Is being mortgage free overrated?

[BoRED S2upid]

How can it possible be overrated? You pay a rediculous amount of money over the lifetime of your mortgage the quicker it’s cleared the sooner that money is yours. Think about it your £500 a month mortgage as free money in your pocket on top of your usual monthly spends it’s going to change your life a little. Every 2 or 3 months that could buy you a nice toy.

[survivalist]

catman said:

You may feel different if your mortgage was 33% of your take home wage. You would barely notice 9%.

Tim

This. For your age/generation I’d say that’s pretty unusual, especially with a 30 year term. Assuming you’ve got expensive hobbies or a great investment vehicle to make that stack up financially.

Also, once wife and kids are in consideration having a low cost of living gives you more options in terms of childcare, spending time with the family / work-life balance etc

Also likely to become way more important as the cost of living increases.

[SystemParanoia]

catman said:

You may feel different if your mortgage was 33% of your take home wage. You would barely notice 9%.

Tim

mines close to 40%

[Sheepshanks]

98elise said:

This

No matter how bad things get I have a roof over my head. When I was unemployed for 3 months I got JSA only. Suddenly a mortgage payment is more than your income.

With no mortgage we could still eat.

You've still got all the other bills to pay - for many people they'll be more than their mortgages.

When mine finished it was a trivial amount anyway, but I suppose for people with recent mortgages it's going to make a big difference if inflation doesn't decimate their payments, like it did mine.

[Monkeylegend]

There is of course one big benefit of having a 30 year mortgage, that being your other half will get a lot less if you divorce in the next few years, sort of win/win

[Alex_225]

BoRED S2upid said:

How can it possible be overrated?

I did think this really. I mean if I was mortgage free I'd either have the option to continue in my current job and have plenty of disposable income. Or I could take a local job on less money and still live the same lifestyle I have now.

Ok, perhaps not life changing in the huge lottery win sense but still pretty damn good.

[Slyjoe]

If you owned your house, but lost your job, would the house be counted as an asset and prevent you from claiming any kind of benefit?

[anonymous-user]

BucksFizz said:

Is being mortgage free such a big deal? Does it actually change the way you think, feel, live and spend? I keep reading it does but I can't see it.

So is being mortgage free overrated?

It changes everything, or at least it should. Ours was paid off, in slightly iffy circumstances due to a critical illness claim, just 3 years after moving. The peace of mind knowing our daughter will have a roof over her head is immeasurable.

I’m self employed and at the time my wife was ill I was genuinely worrying what we would do if the business took a downturn. Now the pressure is off me and my wife; she’s now free to explore other careers or go down to 3 days a week if she wants. The shackles of having to work to earn x amount each month are gone.

We can finally make some headway with decorating the house, we can have slightly nice holidays & experiences, save some for the future, spunk it all on cars and hookers - the freedom is ours.

I didn’t begrudge paying it as that’s what I signed up for and was prepared to do, but now it’s gone I can’t see how having nearly a grand a month to play with PLUS the security of owning your home outright is overated.

Edited by DrSteveBrule on Friday 3rd November 21:44

[jjones]

It is fantastic, never regretted it for one second.

[Yipper]

The average UK mortgage payment right now is roughly £600 a month... £7200 a year...

For that, you can take 2 to 8 extra holidays per year, lease a Maserati, or save it up over a decade or two and retire 2 to 10 years earlier than normal.

[anonymous-user]

BucksFizz said:

For some context: 30 years old, 29 years left on the mortgage, the outstanding mortgage is 2x my gross annual income but only 9% of my salary goes to the mortgage.

Mods, if you can please leave this in the lounge because I want the opinion of Joe blogs, those that frequent the finance section are probably more financially conscious.

So you have I guess a 30 year debt and are quietly confident you have a job for life? You also appear disconnected from the fact that interest rates can go up...quite a bit.

Best of luck but that isn't typical Joe Blogs as you put it.

[Wacky Racer]

In answer to the OP No.

[SCEtoAUX]

We downsized from a very nice house to a perfectly average one to be mortgage free.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

[lord trumpton]

we have been free for 10 years. If you can go for it then do so

[wombleh]

9% seems rather low, do you have a tiny house or a huge wad?

I'd love to be mortgage free but not to the extent I'd do without enjoying life to pay it off early.

[dieselgrunt]

The smug factor cannot be described.

[SystemParanoia]

I could have knocked 6mths off my mortgage..
but winter is nearly here and needed central heating installed
a house with no means of being heated is a miserable place to be in the winter!

[RobDickinson]

I'm about a year away from clearing mine. Cant wait.

[AlexC1981]

Have a play with this mortgage rate calculator to see how quickly you could pay it off and how much money you could save by doing so.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortga...

If you have £100,000 left to pay, over 29 years you will pay back £431 per month at 3% which is a total paid back of £149,818.

If £431 is 9% of your monthly income, take that up to 50% and pay back £2394.44 a month and you will have paid it all in only 4 years and only have to pay back £106,000 in total. £44K saved!

[bucksmanuk]

When my mortgage rates were 11% back in the day, (late 80’s), 52% of my take home pay went on mortgage and endowment ALONE.
That day when you can say goodbye to that debt, and be mortgage free, as others have said, is an incredibly liberating experience.
My experience of the engineering workplace has led me to fully appreciate that I won’t have a job anywhere for life.
I don’t think I have ever heard anyone say “why don’t you get another mortgage and buy a bigger house?” - It’s usually “you jammy bar steward”, although 18 years without a decent holiday indicates there wasn’t that much jammy about it…..