Get your finances in order
Part 6: Check Your Outgoings And Existing Debts
Saving for a deposit is hard. That’s why the best place to start is to review your current finances. Remember banks are looking at your spending habits to ensure you can actually afford the mortgage.
Learn where your money currently goes, so that you can identify savings opportunities and also ensure you don’t overstretch yourself on the mortgage and ongoing property ownership costs.
It’s time to review your outgoings:
This includes the following
- How much income you actually receive each month
- How much you currently spend on rent / property
- Spending on utility bills
- Ongoing commitments like mobile phones, child care
- Regular travel expenses
- Annual costs like insurance, holidays etc
- How much you currently have left over at the end of the month that you could be saving
Did you know?
The amount you owe on credit cards and existing loans can reduce the amount some lenders will lend you? Make sure you review the following:
- Balances on credit cards and credit limits
- Overdraft limits
- Loans
- Any other debts
- Unused bank accounts
Your bank may already have a money manager app to make this easier. If not check out the helpful tool below:
Review your expenses with a budget planner tool
What are my next steps?
Check your employment history
Up Next: Lenders look at your where your current income comes from to determine your risk.
Learn more about how you employment history can affect your mortgage application.
Need more help?
Talk with an FCA approved mortgage broker from our network. They offer personal, one on one advice no matter what your stage.
We also cover tips for saving your deposit and identifying alternative ways to buy a property such as with another person or using one of the governments help to buy schemes later in this series.
The legal part. Move Engine is a business set up to help buyers through online help such as the article above. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of our tools and articles you should always seek your own personal advice for your specific circumstances from an FCA approved advisor or lender. Move Engine can not accept responsibility for your actions as a result of the generic information supplied on our site and tools. If you notice a problem with any of the tools or information provided then please report it to hello @ move-engine.com.