and have been able to work on this house. That’s not to say it isn’t something we think about for the future.
Investing or saving?
That’s not to say that we might not invest in the future and find ourselves as landlords. We have a couple of friends who have small rental properties and it really works for them.
We have always been pretty sensible with money. We don’t live a particularly extravagant lifestyle and don’t have the latest phone and TV etc. That said, we don’t ‘deny’ ourselves anything, we just aren’t particularly into gadgets etc. I’d much rather a new bookcase and books!
We have been careful to make sure we have money set aside, and I totally appreciate how fortunate we are to have been in the position of having a good start in life, having secure jobs and having the opportunity to save. It isn’t something we take for granted, and is why we are more cautious I suppose when spending. We have thought about investing money into property or shares, but for now, we think we will continue to set aside a small amount. There’s a chance we might do some work to our current home to extend it – I’m keen to have the loft done and create a bedroom and a small study up there or we may do a larger extension to the side of the property.
Saving for the children
The children have savings accounts and we try to put money aside for them as and when we can, but there are so many options to choose from in terms of savings accounts. We decided we would try to put some money away for them to help with future choices, be it travel, education or a house. Adding small amounts here and there will (hopefully!) add up over the duration of their childhood and they’ll have a little cushion when they’re ready to venture out into the world as adults.
Our children are really lucky that they don’t ‘want’ for anything. My job means that there is a very regular supply of books and other things that we receive so they don’t ever feel like they need to save up. This is both a blessing and a curse, as often they don’t realise that this isn’t a normal thing and that these things are in exchange for my work (I’m trying really hard to make sure they see and understand the exchange of goods for service).
We may well look into the rental world again in the future when we have fewer demands from the children, but for now, we will continue to save and invest in our current home, and enjoy this period of new beginnings.
