At what age do you want/envisage to be mortgage free?

I keep toying with the idea of increasing the term to make life easier now, any views on this? I know it will increase the overall interest but the up side is i wont be struggling as much now.

A good friend of mine who is also a financial adviser tells me he talks to lots of people who aspire to pay off their mortgage early hoping for the holy grail of a worry free retirement and ridding themselves of the stress of losing their job and being out on the streets etc.
He tells me it rarely happens however and that many of his customers make a great deal of sacrifice today in terms of missing holidays and working extremely hard while their children are young to be in a position later on where they are financially secure but lack the health/energy/motivation to do the things that they deprived themselves of earlier in life.

The trick is to find a balance because you are a long time dead!

To answer the question I am 48 now I expect to be mortgage free in around 8-10 years.

The trick is to find a balance because you are a long time dead!

That’s what i’m thinking!
Then there is the thought that a lump some of inheritance 1 day could go along way to paying my remaining mortgage off.
Dont hate me bringing the Inheritance in to it, it’s ta hard one to talk about before you get it. For reasons i dont understand My Gran and my Uncle wanted us to know what to expect when the inevitable happens. Like i said above my Uncle enjoys telling us, i presume he likes me to know we will be ok financially in the future.. anyway.
Ive been doing the online calculators and i can certainly save 200/month keeping the term the same so i think its worth doing that now. That figure is on a current 5year fixed rate. Cheaper again if i do 2year fixed deal. Experts seem to think the interest rate will stay low for a few years yet so it may be worth the gamble to do 2year now then look at a longer deal next time.. any thoughts?

I wouldn’t let the ‘paying off your mortgage’ dominate your monetary thoughts too much……after all you might be dead next year!

Don’t forget to smell the flowers along the way!

I bought an iPad, had ‘Mum and dad’ engraved on the back then put the rest in the offset mortgage account.

makes a change from a bracelet I suppose!

What are you doing to plan for when you are 50 and jobless and lose your lifes investment?

And what savings, renting isn’t cheaper, its just more flexible.

So what will a renter do when they are jobless age 50? They still have to pay rent so they will eat into their savings. If it happens to a house owner it is actually not in the banks best interest to take the property back and they will help by letting you cut payments, eat into equity (the equivilent to a renters savings) etc.
I think the houseing situation on the country is crazy but it’s not going to change anytime soon so putting your head in the sand isn’t going to help.
If like many at the moment you don’t have a choice and simply cannot afford to buy that’s one thing, but other than having freedom to travel around I’ve never seen a convincing argument for renting over buying in this country.

makes a change from a bracelet I suppose!

Was going to buy a fancy watch but I am too tight. 😀

The trick is to find a balance because you are a long time dead!

That’s true of pretty much everything in life. No-one ever died wishing they’d spent more time in the office

+1 Surfer’s advice, it’s a balance. Either extreme is painful.

Obviously trying to get rid of mortgage early as possible. but like most people on here hope to down size pocket the cash and enjoy life.

However with the number of people in temporary positions there could be a severe knock on as the housing markets shrinks as less people can buy but only rent.
Not my ideas one of these think tanks

3 more years – at 46 – unless she persuades me we actually do need a conservatory. And another 10 years of debt. When we clearly need more bikes and no debt!

no inherritance here thankfully.

I did a heap of working abroad to raise the deposit – 2x 6 month stints in west africa and in europe.

I am almost 40 and I work hard 45-60 hrs a weeks random hrs at my job. I get 6.60 hr. I don’t get a full time contract even after working here for 5 years. I am one of the majority of workers that do unskilled labour for massive corporations. I will never be able to afford a mortgage, never mind how hard I work.this is life for many ,many hard workers. and what you lot are describing above is anathema to me.
I like riding a bike cos it’s what I can afford to have fun on.

Currently i will be 51. Im 35 now. I keep toying with the idea of increasing the term to make life easier now, any views on this? I know it will increase the overall interest but the up side is i wont be struggling as much now. Its not that we would rush out to buy new things but not having an overdraft would be nice.
Ive a modest house in a nice area, 2 cars paid for and 2 kids were constantly paying for! Smallish overdraft and No cards

Mine should have been sorted at 50, now more likely to be 62/65. It would be nice to be able to say I’m mortgage free, but I got over that. I pay way under £200 per month now, so no need for an overdraft or cards ( I have a £500 card though) no pressure to earn, in fact I’ve stepped back. If I need something I buy it. So since extending the term my finances have been far healthier.
I’ve never been a big earner, probably what you call average.
Wife gave up work when we had kids.
No inheritance, son of a 60s single mum.

