Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Mortgage free forever before I turn 30?

76 replies

Newname10000 · 01/09/2019 15:50

Me and my bf have been together 4 years - I am currently 23 he is 26. We are planning on buying our own home in the next year. We have a very substantial deposit between us and the plan is then to aggressively pay down the remaining mortgage, then save for a (potential) future move so we don't have a mortgage again.

Has anyone done this/had experience of this I can't think of any cons but then again it was my idea...

By the date we plan to start looking we will have £120k deposit and should be in the position to be paying £20k per year off the mortgage (including the standard payments.)

OP posts:
BeanBag7 · 01/09/2019 15:51

Obviously there are no cons. Lucky you

MardyLardy · 01/09/2019 15:54

I did this and it worked to plan, well then I moved again so had another mortgage.

I had a bigger house with a smaller mortgage and plenty of equity.

I had a few ‘luxury’ items and didn’t live overly frugally - I may have had a few more holidays in retrospect.

AwkwardPaws27 · 01/09/2019 15:56

Money Saving Expert have a mortgage overpayment calculator which is a great motivator. It's a good idea to have a pot of easily accessible savings too (ideally 3-6 months living costs) in case of emergencies.
Don't forget to live a little too - and make sure you both agree on how much to overpay vs money for days out, holidays etc as it can cause resentment if you end up disagreeing about money. Best of luck to you!

PooWillyBumBum · 01/09/2019 15:57

The major con whilst interest is low is that you could probably generate more wealth but investing long term in tax sheltered accounts (S&S ISA/pensions). I.e. you'll be paying down a debt at a rate of only 1.5-2% rather than investing in accounts statistically very likely to generate much higher rates of interest.

I can't think of any others! It's a solid, low risk approach to financial stability.

RoryGlory · 01/09/2019 15:58

I wouldn’t brag so much.

I’m already mortgage free - on my own.

You had no reason to post this but to feel smug. Get s clue.

ElfAndSafetyBored · 01/09/2019 15:59

Depends how much you are borrowing and how much you are earning

One con might be missing out on fun memory making stuff (holidays etc) if you are using all spare your money to pay back your mortgage.

You might be better putting more of your surplus cash into your pension, especially if your employer puts more in if you up your payments.

Totalwasteofpaper · 01/09/2019 16:03

£120k paying £20k mortgage annually on a house costing £200k is fine.
£120k paying £20k mortgage annually on a house costing £500k is...less fine.

If you can do it and you are happy with it crack on. I did this and was mortgage free by 35 and it was great then we sold and bought something bigger / fancier

JoJoSM2 · 01/09/2019 16:05

I agree with PooWillyBumBum.

It's a nice thing to do but not the most financially efficient if you want to get richer.

You're lucky to be happy living in such an affordable area!

Sparklesocks · 01/09/2019 16:06

If you can do it, great.

Cornishclio · 01/09/2019 16:08

With interest rates so low you may do better to make sure you are maximising your pension contributions as well as overpay the mortgage. It is a more tax efficient way of saving for the future

Jeschara · 01/09/2019 16:15

Why is the poster lucky? Seems to me he/she is in this position due to hard work. I don't think it is bragging.
Good luck to you OP.

zonkin · 01/09/2019 16:16

I can't imagine committing to living in the same area forever at your age. But each to their own. In hindsight, maybe I should have saved more when in my 20s and early 30s but I don't regret it. Had lots of great years travelling, living in other countries, etc.

My sister is the opposite of me. Really focussed on paying off the mortgage. Sold that house and upgraded to an amazing place with a smallish mortgage. Her and her DH do all the travelling, spending on luxury etc now whilst I did it younger. Each to their own. They don't have a family, so that may have made a difference.

Yes I have a mortgage now and will until I'm in my mid 50s. Yes it would be lovely to be mortgage free and living the life fantastic. I took the view that life is too short to be a slave to the mortgage.

However, I have lucked out. I live in zone 2 London (bought in my mid 30s after I started my family) and if I moved out of the area could theoretically be mortgage free in most areas of the country with the equity. That's just good luck and nothing to do with planning.

KatherineJaneway · 01/09/2019 16:19

Only con is if you lose your job/d or you get unexpectedly pregnant.

