The thing to do is to repair stuff as it breaks or wears out. In other words, you should be paying out money almost constantly. Naturally you should also prepar

The thing to do is to repair stuff as it breaks or wears out. In other words, you should be paying out money almost constantly. Naturally you should also prepare for the big stuff, like painting or re-roofing. The rule of thumb like 1-1.5% per year is a reasonable sort of figure. We learned this the hard way, early in our marriage. Every year we said 'This is the year of the house' and then changed our minds and travelled instead. Ten years down the track, we realised that all those little costs never went away, but we now had to pay all of them in one hit. I have another rule of thumb with houses. "Every time you move from one house to another, it will cost you at least 10-20 grand" on top of the actual moving costs. Your furniture won't fit, so you have to buy other furniture that does. Or the toilet in your 'new' house suddenly dies, or your trusty old fridge dies from the shock of moving, or you need to replace your car because some changes occur in your 'new' lifestyle, or something else ... The biggest thing I hate is when a major appliance dies. You are forced to shell out a lot of money, but you're no better-equipped than you were a few weeks ago.