Oldgit mode on. What really helped was early saving and cutting back or not buying luxuries i.e drove an old banger and didn’t buy lots of new stuff for the first place. Young guys I work with can’t afford a deposit, but buy BMWs Audis and have three overseas holidays a year as well as spaffing £££££ in the pub each week. Off.

Edit; I meant to say I’ve been divorced as well, I can’t tell you how much that hurts finacially at the time. So paying it off early might help if that happens to you or your job goes tits up or your health fails. Otherwise pay as little as possible, I could survive selling on Ebay.

“Young guys I work with can’t afford a deposit, but buy BMWs Audis and have three overseas holidays a year as well as spaffing £££££ in the pub each week. Off. “

My mates and my boss are the same …….my boss actually commented the other week “i dont know how you can afford that house(although he has no idea what i paid) on your salary” ….. urm cause i dont smoke , drink much , drive a flash car , have kids ,go on holiday to 5 star resorts in exotic places , drive to work.

another of my collegues aspires to buy a house but spends 100 pounds each friday/saturday night at the weekend as a minimum he says. My mind boggles at that thought. spends monday and tuesday like a half shut knife.

My plan was not to get trapped in the Cant sell for a loss must rent out flat problem that quite alot of friends and colleagues are trapped in at the moment , far to many flats on the market in my area.

Anyone any good at maths? I’d like a formula that shows me:

Monthly payment, interest rate, repayment term, <enter monthly overpayment here> =effect on repayment term.

Or the reverse, basically so I can work out how much to overpay to end my mortgage 5 and 10 years earlier respectively.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-overpayment-calculator

Kryton I am rubbish at maths and even worse at modelling but I put a piss-poor hamfisted attempt at a spreadsheet together which I will email you now. It’s a bit inaccurate but does allow you to play around with it. Usual warnings apply about using at your own risk etc.

A genuine question because I’m open to different opinions – Why do people buy houses

youve got a clear and deliberate benefit from renting ie living in a place you couldnt afford to rent that enhances qualityof life. Renting in the UK is expensive and usually not cost effective. When I first bought 10yrs ago the mortgage repayments were the same as the rent I’d been paying for a similar property, and my repayments have gone down since (with interest rates and reduction in amount owed) rather than up to match inflation/landlord demands. After 25yrs (actually will be far less due to overpayments) I own my house and could live ‘rent free’, you will own nothing and have to continue paying that expense for as long as you need a roof over your head.

Horses for courses but for many in the UK renting does not make economic sense, I understand othe European countries have a far more affordable rental market. My house choice isnt about quality of life (location, views etc) it is somewhere to sleep and store my kit when I’m not working or doing something interesting.

Always been mortgage free, never had, never will 🙂

Same as kevevs really, just another world, that we know is there but is not part of ours!

i too get pleasure in the cycle, no cares in the world when i’m on my bike 🙂

Have the money to pay them (more than 1 house) off now, but interest rate is so low, base +0.5 that the money is better off where it is.

At current run rate, about 8 years time so 51 or 52. Depends of course how investments go – I have an interest only mortgage and then a number of investments that I started before I even had a house that will go to pay it off. they don’t look great currently of course (although they do cover ca half of the lump sum) but maybe in a few years time we’ll be back to boom and they’ll be worth a lot more.

Unknowns of course are whether I’ll stay in this job (doubtful; hate it with a vengeance currently); whether we move (or extend in some way); and ultimately when my folks peg out, how much will their place be worth and will much have been spent on residential care or the like.

There’s too many unknowns in there to worry about. My wife’s best friend had breast cancer 2 years ago and after a series of dizzy spells, went to see the docs last week, ending up with a trip under blue lights to St Georges in Tooting last night. She’s going to be operated on tomorrow to remove a brain tumour. That might be any of us in a year’s time, so I intend to spend what i feel worthwhile to enjoy life, and put the rest into the mortgage / savings, and if that means it takes a few years more to pay it off, so be it.

