To feel panic to owe this much on my mortgage?

Its a monthly bill which you can remove at anytime if you so choose (downsizing etc). If you can afford it why on earth are you worrying? keep paying it until you run into a situation where you no longer can and if that happens then worry about it. Every month you pay into it is an extra months investment.

I think you're probably misplacing you anxiety on this one.

Sounds fine, do you have a buffer for unexpected expenses, boiler etc?
If not I might save something rather than overpaying for a bit

I'm 48 and paying interest only waiting to be able to remortgage to capital repayment.
Won't bore you with the reasons but I'm just hoping that when I come to remortgage I have enough working years left to be able to make the payments. 🙈

@flipent I totally agree

It's not loads. I think it's pretty normal for a mortgage. It usually goes down quickly and becomes a smaller proportion of your income as time goes by.

Also, inflation erodes the value of the debt. For example, 200k today is the equivalent of around 163k four years ago.

I'm not really sure where your anxiety is coming from here. The actual amount outstanding is irrelevant. What matters are all the other figures e.g. the monthly repayments and how affordable they are (obviously very affordable if you can overpay by £500 every month), the amount of equity you have and how easy it therefore is to weather any dips in the housing market (you owe less than 50% of the value of your home, so clearly no cause for concern there).

You say the house has only increased in value by £15k in the last 2 years - I think that is fairly good in comparison to most of the country. We had the crazy increases in summer 2022 and then it's been pretty flat for most people.

If you've got the kind of earning potential to cover these kinds of costs alone, in addition to paying nursery fees, it's probably safe to assume you have a decent level of education. So it seems likely that there's some kind of anxiety driving these worries, because they're just not rational or common sense. Either that or this is a weird goady thread.

If you can overpay whilst in the nursery years as a single payment - you are doing brilliantly!

I know what you mean about the figure being an issue though - we happened to take our most recent mortgage out with the bank I bank with and for some horrible reason the outstanding mortgage amount shows up on the banking app next to my current account! It is always on my mind now, rather than with our old mortgage when I'd get the statement through once a year and it was mostly out of sight, out of mind.

I think you are just in a vacuum of comparison so not meaning to be tone deaf.

As with other pp, there is no need to sell your house. Your chin is well above water given you are over paying your mortgage.

IF some financial calamity befell you, you could react by selling your house, releasing equity and down sizing. But don't do that now - huge costs and no immediate need.

In reality, just carry on as you are. When you get to retirement you assess your position then. Likely it will look very very different.

Your mortgage statement should tell you when your debt will be gone... Check what it says, if your working life will cover the duration you're fine.

If I was in your shoes I’d be very happy to have so much equity and be overpaying and managing it all solo, sounds like a great financial position to be in (our mortgage keeps me up at night sometimes but nearly 350k and SAHM / single earner household!)

Forget about how much £220k feels, that's not what to focus on.

If you can overpay by £500 a month and still meet all your other expenses, have a decent life and save for the future, that's more important.

Does the house suit your needs in terms of size/location? Do you like it?

What would downsizing look like? Would you still have somewhere nice to live? Remember that moving is expensive.

Do you have protection in place in case you couldn't work? Work sick pay, life insurance, income protection insurance etc?

My last post overlapped with your update.

If you have more than 50% equity and you're over paying - then I'm sorry but your are being frankly ridiculous to worry about this.

You are in a better position than so many people who have genuine fears over losing their house.

Your post is tone deaf and insensitive.

I’m 48 and currently owe (with DH) £450k. However, the house is worth around £1.1 million so I just keep reminding myself of how much equity we have rather than focusing on the amount owed.

If you can manage to overpay by 500 a month you will surely finish paying it off in 10-15 years? So it's fine?

If you would feel more comfortable in a smaller house with a smaller mortgage and want to have lots of holidays etc, then do it! Less to clean and probably much cheaper repairs too :)

10% of mortgage is £22,000 but you are extremely unlikely to have a 100% mortgage so it has to be at least 10% of the house value!

If you're managing the repayments and overpaying I think you can relax a bit.

In how many years will you be mortgage free?

I'm starting over again aged 39 and have a £200k mortgage. I don't give it a second thought right now!

So you have over 50% equity AND are overpaying £500 a month.

You are doing brilliantly.

A lot of people under 40 are currently doing "interest only" in the (forlorn) hope it comes down at some point later on. Many people under 40 haven't even bought yet. Certainly wouldn't get sleepless nights over that, I can only imagine there's something underlying which is causing the anxiety - eg job insecurity?

If you can afford to over pay by £500 a month, and still live comfortably, then I am sure you are fine.

Total mortgage is not a very useful number.

If you can afford the repayments, have a comfortable equity cushion (as close to no risk of negative equity as possible) and the term is within your planned working life then try not too worry.

If you are coming to the end of a fix and are worried about interest rates and your repayments increasing or you have very little equity, then it may be worth looking at options. But moving will eat into all of the savings you have and possibly more once you've factored in all of the fees, moving costs and stamp duty.

Ignoring the total number - what are your concerns?

When I was a single parent I had £390k on my mortgage aged 35. Now I’m married again but the mortgage is over £600k and I’m 40. I think you’re fine, it’s mangable for you so no point worrying about it!

With £280k equity, on your own, I really don't think you have much to worry about! If it's keeping you up at night, I agree with a pp that you may benefit from some therapy to handle the anxiety. It's a big responsibility but will be worth it in the long run.

Its "only" gone up over 10% in two years? That's pretty good in my book!