Do you over pay on your mortgage?

[worrywilma]

I've just done a calculation and if we overpay on our mortgage, around £500pm between us, we would save around £70k in interest and knock 15 years off!

We're home bodies so don't go out very often, but we do like the odd treat of new clothes and holiday once a year, but it's doable if we put our mind to it.

I'm very undecided on whether this would be a good idea or whether that money could/should be used elsewhere.

I really like the idea of being mortgage free before 50 but my weird brain also thinks "you should live a little!"

First world problems I know, but after a stint of homelessness and literally no more than 20p in my pocket, having a roof over my head that can't be taken away is very appealing.

We don't as our interest rate in savings is higher than our mortgage interest rate so we put the money we would overpay into a savings account. We will use that to pay some off in a chunk at some point

Thanks all.

I think we're going to just go for it, and in months where we a need a little extra, we can just pay the contracted amount.

We overpay by about £200/month, but it's a historical thing as due to interest rates we're now better off saving each month (currently get 4.5% compared to 2.8% mortgage rate).

We do currently save £1k (should add the extra £200 to it really) with the aim of completely paying off the mortgage when our fixed term comes to an end in eight years. (I think that would be about 10 years early). We'd then be late 40s and our DC will be mid-teens which is when I think we will appreciate having the spare cash.

I think if you can balance overpaying with living an otherwise okay life (not necessarily extravagant but having some treats), then it's always a good idea to overpay.