Original poster
Newname10000 · 01/09/2019 16:21

In response to the pension comment I currently pay 8% - my employer pays 10%, even if I increased contributions they'd still pay 10% so I don't feel it's top of my list at this point in time (and being 23).

OP posts:
diplodoco · 01/09/2019 16:23

RoryGlory love how you told the op not to brag and then bragged yourself. Nice one.

Original poster
Newname10000 · 01/09/2019 16:24

Think the loose job/have baby plan would be stop overpaying and one of our salaries would be able to cover the standard mortgage payment.

OP posts:
Original poster
Newname10000 · 01/09/2019 16:25

To clarify all not bragging - just don't know any friends in a similar boat and wanted some advice from someone that wasn't my mum/my bf mum.

OP posts:
namechanging2019 · 01/09/2019 16:27

That's a great idea. I'm feeling waaaay behind at 25 with less than 10k saved and buying alone. I'd love to know how you're managing to do it that way (I'm needing some tips obviously!)

ElfAndSafetyBored · 01/09/2019 16:28

Great pension payments. Wish all my younger colleagues were as future-savvy.

Userzzzzz · 01/09/2019 16:28

I guess the major con is you don’t do the things you might want to before children if that’s part of your plan. I saved a lot but am glad I did the travelling I did while it was just me and my husband.

We wanted to avoid extra fees, stamp duty etc so stretched to buy our forever house st 30. We could have been mortgage free if we’d stayed in our flat. Sometimes having a mortgage is a more sensible thing long term. Obviously if you’re getting a large place and will be mortgage free then you’re laughing.

BlueThesaurusRex · 01/09/2019 16:31

It’s a great plan and as you’ve said, if the situation changed then you could just stop the overpayments until you were in a better position! I bet you will make a lot of people jealous with this post but I for one am happy to see people who have their shit together! Grin

DisgruntledGuineaPig · 01/09/2019 16:31

Are you currently child free? You might regret not making the most of this time to travel/experience things that aren't really possible once you have dcs until they have left home, at which point you might feel it's a bit much for you to manage. Having extra money later on might be when you dont have the time to enjoy it/make the most of it.

Essentially you are signing up to staying in one area long term and lowering your standard of living now, in order to be more comfortable later, fine if you are both agreed, but you do both have to be on board with missing out on life experiences to pay for this.

DisgruntledGuineaPig · 01/09/2019 16:39

This is timely actually, today I was thinking about a trip we didnt take to south america. We were planning it for early 2009, hiking, camping, travelling around, quite a physically demanding trip. Then the credit crunch happened in 2008 and dh and I decided it would be better to save just incase one of us lost our job.

Later in 2009 I got pregnant with dc1, so that even though we could easily afford that trip over the last 10 years, we've not had anyone we could leave our dcs with and so it'll be another 10 years before we realistically could either go without the dcs or them both be old enough to cope with coming along on such a physically demanding trip, but by then, dh and I will both be early 50s, and we'd probably need a toned down trip. (Health issues already making think I'd struggle with the original plan now).

Sorry this is a long winded way of saying life is short, be sure to set your plans so that you can enjoy today, not constantly put things off to some point in the future when you will allow yourself to have fun.

ShirleyPhallus · 01/09/2019 16:44

Ouch @RoryGlory, how unnecessarily mean

OP I agree with Guinea, how much travelling / living would you want to do? I’d be tempted to plan to pay off mortgage maybe by 35 instead and use some of that money to go and see the world

Also the house you want now, are you sure you’d want to live in it forever? I suspect you’d be happy there for 10 years then if you have kids and are still making good money maybe look to move again

Abouttimemum · 01/09/2019 16:45

Yeah good plan.
We paid off our 25 year mortgage in 8 years thanks to overpayment, and using an offset mortgage deal. We still went on holiday and did all the things we wanted to do in life.

We just had a baby and it feels great to know that no matter what happens we’ll always have a roof over our family’s head.
We did it because the interest we were paying was more than any interest we would make in savings so it made financial sense. We saved tens of thousands in interest payments. It’s all about keeping money out of the pockets of the fat cats!!

Also my husband had an horrendous childhood and was homeless for much of it so he really wanted some home stability.