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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask about life with no rent or mortgage....

213 replies

broadstairs14 · 10/12/2018 18:06

I'm in the fortunate position of being a "homeowner". If I look a little more closely, the bank owns much more of my home than we do. DH and I have had a lot of discussions recently about trying to get our mortgage paid off early and being mortgage free really appeals.

I know two people in real life who inherited/ were gifted money at a young age and owning a house outright seems to have given them a huge amount of freedom and choice.

If you are mortgage free and still on the youngish side, how does this affect your life? Is it worth making sacrifices in other areas and really pushing for this? I'm looking for some inspiration to spur me on but also worry that I might be building it up and maybe it doesn't have such a huge impact all of the time.

OP posts:
Original poster
broadstairs14 · 10/12/2018 18:40

Boringsoup mid thirties is still pretty good going! I agree allthegoodnames the thought of higher interest rates is a bit scary and they will come at some point.

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BoringSoup · 10/12/2018 18:42

... but apart from getting the age wrong the rest of it is correct.
Go for it 🙂💐

EastEndQueen · 10/12/2018 18:42

Very lucky to have been able to bought outright due to inheritance. For me it enables us to have amazing childcare for DS ( a wonderful nanny who makes our family life very happy) and gives me freedom to have taken my career in the direction that interests me the most (with a mortgage I would have to absolutely kill myself doing antisocial hospital shifts on the days DH was at home to minimise childcare outgoings - a lot of my colleagues with young children do this).

We live in an expensive area and we still have to pay service charge which is comparable to the mortgage on a flat in some parts of the country so once i’ve paid that and childcare that’s my salary gone. But as I said, i’m happy and fulfilled and that’s what not having the mortgage has allowed.

noideaatallreally · 10/12/2018 18:43

Mortgage free since my mid 40s. I love that every brick, every tile is owed by me and mine.

I worry about repairs like boiler or roof, but knowing no-one can take away my home is priceless (had a childhood with feckless, debt ridden parents).

It means I can retire earlier as my major bills are council tax, water and utilities. It made sense to overpay the mortgage as savings were making so little on interest rates.

Penguinsetpandas · 10/12/2018 18:46

No longer young but paid off mortgage at 28, was well worth it - meant we could go on lots of nice holidays plus means one of us doesn't have to work. We both do but if start having issues you can get out without worrying.

PickAChew · 10/12/2018 18:47

We were mortgage free for a few years a d the money we weren't spending on mortgage plus overpayments went into savings, instead.

Useful when we bought a bigger house in a more expensive area. Now definitely not mortgage free but our deposit was good enough for our mortgage to still be relatively small.

ClickyJoints · 10/12/2018 18:50

I inherited money. Bought our family home with the money. I love being mortgage free, it gives us a lot of freedom from financial stress and allows us to build up savings for our dc, have nice holidays, meals out, and generally not stress about money. Not having £1800 coming out of our bank every month is basically like having an extra pay check.

We still have bills to pay each month (gas, electricity, council tax, water, internet, phones) but even if dh were to lose his job we'd be financially ok for a good couple of years.

They say lots of people are only 3 paychecks away from being homeless and its very reassuring to know we have more of a safety net.

Ubertasha2 · 10/12/2018 18:50

No mortgage or rent as I have a live-in job.

Would love to finally get a mortgage this year, but a huge challenge as single and won’t receive a penny from mortgage-free parents (neither would I expect to).

Can’t help but be envious of others who are rent and mortgage-free, and I know a few. They’re v lucky, and I sure hope they appreciate it. I don’t think they do though as they all moan about other things!

Original poster
broadstairs14 · 10/12/2018 18:52

All such positive stories. How much did you have to sacrifice in the short-term to get there? DH and I could conceivably clear it in the next four/five years but it would mean both working lots and spending very little on anything else.

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Daisymay2 · 10/12/2018 18:53

We have paid off our mortgage twice. First time in our 30s and after we moved we paid off the new mortgage in about 12 years. Both times we did it by over paying, aiming for the maximum we could manage, and not reducing payments when rates fell. ( OK, latter not possible at the moment) We also remortgaged regulary and every time we took a year off the outstanding term . Again this was at the time when rates were falling, so we managed to save a bit on the payments while reducing the term, so added that onto the overpayment - IYSWIM. Having said that we have never been spenders on holidays or cars.
We have invested the money initially and then enabled the DC not to take maintenance loans at Uni.

minkies11 · 10/12/2018 18:53

DH and I are currently making over payments in lump sums as much as we can per year. We are on a fixed rate until 2020 and currently 'own' 65% of our house. I am self employed which can be pretty high-risk depending on how the job market goes but have the opportunity to earn more this way - swings and roundabouts! In the last 2 years my monthly mortgage payment has dropped nearly 300 quid to a more manageable level but I haven't been able to save/pay into a pension fund. I'm trying to reduce the mortgage to a low enough monthly level that is easily affordable in case one of us loses our job and enables us to start saving - not looking to completely clear the mortgage - just to bring it down to a couple hundred quid a month. Think I can get the best of both worlds that way. Wonder if others are doing the same thing?

