What age did you pay your mortgage off?

[Reese123]

Out of interest what age did you pay off your mortgage or what age will you be when you anticipate paying it off?

@ButterflyWitch

OMG I can't believe these replies. They can't be representative of RL?! I'll be paying into my early 70's

I think it is as I know just as many people taking out huge mortgages now as I do those that are overpaying to clear them. Yes we chat about those things.

When I first took a mortgage out many years ago age 23 it always seemed to be that you just paid to the end. Overpayments and paying off early was unheard of.

This changed when you started to see the mortgage account online just like your current accounts along with sites like MSE which promote how much you can save with just frequent overpayments. And once you understand how paying extra reduces the term you kind of get addicted. We went from having 10 years left to paying it off in 5.

Took it out on a 25 year term which would be paid off by age 58. But have overpaid the max 10% for a few years so as it currently stands, will be paid off by age 50. Expecting to continue overpaying as much as possible though, while we can, to reduce the term further!

Took out first mortgage age 23 - London;
Extended mortgage And term age 33 for bigger house;
Increased mortgage to cover re training costs:
Extended term re divorce age 50;
Will be paid off by 65.

I see a mortgage as no different to paying rent but cheaper and with an increasing value asset at the end. My first house cost £64k. The house I’m in is now worth £500k. Therefore I feel I’ve made good decisions even if I still have a small mortgage.

OMG I can't believe these replies. They can't be representative of RL?! I'll be paying into my early 70's

But remember many of us bought in our early 20s (at far higher interest rates) and then paid off chunks when interest rates were much much lower. The norm was a 25 year mortgage which means that unless people remortgaged and took out another 25 year term, they would typically be aid in their mid 40s.

Plus I hate to say it and I know it will be pounced upon but we didn't have/expect as much "stuff" and as extravagant a lifestyle 25/30 years ago. Plus the property market was different. When I bought my first house a ten percent deposit on my tiny 2 bed terrace in notverynice town was only £3,500 (although I only earned £10,800 pa)

55 but possibly with overpayments at 53 although saving at the moment due to Covid economic fallout.... Remortgaged at 35 for school fees so would have finished a couple of years ago if that wasn't the case.

Plus I hate to say it and I know it will be pounced upon but we didn't have/expect as much "stuff" and as extravagant a lifestyle 25/30 years ago

This isn’t a popular opinion but I do agree with it. 20 -25 years ago mobile phones were just becoming the norm and they were very basic, lots of people didn’t have one yet.
A lot of people didn’t have internet at home. Me and most of my friends would not have spent £3 on a cup of coffee. Internet shopping didn’t really exist like it does now so people couldn’t sit at home ordering random stuff that they might not bother buying if they had to trek to the shops.
Nowadays most households are paying for multiple mobile phones (especially if they have teenagers in the house). Coffee shops are everywhere because paying £3 for a coffee is the norm. Delivery drivers are run off their feet with the amount of stuff people are ordering. And society seems to become very much instant gratification and people just want to have material things immediately.
Of course houses cost far more now too which makes a huge difference.

@Totallycluelessoverhere

Agreed. We didn’t have a fridge or freezer for a year after we first bought. A sofa and our bed were second or fifth hand and we were given a twin tub. We didn’t buy a washing machine for 8 years. No meals out - my dad would send us a £10 once or twice a year and we would share a portion of fish and chips as a treat. No phone. This was the 80s for us and we both had two jobs just to raise the deposit money and then pay off the mortgage. One car between us and a push bike! We were slim!!
I can’t see people being happy to live like that now just to buy a house - although I do know some people who have two jobs to save for a deposit.

We had my grandma's extremely old sofa and a beanbag in the living room for years. That was it. I can't think of a single thing we had new in terms of furniture/decor.

Totally agree, we took a 20 year mortgage at 22, and when we moved age 30, didn’t extend the years on it. We decorated cheaply just a tin of paint and maybe a new rug, as couldn’t afford new carpets. Only bought our first brand new sofa last year age 48, always had second hand and chucked a throw over it. Drove old bangers until mortgage was done, then straight away did a 3 year car loan, will keep it for as long as possible. Spent last couple years doing each room properly inc carpets. Only had a couple of fancy foreign holidays in 27 years, we prefer this country, caravan, tent or holiday cottage. Everyone has different ways of Doing things, our way suited us, and now approaching 50 I’m glad I did it the way I did. Having said that we have yet to pay into pension funds, so getting some decent savings started will be the plan for our 50’s, and possibly a downsize when we hit 60.

@Totallycluelessoverhere

Plus I hate to say it and I know it will be pounced upon but we didn't have/expect as much "stuff" and as extravagant a lifestyle 25/30 years ago

This isn’t a popular opinion but I do agree with it. 20 -25 years ago mobile phones were just becoming the norm and they were very basic, lots of people didn’t have one yet.
A lot of people didn’t have internet at home. Me and most of my friends would not have spent £3 on a cup of coffee. Internet shopping didn’t really exist like it does now so people couldn’t sit at home ordering random stuff that they might not bother buying if they had to trek to the shops.
Nowadays most households are paying for multiple mobile phones (especially if they have teenagers in the house). Coffee shops are everywhere because paying £3 for a coffee is the norm. Delivery drivers are run off their feet with the amount of stuff people are ordering. And society seems to become very much instant gratification and people just want to have material things immediately.
Of course houses cost far more now too which makes a huge difference.

It’s ridiculous to compare mobile phone ownership 25 years ago with today. A mobile phone today, and access to the internet, is essential for modern life; that wasn’t the case in the 80s (obviously). It’s not some kind of luxury optional extra.

Also just because people shop online as opposed to in person doesn’t necessarily mean they’re buying more stuff or spending a greater proportion of their income on it.

