To not have paying the mortgage off as a priority

[BarchesterTowers]

We've bought a house which requires a mortgage which we can afford. Were in our early 50s and dont have a mortgage now, it was paid off by dh redundancy payment a couple of years ago.
There are raised eyebrows from people who think we should just sit tight with no mortgage.

@GlummyMcGlummerson The thing with renting is where does the rent come from once you've hit retirement?

I think the feeling of being able to pay your mortgage off early ,and then forget about it is becoming less popular now .Why is it anyone elses business anyway! You do the right thing for you and your family. My PIL retired .Went to live in US ,rented a flat there and sold their property ,when they returned had to take out a mortgage as house prices had increased .

Hubby and I are 55 and 44 respectively. Have been mortgage free for about 3 years.
We don't have a garden or yard, have downstairs bathroom but we are willing by to compromise this to be mortgage free. A bigger house with the garden etc would be nice but given our modest income and when we'd be getting our pension it would seem daft.
For people buying our type of house now on a similar wage to us we need to count our blessings and not rock the boat as its being free of it that has made us more financially comfy.

We,re about to take on a big mortgage - our existing mortgages are all gone, 15-20 yrs left to work until pension, we have all the gadgets we need and are at risk of wasting the money on crap and too many takeaways if we don’t take another jump up the property ladder. We have back up plans if it goes wrong, but we are really excited about the changes ahead.

"If one of us dies the other one will have to sell up." If this really is the case you're nuts.
Yabu.

Paying off our mortgage is a priority as we have done the calculations and seen how much money we will save by not paying the bank all the interest on the entire term. You do as you please but don't pretend you don't understand why people want to clear their debts.

I see upgrading your housing asset as a win win. Yes you will pay some interest but at the end of it you have a more valuable asset - the growth on which is tax free. And if you are already mortgage free then you will be always able to afford to buy the house you are currently in again (subject to transaction costs). Different if you are proposing getting an unaffordable mortgage as you may go bust but that doesn't sound like the case here.

Everybody’s different, there are all sorts of lifestyle scenarios out there.Those people who are judging you are not living your life, it has nothing todo with anyone else.

How many of your friends who are saying they’d rather be mortgage free, also have another paid off house earning them rental income?

I expect you’re comparing apples and oranges 🤷🏻‍♀️

I still really get the AIBU.

So you have a different priority or approach than some friends? So what? You seem overly sensitive to their opinions give your age and financial position.

Perhaps you have some risk averse friends.
Perhaps you have friends who have lived with higher interest rates?

I said earlier than I’m mortgage free... that wasn’t quite true. I could be mortgage free, and that’s the bit I don’t tell all my mates. Could be - but there’s a chunk of savings that would have paid it off that made more sense financially to put into my pension instead. HRT relief vs low mortgage interest. Other people would decide mortgage over pension, for that secure feeling of having paid it off. Just a different decision, is all.

Your decision is far from unusual. And like I said earlier, your husband chose to pay off his mortgage as a priority when he had the redundancy payment. So you’re not so different from your friends anyway.

Seriously, this is like posting “when my friends and I go for a pizza, they all get fancy topping, but I just like cheese and tomato - AIBU?” It’s just a different decision. Stop worrying about it!

Sorry to go off at a tangent, but I do worry about those in the UK who are renting privately, with no hope of having enough income to make a deposit to afford a mortgage to buy their own home. What happens to them when they reach pensionable age/lose their jobs and can't find new employment? In many (other) European countries, owning is not the be all and end all and state pensions cover people's rent. I don't think this is the case in the UK and that is shameful. "The Englishman's home is his castle" is a ridiculous premise to live by.

As many have said it depends. Mortgage rates are very low at the moment and it's hopeless trying to save for the same reason.

Mortgage is debt, but you have a lovely home to live in. I assume you have a reasonable amount of equity in the house, as you sold your mortgage-free house in order to buy it. If you can afford it and have discussed it with the family so I can't see a problem. We have paid off the mortgage on our house, but we still have a mortgage on a second property, our accountant told us it was an advantage to have a mortgage from a credit rating point of view, although that may not be hugely important to you at this point in your lives, but it gives you the option to help out the next generation if need be.

The only slight point I would make is that you are assuming that your or your DP will just die, and everything will be easily divided up. I think that people our age do need to build in an allowance for old age care, and not just assume a quick, clean end!

Well that was a bit of a drip feed OP, you own another house outright which you rent out, have very good pensions, you can pay the new mortgage off in seven years and you can afford to buy out your partners children if he dies, you are clearly not your average person who has just finished paying off their mortgage at 50 plus and is thinking of taking on a 25 year mortgage again which is what I assumed from your OP, you can clearly afford the new mortgage as you well know, so I have no idea what you AIBU is.

I'm mortgage free and would definitely not be trading up house and getting a mortgage.

If you already have a healthy pension and are secure in you source of income over the term of the mortgage it is all good. If not I think you are being a tad irresponsible. Most people are looking into paying their mortgage by the time they are 60 and easing up into retirement by reducing hours, saving, etc. Entering into debt at this age can be riskier as if you lose your job it's harder to get a new one and would be harder to remortgage if you need money.

I wouldn't pay off my mortgage early, however I also wouldn't want to take on a new 'mortgage' in my 50s - however you say it will be paid off within 7 years - Id see that more as a secured loan and that wouldn't bother me as it would be paid off before I retired

A 7 year term in your early 50's is hardly the same as committing to another 20+yr term mortgage (assuming they give you one beyond 70) especially when you have already paid off the mortgage on one property and derive rental income from it. Stealth boast or just plain hypocrisy?

We took out a 10 year mortgage on this current house having sold our last which by then (1990s) was mortgage free, when I was 35. I did change it when I divorced because of having to pay my husband but if people can afford shorter mortgage terms than 25 year or more so much the better.

We were the same OP. We paid off our 25 year mortgage and then decided to move. We now have a 45% mortgage which will last til we are 72. Provided we can keep working all is good. If we can't then we will sell and move to a smaller property and pay off mortgage and be mortgage free again. Depends on how much mortgage you are taking out. We worked it so we can always afford a 2-bed flat mortgage free if we had to downsize.

From the huge drip feed, I call stealth boast.

My original post did say it was a mortgage we can afford.

It was more a query about whether clearing a mortgage should be the financial end game.

Well surely the answer to your question is it depends on your financial circumstances as to whether paying of a mortgage should be the financial end game, it’s not rocket science, I’m sue you could work that out all by yourself.

Sure that should read

I suppose the main factor to consider if you can only pay it back if both of you are working is in the scenario of one (or both) of you falling into ill health so you can't work, or one of you dying do you want the added pressure of then having to sell up?

We've got a big mortgage but have a plan B if we weren't able to work.

It was more a query about whether clearing a mortgage should be the financial end game.

Of course it is for a lot of people. It means having the financial freedom to do other things (more holidays, less stress, part time working, retirement, etc depending on their circumstances.

You have decided that it isn't for you at this point in time. Neither is wrong so either you are doubting your decision or think other people are wrong.

But I still don’t understand why you would query that?

How do you get to a place in your life where at 50+ you are financially sound, good pensions and TWO houses mortgage-free, one generating an income, that somebody’s throw at comment about preferring to pay off their mortgage, makes you wobble about your decision?