How old will you be when your mortgage is paid off ?

[LovelyYellowLabrador]

Aiming for before 55

I was 55…but I didn’t start until I was 43. It was a titanic struggle.

was originally 52 which was great but then had another baby and needed another bedroom so now 67 😭

On paper, 56, but we are overpaying a bit, which should mean we are 50/51.

I was 48. 25 years after buying my first house at 23. It would have been later because of moving and getting new mortgages but when Northern Rock happened I ‘consolidated’ my savings into my mortgage and when my crappy endowment matured it was enough to pay off the rest.

45 - I actually have the money to pay it off now from an inheritance, but have just been drawing down the money to pay each month until we have a minimal penalty for early repayment, which will be next year before the fixed-rate period ends. Without the inheritance I would be 49 or 50 I think, so it's sped it up a bit.

Could have paid it off about 10 years ago (me age 42, DH 46) but we've such low interest rate on it that our money is better invested.
If the interest rates go up at the end of our fixed term we'll pay it off.
Paying off a mortgage as soon as possible is not always the best move.

60

62

Never. We have an interest only mortgage and when it ends the children will have left home, we will then downsize and live without a mortgage due to equity in the house. It works for us and was our plan from the start - enables us to have a very cheap mortgage and big house whilst we have kids at home and then no mortgage and a small house once it’s just us.
We could already sell and live mortgage free in a modern housing estate 3bed house but we are sticking with our plan as we want to give some of the equity to the kids when we sell.

We could have it paid off in the next 2 years, so by the age of 37. We have a crazy low fixed rate mortgage for another 4 years so we won't pay it off until then. And even at that point we will have to see what type of mortgage rates are available.

To all those who claim they don't know anyone who has paid off their mortgage in their 30s, how would you know? We don't talk to anyone about our finances in really life. I am happy to disclose on an anonymous forum how much we save, invest etc but I am fully aware how it would come across to tell friends and family, especially those who are struggling.

48 I think all going to plan.

43 but I expect before then I'll have moved into a bigger house so I don't imagine ill be mortgage free at 43!

58 if nothing else changes. I am planning to make overpayments though. My DH is 6 years older than me and we would like it paid off when he is in his 50s, although obviously sooner would be lovely too!

Supposed to be 66 but we're overpaying and hope it'll be gone by mid-late 50s. It's massive, I think about it a lot and can't wait for the burden to be gone!

As a pp said, it’s a MN thing. We focussed o building our pensions. Between the contributions being tax free and matched by employers, it was a no brainer for us.

Me too - and looks like 67 now ( also have a child with additional needs so cannot move to earn more) I try not to think about it too much!

If we had to pay it off and nothing changed earnings-wise we could probably do it in about 7 years (both early 50s now). At the moment though I'm not sure whether we will, although I can see the psychological attraction. Interest only mortgage in London with a low fixed rate. Current equity about 85% as prices have risen and we've paid off lump sums when it suited us. Similar to a pp we chose to have a larger house in our chosen area while dc were growing up with the aim of selling later. I don't feel I need to be in this house forever and I'm happy to think about downsizing in a few years when the last dc leaves home and we can (probably) buy somewhere else outright for our retirement - likely to be quite a lot smaller and closer in to town, as we chose this area for schools and green space when we had younger dc.

At the moment our council tax and heating bills are actually our biggest non-negotiable outgoings, and there's no real way of controlling those, so paying off the mortgage doesn't seem that big a priority in the great scheme of things.

Thank you, that actually does help, I remember going with my dad the day he paid his off. I was only very young and he let me carry the cheque into the bank and hand it over. It's been just over a year and still feels like his money in my mind, so I'm struggling to get my head around parting with any of it. But I think it's what he'd really want me to do.

I’m glad it helped @HoobleDooble. I completely get it still feeling like your dad’s money. Mine left me a portfolio of shares, seven years later I still can’t bring myself to look at whether there might be better things I could do with it.

I'm 31 now, it should be paid of when I'm 50 but depends on interest rates etc. Currently rates are low and we are fixed for another 3 years so we will see what happens after that!

Really interesting everyone’s different plans esp
people that are not planning on paying it off but downsizing then paying it off then
I would never think to do something like that

I think I’ve realised as I’ve got older I’m actually quite risk adverse

Yep, I remember going into Abbey National in the early '80's with my Mum when she paid off the last installment of their mortgage. Interest rates were so dire during the '70's that they'd been desperate to pay it off.

After paying, she didn't have money to celebrate, but we needed a new loo roll holder for the bathroom, so she bought one and joked that it was our celebration, buying something for the home she and my Dad finally owned.