Buying a house is one of the biggest responsibilities you can have in your life. You are making a commitment to pay a monthly amount for a very long time in order to own your own property. By the time you come to the end of the term you will have paid far more than the original cost of the property, but this is the only way you can have your own home.

Or is it? Many of us don't even consider other options when we look at buying instead of renting. It's true that buying a house means your money does not go to waste each month. Renting is often referred to as 'empty money' - you can pay your rent on a property for years and still not own it. Buying your home is different; it might take you years to finally own every brick of it, but each payment does chip away at the amount you borrowed from the bank.

The amount you pay back can differ greatly if you do your research before jumping in. The basic rule to remember is this - the longer the term over which you pay back the amount borrowed, the smaller the monthly payment will be and the larger the sum paid back. If you reduce the period of time over which you are borrowing the money to buy your house, your monthly payment will be larger, but you will also pay far less interest overall.

Mortgages are more versatile nowadays than they used to be. There are far more options to help those who are on lower incomes, and who find it hard to get on the housing ladder because of the high cost of property at present. This means that there are more options available than the twenty five year mortgage term that is still the most common one offered. However if you want to pay back the money borrowed with as little interest as possible, you'll want to opt for a shorter mortgage term rather than a longer one.

The key to deciding whether or not this is for you is to work out how much you can afford to pay each month for your mortgage. Write down all your expenses and deduct them from your current salary to see what you can afford. Be sure not to overstretch yourself. Most people enjoy a certain number of promotions during their working life, but don't count on one to be able to pay a higher mortgage amount. Only work with the figures you know to be true at the moment.