To not want to be mortgage free?

[chatenoire]

There MNs I've been playing with spreadsheets all day, and quite frankly came to the conclusion that I'd rather have more freedom than to be mortgage free.

The original plan was to be mortgage free within this decade, but the price to pay is to put in half of our truly disposable income.

Which means we would be able to go on big holidays nor any major home improvements. Our mortgage is tiny (£375 - deal expires in May next year), so I don't see the point of sacrificing quality of life for the sake of never having to think about it again. I'm sure through the cycles deals expiring, overpayments, etc.. we'll end up being mortgage free before hitting 50, so that's not so bad, right?

I think a lot of people frantically save/pay off stuff in order to have a healthy retirement but no one knows what's right around the corner.

I know of three couples who in the last 18 months hit their early 60s and either had a sudden death or a life-changing diagnosis, meaning that 30+ years of planning for this perfect retirement, went down the pan. Nothing is promised.

I say yes to saving for a rainy day but don't forget to live for today.

There's a middle ground, surely?

It doesn't have to be £375 or whatever £x would be to remove all holidays/fun?

Overpaying something would make a difference. Or do you like paying interest?

The benefit of paying ours off early was £80k saved in interest payments.

How much would you have to overpay to be mortgage free within a decade?

Personally I'd compromise - overpay at least at the 6% cost rate and bump up the overpayment with any future pay rises.

I paid my mortgage off this year and it really reassuring. I rinsed my savings to do so though and I'm looking forward to rebuilding that security.

I agree that there could be a middle way. I'm very keen to aggressively go after the mortgage, because we've been paying off some home improvement loans and old credit cards plus nursery fees, all of which will be finished by the end of this year.

I've worked out that if we continue to funnel these significant outgoings towards the mortgage, we could pay it off in about 5 years, rather than the 26 we've got left on it. I feel like we've got so used to this big chunk of our wages being tied up, that we're like boiled frogs and wouldn't miss what we've never truly had.

As long as we were maintaining the lifestyle we had, I'd love to see the back of the mortgage and start paying up front for the things that matter to us.

That sounds incredibly sensible @TodayForTomorrow. The amount of interest over 21 years would be massive.

I have 13 yrs left so ill be done around the time I'm 553 which is also wheb my NI years will be complete too. I decided not to pay my mortgage off early becuase I still have to work to complete my NI years. Once that's done and my mortgage I'm planning to massively drop my working life as I wont need as much money to maintain my lifestyle I want.

Like you if I tried to pay it earlier id miss out on holidays after a year of hip and back issues ( finally sorted out) its made.me appreciate that im still in good health to do activd holidays but that might be the case if I get older so for me I'll keep a better balance

Yes the idea is that we'll aim to at least reach the 10% but no biggie if we don't... Same if we end up saving extra, we'll put into an ISA, and then maybe use it as a lump sum when the fixed term expires.

I got abit obsessive once our mortgage went on line. I’d check it each day, and pay something off, one day I paid off 42p to round it to the nearest pound.

I didn’t mind doing extra overtime and I just overpaid the mortgage. It was the push we needed to pay it off. I’m pleased it’s gone, because the council tax and all other utilities and car is £200 a week (not food) and it’s all dd from Kroo now as they pay a good interest on the money in there.

it is personal choice, I’m happy that mines paid off, and you are happy to pay approximately £90 a week, which enables you to do lovely things, and yes you are right, you are a long time dead!!

I had a similar mortgage repayment, I never paid any extra as it was totally affordable.
I've enjoyed my holidays, having a nice car whilst still being able to pay my mortgage
When it got down to £7k I paid it off, that was 18 months ago, also sold and moved house at the same time.
I'm in my 50's.
My attitude was I wasn't going to make myself miserable by missing out on what I enjoy just to own my house outright, I wanted a balance.

Only on mumsnet is being mortgage free by 50s the norm/ideal. Especially nowadays. My mortgage lasts until I'm 67. Maybe I'll have some kind of windfall and pay it off sooner, who knows, but honestly for anyone else reading this thread feeling down about their life choices because they can't afford/don't want to scrimp to pay their mortgage at such a young age, trust me you're not alone.

How much of your payments are debt service ie interest payments?

Being mortgage free means you’re not paying to borrow money. It also means that you’re paying the bank money in the form of interest. If you didn’t have the mortgage debt, not only would you not be paying interest, you’d earn interest on whatever money you are using to make your monthly payments.

You’re missing out on the opportunity to earn money. So whatever you pay for a holiday (Eg £3,000) while you are still paying off your mortgage should actually be £3,000 + whatever you’d have earned if you’d paid off your mortgage and put that money to use.

I would've done anything to be mortgage free as young as possible. But I've been let go from jobs due to downsizing too often. I don't trust having job security anymore and I would've been better having it paid off, but my mortgage is a little more than 3x the amount of yours.

