If you’ve been lucky enough to pay off your mortgage how did you feel?

[Cloud44]

Ive paid off my mortgage in the last couple of days and I think I feel a little underwhelmed! I’m early 40s, rent out the property as we live in my partners house, my monthly payments per month weren’t too bad and I’ve always kept the rent separate for any urgent repairs etc so I won’t see an immediate massive difference per month but around £500. I feel really fortunate to be in this position but just wondered if anyone else made some changes after paying off theirs? I’m not very happy in my job so wondering if I could use this to put less pressure on myself to stay there and take a few more risks job wise?

Relieved and a bit stunned.

It’s basically an investment pot and your money gets put into different funds which should return dividends so your money grows. It depends what your employer contribution is but ours is pretty low (public sector tends to be much higher) so if you only put in the minimum percentage yourself it won’t be worth much when your retire. And tax comes off after your pension contributions come out of your gross salary so it can be a way to avoid paying higher rate tax on your income.but as yet, no one has actually been able to tell me how much I should be aiming to have in the pot!

Paid ours off a few years ago DH had a life threatening illness and the insurance paid it off. It felt like we should have done something special. We just went home.

We paid ours off in October and felt very underwhelmed at the time. It does mean we can retire 5 years earlier than we had originally planned and it’s only just hit us that 5 years extra free time is massive and we’re now getting very excited!

I definitely feel I was lucky. I had an interest only mortgage (all i could afford after my marriage ended) but my plans to repay the capital were nebulous to say the least. I was overpaying when i could and I was getting the capital balance down, but it wasn't down far enough.

Then the bad luck. Just after taking out a loan for a new (to me) car, which was essential for my job, I discovered I had cancer ‐ fortunately, it was caught early, treated quickly (and I got the all clear last year) but I couldn't work/ earn for 3 months - so both the car loan and mortgage repayments were a real worry. I got back to work - and then covid happened!

Furlough was sufficient to keep ticking over, but I couldn't overpay the mortgage and I had to rob Peter to pay Paul for the car loan. (Not to mention the mental toll of living alone in lock down.)

Then the good luck. I was offered a secondment to work on a project during lock down - well paid and as many hours as I could take. Then, after lock down, another well paid job opportunity came up. I overpaid on the mortgage like mad, I took some money out of a pension pot and I did it!

I'm still working at 68, but it's in a job I really enjoy and the money is replenishing my pension pot. I definitely feel i was lucky - if my cancer hadn't been caught when it was, if those job opportunities hadn't come up ...

We paid ours off 4 years ago when I was 37. The money we're saving (well my half) I've put into a LISA (4k per year) and increased my pension payments. So day to day no better off, but obviously will in the long term.

We celebrated with champagne and pizza!

I'm paraphrasing Steve Wright (the American comedian, not the BBC radio chap)

'...how do I feel?'

"You know when you're leaning back on two legs of a chair and it suddenly starts to tip over backwards...but you manage to recover and stop it?

Well, I feel like that - all the time."

I’m sorry to hear some people have found being mortgage free underwhelming. It’s such a big achievement, so congratulations from me!

I have £166,454 left on my mortgage (we bought our house a year and a half ago. We’re a long way off yet!

One day, one day we will be mortgage free!

Mortgage obsessed in paying it off I can’t switch off anybody else feels the same overpaying keeping the term the same 20 years left but not if I keep the overpayments up

Just completely relieved, but tinged with sadness as was inheritance from DH's parents. But it has enabled us to save money for a possible early retirement from stressful jobs which I am so grateful for.

I am mortgage free as of roughly 30 seconds ago. Just paid an overpayment on my online banking equal to the amount outstanding. Going to need to replenish savings over the next couple of months as have little left

I am 42, hubby is 48

For is we will be £1800 a month better off. I can't tell anyone in real life so am shouting it to the rooftops for those who don't know me

Mortgage free!!!

The day the deeds landed on my doorstep with a letter from the bank telling me my mortgage was paid off was a big relief. I thought I had another payment still to go so it was unexpected too. Still feel happy knowing that the house is mine and the dcs inheritance. I'm happy every time I come back to my house, it suits ne perfectly and has so many happy memories.

We paid ours off about 3 years in advance, at 41/48 yo.

The repayments were quite small and mostly capital at that point so it didn’t make a huge difference mentally. We already “owned” most of the house.
But it felt right to spend part of the money left by DH’s parents on something tangible.
There’s also a good feeling when your salary hits the bank account and nobody has a prior claim to it!

We now go on long haul holidays plus extra holidays rather than one main short haul every year.

I felt both jubilation but also relief. I knew if one of us lost our jobs we couldn't losecth house anymore.

People with mortgages also have to pay fuel and council tax and childcare in some cases. Have you no pension?

I paid off my mortgage when I got divorced and brought a house outright, that was nearly 3 years ago (I’m 37 now) and genuinely feel grateful most days that I own my house. It’s hits me now and again and I think how lucky I am with the cost of living as I would really struggle is I didn’t

I felt like this…