Mortgage at 50 - Would you increase the loan?

[JBaez]

I’ve been reading mortgage threads and there seem to be so many people who have paid off their mortgage/are mortgage free at 35 or some ridiculously young age and the impression is that we should all be mortgage free by around 50.
We are in our 50s and have a small mortgage. We need work done on the house and I’m considering borrowing 20k to get it done.
I need people to tell me that they have done this. That this is what people do.
Anyone?!

Just me then!

Depends when you want to retire, really. My mortgage will be gone when I’m 54 and I intend on working 0.5 or less from then. My mum worked until 65 and the promptly received a 5 year prognosis for a degenerative terminal condition and died at 72, which has somewhat influenced this decision.

It would depend on the income you have, the outstanding balance and what the interest rate/repayments are. I took out a mortgage at 45 to return to owning my own home and it was the best decision ever made, but have not increased the loan. The only person I know to do this had a kitchen that was almost unsafe.

If you can afford the repayments then do it

For various reasons I will have a mortgage to 65.

20k is not going to be a lot per month on a low interest.

Retirement on no mortgage at 50 is not realistic for a lot of people.

It depends on your circumstances, affordability, income security, benefit gained from the work. What others do is not relevant.

Many first time buyers these days will be starting out in their mid 30s or even older, so certainly won't be anywhere near mortgage free at 35. Do what's best for you, no matter what others do.

We remortgaged our house back in the early 2000s by £20,000 to buy the brick built garage next door. Our mortgage was only £55,000 at that point and we'd paid most of it off anyway. It added to the value of the house so probably worth it.

We can afford it no problem. It would definitely make the house more saleable and increase the value.
Just the seemingly never ending mortgage gets me a bit. It’s low but so many people are mortgage free by the time they are in their 50s!

Weigh up what work needs doing and the cost (essential versus nice to have) against the term and when you intend to retire.

We added to our mortgage once for a large conservatory and then overpaid within allowance to still bring full repayment in on time.

We were mortgage free at 48 but a combination of moving up the ladder two steps in our mid 20s when prices bottomed out in the mid 90s, being on a tracker rate when the base rate fell to peanuts, and improved employment income. Its easy to look clever when you bought a forever home for 75k on a rate of 0.75, but we weren't clever we were lucky (although the endowment was pants!)

But the mortgage threads aren't representative and probably don't paint an accurate picture.

If you ask 100 people if they've paid off their mortgage, the 20 who have will post that they have, 5 of the 70 who still have a mortgage will say not yet, can't wait, some of the 10 who are struggling to pay rent will say 'if only we could get a mortgage' and you've heard absolutely nothing from the silent majority who still have a mortgage that they'll be paying for years to come.

But the impression that the thread gives is that 'most people' have paid off their mortgage at a young age.

I'm 59 and considering increasing it for a face-lift.

Ours is due to be paid in the next few years which will make me mortgage free by 50 ( just ) . My SIL can’t work out why we’re not prepared to loan more and extend our house .
I just want it paid and one less thing to worry about . ( last year was a nightmare job security wise though and we had to take a mortgage holiday )
Ours could do with some work but I’m hoping it will hold off until we’re in a better position to save .