Mominatrix · 10/12/2018 18:54

I think that having a mortgage for a bit is a great learning experience.

My parents thought they were doing me a favour and bought me a flat outright as a graduation present from uni. It was a large flat with an extra bedroom so not only was I rent free, but I could charge a roommate for the extra room and as a 21 year old, just delayed me from being truly fiscally responsible.

RomanyRoots · 10/12/2018 18:54

We were mortgage free in our 30's and ds1 will be likewise.
for us it was great as we could choose to cut back hours of working, we aren't materialistic though and live frugally anyway.
I have always been a sahm and dh is often at home anyway, but him cutting back to pt hours made a huge difference to family life and not having to use childcare, juggle school holidays/ sick days etc.
It's quite stress free really, if it works for you, it's a good way to live.

Littleelffriend · 10/12/2018 18:55

I was mortgage free age 34. I love that no one can ever take my house, but it’s small so the payments wouldn’t have crippled me.

daisypond · 10/12/2018 18:55

We are mortgage free - since our early/mid-40s. Useful for financial security. DH lost his job a few years later and has never got another job at the same sort of income (just above the average), and we have been able to manage OK. It seems quite common that people get made redundant in their 40s or 50s and can't get a job afterwards, so I'd aim to be mortgage-free before that - unless you can mange on one income (if there's two of you).

Original poster
broadstairs14 · 10/12/2018 18:55

Ubertasha2 I hear you! It took us absolutely years to even get a mortgage and believe me I count my blessings. I hope in time you will get there. That alone has given us more of a sense of security than renting did.

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FuzzyCustard · 10/12/2018 18:55

I bust a gut to pay my mortgage off at 52 (every single spare penny) and thank goodness I did. DH became ill (cancer, long term), I got made redundant twice in my late 50's and having a secure roof over our heads has saved us.
The other daily living bills are not inconsiderable and we are skint, but not homeless!

Alfie190 · 10/12/2018 18:56

@broadstairs14

We probably had about £170k-£180k left on mortgage, it is in SE but I had a big deposit as I made a bit of profit on a London flat.

Anyway we were living overseas, so about £22k came from renting it out and the £ exchange rate was at a historically low rate so we benefited significantly from that too.

Satsumaeater · 10/12/2018 18:56

Being mortgage free buys you choices eg you can save (or spend) more; reduce your hours at work, decide to work freelance, whatever. Not having that terror of losing your job because you know you have a roof over your head is liberating. Yes there are other bills to pay but mortgage/rent is usually the highest by far (barring nursery bills perhaps). Our outgoings halved when we paid off our mortgage.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 10/12/2018 18:58

We repaid ours early 40s. Though we did it by having a small house, paying it off, moving to a bigger house, paying that off and finally moving to where we are now. Also own outright a house that we rent out, which means we can rent it to someone with a disabled child on partial housing benefit, without the mortgage company kicking off.

We paid our houses off when DH was in sales by living off his basic and using his bonuses to pay down the mortgage. And when we had our own company, we paid ourselves a salary that we lived on and paid any surplus profits out as dividends which we paid our mortgage off with.

We've never had a massive mortgage though; never more than £50k at any one time.

Original poster
broadstairs14 · 10/12/2018 18:59

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. It's an interesting point about the learning experience of having a mortgage. The two people I know who were pretty much gifted a house outright, certainly one of them has probably not grasped how to be financially responsible, weirdly due to being so financially well off so young and without the effort. It's interesting that so many people have aimed for paying off or really reducing their mortgage. Amongst my group of friends, literally nobody seems to be interested in this. If anything some of them are into this idea of "trading up" which is the last thing I want at this point.

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sockunicorn · 10/12/2018 18:59

my husband died when we were 23 and had just got a mortgage. It got paid off in full. It made my life much easier as I did not have to worry about going back to work and paying 100% rent/mortgage on my own straight away. But I would trade it to have him back.

Missingstreetlife · 10/12/2018 19:00

Jam now or jam tomorrow? If you want to retire early it's worth it. The real advantage will be no housing costs as pensioners. Better to have a small mortgage than equity release even if interest rates are low. Mortgage is cheapest way to borrow so pay any other debt first.
Overpay when you can but don't leave yourself without emergency money. I wouldn't go without but it's good not to worry what would happen if illness or unemployment strike. Do you want all your assets tied up, or some more fluid? A concerted effort for a couple of years is reasonable but miserable scrimping for ages is to be avoided if possible. Anything can happen, prices go up and down but long term property is a reasonable investment

Original poster
broadstairs14 · 10/12/2018 19:01

Satsumaeater you have basically summed up why I want to do it.

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cestlavielife · 10/12/2018 19:01

Of course it s great
But if five years of working 24/7 with no break will leave you exhausted snd unwell then may be spread it a bit longer and enjoy life too
Get a balance