Buy the house or pay off mortgage by 42?

[BHFEPP]

Just as the title really. I am 38 and could pay off my mortgage by 42 if all is well (got the bulk ready to pay off in chunks already, haven’t done in full as it’s currently invested).

Anyway…I’ve just found my dream home. Absolutely beautiful and exactly where I would love to be. But, it would mean taking out a chunky mortgage and realistically I would be paying it off for many years to come. Part of me thinks go for it and if I ever have to downsize I can, the other part of me thinks just leave it and accept where I am and what I have. For context current home worth 550k. The one I love is 695k.

@nutbrownhare15 i work less now

Renting places all over the world is no consolation for having to spend too much time in a house that isn't your dream home, particularly when you're retired.

Location perfect, house perfect, all done. 42 is very young to be mortgage free- unless you’re focusing on a FIRE -style early retirement, I would say buy the house you love, and congratulate yourself on getting it so early in life. You are at an age when many people are still looking to increase their income and get pay rises/better jobs, so you may find that you can pay the bigger mortgage off faster.

but only you know how much pleasure you will get from the dream house versus financial freedom. Good luck! Nice dilemma to have!

It probably didn’t cost £550k 20 years ago?

We bought a flat for £160k in 2002, worth £500-550k now. We paid it off in 14 years and were mortgage-free in our mid-thirties (then we moved, so sadly no longer mortgage-free. The next one is likely to take us 20 years to pay off, despite me earning about 5x what I did in 2002 🤣)

I doubt they bought a house aged 18 though. There may have been house price rises to account for some equity but I'm assuming they didn't pay £150k for the current house hence curious as to why the discrepancy.

Buy the dream home. We did and only sold it because we divorced. I've never regretted buying it at all.

When you say you "found" the other home*, were you actively looking or did it fall into your lap?

For me it is an absolute no brainer to be mortgage free and on the glide path to retirement in a fully secure home (because that is what I did and what I am now doing). But your posts all seem to be trying to convince yourself that the half-million pound house you have been living in for x years suddenly has all these flaws and outrageous costs to make it comparable to one that has suddenly turned your head.

(*I consciously avoid saying "dream home" because there is always a pay off - in this case an extra 20 years of mortgage payments.)

We had this debate last year - even sold our house and offered on dream one. Then chain was a bit of a mess and it gave me time to reflect and we ended up pulling out.

I haven't regretted pulling out once since. Our house suits us - yes ideally we'd have a bit more space - but there's a lot we can do here to make it great and it costs SO much less than moving! We can be mortgage free tomorrow if we wanted (we have enough savings, but opting to keep it in investments vs mortgage for now). We will have paid it off in less than 8yrs, will still have savings and investments which would have lost a chunk to SDLT if we'd moved. I will then go down to 3-4 days per week, and as DH is already 4 days we can spend a day a week together whilst kids are at school. We will be about 43/44 by then. If I wanted to later on help kids through uni or get on the property ladder I can up my working days and use the extra to fund that. It gives me so much more freedom in future.