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Original poster

The dream of being mortgage free...

126 replies

InTheNameOfAllThatIsHonest · 05/10/2021 15:06

I would love to be mortgage free. The idea that if I lose my job or things go pear shaped financially I may lose my home, terrifies me.

Can I please ask how old you were when you paid off your residential mortgage? Or what age you will be when you think you will have paid it off? I'm in my late forties at the moment, live alone, am the sole person paying my mortgage, and have another 20 years to go...

OP posts:
Lookwhoseinsideagain · 05/10/2021 15:10

If I stay here/do nothing to extend the term I'll be late 40s when it's paid off. But I anticipate moving in the next 5 years or so which will probably extend it a bit.

I'm also single and concerned about having no one else to fall back on if something bad happens.

Original poster
InTheNameOfAllThatIsHonest · 05/10/2021 15:17

I'm not moving as the house is big enough for me (I bought my ex out when we divorced) so at least I know what I'm looking at. Do you have critical illness insurance, or any of those products that can offer some back up if anything goes wrong?

OP posts:
cptartapp · 05/10/2021 15:23

I paid it off at 44 when I received inheritance after my DM was killed in a car accident. DF had already died aged 54 some years ago.
Invested the vast majority and plan to retire from nursing in 5 years at 55. Looking perfectly doable at the minute.
We're semi rural. It's lovely. No plans to move.

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Quornflakegirl · 05/10/2021 15:25

Ours was paid off last year, I’m 42 and DH is 48. We bought it cheaply 23 years ago and decided to stick with our current smaller house and be mortgage free than move to something bigger. I’m glad we did now.

turkeyboots · 05/10/2021 15:30

I'm 43 and have had a mortgage for less than a year. So won't be paid off for some time.

Fifthtimelucky · 05/10/2021 15:37

I was 54 I think. It felt great, especially as it was an endowment mortgage that had spectacularly underperformed!

Original poster
InTheNameOfAllThatIsHonest · 05/10/2021 15:39

@cptartapp both my parents have died already and for a number of reasons I didn't get much at all (not that I was looking for any inheritance coming my way to help me). Certainly nothing that would allow me to shorten my mortgage term.

OP posts:
PingoPingoPingoPingoPingoPong · 05/10/2021 15:39

In about 3 months, can't bloody wait
Its been a long slog but worth every penny

Newpuppymummy · 05/10/2021 15:39

I’m single too.Mortgage taken out in 2004 and paid off in 2020. Paid off in 16 years rather than 25. This was largely because every time I had extra money I overpaid on the mortgage. Also when I took out the mortgage it was 5% interest rate and that went down and down and down but I always paid the same and never reduced the amount paid in.

HollyBollyBooBoo · 05/10/2021 15:40

I think I'll be about 50. Small house and massively overpay the mortgage so that as you say that stress of potentially losing my home is gone.

Newpuppymummy · 05/10/2021 15:40

Forgot to say I was 47 when I paid mine off

Egghead68 · 05/10/2021 15:40

Got my first aged 41 and paid it off by 48. Got another at 49 and paid it off by 51, partially with an inheritance. It is a good feeling but I realise I’ve been very fortunate.

ChequerBoard · 05/10/2021 15:44

Paid ours off this year, I am 50, DH is 51. Had a big work bonus so decided to use that to pay off the mortgage and do some home improvements rather than anything more frivolous.

Love the feeling that we own this house free and clear and if we both lost our jobs tomorrow we'd still be OK.

edwinbear · 05/10/2021 15:48

I'm 46, have another 9 years to go. We have sufficient in savings to pay it off now, but it's our back up plan for school fees, so prefer to have the cash in the bank until at least one of the DC has finished school. Currently the interest cost per month is about £60, but when rates start rising we may rethink that.

MordenLarch · 05/10/2021 15:49

I overpaid hugely for years and finally paid it off on my 46th birthday. I bought it cheap so am very lucky, but likewise I’ve never had any help. It does make me less concerned about the (seemingly endless) work reorganisations we seem to go through. It also means I only work 3 days a week

RandomMess · 05/10/2021 15:55

We overpaid as and when we could so mid 40s have no savings though!

Our because costs for the last few years has been council tax and feeding teenagers tbh, the mortgage became tiny in comparison.

SpiderinaWingMirror · 05/10/2021 15:57
  1. But there were 2 of us paying it. When we bought it we were 37 and set it up to pay off over 12 years. I get you, but don't compare against others. We have little pension provision so are now paying into that.
Jmaho · 05/10/2021 15:57

We've no chance. We're both 41 and it won't be paid off until we're 62. Might 9verpay at some point though but would rather build up some decent savings first. I actually switched rates yesterday and tied into a 5 year deal at less than 1% which is amazing. My current rate is 1.3% and doesn't end until Feb but they let us switch early. It was just over 22 years left but I knocked a year off it yesterday and payments only went up by £3 a month! We live in a 4 bed detached but have 4 children. My daughter has a bedroom downstairs in what was the playroom so 5 beds really. But it's not a huge house and can see space being an issue when I have 4 teenagers! But it is in a lovely area and the houses that are bigger and give us more space are about 600k. This would mean taking on a 300k mortgage in our mid 40's and that terrifies me!!

grannycake · 05/10/2021 15:59

I'm paying mine off next month when I retire. I'm 65

DramaAlpaca · 05/10/2021 16:00

Ours was paid off last Christmas, I was 56. It still is a wonderful feeling.

TheChosenTwo · 05/10/2021 16:03

I will be 44 when ours is paid off, dh will be 51 so 8 years to go.
We overpay it by quite a lot every month, just want rid of the monthly cost.

Foolsrule · 05/10/2021 16:07

Surely it’s all relative? I have a big mortgage compared to some, but the amount of equity we have means I could buy two properties outright where I grew up.

In4mation · 05/10/2021 16:11

I bought my first house for £38k in about 1990 and paid the huge interest rates when I was 23, needing a lodger to help with payments. I sold that and just about broke even when many people were in negative equity, and purchased another that made about 40k. Dh also had his own house and made about the same when we married when I was 33. Together we bought our current one, paid about £150k plus the cost of a couple of extensions, and paid it off over 21 years. Worth about £450k now.

It was a good feeling when it happened.

Losingthechubrub · 05/10/2021 16:14

We've just taken one out at 47 and 56 on an 18 year term, but we will be overpaying as much as possible to get that down because I don't want us to still be worrying about the mortgage once my partner has retired

Asdf12345 · 05/10/2021 16:15

We are early 30s and will be late 50s, but the interest rate is below inflation, the repayments are very affordable indeed as we didn’t borrow much compared to our earnings, and we will probably borrow more to fund a roof conversion. As such I wouldn’t mind keeping repayments till retirement if interest rates stay low.

If interest rates go up we have enough in savings to repay about 60% of the mortgage but until it becomes cost effective to do so we will keep savings.