I paid off my mortgage today
Discussion
Ours was finished last December at age 58. Not really feeling the benefit of an extra grand left in the bank as an enforced job change and higher pension contributions slightly took the shine off. Nice feeling though losing a job and at least knowing we can’t lose the house.
Given how internet rate are going it may have been nice to extend a couple of years and go the kitchen at a lower rate, a slight twinge of regret, but that ship has sailed now, so not to worry.
Given how internet rate are going it may have been nice to extend a couple of years and go the kitchen at a lower rate, a slight twinge of regret, but that ship has sailed now, so not to worry.
Well done OP,
Finally paid mine off about 14 months ago at the age of 63, started paying a mortgage at the age of 24 on the first two house's that we had then when we bought the house that we are living in now I opted for a 25 year mortgage again.
The reason I did that was because we had just gone through the 15% interest rate period and when I was a teenager my parents went bankrupt and lost everything so it has always worried me.
It was a good feeling paying off the last payment, we are now using some of the money to do work on the house and save for some good holidays
Finally paid mine off about 14 months ago at the age of 63, started paying a mortgage at the age of 24 on the first two house's that we had then when we bought the house that we are living in now I opted for a 25 year mortgage again.
The reason I did that was because we had just gone through the 15% interest rate period and when I was a teenager my parents went bankrupt and lost everything so it has always worried me.
It was a good feeling paying off the last payment, we are now using some of the money to do work on the house and save for some good holidays
Norton850 said:
Edible Roadkill said:
Given?
I’ve had to pay a solicitor £260 to have the nationwide remove their charge removed from my deeds & have them amended. Even though there’s no physical paper deed it’s an e-deed.
Yup given,I’ve had to pay a solicitor £260 to have the nationwide remove their charge removed from my deeds & have them amended. Even though there’s no physical paper deed it’s an e-deed.
10 year's ago the paper deeds were held in a safe,i have them which shows the 1936 build drawings including plot allocation etc..also land registry doccumentation.
Couldn’t believe it when I found out I had to pay, it’s money for nothing.
Congratulations OP. Sounds like you've done it well ahead of what I managed last year mid 50s. Don't let any naysayers put you down and enjoy the freedom that it should give you as you'll have much lower monthly outgoings now and less tied to working to cover it.
We had 5 years left to go, but my wife and I both had inheritance coming through. Our rate wasn't fixed and had gone up to over 5% and at the time the best savings accounts were around 3% so we just paid it off last summer. Compared to many on here it wasn't a huge amount (seeing some monthly payments that younger people have to pay makes my eyes water ), but it was 50% of my monthly outgoings on household bills.
I know some say that we should have invested that money, but (at the time) anything that might better the interest we were paying would have carried more risk of losing money too. Since I retired last year, just removing that monthly payment from our outgoings has made a big difference and those higher savings rates that were increasing my mortgage are now giving me a better return too; pretty much the same amount per month as I was previously paying on the mortgage.
We had 5 years left to go, but my wife and I both had inheritance coming through. Our rate wasn't fixed and had gone up to over 5% and at the time the best savings accounts were around 3% so we just paid it off last summer. Compared to many on here it wasn't a huge amount (seeing some monthly payments that younger people have to pay makes my eyes water ), but it was 50% of my monthly outgoings on household bills.
I know some say that we should have invested that money, but (at the time) anything that might better the interest we were paying would have carried more risk of losing money too. Since I retired last year, just removing that monthly payment from our outgoings has made a big difference and those higher savings rates that were increasing my mortgage are now giving me a better return too; pretty much the same amount per month as I was previously paying on the mortgage.
Essarell said:
Congratulations, I’m 53 and been mortgage free for circa 20 years. It’s amazing how much easier your finances become when the biggest cost has gone, we kept saving and build up funds for all expenses to keep us firmly in the black. It’s also made employment/ career choices much easier as decisions are made from the heart and not by the bank account.
Doesn’t this mean before you was even 33 you had moved into the house you would spend the rest of your life in? Doesn’t sound very aspirational to me tbh. People seem to be motivated by paying off a mortgage on a house, rather than moving up the ladder to bigger and better properties for the fear of having a mortgage. Seventyseven7 said:
Essarell said:
Congratulations, I’m 53 and been mortgage free for circa 20 years. It’s amazing how much easier your finances become when the biggest cost has gone, we kept saving and build up funds for all expenses to keep us firmly in the black. It’s also made employment/ career choices much easier as decisions are made from the heart and not by the bank account.
Doesn’t this mean before you was even 33 you had moved into the house you would spend the rest of your life in? Doesn’t sound very aspirational to me tbh. People seem to be motivated by paying off a mortgage on a house, rather than moving up the ladder to bigger and better properties for the fear of having a mortgage. Edible Roadkill said:
Seventyseven7 said:
Essarell said:
Congratulations, I’m 53 and been mortgage free for circa 20 years. It’s amazing how much easier your finances become when the biggest cost has gone, we kept saving and build up funds for all expenses to keep us firmly in the black. It’s also made employment/ career choices much easier as decisions are made from the heart and not by the bank account.
Doesn’t this mean before you was even 33 you had moved into the house you would spend the rest of your life in? Doesn’t sound very aspirational to me tbh. People seem to be motivated by paying off a mortgage on a house, rather than moving up the ladder to bigger and better properties for the fear of having a mortgage. Unless of course you have a nice detached house with land by 30, then well done.
Seventyseven7 said:
Essarell said:
Congratulations, I’m 53 and been mortgage free for circa 20 years. It’s amazing how much easier your finances become when the biggest cost has gone, we kept saving and build up funds for all expenses to keep us firmly in the black. It’s also made employment/ career choices much easier as decisions are made from the heart and not by the bank account.
