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Original poster

To those who are mortgage free...

103 replies

outlanderish · 30/07/2025 18:36

Never thought I'd be writing this but as of today we’re officially mortgage free!!! We've been squirrelling away for 8 years to make it happen and received inheritance from DP's grandparents which helped us massively.

I thought I’d feel absolutely over the moon… but weirdly, I still feel the same? Maybe a bit of relief, but not the huge joy I expected Blush

If you’ve paid your mortgage off (or are close), how did you celebrate? Did it feel like a big moment, or did life just carry on as normal?

Also curious how others managed to pay theirs off, did you manage it by doing lump sums, years of slogging, downsizing ?

OP posts:
Rizzz · 30/07/2025 18:38

I just paid the required monthly payments for 25 years.

It didn't occur to me to celebrate but it was nice to have extra money at the end of the month.

legsekeven · 30/07/2025 18:38

I get you. I expected to feel hugely excited and free but I just felt normal. However every now and again I look round my house and realise it’s all mine and just feel content. It’s a good feeling

Ddakji · 30/07/2025 18:40

We paid ours of using money I’d inherited from my mum. The mortgage wasn’t that big at that point anyway.

I’d had a mortgage for nearly 30 years. It didn’t feel especially something to celebrate.

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legsekeven · 30/07/2025 18:41

It’s worth celebrating. It’s a big occasion. We had a nice dinner and bought a stupidly expensive bottle of wine! Didn’t really taste much difference but felt special

GrumpyExpat · 30/07/2025 18:42

Got married later in life, so we each had our own house already. Once we joined up our finances we realized we could either get a modest house with no mortgage or a huge one with a mortgage and be paying it off for another 15 years. Choose the modest one with no regrets. We live in Europe and put in a pool 2 years ago withe money saved. We love it. I love the feeling of having a home that no one can ever take away from me.

SedentaryCat · 30/07/2025 18:42

There was a great sense of anticlimax. We bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate.

I have to say that I lost a bit of 'purpose' for a while....all that effort and energy had to go somewhere!

It's good now, though, I've got used to not having a mortgage.

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 30/07/2025 18:42

two separate memories for me.

  1. It was bittersweet and tinged with grief, as it was confirmed I not only had paid the mortgage but officially owned the house according to land registry, on the first Valentine’s Day after DH had died.

2)Used his life assurance to pay off the mortgage, a couple of month earlier and felt absolutely nothing but sheer relief at not having to worry anymore about a roof over my head and bemusement at the bank assistant being so joyfully excited she had helped someone pay off the outstanding amount.

CharlotteStreetW1 · 30/07/2025 18:45

"Effluxion of time". We did open a bottle of champagne and then a few days later got mightily pissed off when the lenders sent us the flimsy office copy title and happily announced they'd destroyed our original deeds (which they do now). But they were OUR deeds 😡

FatLarrysBanned · 30/07/2025 18:46

Had a bottle of NoSecco and cheersed myself 🥂. Single parent, sole income household. Paid it off 4 years early. Didn't feel any different until the next month when my savings started to increase by the amount of my old mortgage payment. Happy days. Congratulations 🎊

Anon1029 · 30/07/2025 18:47

@outlanderish congratulations! 🎉

quintessentially166 · 30/07/2025 18:49

I’m all paid up and it was all a bit of a damp squib!

Hubby and I had to go into the building society to sign documents, an assistant who looked like he hadn’t been out of school long attended us…I wasn’t expecting a fanfare but didn’t even get a congratulations, and to top it all ‘the deeds’ are all electronic so didn’t even get handed them!

But it’s great to be mortgage free, but both hubby and I worked hard to do it, no inheritance here, we did all on our own 🤩

Navigatinglife100 · 30/07/2025 18:49

We had a 0.25 percent over base product and then, when rates fell to almost zero, the interest was virtually zero. So we took advantage and upped our mortgage payment (not reduce it). This paid it off when we were 48 and we didn't celebrate as such but we're extremely pleased.

It's helped enormously with our ability to help the children through Uni, some house deposit help and top up our mortgage and savings.

