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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:
DuchessMinnie · 05/10/2021 17:46

I will be 62, am 50 now. I dream of coming into a windfall and clearing it early but it's still huge (started at £500k) so I think we will be ploughing away at it until the end. We have 11 years and 10 months left Smile

Original poster
InTheNameOfAllThatIsHonest · 05/10/2021 17:50

I am really impressed at how many people seem to have paid their mortgages off by their mid forties. This thread has certainly given me the motivation to push hard towards being mortgage free.

I get the idea that investing atm makes more money - and I do have investments. But investments can hit rough patches, industries can go belly up, etc. so I'd rather pay back the loan. It will give me a lot more peace of mind.

OP posts:
MilduraS · 05/10/2021 17:54

We're currently looking at 52 and 55 but now DH wants a bigger mortgage to 62 and 65 Sad
Current house is fine but he wants something more expensive so we can later afford to downsize to his very expensive hometown.

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General money
DrDreReturns · 05/10/2021 17:54

35 but I've been very lucky. When my grandmother died my parents inherited her estate. They said 'we don't need the money' and gave it to me, I used it to pay off the mortgage.
If it wasn't for that I'd still be paying it off (that was 9 years ago.)

DigOlBick · 05/10/2021 17:58

We’ve got a flat that’s mortgage free that we rent out which pays for the mortgage on our house. House only has 30k left on it so when I start back at work again we’re going to massively overpay it and have it paid off in 3 years. Which will make me early 30’s and my fiancé early 40’s.

OrangeBlossomsinthesun · 05/10/2021 17:58

I'm 46 and only managed to take out a mortgage at 40 so still have about 20 years to go. I've paid off 17000 € of 81000€ in that time. I'm not in a hurry to pay it off, it's a very low rate and is a small percentage of my income. It doesn't worry me.

Mossstitch · 05/10/2021 18:06

47 but did have mortgage from 22 years old and worked hard to save and paid it off early. It's such a relief, I'm on my own now but was able to take semi retirement at 58 taking my NHS pension, so now can just work bank shifts whenever I like.

Guacamole001 · 05/10/2021 18:12

I will clear mine April next year at age 58.

Els1e · 05/10/2021 18:13

Age 55 and like the other pp, it was an under performing endowment. So relieved and happy. I would have cracked open a bottle of champagne if I could afforded to.

Florence282 · 05/10/2021 18:14

We're 8 months off paying ours. I'll be 41, DH will be 44 but my health is on a rapid decline so its a race to get it clear before I can't work anymore. I thank the heavens that we decided to prioritise getting the roof secure over our heads all those years ago.

The irony of critical illness cover is that its pretty impossible to get if you have a pre existing illness.

OP, try not to worry too much about it. The fact that you've got a mortgage is brilliant in itself, one day you will be mortgage free and that's not to be sniffed at. If you can over pay at all then do that, even by small amounts.

plesiosaurus · 05/10/2021 18:15

We bought our first house when I was 23 and my partner (now husband) was 30. We lived there for ten years, but when we moved we took out the mortgage over 15 years instead of 25. We then paid it off slightly early so I was 47 when it was paid off. We planned it this way as there was a high likelihood my husband would have to retire early because of his health. In the event he retired a bit later than we expected, but the mortgage paid off meant that he had choices that he otherwise might not have had. (I'm 57 now).

DerAlteMann · 05/10/2021 18:18
  1. Paid off with cash left me by DF.
middleager · 05/10/2021 18:21

We'll be 62. I will have been paying into a mortgage for 30 years by then and DH.

We both bought properies for around £50k when we were around 30, got together, bought a small house for £180k, lost a shit load with bad decisions and housing crash circa 2005, upsized to a bigger house in a better area 5 years ago and extended the term and debt.

House is worth about £400k and we have £120k ish left on the mortgage .

middleager · 05/10/2021 18:24

I'm always Shock on Mumsnet by the amount of inheritances. I don't know anybody IRL who has had an inheritance/family money.

Seriallover · 05/10/2021 18:28

At 50 years old currently. We could move to a bigger place though.

CimCardashian · 05/10/2021 18:29

A bit of a depressing read!

I'm 44 and have 20 years left. I had to remortgage in order to fund a maternity leave (self employed and unplanned pregnancy). It really set me back!

Had I not remortgaged it would have been paid off by age 52. But it will be 64 🙁. I do slightly over pay but that won't make much difference.

HappyBus · 05/10/2021 18:29

We'll be 61 and 67. That's 21 years away. However there are 2 of us, the repayments are comfortably manageable and we currently have close to £500k equity so if everything went wrong we could always move away from London and be mortgage free.

vinoandbrie · 05/10/2021 18:29

We paid off seven years ago, and used the equity to upsize. Now we’ve paid it down I think we’re going to do it again - must be crazy!

ajja2021 · 05/10/2021 18:30

In my current mortgage it'll be paid when I'm 46, if I continue as I am.

However, planning to sell in 2-3 years and buy a bigger home.

I'm 29 now and had the mortgage for 4 years

CatsForLife · 05/10/2021 18:34

I was in mid 30s, now mid 40s. We don’t earn a lot of money but bought the house cheaply, reduced the duration to about 10 years (had been 25) and then used a redundancy payment to clear it. We have sacrificed moving up the properly ladder to be mortgage-free. Lots of our friends are moving to bigger places, but the thought of getting a mortgage again puts me off.

BananaPB · 05/10/2021 18:44

I'm 44, single with 15 years to go but the house is 4 bedroom in a good school catchment so I have the option to downsize. Youngest is 15

Mumski45 · 05/10/2021 18:49

First mortgage at 18 for a student house. Bought and sold twice since then although first house was sold with negative equity which was not helpful. Mortgage first paid off at 37ish. Borrowed again for extension but that was paid off within a few years so have been mortgage free for a while.
We achieved this by not trading up when we could afford to and living frugally. All available funds went against an overdraft type mortgage so interest was as low as possible.

It is a great feeling and well worth the effort of frugal living when we were younger. We are less careful now in our 50's.

PlinkPlankPlunk · 05/10/2021 18:55

Ours runs for another 17 years, when DH and I will be late 60s.

It looks scary when I see it written down. We are overpaying each year though, so it is diminishing more quickly than that. It’s a big house but we have a lot of equity in it so not a disaster if we had to sell it and spend the equity on something smaller (although I’d much rather not!)

dementedma · 05/10/2021 18:58

I'll be in my 60s

ivfbabymomma1 · 05/10/2021 18:59

I'm 34 with I think 12 years left ish! Bought cheap and did it up over a long time

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