It’s easy to bring up the £3 coffee thing, but even if you bought a cup a day, it would be 32 years of forgoing that before you could afford the average first time buyer deposit in the UK.

The real reason, as the post above acknowledges at the very end, is that house prices have risen dramatically and wholly out of step with average earnings.

We will pay ours off next year (age 51).

However, I want to eventually move out of the city (not London). I plan to do a little work to the house and re-locate to a larger but more remote house with the cash from the sale of current one - as long as I am allowed to work from home for most of the week in the future!

75. I left exH and started again. I overpay and hope to be done 15year earlier than than but it scares me especially with redundancy hanging over my head atm.

Yes, indecision I agree that internet and mobiles are more of an essential item today (maybe mobiles are a complete luxury for school aged kids though) But they still cost money that 25 years ago people didn’t need to fund. As more things become essential items the amount of money being spent on these new essentials is much greater and it leaves less money to overpay mortgages etc.
A £3 coffee isn’t a lot to save, but if you have one most days on the way to work and buy your lunch in the local sandwich shop those things add up to maybe £150 a month which if that money was used to overpay the mortgage it would decrease the term quite significantly (depending on the mortgage size obviously).
It’s too easy to say ‘I’m having my daily £3 coffee because I will never be a homeowner / mortgage free’. But it rarely is just a daily coffee that money is splurged on. I’m not bothered what luxuries people spend their money on but don’t then compare yourself to somebody who is completely frugal and has paid off their mortgage by their mid thirties or forties without any family help or inheritance.
If I had lived the lifestyle that my friends did in my late teens I wouldn’t be in the final 3 years of my mortgage because I would have been buying 15 years later like my friends when House prices are Significantly higher.
I will splurge on my Costa coffee when I am mortgage free at 44

And do people really need a £1200 mobile phone? Is a £100 Smart phone not sufficient? Yes both can be got on contract With no upfront payment but the monthly price difference for the contract is about £50+

29, just before my 30th birthday.

This sounds unrealistic, and it is to most, but i've been through a lot to do it (older partner who had an in-demand skill who worked 7 days a week for 2 years almost without break, drastic life choices including some severe self-induced poverty to get ourselves into scraping a deposit togeher (we're talking walking around with holes in shoes poverty, not the middle class "we can't afford hummous this week" type), relocating countries to earn a lot by almost working ourselves to death, doing fulltime education then working nights etc)

i didn't realise how much (too much!) we were taking on in our 20s, and we're lucky it paid off - most of it was hard work but we've also been lucky. plenty of other people are working as hard but through illness, accident, caring responsibilities etc it doesn't land them in the same comfortable position.

i do get cross when family members use me as an example of how young people "just need to work hard" to get on the property ladder, they have no concept of the sacrifices we've made, not really! i almost crashed the car so often because of sleep deprivation between study/work commitments while doing both fulltime, it wasn't a model that i could ever recommend.

I was 47 & DH 43

63% of brits own their own home, and of those half own outright with no mortgage.

I will be 63.

I always find these threads rather depressing. I'll be 65 before my mortgage is paid off, and I haven't got a large or expensive house either.

DH and I are both public sector workers, so neither of us get overtime, or large salaries. With no real payrises in the last ten years for either of us, overpayments is not really an option.

We haven't got a large house, but have moved twice. We extended the length of mortgage both times to pay for it. However, we're of an age where our first house was about £100k and our current house is worth about £300k. Still one of the cheapest three beds in the area.

However, DH and I both have good (part final salary) pensions, so we will have a comfortable retirement.

And before people say, no I don't buy a daily £3 coffee - live rurally, so not an option, no flash cars or expensive holidays etc....

But we have enough and a good life so aside from these threads, I'm generally happy.

Would have been paid off at 38 but we decided to move that year and get a massive new mortgage. Will now be paid off age 60-65 unless we downsize.

If you stay in the same house which you bought at 20 then obviously it will be paid off by 45. It is a balancing act - keep moving and increasing the mortgage and the term or stay put. At the end of the day a mortgage is the most efficient way to own a house and use some one else’s money (banks) to invest - and yes I was one of those who paid 15% interest in the early 90s but I still have a capital investment that is worth far more than if I had stuck it in a pension or a bank.

In two years when I'm 52. We could actually pay it all off now if we wanted to but I like having the savings particularity at the moment with everything going on.

It is a balancing act - keep moving and increasing the mortgage and the term or stay put.
We took a different option. We moved twice to more expensive houses but we kept our remaining years to pay the same and instead increased our monthly payments. It has been very uncomfortable at times and we have had to forego a lot of fun money but it’s the choice we made.

52 (dh 54) in 4 years time, however redundancy looming and am praying I hold onto my current job for 4 years.

Totallyclueless so first it’s a coffee, now it’s coffee plus lunch; first it’s a mobile, now it’s a £1200 mobile...there are an awful lot of assumptions going on there about people who are trying to buy. Sure, some people aren’t good at saving. But on average earnings, the vast majority of young people today won’t be able to afford a house on the same terms as people in previous generations, no matter how frugal they are.

The gap between average earnings and house prices has gone from twice annual salary in 1985 to six times annual salary in 2015, for example.

But the people here saying they will be mortgage free in their 30’s or 40’s didn’t buy a house in 1985. They couldn’t have possibly done that as they would have been babies at that time. No doubt they have bought in the same era as the people who are saying house prices are out of reach due to the increase in house prices. I bought just before the millennium but those saying they bought at 23 and will be paid off at 39 clearly didn’t buy in the 80’s or 90’s.
And yes many young people these days have very expensive phones. It is uncommon to see young people with a cheap smartphone or at least in my area that’s the case.