We did contemplate moving but we are fine here and really don't need anywhere bigger. But it did buy that choice.

VeryStressedMum · 30/07/2025 18:50

We paid our mortgage off 10 years early in 2020. We were so proud of ourselves but didn't tell many people as we didn't want to come across as braggy
Then the year after we sold our house and bought our dream house in the country, we have 45K left on this mortgage

user1476613140 · 30/07/2025 18:51

Life just carried on as normal.

twistyizzy · 30/07/2025 18:52

DH just been made redundant so will be using half of his payout to pay mortgage off! Will be a relief to know that whatever happens, we will always have a roof over our heads! We could have upsized but chose not to and now I'm so thankful we didn't!

WildFlowerBees · 30/07/2025 18:53

We paid ours off last week and like you don’t feel any different. Was a bit of a surreal moment and it’ll be nice to have more £ in the bank now.

81Claire81 · 30/07/2025 18:53

I paid it off. Was an exhilarating moment.
Then I woke up.

Sunshineismyfavourite · 30/07/2025 18:54

We overpaid for 15 ish years and then downsized. We didn't celebrate one specific thing we just celebrate every morning when we don't have to get up for wok every day as we also took early retirement at the same time!

OnLifesEndlessCorridor · 30/07/2025 18:54

We paid ours off by investing in other properties which we rented out and then sold a couple of. It’s a nice feeling but we didn’t do anything to celebrate.

Aposterhasnoname · 30/07/2025 18:59

We paid it off seven years early when a savings policy matured. We woke up, went online, made the payments then just went to work. Very anti climatic. Booked a big holiday that night to be paid for out of the savings. It hit us that we were mortgage free the following month when we got paid and there was no mortgage payment going out.

Decisionsdecisions1 · 30/07/2025 18:59

Didn’t really celebrate but we’re pleased. Payed it off 6 years ago, by regular overpayments - from our income and savings. We were in our 40s then.

We live in a smaller house than most of our friends (4 bed, 1 bathroom, big enough kitchen/diner but not island big etc).
We could have traded up or paid hundreds of thousands for an extension and increased our mortgage but we chose to keep the mortgage manageable instead. That’s the reason we could pay it off.
We also knew no inheritance was coming our way to help us pay it off later.

We still have lots of outgoings (council tax, utilities, food, medical etc) so it’s not as though we don’t need to work. But it was important to me that we could potentially help dd buy her own home when she is older, I couldn’t be happily enjoying my retirement knowing dd was struggling financially. Thats what we’re now saving for.

I know we have lucked out from the rise of house prices during the 2000s. I want to pass that luck onto dd.

Cutleryclaire · 30/07/2025 19:05

5 months left. It will be the second time, but the last this time.

My childcare costs finish at virtually the same time so 70% of my outgoings will disappear.

I can’t wait!

Mumofteenandtween · 30/07/2025 19:07

We mainly paid off by boring overpaying. When interest rates went down we kept paying the old amount. When we got a pay rise we bumped up our direct debit. I got an annual bonus each year (worth 1 - 2 months salary) that also got shoved in. Dh also got made redundant and then got another job pretty quick so that money got put in and paid off about an eighth of the original mortgage or a quarter of the mortgage as it was then.

When we paid it off we had a 1 year old and a 4 year old who both felt that sleep was for wimps and liked to tag team through the night. So we were too tired to celebrate. Or do anything really. I think Dh said “so we will pay the mortgage off tomorrow” and I said “cool”. And that was it.

But what I did realise a few months later was that there was a definite level of relief that slowly trickled through. Like a weight was off our shoulders. I had a similar feeling when both my parents and in laws were all fully Covid vaccinated. Like I didn’t know I had been holding my breath until then but - wow - it felt good to breathe again.

LemonBeagle · 30/07/2025 19:09

81Claire81 · 30/07/2025 18:53

I paid it off. Was an exhilarating moment.
Then I woke up.

😂It's a fantasy thread for me too.

CharSiu · 30/07/2025 19:11

We paid ours off in our late thirties, my top tip is tell no one.