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Original poster

If you have paid off your mortgage....

54 replies

Soen · 08/01/2020 21:09

Just wondering how different your life is if you have paid off your mortgage.

I have many years to go til I have paid mine off, but I have been overpaying for a while. My job is tiring and stressful and I have 2 children. I sometimes dream of the day my mortgage is paid off so I don't have to slog my guts out every day. I'm fucking knackered and only early 30s.

Is life really any different once it has been paid off? Did anyone fulfil any lifelong ambitions once they had more freedom? Did anyone take on another mortgage, btl etc? I'm an eternal day dreamer who plays out different scenarios in my head constantly.

OP posts:
mrsm43s · 08/01/2020 21:55

We paid ours off in our mid 30s by overpaying. We paid our 25 year mortgage in 10 years, by throwing any payrises at it, and not reducing our monthly payment when the interest rates kept going down and down.

We now pay school fees for the children which are many, many times more expensive than the mortgage ever was, and are more broke than ever!

Once they've left school, we'll have contributions to Uni to pay, followed no doubt by wanting to help the children on the property ladder. There's always something to spend the money on!

I do think that knowing we own the house outright makes us feel secure.

Atthebottomofthegarden · 08/01/2020 21:56

We had paid it off but have since borrowed it back to do an extension & new kitchen. We’ll have paid it off again in another 2.5 years I think. Will try v hard not to mess with it again! Pensions are the next priority.

We got 25 years down to about half of that; as well as overpaying, each time our fixed rate ended we remortgaged for a slightly shorter term. So after the first 3 years when the fixed rate was up, we took the next mortgage for 20 years not 22 - lopping 2 years off. Did this a couple of times, it doesn’t make much difference to the payments and makes a BIG difference to when you pay it off.

Echobelly · 08/01/2020 22:01

I've not paid it off as such, but I have inherited enough money to pay it off, and because we're still within a fixed rate period with penalties for early payoff, I have recently started drawing down the amount each month from the lump sum to pay it without incurring a penality (and will look at best way to pay off when penality drops).

This basically halves what we each have to pay into bills, so I'm putting up my pension contributions by about 85%, as I've not been putting anything like enough in.

DH works in a field with high pay but intermittent work, and without the mortgage we can just about manage on my salary if we have to, so that's a weight off my mind too.

Still leaves me a lot more money each month - I've been really enjoying being able to buy better quality clothes and shoes (not lots of thm, but now I don't have to sacrifice something else if I want to spend £100+ on something), and I can afford London theatre/opera tickets more than once or twice a year. Also I can afford a massage every month, which is a real treat. I could have always just asked DH to buy these things when he's working and he'd have freely done so, but I feel much more relaxed about spending it now it's 'mine'.

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EvaHarknessRose · 08/01/2020 22:05

Paid it off and started saving the same amount monthly towards paying the parental top up of uni maintenance loans for two dc (aiming to save up 3k per year of uni per child). Once we've got that in the bank I think we'll feel a lot better off because other things we want to provide for the dc are already paid for. We've managed some one off holidays too.

ICouldHaveBeenAContender · 08/01/2020 22:13

We were about to pay off mortgage no 1 a few months early, and put the money saved towards overpayments on mortgage 2, but DH got a tax bill the same size. Paying off mortgage 1 is on hold. Grin

Original poster
Soen · 08/01/2020 22:40

Yeah I guess there is always something to spend more money on. I'm just gonna keep overpaying as and when I can. It all helps.

OP posts:
dingledanglescarecrows · 08/01/2020 22:50

I actually feel quite 'cash poor' at the moment. House paid off and I'm lucky to have a sabbatical from work until youngest DC starts school so no monthly wage coming in from me.

As PPs have said I don't mention it IRL, we live up North though so our house is probably worth less than a 1 bed flat in London!

scaryteacher · 09/01/2020 02:03

Paying ours off 2.5 years early meant that dh could retire last month at 58.

FoamingAtTheUterus · 09/01/2020 02:19

Mine worked out as about £40 a week so not much. 😂😂😂

EssexGurl · 09/01/2020 08:47

We had a low monthly payment as we’d overpaid for a number of years. When we repaid the outstanding balance we put the monthly payments into savings so still had the same outgoings. So no difference to us. But now we are looking at remortgaging so we can do building work. So a never ending cycle. However, even with the new mortgage we have sufficient equity in the house to feel secure.

LlamaofDrama · 09/01/2020 09:08

Paid off when we were mid 30s. On the plus side I have shifted career a couple of times, and been able to take pay cuts to do so. I am part time and DH was from when DD was born till she was 8, which meant he had one day a week of sole charge which was fantastic for both of them and he frequently says it was the best thing ever.

On the down side, we have never moved on from that house. Never climbed the ladder. Our house is a less valuable investment than if we'd instead moved, continued paying a mortgage. We looked into moving and getting another mortgage but the options were either for me to go full time which neither of us wants (I'd have been willing to do it though) it too still be paying it in our 70s which neither of us wants.

So, plus side, it's given us freedom to make some great choices that make us happy. But it's limited our choices as well.

BiddyPop · 09/01/2020 09:18

We are about to pay ours off next month. We kept the payments at their original level when the interest rates were falling about 10 years ago, so managed to knock 7 years off the term (as the extra money that used to be interest went straight off the capital instead - an extra €50 every month really adds up!).

