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?

I'm 50 and we only have 20k left to pay off. We have more than that in savings so could pay it off now but we like the flexibility and security of having an emergency pot. Mortgage will be paid off within the next two years through our monthly payments anyway.

We bought our first house when I was 25 for 60k , second one when I was 29 for £120k before prices went completely bonkers and then our current one when I was 37 for £430k. The highest mortgage we ever had was £200k and it gave me sleepless nights for a few years.

I think natural frugality helps and having a make do attitude. We thought about building an extension but in the end it meant adding more to the mortgage and we decided not to. We also drive our cars till they stop being repairable and buy clothes in charity shops. It's more a state of mind, for some people it would seem a joyless existence but for us it's just normal, though I think we take it too far sometimes e.g. we really need a new sofa and keep putting it off!

I'm glad we did because I have colleagues stuck in a job they've come to hate because they bought bigger houses and expensive cars. That sounds judgey but I really don't mean it to. It's just the law of natural consequences. They had reasons for making those choices.

I think we should all be told this when we're young - that you have to make a choice between buying stuff and buying time / freedom. The tricky bit is putting off buying experiences like travel because it's risky assuming they will always be available.

50 - bought first property with partner at 25 years old with a 25 year term mortgage. When we moved we didn't extend the term. Property prices were more reasonable back then.

Hoping to have mine paid off by 50. I'm 35 now. I need to buy my ex put though so will end up borrowing more at some point. Can't wait to be shut of my mortgage to be honest.

Out*

Paid it off when we were 45. Combination of maximum overpayments, big lump sums between mortgage terms and redundancy payment.
We paid it off to ensure stability as DH's employment was particularly precarious and it was the higher of the two of us.

I totally don’t get the obsession with paying off mortgages early. I get people want to be mortgage free at a reasonable point in their lives, but if it’s low interest (as most are at the moment), I’d rather spend the money on pensions, family and experiences.

This is exactly how I feel. Our mortgage is the lowest interest rate loan we have and it will be paid off before we retire so I can't see any benefit to overpaying it other than for the kudos of saying we're mortgage free but if that had to come at the price of a nice life then it's not worth it.

Things were a bit desperate when interest rates hit 15%, I had to rent out my bedroom while I lived in the living room. As rates reduced, I got my bedroom back and very gradually started to overpay my mortgage and paid it off in my 50s.

@madmara

I totally don’t get the obsession with paying off mortgages early. I get people want to be mortgage free at a reasonable point in their lives, but if it’s low interest (as most are at the moment), I’d rather spend the money on pensions, family and experiences.

This is exactly how I feel. Our mortgage is the lowest interest rate loan we have and it will be paid off before we retire so I can't see any benefit to overpaying it other than for the kudos of saying we're mortgage free but if that had to come at the price of a nice life then it's not worth it.

If you have a very safe job like a public sector one then maybe that approach is the best.

But if you don't then paying off the mortgage early gives you the security and flexibility if redundancy or illness strikes. Paying into pensions is good but not if you need the money before age of 55 as it's locked away.

I didn't sacrifice holidays but I did prioritise paying down the mortgage which meant we could comfortably survive on one wage if we ever need to.

A lot of people like to have the secure feeling that their home is paid for and can’t be taken away if something happened and their are unable to make payments on their mortgage.

Not everyone lives on a shoestring in order to pay off their mortgage, many are still able to spend money on pensions, family and experiences.

31, life insurance pay out for a very treatable and survivable cancer. Still here 7 years later. Turns out my cancer was extremely rare so they didn't have any risk statistics for it, and because the doctor was unable to safely biopsy I didn't get a staging number for them to plug into their spreadsheets so the insurance company just sort of panicked as the computer couldn't figure it out. At no point have I been told my diagnosis is terminal. In fact I've had no trace of the cancer since the initial 2 week treatment. You'd think I would be overjoyed but it caused a huge amount of anxiety and a lot of panic that the insurance company knew something I didn't about my life expectancy!

Now I can never get life insurance again which sucks, funerals aren't cheap.

I can't see any benefit to overpaying it other than for the kudos of saying we're mortgage free but if that had to come at the price of a nice life then it's not worth it.

It's not about 'kudos' - after all, who would even know ? - it is about security and about choices.
Having paid off our mortgage, we now have far more choices..... retire early ? Go Part time ? Follow a dream and change careers ? Be able to support your dc ? Spend wildly on whatever it is that you fancy - holidays, fancy car, gigs, festivals, a camper van, a boat, whatever. If you aren't in a career that is pretty secure, you have security of knowing that your biggest outgoing expense is no longer there.

"Having a nice life" and "paying off your mortgage" aren't mutually exclusive you know.

@MeanMrMustardSeed

I totally don’t get the obsession with paying off mortgages early. I get people want to be mortgage free at a reasonable point in their lives, but if it’s low interest (as most are at the moment), I’d rather spend the money on pensions, family and experiences.

I bought at 26 and kept our mortgage term the same when we moved (to keep the excellent rate), so will pay off at 51, but I’m happy letting it tick over in the meantime.

I agree. I should have my mortgage paid off when I'm 50 and I'm not in a rush to pay it off any earlier. I could drop dead tomorrow so I'd rather spend some money on living a little too.

The benefit of paying it off is the security it brings....... My dp is very likely to lose his job on the next few months. And I for one am extremely thankful that the roof over our heads is the one thing we don't have to worry about.

Could pay it off now (49) but we need more space so will be moving and taking out a new mortgage. So likely to be about 58.

Those I know who have paid theirs off early seem to have dome so via either frugality or having inherited
One family I know paid theirs off in their late 30s, mostly by being frugal to the point of misery.
My parents paid theirs off early, but not super early, Dad got a better paid job, so they resisted the urge to splurge and just chucked it all at the mortgage.

We were late forties. We overpaid by about £300 a month for about five years then sadly my dh lost both his parents within a few years and inherited money and we paid off the remaining amount, which i think was around 35k. To be honest I don't know where the excess £600 a month goes now but I have change career and earn less as a result of having no mortgage.

@MobyDicksTinyCanoe

The benefit of paying it off is the security it brings....... My dp is very likely to lose his job on the next few months. And I for one am extremely thankful that the roof over our heads is the one thing we don't have to worry about.

Yes it is the security that makes us feel good. In my job I see a lot of people in their early fifties and sixties who get ill and have a substantial loss of income and their biggest worry is losing their homes. i also see a lot of people of retirement age still paying huge mortgages. This kind of situation would keep me awake at night !!

We were 50 and did it by paying more per month and a small inheritance.

Will be paid off but june. I’ll be 37 and husband 41.

I bought it on my own in 2008 for £92,000. House is worth about £145k now. Combination of me affording it on my own so husband’s salary is a bonus (at the time) no holidays for a while. We both have old cars.

We’re about to move towards the end of the year and will be taking on another £200k! Eeeek soon have it paid off though.

Ours has £33k on it now, I think it’ll be paid off in 4 years, by the time I’m 50. I’m throwing a bit extra at it per month but I’m not obsessive about it, the interest rate is really low on it.

50. A life insurance policy I originally took out for a property 25 years ago. Had paid down current mortgage to below that level so it paid out and paid off the mortgage, and the balance I immediately spent on solar for the roof just getting in on the older, higher feed in tariff rate - that's paid for itself as we get back annually more than the total of our electricity + oil bill + a proportion of the original installation costs.

41. Mostly due to selling in a more expensive location of the country and moving to a cheaper location (for work reasons)

22yo. Mortgage was only 30k though.