u/Substantial-Pen3212

Hi all, me and my partner (approx 30 years old) purchased an 800k two bedroom townhouse two years ago.

At that time, our household income was $140k and we pulled together the minimum house deposit of 160k together, and had very little left over afterwards.

2 years later, we absolutely love living in our townhouse and do not see ourselves needing to move until we have kids. However, we are now in a very fortunate position as we have since inherited 200k and our household income is now approx 220k. Our house has probably decreased in value slightly, but not by a lot (similar houses in my area are selling for about 785-790k).

Our current strategy is to pay down the mortgage as much as the bank will let us, and the excess is being invested.

From a lifestyle perspective, we love townhouse living. However, when we decide to have kids I assume we will want to get a bigger place once we are thinking about having a second.

From a financial perspective, I have wondered whether we are better off staying where we are and aggressively paying down the mortgage and investing, or whether it would be best for us to sell once we hit 3 years (no bank penalties) since we can afford the upgrade? I am conscious that there will be a slight loss on the townhouse (which I am fine with mentally) and the real estate agent fees (more of a punishing thought).

I am really enjoying the financial freedom we have now, and having excess funds to better our financial position. I have just wondered whether it would be more financially worthwhile to put those funds into our next house now, rather than later. I wish we all had a crystal ball!

Thanks everyone!

Hi all,

I am looking for some advice about what to do in a blank 3 night spot spot in my itinerary, which are marked with an and set out below. I land in Rome on 31 August 2026 and will be departing either through Amsterdam or Paris on the afternoon of 25 September.

For context, this is a first time trip to Europe for me. I am travelling all the way from NZ, and I am very excited I want to see as much as I can, but I am trying to avoid one night stops. For the part that is missing, I would like to include a stop that offers something a bit different from the rest of my itinerary, and is different from what I have at home in NZ. I would like to avoid a huge city if I can, due to the rest of my itinerary.

In terms of my interests, we love food, history & museums and interesting architecture or landscapes. We aren’t interested in spots that are just for beach days, or spending more than 4 hours travelling in one stretch.

* Rome - 4 nights (already booked).
* Florence - 4 nights (not booked).
* Split - 1 night before Sail Croatia (booked). I note intention is just to get to Sail Croatia, we aren’t intending on seeing much of split unfortunately.
* Sail Croatia - 7 nights. I note that this is the ‘explorer’ not the ‘navigator’ option aka not a party cruise.
* Unallocated - 3 nights.
* Paris - 4 nights.
* Amsterdam - 3 nights.

Would love your thoughts on what we could do for the unallocated 3 nights. I note that we do not want to extend out Paris or Amsterdam (partner has been before). We also do not want to stop in Belgium or go to places that will be much of the same as what we saw on Sail Croatia. We also currently have the flexibility to include the 3 nights at any time after Sail Croatia (I.e. could be before/after Amsterdam or Paris). We will need to end up in either Amsterdam or Paris for the finale, for ease of going home.

Thanks everyone!

Hi all!

I was hoping to get some feedback on my one month itinerary in Europe. I am flying over from NZ and this will be my first time in Europe, and likely the last trip for a very long time. We are in our early 30s.

I am going over the month of September. The trip is high pace given we are travelling all the way from NZ, but I have tried to keep us in the same region (ish) and minimise very lengthy travel (over 5 hours).

I would be keen to get your thoughts on the below:

* Rome (3 nights - entry point).
* Florence (3 nights - planned day trip to Tuscan countryside).
* Cinque Terre (2 nights)
* Dubrovnik (2 nights).
* Korcula (2 nights)
* Split (2 nights - not too worried if we go to split)
* Amsterdam (2 nights).
* Paris (3 nights)
* Reims (2 nights)
* Strasbourg (2 nights - day trip colmar - will train back to Paris before next location).
* London (3 nights).

I think there are definitely parts of the trip we need to cut or change from here (to have less two night stays), but we haven’t been quite able to figure it out. We are okay with higher pace, but don’t want to lose our minds!

Right now my thoughts are:
* Cinque Terre is a must for me - but I need to figure out when to go with logistical issues of getting to Croatia.
* I hoped the two night trips would feel less brutal given they are closer together and mostly smaller places (with exceptions). My initial goal was to have 3 nights everywhere but it has been hard to reconcile with how ambitious I’m feeling at the moment! I also find it hard to conceptualise staying 3 nights in smaller places.
* I am considering removing London to add days to France, Croatia and Italy so there are less 2 night trips.
* We mainly wanted to go to Croatia to add a coastal element to the trip. I wondered about travelling up Italy to Switzerland and Slovenia, which wouldn’t be coastal. The other option I debated was South of France but it felt like the only thing to see there was the beach - and we want culture plus beach! We also love Game of Thrones.
* In Croatia, we wanted an island experience element other than just mainland. We don’t really care about going to split that much but it seemed to make sense re the ferry rides and exiting. We are okay with only seeing it briefly. My partner just wanted to go for one night but I’ve tried to remove one nighters.
* We know we could spend more time in Paris but we would rather spend time in smaller parts of France.
* Our non negotiables of the trip are Italy (generally), and Amsterdam.

Thanks!