On the pessimistic side, my wife works in a pension section, it is amazing how many best laid plans come apart due to ill health.
On the basis of this life about getting the right mix

My mates and my boss are the same …….my boss actually commented the other week “i dont know how you can afford that house(although he has no idea what i paid) on your salary” ….. urm cause i dont smoke , drink much , drive a flash car , have kids ,go on holiday to 5 star resorts in exotic places , drive to work.

nothing wrong with either choice if it makes you happy. I have loads of mates/colleagues (on similar salary) with bigger houses and much bigger mortgages who often ask “I dont know how you can afford 3 or 4 foreign holidays a year!”. We choose to live in a pokey 2 bed but in the last 12 months have dived and trekked in Thailand, biked in India, biked in Switzerland and dived in Egypt. I am happy with my choice and hope they are happy with theirs.

ononeorange – Member
Kryton I am rubbish at maths and even worse at modelling but I put a piss-poor hamfisted attempt at a spreadsheet together which I will email you now. It’s a bit inaccurate but does allow you to play around with it. Usual warnings apply about using at your own risk etc.

Cheers OOO. Now done (approx). So, I need and extra £200pm to reduce it by 5 years which is my aim, and £400 to reduce it by 10 years which would see me mortgage free by 55.

Off I go then, slightly hampered by the fact Mrs K wants our last forseeable holiday in Barbados in 2013 as its the year before Jnr no 1 goes to school.

crashtestmonkey

I understand its a personal choice- as i said above we aint going without to appease the mortgage – rode in les arc last year and all going well california next year !

Currently it’s looking like 59.

Wish I’d not checked now 🙁

39 and mortgage free as of Sept this year, I have never remortgaged or moved. 2yrs ago I took out a 2nd mortgage on a 2nd property buy to let as a retirement nest egg, that’s planned to be paid off in 18 years but i’ll shift most of that down to 10.

The other thing is to consider the capital in your property if you have a mortgage as well. So although I have a small mortgage that will last until I’m 65 I’m sitting on over 200k in capital. I could sell and buy outright, but I’m happy with things as they are.

see i think its a fallacy to think about the “capital” in your house …. the market could crash tomorrow.

the only capital you have in this life is what you have in your hand , not an arbitrary figure made up by estate agents to squeeze more money out of you.

@trail_rat over the last few 100 years that view in the UK would have seen you lose out massively over any medium or long term period.

yes maybe but tomorrow is the start of the next 100 years ….

then again ive never been good as selling stuff on.

As soon as I get one, I’ll let y’all know…

Not read the whole thread but…

Has anyone considered not paying it off early?

Or even releasing capital when it gets close?

Has anyone considered not paying it off early?

My mortgage still has 32 years to go. I put what I should/could overpay into sharesaves. Currently sitting on a 110% return, the “profit” I will take off the mortgage in a lump sum (or offset)

ononeorange – Member
Kryton I am rubbish at maths and even worse at modelling but I put a piss-poor hamfisted attempt at a spreadsheet together

I’m good at this stuff, have mailed this to many on here before:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al-Bq4gR-Hn7dHFmcjN6LVk2MmR3UlRMdWxsa1o2dUE

Hopefully in 4 years time, when we’re both 60, which isn’t that bad seeing as we both had to re-start our lives after divorces!
In a reasonable position now though, 3 houses & 3 mortgages, all being steadily paid off. (unless it all goes PROPER tits up)

We just got our first mortgage this year.

I am 25 and my fiance is 24. Currently have £119k left to pay over 29.5 years!!

I think that may change substantially in years to come but its a start!

I only have had repayment mortgages, as advised by solicitor (an uncle) and I’ve never fretted that I was mis-advised..

Had been lucky in parts certainly; but also by having a two-bed flat from the start, and letting the spare room/s, was able to sit tight through ups and downs, and then to move to a house – but only after marriage and having been in the flat for about 11/12 years.

But yes, approaching 50 this year and have been mortgage free for about 7/8 years – aided by use of redundancy cash. But that is in part by starting earlier than many, possibly.

I think it’s very hard to access the capital in a house’s value as you need somewhere to live. Downsizing will probably only let you access a fraction as the house price differences in an area aren’t that big (compared to the total capital).

mudshark – Member
ononeorange – Member
Kryton I am rubbish at maths and even worse at modelling but I put a piss-poor hamfisted attempt at a spreadsheet together
I’m good at this stuff, have mailed this to many on here before:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al-Bq4gR-Hn7dHFmcjN6LVk2MmR3UlRMdWxsa1o2dUE

Cheers Mudshark – yours and OOO’s numbers aren’t far apart – I appreciate the help! However, how does the model change if I pay the overpayment as a lump sum at the end of the year?

ie, rather than a £200 overpayment per month, what if its a £2400 over payment at the end of each year – on the 12th month?