AIBU to think that if your in your mid 40's you should be thinking about paying your mortgage off, not taking one out for the first time?

[NotSuchASmugMarriedNow]

My friend announced the other day that she is going to save like mad to get on the housing ladder. She is 45 years old. Surely in your mid-forties your thinking about paying off your mortgage, not taking one out for the first time?

AIBU? does anyone else think that boat has sailed?

She's only got a minimum wage job by the way, hasn't suddenly had a windfall or anything.

Am I nasty for thinking this? I haven't actually said anything to her, just thought it was strange and wanted to hear your views.

This thread is so obnoxious....there are tonnes of reasons why people will not have a mortgage at 40 (which is still tremendously young, btw). They haven't met the right person, they work for a small wage, they have taken time out to volunteer or travel, they have suffered with illness, they have been a carer....it is rubbish that people can be so judgemental.

My dh was to busy protecting our country and fighting overseas with the military to worry about buying a house. When we got married he was 37 and we lived in military housing so we could live together in the same place. We bought a house when he was 41. Our mortgage won't be paid of until he is 65. I really wish we were mortgage free in our forties.
YABU and very unrealistic to people in the real world. Not everyone's life is as straightforward as yours.

Although of course on the level of income many people have in retirement, you'd get some housing benefit.

Good point though it assumes HB will still be around in 20+ years and isn't reformed away.

I wish the rental market was better in the UK - and that's not knocking landlords as I have encountered some very good ones yet after 10 + years we were very happy step on property ladder and go into serious debt to a bank just to get away from private rental market and it's insecurity.

Just to let you know that I have reported your post geezerhere and it will be removed.

I think your comments are just odd OP. The only people I know who are mortgage free (or near it) in their 40's are couples who have been together for more than 20 years, and living in the same house they bought when they first met.

As long as you can borrow the money and can meet the payments why shouldn't someone take out a first mortgage in their 40s or later? You might well need a bigger house at 45 than you did at 25 or will do at 65 (at which point you can downsize)

Mintyy

My heart bleeds... life is life.

I understand why geezers post will/should be removed.......but he has a point

I am 39 on Saturday & still live in a rented house. I am nowhere near having enough saved for a deposit.

Are you telling me I'm too old to ever dream of owning my own house?

I'm sorry - but if you said that to my face, I'd have to tell you to fuck off.

Our mortgage term was 15 years. She could be mortgage free by 60.

I think you should concentrate less on what someone else is doing with their money and more on being a decent mate to be honest.

Let's get to the nuts and bolts here; you have fuck all financial knowledge do you? Didn't know they could be fine over 20?!

Old fashioned judgey and hurtful.

Wake up. It's 2014.

Exactly - this is 2014- which era are you living in OP?

Probably the era in which I should be sitting knitting and pottering around the garden because I am 'elderly' at 63 yrs!

It would be highly unlikely for a 40 year old on minimum wage with no savings to get a mortgage where i live.

I do not think you are nasty just realistic, unless you can buy a house for £20,000 where you live.

I was lucky enough to live in the age [ early 80s] when i bought my first house for 25,000 and then everything went crazy, we sold at a profit and paid of the mortgage 25 years later im in my mid 40s and mortgage free..........

times are different now very different.

It would have been highly unlikely for a 40 year old on the equivalent of minimum wage with no savings to have got a mortgage (when I got one many moons ago) either....

We are mortgaged until

68!

Not called mort -gage fur nothing

j....ust a shop girl

i was 18 when i got my mortgage....... paid off when i was 43 [three years ago]

im confused by what you say

I am 46 and DH 54, we are trying to overpay every month to pay off as soon as we can. Officially still 17 years left on it - only owe 24500 so our payments are low but I wouldn't want to take on a new mortgage again. Fees and stuff you need 10K

I'm just saying that even 30 years ago in the so called golden era of borrowing ..... a 40 year old single person, no savings and on a very low wage would not have had much luck getting a mortgage then either.

Agree JustA - you still had to have a deposit for the vast majority of mortgages, and don't forget that the NMW didn't come into being until 1999 (I think it was), so before then you could be paid peanuts.

yabu not everyone was lucky with the housing market last time around.

we took out a large mortgage at 40 after 5 years of renting - we've got a nice place to live and a nice place for our children to grow up. We had a a 180K deposit. that's a lot of money. in the southeast would barely buy you a one bedroom flat. Am I supposed to cram a family of 5 into a one bedroom flat?

My dad took his first mortgage at 65. Before that was in the forces. Mostly abroad in the Far East, then did 10 years in a job with accommodation supplied.

He did have a good service pension tho. Took it over 20 years. Paid it off a couple of years ago :)