If anything below £1k is low for you then why wouldn't you just put that money into the mortgage.

I get the holidays but personally I'd rather over pay and not pay anymore interest than I need to.

We are mortgage free. The mortgage was taken out on the basis of DH's income while I was a SAHM . I returned to work and were able to pay off the mortgage. We are now putting what would have been mortgage payments into our pensions.

I'm nearly 60 and still paying mine. Should be done in another 3 years. Had planned to overpay but dh just had major heart surgery and dont know if he can return to work now which is a game changer financially! You never know whats round the corner.

My mortgage is a similar amount to you but we are overpaying like crazy to get it paid off. We will save £13,000 and pay it off in 7 years if we continue. We only took the mortgage out 2 years ago.

We are only being aggressive with it because the interest payments stick in me and I resent the bank adding their interest on. We also got a good deal so we're taking advantage.

I guess because now that our mortgage is lower we can finally free up the money for my much wanted holidays.

So for example, last year we had 3 weekend breaks (adding up to 2k), one 2-week European holiday (around 8k), and a US trip (including Disneyland in CA) which was around 6k.

This year, we're having two longish holidays (one in Mexico and one in Sweden), and two mini breaks (one at the Four Seasons in Hampshire).

For 2025 I think we'll only have one trip abroad and two mini breaks, but in 2026 we plan to go on a 14 night cruise in the South Pacific with a few nights in Sydney and Hawaii.

So yes, my biggest motor in life is going on holidays! We still do all of our shopping exclusively at Lidl, and I only buy clothes if they're either super reduced or if they're massive bargains at TK Maxx.

We went big on our mortgage on this house (forever home, perfect location) and there’s no way we can just save some more to get rid of it in a few years (350k) but of course any overpayment is good. Parter is a high earner and torn between saving to overpay in a few years (current mortgage rate is low), doing up the house which is dire in places / needs fixing, and putting it straight into his pension tax free via salary sacrifice. SAHM so his wage is spread very thin. Hmm it’ll all be ok in the end but don’t feel great about the mortgage sometimes. Lots of equity though if we ever want to sell (but we don’t go big on holidays so I guess that’s a positive for our ability to save)

Each to their own, not sure I could wait till I’m 553 personally

There absolutely is a balance to be found here. Remember that being mortgage free by 35/40 or whatever people say on here absolutely is not the norm.

Overpaying is sensible, but I absolutely would not prioritise it over holidays and other things people would regard as luxuries. Time spent with friends/family and kids is far, far more important.

If you have spare money, by all means overpay, but don't forget to actually find some enjoyment out of life as well.

Great plan. Remember to check if there are early redemption penalties for overpaying

I really think this is a personal choice down to opinions, lifestyles and finances.

We bought at 37 so later but luckily only had 50% LTV. Overpaying monthly but not so that we can’t go on holiday or live life. My dad rented in his later years before he got council accommodation. It was worrying the lack of security for a place to live.

So it’s important to us we have the mortgage paid off 5 years earlier minimum but hopefully 8 years is the projection.

It's swings and roundabouts, isn't it? Hard to determine the perfect balance between a sensible amount of mortgage/minimising interest/enjoying life/saving into pensions/maintaining the house/kids' education/memorable holidays etc, and this will be different for everyone anyway.

We bought a modest house (£145k) at a fairly good time (2015), and had a bit of inheritance to put towards the deposit. We've since been very lucky to inherit a bit more since then and had a good rate for a few years. We've recently paid off a bit more as a lump sum and now will have paid the whole thing off within a few more years, when we'll both still be under 50.

HOWEVER, my husband is self-employed and doesn't have a pension (I know...please don't...), I still have student debt to pay off, and we have two kids to potentially put through university. So some would say we should have fixed on our low rate for as long as we could and just paid £500 p/M til we were old and grey, and put money into a personal pension for my husband, or into ten-year bonds for the kids' education, or bought an investment buy-to-let, or gone big on S&S ISA etc...my point is, you do what feels sensible at the time, taking into account your own individual circumstances and making as much use of your crystal ball as poss. Swings and roundabouts! Best of luck with sorting it out OP.

Meh I'd agree. I can totally understand how good it would be to not have one but I've always treated it as a kind of rent. Bought my first property in 2004 and since then have owned lots of properties, some myself, a couple with an ex and now house with DH. During that time mortgages have ranged from around £650 to £1400. We paid interest only on one for a while too (pre 2008), lost on one, gained on others. In the last 2 years I've released equity twice for things so it's gone up again. I'm confident it'll be repaid before we retire at 62 and not planning to move again so I wouldn't overpay at a detriment to lifestyle - it'll be gone one day!