If you've paid your mortgage off how old were you when you did it and how?

[Tulipsy272]

Just daydreaming about being mortgage free. I've just turned 40 and would like to do it by the time I'm 50. It's doable but it would take a huge amount of budgeting. I think it would be worth it in the long term though. I think we'd have to over pay as much as we could each month.

How old were you?

About a month ago. Early/mid fifties. Overpaid a little for a long time, but no other injections of funds. This used to be about the normal age to have a mortgage paid off? But I think things have changed.

Had we not moved to a bigger house, we would have paid it off in late 40s. Although I love the house we’re in, I sometimes lament the extra disposable income we would have had if we hadn’t moved.

45 paid it off last year was so happy our plan was by 50 but with a lot of hard work we managed to donor earlier. Get our endowment payout next year

Hoping to be done by 50 but as pp have said l am in no massive rush - think you need a balance of enjoying your money while you can too. We only owe 25% of the value so in a good position

I would have been 48....... if I hadn’t taken out a bigger mortgage to move away from noisy neighbours.

Luck really.

Lost money on first house but bought second at bottom of the market, so our second move was to a large family home at 75k. We did add an 18k conservatory on too. When we moved we had 21 years left so we kept it the same number of years so didn't extend again.

Then when my son was born the mortgage came up for renewal. I couldn't be arsed to sort it with a screaming baby, milk coming in and a boisterous 2 year old. So agreed a base rate tracker at plus 0.25 percent on base with no end date. The idea was to get a product when I could be bothered.

It's seemed OK and as rate dropped they eventually became very very low. We never changed our repayment.

We paid it off when I was 48. Fully off.

We did have an endowment running alongside which should have paid out 52k, that ended up being 35k. We just kept it as savings.

So lots of luck. Some bad luck like endowment and the initial house negative equity of 4k. But mainly good luck.

Bought my council house under the right to buy so it was a very cheap buy but paid of the mortgage via an inheritance a few years ago at 34 .
I do appreciate that I have been more than lucky though as it’s a lovely house in an area that I love and the house is worth loads more than I paid for it 😂

Am 38, single mum.

Have 12 years left, hoping to pay off in 6-7. No real tricks, bought young, bought the best I could afford (3 bed detached). Worth twice what I bought it for

Forgot to say my mortgage was 52k back in 2003 when I bought it
Not sure of what it’s worth atm but a neighbour sold 330k last year and mine is a corner plot so bigger garden and driveway

We’re early 40’s and hoping to pay it off in the next 2-3 years. Both of us bought our own houses in the late 90’s before the prices rose so both gained quite a lot of equity which we put together to buy our current house. We’ve always overpaid the mortgage each month and plan to pay off a lump sum this year then continue overpaying until it’s done. We’re in a 3 bed semi, in some ways I wish we’d traded up a few years ago for extra space but then we wouldn’t be in the position we are in now & it feels good to think we will have it all done soon. We are not frugal & still enjoy holidays etc but have always been careful to make sure we save.

We bought our current house when I was 37, on a 20 year mortgage, and it was paid of then. We didn’t any extra to pay it off early.

57 with my voluntary redundancy payment.

54, 2 months ago🎊🎉. We didn’t accelerate payment though, did go on holiday most years, had 4 kids we funded through uni and did 2 extensions to the house. Delighted to be finished but no regrets that we didn’t do it faster because we were lucky enough to have no financial pressure and still get it paid off 10 years before we retire

The first time at 44 and the second will be (fingers crossed) at 54.

I was 33 I think.

Had a mortgage since I was 20ish & now dh bought half my house outright with gifted money from his dad after ex & I split up, so when we moved a few years after we bought outright.

It's a great feeling & had given us a lot of extra headspace & wiggle room. We don't have well paid jobs now sadly!

We should be there when I'm 50 which is fairly soon. The big difference is that as you get to the end you are paying off more capital and the interest is very little.

We are lucky as we have a mortgage that lets us overpay and then draw down the overpayments without any penalty. So in effect rather than having separate savings I plough any surplus into the mortgage account.

39. After divorce and as a single mother, I bought a house which needed updating so worked very hard to do that so it was worth a lot more than I paid for it.

6 years later I was made redundant and had no luck finding a decent job in the area. So sold up bought a smaller house in a cheaper area by using equity in the house and so didn't need a mortgage. We had to squeeze in a little but it was fine.

It was an amazing feeling to own the house outright. I have moved up the ladder since and bought every property with cash ever since [buying houses which needed work and then selling on for good prices]. Being mortgage free brings security and freedom so worth a certain amount of sacrifice and compromise. I've always enjoyed life at the same time though, just being careful, lots to do and enjoy without needing loads of money.

The funny part is that the new area which was cheaper is now more fashionable and property very sought after...the posher area I was in is now not as popular.

47.... paid off in 22 years ( 25 bought first home)

First mortgage - 23 due to inheritance.

2nd mortgage - due to pay it off when I am 54 if we don't over pay. Planning on over paying though and if we do it at the rate we plan, it will cut the term in half so will be paid off by the time I am 40 hopefully 🤞🏻

We paid ours off a few years back , early 50s after a 25 year mortgage . That's probably not what you were asking although I expect we got on housing market earlier as properties were relatively cheaper 80s/90s

Couldn’t have paid it off with children still dependant. Downsized dramatically when all left home( aged 55), took early retirement from full time teaching, took a reduced lump sum final pension, paid off the mortgage and earned enough money ( because not paying and overpaying a mortgage any more) on supply. Thought I’d have to do that until I was 66 to get state pension, but stopped at 61 as inherited small amount from elderly late parents.
To be honest I had no idea that I could be mortgage free before my state pension was due, you just never know what path life will lead you along. It’s not something I worried about at all.

35 and 37, paid it off in 5 years.

Both of us had decent jobs and we had a great return on a high risk investment we made.

DH saved secretly to pay ours off in November planning for our future then I got breast cancer. Lovely surprise though. We are 50 and 51.

I’ve been on the property ladder since 2005, but divorce 10 years later meant starting again in 2017 with smaller pot in more expensive area

I’m hoping to have it paid of by 60, but realistically we will outgrow this house and need to borrow more if we stay in the same area

I don’t see our earnings increasing enough to allow us to make any massive overpayments in future

I was 43, Dh was 48.

He bought the house for £35 000 so although we added another £15k to that, our mortgage has always been small. We overpaid and got it paid off. It's now worth £200 000 but I can't see us moving any time soon so it doesn't really matter what it's worth!

We now save what we were used to paying and put it towards Uni fees or house deposits for the kids.