How much have you got left on your mortgage?

[overthinkersanonnymus]

I'm considering increasing my mortgage to around £330k. The payments would be around £1650 per month which is doable between two of us. It would be an increase of £600 per month on my current mortgage.

The house I'm looking at doesn't really need anything doing to it right now. Just decorating and A new bathroom would be nice one day.

My salary is £35k and my husbands is around £50k. No children yet.

Am I mad to consider this?

Please could you tell me what's left on your mortgage so I can way up what's "normal".

@IjustbelieveinMe gosh someone who bought later than me! I was 45 when I first bought and I think I have around 150,000 left to pay. £922 a month for 3 more years then re mortgage. Likely to have the mortgage until I retire unless I can pay a chunk off when I get some of my pension at 60........

Mid 40s and have £70k left to pay. Mortgage will be gone in 2 years based on our current overpayments.

I would be concerned at the level of repayments on your salaries op - but it's really a judgement only you can make.

We’re 53 and 51. No mortgage. Paid off in 2023 with inheritance. I definitely wouldn’t increase if you want kids

I wouldn't stretch that much, particularly if you are planning on DC. I am admittedly quite risk-averse, but with a high mortgage, there's so much less scope if things don't plan out how you intend.

We're early 40s with combined income of about £75k. Have two primary-aged DC.

We've owned for 11 years and current house is worth about £350k, with £140k ish remaining. Interest rate is 2.75% and fixed for another eight years. We're currently saving £1k a month with the intention of paying off the remainder when the fix comes to an end.

Seriously, I don’t get how you’re getting £1.6k a month for that amount of borrowing. I think you’ve misunderstood something somewhere, the numbers don’t work.

DH (41) and I (38) have £285k outstanding on a property valued at £445k.

Combined income of nearly £5k a month (after tax), mortgage payment is £1360 but we overpay a little. We're only 3yrs into a 25yr mortgage but hoping to overpay and bring down the loan term.

Three kids all in teens, no childcare fees.

£380k left but house is worth £950k so decent equity, and have a combined income of around £150k. Currently pretty comfortable but conscious we’re about to go into our last year of our fixed rate and will have 2 at nursery from 2026 so expecting to feel the pinch a bit come the end of next year.

30, single with no kids (yet). Earn £50k gross. £70k left on the mortgage and intend to have paid it off in the next five years, to make life a lot easier if/when kids come about. Also to save a fortune in interest.

Our combined income is about £15k higher than your combined income and there's no way I'd consider mortgage payments that high.

We're at ~£900 a month and considering going up to about £1200 to finance a big building project. We value having holiday and fun money and knowing we can grow our family without really having to scrimp and save. We're sitting at about £150k total mortgage debt at the moment - will probably go up to about 200k for the building work.

Mid-forties no mortgage. Cash buyers.

Early 40’s, 50% mortgage, amount owed is 2 x joint income, plan to pay off in 15 years.
As many others have said, nursery/childcare is equal to a mortgage payment in and of itself.
If you can’t see decent increases in salary over the next few years then personally I wouldn’t stretch myself until I was out of paying for childcare.

£180K, £1.1K a month. DH and I both earn £40-45K. Was pretty easy to pay and save lots.

Then we had our 1yo. Maternity pay was only £750 a month. Now I'm back at work
we're spending £1.5K childcare a month. You'd struggle honestly to have one child with that kind of mortgage. Definitely not 2.

How would you manage if the interest rates went up though . It's not about whether you can afford it now it's can you afford an increase ?

I'm mid 40s and I don't own a property yet but hope to be able to buy a modest property without a mortgage in the next few years. Single and no kids.

I personally wouldn't stretch myself given you may want children in the future and the cost of childcare sounds obscene.

