Page 3 | Does your mortgage freak you out ?

MrDarcysMa · 2021-02-01T20:47:24+00:00

We are 1 year into a 270k mortgage (25 year term as we are fairly old) I check it online every now and then and man it freaks me out as someone who's never had a lot of debt! Started overpaying a little to reduce interest and we'd pay it off a whole 2.5 years earlier [hmm] so obviously we'll increase that as much as we can as and when. Does anybody else get the heebie jeebies when they think about their mortgage ?

Trisolaris · 02/02/2021 09:12

Not really, London rents are so high that it’s now so satisfying to see the mortgage balance go down as opposed to that money go into the black hole of nothingness that was my dodgy landlord’s pocket!

Equimum · 02/02/2021 09:21

Yes, I do feel sick when I think of it, but we are overpaying and have strategies to get through it. Ours was taken out over 30 years, but we are already reducing that by overpayment. Interestingly, based on a. Couple of comments on here, we did my have any trouble getting the longer term, and our FA advised it, as we were buying our ‘forever home’.

Like others have said, we would pay more in rent for our house, and we’ll hopefully be through the mortgage by the time we are 60.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 02/02/2021 09:28

Seeing the numbers are scary. But we are lucky in that we will hopefully pay it off in 7 years (when the purchase goes through)And it's Yorkshire, so relatively small. The other property is interest only so will take longer, and we've had that one 7years already.

As a monthly bill, it's affordable. But black and white numbers make it seem massive. And the amount of interest you pay over the years.

VinylDetective · 02/02/2021 09:33

The only time my mortgage ever bothered me was in the mid 90s when the interest rate went up to 15%. I was nearly sick on my shoes when that happened. At least with a mortgage you know there will be an end to it, rent goes on for ever with nothing to show for it.

Changi · 02/02/2021 09:34

What do you mean 25 years because you are fairly old? Isn't 20 years standard?

The standard length is, or was, 25 years. In my naivety, I didn't realise that you could have any other term until I met my husband who had taken out a 14 year mortgage.

peak2021 · 02/02/2021 09:35

I did, and when it was paid off it is happiness and contentment that remains. Good luck OP with your aim to pay off early.

ilkleymoorbartat · 02/02/2021 09:44

What I'm interested in is, when people talk about their mortgage compared to the value of the house being small, how is that reassuring? If you end up not being able to make payments you still get repossessed, right? So is it just that you'll have more money left over from the repossession. Sorry for being dense.

VinylDetective · 02/02/2021 09:46

@ilkleymoorbartat

What I'm interested in is, when people talk about their mortgage compared to the value of the house being small, how is that reassuring? If you end up not being able to make payments you still get repossessed, right? So is it just that you'll have more money left over from the repossession. Sorry for being dense.

It’s more that the rent for a comparable property would be much higher than the mortgage payments.

Ffsffsffsffsffs · 02/02/2021 10:07

I took my mortgage out in my late 30s, after a very messy divorce. It was waaaay less than yours op, but a huge responsibility and commitment - over 30 years and my max affordability.

8 years later, and with some regular but not massive overpayments, I've just managed to reduce the term by 5 years. It's still not due to be paid off until I'm well into my 60s, but I love getting my annual statement and seeing the balance coming down.

Original poster

MrDarcysMa · 02/02/2021 11:23

@user686233

What do you mean 25 years because you are fairly old? Isn't 20 years standard? Just getting our first mortgage now, and our broker strongly advised not going over 20.

@user686233 most of my friends took out 35 year mortgages when they were in their 20 so they'd have paid if off age 60 ish. We're late 30s so only shorter terms were available to us as we have less 'working' years left although I suspect we'll be working till we're 80 anyway

OP posts:

Fleurchamp · 02/02/2021 11:29

@ilkleymoorbartat

What I'm interested in is, when people talk about their mortgage compared to the value of the house being small, how is that reassuring? If you end up not being able to make payments you still get repossessed, right? So is it just that you'll have more money left over from the repossession. Sorry for being dense.

Perhaps, or perhaps you would be able to sell and still have equity to be able to buy somewhere else outright or have a lump sum to be able to rent? We have a lot of equity in our house - if we really needed to we could sell and move out of London and buy a decent house without a mortgage. The problem is if you have little or no equity. Mortgage companies do not repossess properties that quickly.

