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Original poster

Paid off our mortgage

94 replies

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 30/12/2014 20:31

If you are struggling for money then please don't read this thread - I don't want to upset people!

We paid off our mortgage last week. We are mid - late 30s. (To be exact I am mid and dh is late ). Paid it off by over paying every month as much as we could.

Nobody knows. So I thought I'd tell on here.

It feels a bit weird. My brother is planning on buying a new house ATM so we were all discussing mortgages and mortgage rates over Xmas. It kept hitting me that we no longer have a mortgage rate. Felt a bit of a fraud.

Feel like we should have a party or something. Except we can't tell anyone!

Anyone else in the same boat?

OP posts:

madsadbad · 31/12/2014 17:44

Well done!
It is a hard thing to talk about in Real life and only a few people know our aim, we did aim to pay off when I was 30 (this year), but plans change and we invested the money in a business instead.
So we have another 5ish years if we keep paying at the rate we are.

PotteringAlong · 31/12/2014 17:55

We'll done! We have a plan to start clearing ours next year when our eldest dc starts school and our childcare bill goes down. It's a 15 year plan, but a plan nevertheless!

madsadbad · 31/12/2014 17:58

If any one enjoys reading other peoples stories and progress on money saving expert website, there is a sub forum called mortgage free wannabe.

Wellieswithaholein · 01/01/2015 18:23

Good for you!
We paid ours off in our 30's. We then saved up and bought a small house which we rent out. We are overpaying on that and have the savings to almost pay it off in full, but want to keep some back for emergencies and some nice holidays.
Hopefully we will be mortgage free for the second time in a year or so.

42notTrendy · 01/01/2015 18:36

We paid ours off a few years back.
One of my friends I think suspects as from time to time she asks leading questions about Mortgage rates etc. I'm not sure why we don't broadcast it but I do feel it's personal and I don't want people to make judgements about us!
We certainly are not well off as shortly after paying it off, DH lost his job and we had 7 years of very little coming in. I've no idea how we would have survived financially if we still had a mortgage.
We always said that we would put away the money we would have spent, which I strongly recommend you do, as we have only managed to do that 3 or 4 times!

DH now has a decent job, first time in 8 years so we have been treating ourselves a bit! Hopefully we can start saving a bit this year.
No plans to buy a bigger house....yet!

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 01/01/2015 19:18

42 that must have massively reduced the stress of not having much coming in, I'm glad things are looking brighter for you.

We are now 100% focused on the mortgage after quite a lot a few years of pissing about. I can't wait to have it cleared. It gives you so many choices. Well done to everyone here - I totally agree it's the kind of thing one doesn't talk about in RL so for your achievement!

PinkyAndTheBump · 01/01/2015 19:23

Well done! We're on a mission to do same but will be lucky to achieve by mid 40s.

Did you just sweep all "leftovers" at end of month into mortgage? You must have had amazing budgeting skills!!

FullOfChoc · 01/01/2015 19:36

Peedie - We have nearly paid off our mortgage, a year to go, but if I cashed in an ISA I could clear it now. However, I'm looking at doing an extension and I'm wondering if it would be better to keep a small mortgage going to save hassle borrowing to do the extension. Is that anything like your situation?

I'm not 100% about the extension (would be about £60k) so it's hard to decide (lovely problem!).

If we do pay off and have excess money then I'm planning to put the whole lot in a tracker ISA. Still easy access and follows stock market gains (or losses).

FullOfChoc · 01/01/2015 19:37

BTW We are early forties, have overpaid wherever possible, run old cars, had cheap holidays, any bonuses/unexpected cash gifts go straight to the mortgage.

chickensandbees · 01/01/2015 19:55

We will have paid ours off in 4 years, we will be mid 40s. Cannot wait!

Have been overpaying as much as poss and really benefitted by low interest rates.

Once we have paid it off will put more into pensions and savings so that we don't have to wait till we are 70 to retire. Am hoping to go part time by the time I am 50-55 and be semi retired by 60.

We are also planning some lovely long haul trips with the DC (and some on our own)

We could get a bigger house but I love our house and where we live. Being able to relax and enjoy ourselves is more important.

LilMissSunshine9 · 01/01/2015 20:30

Loony - I am with you I want choices so overpaying sothat I can decide to either work less e.g. 3/4 days or take some fabulous holidays or should something unexpected happen to my health I won't worry so much.

fossepark · 02/01/2015 00:59

Congratulations - we are aiming to pay ours off by early 40s. We tend to put any bonuses in and add in additional overpayments throughout the year. We tend to have leftover cash every month but let it build up a bit before adding it into the mortgage.