Single with DS 23 at home and DD 18 at university. Income around £40k. £85k left on mortgage and pay £580. 17 years left

We have 20k left to pay. It’s still fixed so unable to pay it off yet.
both early 60s and retired but have generous pensions and I still work one day a week ( earn about 30k a yr) pensions and interest on savings take us to between 60-70k household income so our current mortgage payments are minimal.
When younger we remortgaged to cover school fees, we bought in the 90s so the house is worth 4x what we paid for it. I also had a share of a second home ( inheritance) and the property my business was run from.
The business and second home were sold in the last five years. We used the money to live off until our pensions kicked in it was always the plan to slow down at 55.
I carried on working to support DS through uni. We have well over 200k in savings and tend to buy stuff outright so other than mortgage we are debt free. There is a possibility I will inherit sizeable amount soon but that will be put into some sort of trust for DS as a deposit for his first property. If we don’t inherit now DS will inherit in the future.

The one thing that has put us in this position is not overstretching ourselves early on. But losing my parents early meant I inherited property and buying a business when we may have moved up the property ladder made us cautious.

We didn’t have the large family we were hoping for and DS was a bit of a surprise late arrival. We were also lucky to have bought at the bottom of the market although I did lose money on my first house and regret not holding onto it for longer from a business point of view. Even if it had only been for five years we would have been able to pay off our mortgage at that point.

We have no idea what the housing market is going to do. Longterm you will always win but we are due another housing crash and if it coincides with volatile interest rates you may come unstuck with a big mortgage.

Maybe look at a smaller property and then pay the rest of what you would have paid into longterm savings or pension. The one thing I have learned is that when you have savings it’s harder to spend than it is to spend other people’s money via credit cards and loans. Having a good cushion for life’s emergencies is more important than two extra bedrooms or a huge garden. The bigger your house the longer it takes to clean and the more it costs to maintain. Higher council tax and utilities mean that you spend your life working to maintain it.

Since you need a house to live in you are unlikely to release the capital in your own lifetime. And for most of us it will just pay for care in our old age.

That sounds really expensive to me. I've got 49k left on mine - mortgage is £680 per month. Hope to pay it off in the next 5 years. But do has become very unwell and likely to lose his job - circumstances can change really easily and while I know one cannot always live with the worst scenario in mind, I honestly would caution against stretching yourself to the point where if life went pear shaped, you'd be totally strapped.

Your council tax would probably be more. Unless the house is much more efficient, bills will be higher. As pointed out, if you have kids, you will have periods of reduced earnings and then steep childcare costs. If one of you gets ill or made redundant would you be able to manage the mortgage for as long as it takes to get back on track?

It has to be right for you.

But I'm 44, earn £80k-£85k a year. Mortgage left is about £75k and I frankly would not want more than that. I want the chance to retire earlier, or reduce hours, mortgage free. That's more important to me than a bigger house - even though the space would be nice.

we have £130k left on ours bought in 2017, we are early mid 30s one child and have one child who’s just gone to school. We pay around £800 a month and have 25ish years left but hopefully will pay a bit extra off each year with some savings.
we have a household income of around £60k average (I don’t work full time - self employed)
we love living and thrive off doing things to make memories especially holidays around 2/3 a year
I wouldn’t want to spend anymore on a house.

My house is worth £370k ….mortgage paid off when I was 47 years ( after 22 years) ….3 children all grown and flown and now enjoying lots of holidays and still able to save a good amount each month.
how old are you OP? If you in your early 20s with good future earning potential then ok maybe….if you in 30s and plan on having kids,…then defo not….I earn 52k before enhancements …and wouldn’t consider doing that

4.43% 5 year fixed over a 33 year term.

£999 fee added to the loan

£1592 pcm

I think the consensus is that it's a terrible idea.

We do want children and I'm thinking if the now rather than in 2/3 years time.

Thank you everyone for your help!

£440k on a £1.1k property. Joint income of £210 to £250k (depending on bonus and commission). Our mortgage payments are £2710 per month and we have 19 years left. 46 and 48.

Didn’t anticipate you’d have such a long term. How old are you?