Cherryberrypies · 02/02/2021 11:30

Yes I had to delete the nationwide app as the daily interest was causing me pure stress ha

GingerAndTheBiscuits · 02/02/2021 11:31

Ours will tick over from 6 figures to 5 figures at some point this year which feels good! Still 26 years left and we will likely need to borrow to do a lot of work to the house. We never plan to leave though.

Original poster

MrDarcysMa · 02/02/2021 11:41

@Buntysbosom

If we had stayed in our first house we would be mortgage free by now. 2 house moves later, bigger mortgage each time, we now have 19 years to go and are both suffering health wise. I keep praying for a lotto win. It terrifies me when I think about it.

Yes I think we'd move to a cheaper area to 'downsize' the mortgage as I'm wary of taking on more debt as I get older. Sorry to hear about your health issues - will you have to sell and move again?

OP posts:

MsRinky · 02/02/2021 11:47

Our second mortgage was an all-in-one offset mortgage, so every time I went to the cashpoint it told me I was £250k overdrawn. It was incredibly effective at making us realise that our previously invisible mortgage was real debt. We paid it off 15 years early, threw everything we had at it, got quite addicted to seeing the balance go down, and it's all gone now.

Mylittlesandwich · 02/02/2021 11:54

I'm quite fortunate as far as the mortgage goes. It's much less than we paid in rent for a much smaller property and even without overpaying (which I can't do just now) it will be paid off in my mid 40s. Things are tight financially and if we'd been renting we would have really struggled. As it is the mortgage is paid and we still have somewhere to live.

PositiveLife · 02/02/2021 12:03

Yes, I'm sure I worry far too much about it. I think it's mostly because I'm a single parent and I have this fear that everything will just fall apart if I lost my job or something.
It's not a big mortgage by most people's standards and I overpay each month but it still freaks me out.
I also worry about something major going wrong in it.

SingingSands · 02/02/2021 12:08

I used to, when at the beginning it seemed the monthly repayments were making no dent in it. We were young when we started it. It's nearly paid now, about 5 years to go. Now I'm scared of remortgaging to buy our next house! We'll be borrowing the same amount again, but be 20 years older!

Buntysbosom · 03/02/2021 07:27

@MrDarcysMa there is so much work to do on this house now (DH started but can’t finish jobs) it would lose us money. Bit stuck really.

sunflowersandbuttercups · 03/02/2021 07:31

No.

Ours is small though and only a tiny portion of our monthly income (less than 10%).

I just don't think about it. It's about half the price of renting too!

IceCreamAndCandyfloss · 03/02/2021 07:33

No, we didn’t max out like many friends and so can afford to live on one salary should a job loss occur etc. Means more stability and less debt which were important to me. A huge mortgage would be stressful.

Toomanycats99 · 03/02/2021 07:37

Yup similar sized mortgage as a single parent! Paying it off until I'm 70. Small overpayments so on track to finish about 2.5 years earlier. Hoping to up overpayments at some point but that's juggling act with trying to increase pension contributions.

Lorddenning1 · 03/02/2021 07:43

Yeah I know what you mean OP, I have just got my first ever mortgage at the age of 33 and it's over 24 years and it makes me panic a bit, but also for my OH too. When we met he owned the house outright (inherited it) we have decided to do so major house renovations to make it into a 4 bedroom house and lots of family space, we have taken a mortgage out for £93,000 to do the work but once the work is done, we will have a big family home that we probably could never afford if he didn't own the house outright, so I'm trying to stay calm thinking the house really will cost us a small amount in repayments and we will have a forever home for our age that we could even retire into. But imagine having your house paid off and then getting a remortgage for £93000,

GOODCAT · 03/02/2021 07:56

My first mortgage did. Back then the mortgage was more than three times the rent I was paying and that rent had included council tax, so it was more like four times more. It wasn't so much the money though as the feeling of not just being able to move if circumstances changed. It was going from debt free to having responsibility.

Now got used to it. Moved again and mortgage is now bigger than original mortgage and I am 18 years older. Difference currently is that there is more equity in the property so if I lose my job ought to be able to sell and walk away.

ForeverInADay · 03/02/2021 07:59

450k mortgage here

Does worry me if I dwell on it for too long!

Does your mortgage freak you out ?

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