We’ve been mortgage free for 6 years. Payed it off in our early forties. The house is modest, detached but small at around 1100 sq feet, 3 beds. We bought a fixer upper in a very nice rural location and renovated over time. It’s exactly how we want it and suits us very nicely.
i cannot tell you how amazing the feeling is of not having the mortgage ball and chain anymore. We sleep very well at night. We missed all the recent interest rate increases and can save getting a great interest rate on our savings. We have no loans and credit cards are always paid off in full each month. We have financial resilience should a disaster happen and could easily cut back if we needed to without reducing our standard of living to uncomfortable levels. Private dentist costs aren’t an issue and although we don’t have any health issues, should we need to we could afford a private GP and medical treatment costs (we also have private medical insurance)
We do have pretty extravagant holidays every year flying business class long and short haul and stay in amazing hotels where the rich and famous go. I often wonder if the hotel staff and other guests at these hotels saw our little house would they be surprised. I have a few expensive things - bags, coats, jewellery etc. Most things I want I can buy but I don’t splurge very often. Okay, so I have preordered the Liberty Beauty advent calendar but it’s really an investment.
Conversely, we buy and sell clothing and other stuff on Vinted and try to cook from scratch as much as possible. Our home was renovated using about 70% secondhand furniture bought off FB MP and EBay.
We’re happy. I wouldn’t rent again - we rented for 4 years before we bought out home - yes our rental houses were bigger and more impressive but not worth it especially now in the U.K. where rental costs are sky high and landlords are selling off.
Your 2nd option of renting and owning a home abroad to rent out is too risky for me, so many costs and so much could go wrong.