If you are mortgage free, where does your income go?

[Presentxx]

We will be in this position soon and I’m intrigued as to how others spend/utilise their income when the biggest debt has been cleared? Hope this isn’t too invasive, but its not something I find myself comfortable asking those closest to me.

Teenagers - food, car etc.
Holidays - family and as a couple (before Covid)
We eat out a lot more
House renovations
Bit of saving

We've bought two cars since we became mortgage free (not new ones) as well as having a garden room put in this year, although that's more from savings than extra income.

I stopped employed work for a bit which meant our income dropped significantly anyway as freelance was much less well paid (but fun), so it can also bring you flexibility in that way.

You can put more in pension savings. Go on better or more holidays (in normal times). I save as much as possible for (a) ds going to uni and (b) in case either of us loses our job.

I have servants and drive a Lamborgini.

We’ve just moved into our house, mortgage free.

Savings/pensions
House (it’s old and still needs some renovations)
House - fittings and soft furnishings
Helping out my daughters as needed
Good food and drink
Clothing, bags, shoes and jewellery for me

I now work part time in a far less stressful job. so my net income is around half what it used to be, service charges and maintenance costs are high (warehouse conversion in central London) - other than that, general living & entertainment costs.

We paid off our mortgage a few months ago. It wasn’t our biggest monthly expense, school fees and childcare are more expensive so it hasn’t made a massive dent in our outgoings.
We need to pay for roof repairs, next year the house needs painting. Our sofa is 15 years old and falling to bits etc etc certainly don’t feel like we have any more spare cash but it is a relief to be debt free.

I bought a horse, rebuilt the stables and put in a swimming pool. It's wonderful.

If I ever was in position I’d use it to pension plan or reduce working hours. Consider a buy to let.

Savings
Increased charity donations
Bought a new car
DCs halls rent/living costs

Not there yet but would save money for uni/housing for dc.

School fees, better holidays and not worrying about the cost of eating out.

Ours isn't paid off yet (around 14 years to go). We'll both be younger than 50 and plan to save hard for retirement and travel a bit if our income is still good.

In normal times, holidays. We take several each year. DP has an expensive hobby, and we both drive nice cars. Life is comfortable, but we have both worked hard for many years to earn this financial position.

Pre Covid, I was doing more weekend breaks away plus trying to top up my pension pot

Pensions
Savings for dc university etc
House renovation/building
Gardening/landscaping

We will be in this position soon. I'm crap at saving so whilst hoping to save a little more I will be whacking an extra £300 (plus normal contributions) per month into my pension.

Being mortgage free has allowed me to work less hours and take on the caring responsibilities for a disabled parent.

It has its downside as I am in my 50’s and don’t have a private pension and know at some stage I will need to downsize my home to provide for my retirement.

Savings, pension, helping adult sons with their housing costs.

Saving, few more treats, bit of a reduction in hours.

I've been 8 years mortgage free and am now 50. Up until that point, I spent a lot of years living well and had a lot of debt and credit cards, we had great holidays, ate out a lot and I have more shoes and clothes upstairs than M&S!

Due to health issues for my husband, our lifestyle has changed massively in the last four years and we can no longer travel.

As a result of all of the above, I now have no debt and £50k in savings and after the amount of debt I've had, I can't believe it. Husband has even more in savings - we have separate savings, it works for us!

But we're now doing work on the house as that's been neglected over the years so we could have nice holidays. It's not falling down, it was a new build in 1998 but it's very tired. I signed a contract yesterday for the kitchen which is going to be around £22k, work is being done on the front garden and with other bits and pieces around the house that's going to be another £10k. It's great to be in a position now where we can do all of this to the house and not worry about the cost.

DH is retired and has a good pension, I will get a good pension through work when I retire so we don't need to worry about that. I can continue saving money every month so that when the house is done, I will still have savings and maybe holidays in the future.

Childminder and then the rest in to savings. Not sure what else to do with it. Live in a very small house but would need to mov eof we have another child. Would like to work part time but current employer won't let me.

Petrol, food, shoes and clothes for teenagers. If I had a mortgage I'd struggle financially and would need a better paid job.

I massively reduced my hours at work and regard myself as semi-retired.

We're also spending money on the house and saving for our retirement.

We paid off ours a couple of years ago and sadly can't see much difference although I feel we should as it was £600 a month. We have 4 teenagers, one at Uni and we pay his accommodation, we help them with phone contracts , driving lessons etc. It is an expensive time. i also took a lower paid job for less stress so that hasn't helped financially.

We're not there yet but making overpayments to pay it off quicker. The plan is then to put that money into retirement savings and savings to help the DC with house deposits.