Doesn’t this mean before you was even 33 you had moved into the house you would spend the rest of your life in? Doesn’t sound very aspirational to me tbh. People seem to be motivated by paying off a mortgage on a house, rather than moving up the ladder to bigger and better properties for the fear of having a mortgage. I’d of been paying more a month and over a longer term. I’d rather have a smaller house and more spare money when I’m younger to enjoy better holidays and cars than a bigger house.
Seventyseven7 said:
Edible Roadkill said:
Seventyseven7 said:
Essarell said:
Congratulations, I’m 53 and been mortgage free for circa 20 years. It’s amazing how much easier your finances become when the biggest cost has gone, we kept saving and build up funds for all expenses to keep us firmly in the black. It’s also made employment/ career choices much easier as decisions are made from the heart and not by the bank account.
Doesn’t this mean before you was even 33 you had moved into the house you would spend the rest of your life in? Doesn’t sound very aspirational to me tbh. People seem to be motivated by paying off a mortgage on a house, rather than moving up the ladder to bigger and better properties for the fear of having a mortgage. Unless of course you have a nice detached house with land by 30, then well done.
Seventyseven7 said:
Doesn’t this mean before you was even 33 you had moved into the house you would spend the rest of your life in? Doesn’t sound very aspirational to me tbh. People seem to be motivated by paying off a mortgage on a house, rather than moving up the ladder to bigger and better properties for the fear of having a mortgage.
So? Ever thought that they've done what works for them? Not everyone wants huge amounts of debt.Edible Roadkill said:
Seventyseven7 said:
Edible Roadkill said:
Seventyseven7 said:
Essarell said:
Congratulations, I’m 53 and been mortgage free for circa 20 years. It’s amazing how much easier your finances become when the biggest cost has gone, we kept saving and build up funds for all expenses to keep us firmly in the black. It’s also made employment/ career choices much easier as decisions are made from the heart and not by the bank account.
Doesn’t this mean before you was even 33 you had moved into the house you would spend the rest of your life in? Doesn’t sound very aspirational to me tbh. People seem to be motivated by paying off a mortgage on a house, rather than moving up the ladder to bigger and better properties for the fear of having a mortgage. Unless of course you have a nice detached house with land by 30, then well done.
Fusion777 said:
Seventyseven7 said:
Doesn’t this mean before you was even 33 you had moved into the house you would spend the rest of your life in? Doesn’t sound very aspirational to me tbh. People seem to be motivated by paying off a mortgage on a house, rather than moving up the ladder to bigger and better properties for the fear of having a mortgage.
So? Ever thought that they've done what works for them? Not everyone wants huge amounts of debt.Seventyseven7 said:
Better house obviously. More land. More rooms etc etc. There’s no stress moving up on the world, to a better area or from terraced to semi detached to detached.
Unless of course you have a nice detached house with land by 30, then well done.
I was 32 when we moved to our current house. We had a 2 year old baby (and an 8 year old) at the time and were paying nearly as much again in child care fees, so we rejected the idea of further stretching our budget.Unless of course you have a nice detached house with land by 30, then well done.
It was scruffy, nothing done for years other than a budget kitchen 4-5 years before we bought it and decent double glazing, but it had the extra bedrooms we wanted, decent sized rooms being a 1970s build and detached meant we could make as much noise as we liked. I've spent the last 22 years doing DIY knocking walls down, installing a new kitchen bathrooms, bedrooms, had a conservatory built (which we love, contrary to many on here) and more recently built a SIPs garden room ourselves.
We could have got a bigger mortgage and bought somewhere already done and/or even bigger, but it turned out that 3 years after moving in we both got made redundant almost at the same time. Due to not overstretching ourselves we had some savings to dip into while we both found new jobs. We've done jobs as and when we could afford to buy the materials over the years and have gradually got it where we wanted, without overstretching and we were able to take the kids away on some great family holidays over the years. Those memories are more important to me than getting further up the corporate ladder than I eventually did, just so I could earn more to pay trades to do the same jobs I did.
Call it 'lacking inspiration' but on the contrary; I think we both had a plan to find a home we would stay in for the rest of our life (as far as possible anyway). We knew it would take time, effort and money (when we could afford to do it). It certainly wasn't instant, like many seem to want these days...we'd been in 7 years before we properly sorted out the living room for instance. Constantly moving house to 'upgrade' over the years might work for some, but I don't think I'd be retired at 56 with the mortgage paid off if we had. Probably I'd be cursing those higher rates on an even bigger mortgage and stressed out trying to deal with the corporate schtick that I would have been trapped in.
Sometimes having more modest aspirations pays off.
Edited by OldSkoolRS on Saturday 3rd June 14:21
Seventyseven7 said:
Doesn’t this mean before you was even 33 you had moved into the house you would spend the rest of your life in? Doesn’t sound very aspirational to me tbh. People seem to be motivated by paying off a mortgage on a house, rather than moving up the ladder to bigger and better properties for the fear of having a mortgage.
Depends on what your aspirations are…We’re still in our first home, mortgage gone < 30. Now 40 with two kids, house is still fine for our needs. Yes it would be nice to move ‘up’ but we have everything we need from the property we already have…
We’ve had a blast from when we paid the mortgage off to where we are now enjoying life as much as we can along the way - the extra disposable income sure does make a difference.
Yes prices have rocketed in the last 10 years, but does it bother me? Not one bit! Could we have moved to a bigger house that would have risen in value even more than our current home? Yes, but again that’s of very little benefit as you can’t really enjoy the equity in your home on a daily basis.
We are obsessed with moving up the ladder in the UK and can miss out on life while we’re doing so - all to benefit the next generation!
Edited by msport123 on Saturday 3rd June 14:35
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