Other friends and relatives are mortgage free and I've never felt particularly jealous - just pleased for them, but recognising that it was partly due to making some decisions that we wouldn't have wanted. It's not something I think we'd make public, but tbh we tend not to discuss finances much at all except with close family. We don't expect to need to move again as we like the area we live in, the school situation is fine and only have one dc in a 2 bed, so we'll not need a bigger property.

annielostit · 02/01/2015 07:46

Well done on paying it off. We're on countdown. 31 months left.yay!!
If it were me I'd shout it from the rooftops for making good choices and sacrifices to enable this.x

BikeRunSki · 02/01/2015 08:15

9 years to go - actually 8 y 11 months since yesterday!! Can't wait!

ihatethecold · 02/01/2015 08:39

My dh retires from the police in 2017. We will pay of the mortgage of about 100K with his lump sum.

We Are also debating extending the kitchen and doing some boring things like new heating.

TalkinPeace · 02/01/2015 12:20

Fullofchoc
I had my mortgage down to £20k and then did a £100k extension
best move I ever made.

TBH lots of my friends who bought houses straight out of Uni are mortgage free
others have lost their parents so ditto
hence its not a taboo subject in our social group.

yomellamoHelly · 02/01/2015 12:29

We paid ours off. And then moved to a much bigger house. Going back to a (huge) mortgage was a shock to the system and dh dreams of paying this one off too. (We currently over-paying otherwise it finishes when we're 62!) Well done and enjoy it.

ChaChaBoom · 02/01/2015 12:50

Congrats OP, me and dh in pretty much the same position, we became fully offset in Nov and we only owe 6 more payments. We bought young, kept payments high even though interest rates dropped and added payrises to overpayments. No pensions though so that's where the 'spare' money will go, probably. Though I fancy buying a small place for the future...

FullOfChoc · 02/01/2015 15:48

Talkin I think we probably will go for the extension. It's just the thought of all the hassle! It will make it a cracking house though.

TalkinPeace · 02/01/2015 16:12

FullofChoc
I had 9 months of hell - only one room in my house did not have a wall knocked through.
It was worth every minute and penny.

Original poster

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 02/01/2015 17:26

Thanks again.

I have a confession - we've asked someone to come round to measure up for possible fitted wardrobes tomorrow. Very naughty! But the ones we have currently were put in by the people we bought the house off and we've put up with them for 8 years but we hate them! My estimate of the cost is likely to be similar to one month's mortgage payment which seems crazily little!

I think we may have become spenders!

It's been interesting to hear different people's view on upgrading / not upgrading our house. One thing that I've noticed is that to get something significantly nicer we'd pretty much have to double the value of the house. There doesn't seem to be many houses that are "a bit nicer for a bit more". Has anyone else found this? (We are currently in a decent but not enormous 4-bed.) Did you go for it? Although even if we could get past the "new massive mortgage" problem we'd still have the problem of location.

I did come up with the perfect location in the middle of the night one time - just over the catchment border into that for a really good secondary but actually closer to dd's primary than we are now. (Lopsided catchment.)

And then I realised that the road name sounded famililiar.

And then I realised that I'd pinpointed dh's office! Do you think his boss would mind?

OP posts:

carlywurly · 02/01/2015 17:36

Well done! I think you thoroughly deserve your new wardrobes, with the added bonus that it won't feel like you're paying for them

I'm just over halfway with mine, but it's a big house and in my sole name. About 10 years to go but I could clear a couple of years more with savings. Dp has a place in his name so we could consolidate, downsize and probably be mortgage free now. If interest rates start shooting up, this is what we'd do. Until then, my interest rate is so low, I'm overpaying as much as possible to clear it.

Feel sorry for colleagues who are just getting on ladder with 35 year mortgages. Our area is high on house prices and low on salaries.

ChippingInLovesChristmasLights · 02/01/2015 19:18

I'm sure DH's Boss would appreciate having him so close!

We're in the same position re 'moving up'. There's nothing worth moving for without paying eye watering money. To the point where if the interest rates went up a moderate amount we'd be screwed, so we're staying put for now. If anything happens to my job we'll look at moving out of this area as it's ridiculously expensive.

However, in your position, if it's affordable, I'd move. As I said before, it's the ideal time for you to do it, before you get used to the disposable cash and while interest rates are low.

Apatite1 · 02/01/2015 19:34

We've just gotten on to the mortgage ladder and hope to clear it in 3-4 years, well before I'm 40. I just need to resist wanting a bigger, better home and stick to the one we have.

You deserve the fitted wardrobes for sure!

oneowlgirl · 02/01/2015 19:58

Well done Op - that's a fab position to be in. I do agree with Chipping though in that it's likely worth upgrading now to your forever house before you get used to the extra cash & while things are still (relatively) affordable.

Enjoy the wardrobes

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