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

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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.

To the poster who asked how people are mortgage free..in my case it's purely down to an inheritance, nothing more.

I got mortgage free around 28/29, house prices had just finished a big drop and starting to rise rapidly so I got a cheap flat in London in an area a lot of people would rule out then. Then rented 1 of 2 rooms out which covered mortgage and managed to save as no rent and paid off mortgage in 5 years. Stayed there a while thought market was due a big dip again - sold at 4 times what I bought for almost then went into rental. Then after second big dip bought again in and was in cash again as buying with DH.

We have bought another property at same time and have a small mortgage on the second one but just £70k each which will be paid off as soon as sell other one, needed to renovate more first. It was my granny who was my inspiration for saving, she always said owe nothing to no-one including the bank then they have no power over you.

We're mortgage free and put the extra cash into savings for Uni fees, house deposits, etc. We paid it off a year ago and by the time the girls need the money there should be over £35k in savings although we may dip into it for a new driveway, etc.

For info, we're both mid 40's with two kids. We were able to become mortgage free as DH bought our house 20 years ago for £35k, renovated it whilst only ever borrowing another £10k. Our payments were low (£200 per month) but by the end we overpaid a lot so now the money we save each month is a good chunk.

Wine!

Grandchildren, clothes, saving for retirement when we cannot work anymore, occasional holidays, house maintenance, there is always something that needs money!

The children as they set up their own homes.
Holidays
Setting aside money for a comfortable retirement.
Supporting elderly parents.
Making sure houses are retirement ready, with ‘big jobs’ done before we stop working.

On track for mortgage freedom Jan 2021 - we are late thirties and our home is in SW London / Surrey. Working away for 7 years has helped smash the debt whilst also renovating and extending the home.

Ill probs keep saving and investing hoping to be one day financially independant and living on passive income.

As 99.5% of mumsnet posters have a household income of £100k+ as it appears from any post about income, I imagine most MN'ers are mortgage free

My question would be if you have a high income but live well within your means in order to overpay your mortgage, what does your income go once you’re mortgage-free (ignoring the option of buying a much bigger house ). Quite different to the case of those who bought many moons ago and so had small mortgages or those who received inheritances which helped them become mortgage free. It must be strange to live all those years on a much more modest income than you needed to and then suddenly have loads of surplus cash. I’m hoping to find myself in this position in a few years although of course you never know and life can change a lot in the space of a few years.

To be honest, I really thought we’d be a lot better off than we are. We also have rental income from a previous home & we still end up at the very edge of our overdrafts. DH is self employed & I only work part time so we need to look at that.

Mine goes on helpout my DD and my grandchildren. I'm just about to get a new bathroom and a new kitchen will happen next year. I can do all of that without really going without myself.

I'm opting for cosmetic treatments, anti aging stuff and spending on things that I once wouldn't have, but then I didn't need it. Some of my friends have spent out on teeth

We're hoping to be done with mortgage by the time our eldest is at uni so might not notice very much difference in outgoings!
But will be nice to be able to help them out when the time comes.
We're quite frugal really so other than a few hols and nice food would probably stash spare cash away.

To be honest I don't feel that much better off. I always seem to spend/ save up to the limit but we live a relatively comfortable life and don't have to worry about the cost of meals out or anything else we want to do. Still need to save for big purchases though. As we are relatively low earners and we don't advertise the fact we are mortgage free I doubt anyone in our circle would think we are any better off than they are

@Summerdaysdriftingaway I had anticipated private school fees but now we are going down state route so I think we are going to buy a bigger house

We're in the process of buying a buy to let. We're also putting money aside to pay for the DCs tuition fees, university accomodation, etc. Then we want to help them buy their first houses. We're planning a once in a lifetime trip next year for DH's 50th. We're hoping to add a garden room to our house and have the garden landscaped in the Spring. We really need to re-carpet and replace the bathroom floor. We're in the process of buying DD her first car. There is always something

Paying DC1 through University with a pretty good lifestyle.
Second (DC1) and third property, renovations and improvements.
More holidays.
DC2’s extracurricular activities.
Buying things without finance.
Savings.

We are just frittering more and saving a bit more TBH. The frittering does include some big purchases we’d delayed e.g. kitchen, car but also includes more frequent and “nicer” holidays, doing the full shop in M&S or Waitrose.

We’re toying with the idea of a big move and having a mortgage again but as DD is at university it’s a bit silly really. So, in the mean time we have a large pot of savings. Work Pensions are pretty decent if not stratospheric and we’ve probably got another 20 years before retirement so no point paying any more Into those directly just now. We support DD and she has a good house deposit. We are very fortunate.

Less work for both of us. I don't work at all, instead home educating my disabled child.

DH is self-employed and stopped hustling quite so much - whenever work is a bit slow he just enjoys the time off rather than getting a temp job or settling for a lower wage as he used to when we had higher outgoings. I think last year he only worked the equivalent of about 30 weeks. He's 62 now and if the available work in his industry dries up altogether, he may even retire early rather than having to take a low-paid job he dislikes.