We are now paying school fees for DD as the state school near us is massive and not great for SNs (she has some), so she's going private in a much smaller school which is both very academic but very "whole child" focussed and has both a great arts programme (useless for us) and fantastic sports programme (DD is sports mad!!). So she is getting to do a lot of sports which are good for her, and also help her regulate herself better to apply herself in the classroom. And it being small (under 400 pupils - there are over 1,000 in the state school), all the teachers know all the pupils, even those they don't teach, and can understand individual foibles. We wouldn't have done this if the mortgage was not close to being paid off as the fees are large.

We are also thinking about buying a boat in about 2-5 years time. To get out sailing as a family and potentially use as a base for holidays in time.

DameSylvieKrin · 09/01/2020 09:28

I paid mine off aged 32. Probably we had sushi to celebrate.
Being mortgage free has been a cornerstone of our financial stability. Neither of us had any help from our parents so we always knew we would have to be frugal and save. (Having said that we are privileged to have had a good state education and to have turned that into high paying jobs.)
We could buy our family home without selling our first flat and bought a further two properties. The rent that comes from the mortgage free property covers the mortgages on all three others. We can therefore live on 50% of one salary, meaning we can both work part time and spend time with the children. I can risk going freelance and starting a business, both choices that can increase my income further.
It’s tough but keep at it!

AtLeastThreeDrinks · 09/01/2020 09:41

@ShirleyPhallus that seems a strange approach, have you ever used a mortgage overpayment calculator to see how much you'd save on interest by paying it off early? Like this? Sorry if that comes across as patronising –it's not intended that way, I'm genuinely curious!

I got a bit obsessed looking at ours, we're overpaying as much as possible every month to bring it down by years. It might leave me cash-short in the short-term but I cannot wait for the security of knowing the place is ours, and the cash we'll save will build up again quickly.

Original poster
Soen · 09/01/2020 09:51

We are also thinking about buying a boat in about 2-5 years time. To get out sailing as a family and potentially use as a base for holidays in time.

Omg, this is my dream. Always wanted a small yacht. Not having a mortgage would make that feasible (I'd have mooring fees instead).

OP posts:
BiddyPop · 09/01/2020 10:00

Soen, we think mooring fees would be equivalent to 1 or 1.5 monthly mortgage payments, once a year.

But other maintenance costs would also add up - cleaning hull, breakages, replacing ropes and sails, …..and the diesel for when you are motoring rather than sailing. (Which is likely to be a lot initially at least, as we get a LOT of wind here!!). Grin So the other 10.5-11 months of mortgage payments could quickly get swallowed up!!

amusedbush · 09/01/2020 10:11

We inherited a house last year. It was an absolute bombsite and it didn't even have central heating installed so we've spent months renovating it from top to bottom, and we will be moving in by the end of this month.

We live in a cheap part of the country but we still didn't think we'd buy a house for at least five years, never mind own one outright. It is life-changing.

ExpletiveDelighted · 09/01/2020 10:18

I just stick it in my pension instead, so no real difference day to day. We didn't celebrate, I may have mentioned it to DH (I do all our finances). Doesn't feel any different TBH.

Foslady · 09/01/2020 10:21

@Echobelly - I too am now in that situation. The fixed term has meant I have been thinking about the situation and whereas I planned to pay it off ASAP, I’m now thinking to just overpay as much as I can once I’m out of it in a few months so I don’t get hit with penalties (it would make a serious dent in the amount I would save by paying off early).
Instead I plan to overpay with the overpayment being from savings so in effect I still as saving by keeping the payments I would have used still in savings if that makes sense!
Dd is hoping to be at uni in 18 months so will help knowing that I have money there if needs be

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 09/01/2020 10:21

We paid ours off from inheritance, otherwise we'd have needed another 10 years. The payments were only about 10% of our income, so we had a bit more headroom. The real difference was at work, where a common threat from my then boss was "how are you going to pay your mortgage?". The look on his face...

Also "Title Absolute" looks rather nice on the deeds.

Echobelly · 09/01/2020 11:04

@Foslady it's also useful doing it this way as we keep some liquidity, so if we were to need a lump sum we might choose to go back to paying the mortgage. Have put some money in a locked down 3 year ISA and may invest some more.

furrytoebean · 09/01/2020 11:15

I lived on a yacht in my early twenties and it was awful. So so so much condensation.

I pretended to love it at the time and it meant I got to live in an extremely expensive part of the country but I nearly cried the first night I spent on dry land with proper heating.

Was great for short term, but I couldn't do it long term or if I had any mobility issues, health problems etc

Original poster
Soen · 09/01/2020 11:24

Biddypop - true, yachts are a money pit. So beautiful though and I long for FREEEEEEEDOM!! Grin

OP posts:
Sipperskipper · 09/01/2020 11:28

We paid ours off about 3 years ago. It has been wonderful in that we feel very secure, and know whatever happens we will have our home. It also means I’ve been able to work very part time and be at home with toddler DD.

ShirleyPhallus · 09/01/2020 11:33

@AtLeastThreeDrinks yes indeed. But I am on maternity leave this year, plus we have some other stuff we think we might need cash for so when we took our mortgage out earlier this year, we decided a sensible term without over stretching ourselves

If all goes fine on mat leave and we don’t need the cash it will go in to overpayments but for the year, that’s what we have chosen to to. I’d rather have a nice life now for the year than worrying about money but having loads of the mortgage paid for