Final Mortgage Payment

Staggered that people are paying a mortgage off in their 30s!

I’ve got friends that haven’t even settled down or bought a house and are approaching 40!

We bought in 2009 so no cheap housing rates unfortunately. Our generation has a hard time and are going to struggle when we’re older… one reason why I don’t pay attention to pensioners’ complaints about money most of the time (knowing fine well many of them are sitting on money that they have learned not to spend).

We didn’t go overboard with the house – it’s just a wee 3-bed semi, probably 2.5x our combined wages. It would be a dream to get a detached house one day with a space for me to change my mucky bike gear and a dining room, but for now it’s a table in the lounge and hopping about in the hallway on a rug with the mucky stuff! No complaints, life can be quite stress-free if you choose to make it that way.

A week or so ago when the index hit 6800 again I cashed in half of them and next week I’ll be paying off most of my current mortgage with money I did nothing to earn.

You should probably check your position regarding Capital Gains Tax. Might be worth you waiting until the next tax year.

Staggered that people are paying a mortgage off in their 30s!

I’d be impressed if you could do that starting out now in the SE, house prices have risen insanely in the last 10 years.

Inheritance, so age is of no relevance, I’d prefer to still have my parents over being mortgage free

Paid my mortgage off at 38 but took out another mortgage to buy a bigger house. I now have 80% equity in my current property and intend to pay it off well before the 20 year term.

I paid mine off a few years ago – 39 I think. Still have the offset mortgage as seems useful to have that flexibility with no cost.

I bought my 1st house in ’96 when I started work, figured that was the bottom of the market. On my 3rd house now having borrowed heavily for my 1st two; paid off well as current house is fine for life. Soon to be without a job so nice not to have mortgage.

Feeling financially inadequate 🙁

I’m 40 with 22 years of mortgage left… 🙁

Going to make our first mortgage payment next month (age 22). House is roughly 2.5-3x our salary, depending on my job situation. Hopefully I will resurrect this thread in 18 or so years to declare 100% equity.

Used our combined savings and a small inheritance to get our deposit together, so now just a case of paying off as much as we can with the lower rates at the moment.

thats early al – good work.

ive just come off my first 2year fixed rate(so 23 years to go) – cant get a better deal shopping about – have left payments as they were and make 250 overpayment each month.

how ever we will probably end up losing the ability to do that once we have kids – the idea at the moment is to shrink it as much as i can to prepare for then.

how ever – barring disaster i dont intend to move for many years – if ever, and bought with that in mind.

how ever at least being realistic i stand a chance of paying it off one day ….. some of the folk i know are on a hiding to nothing even trying.

Everyone has different circumstances don’t they. And unfortunately it seems that if your of a certain age (or lucky) and bought a house before 2000 you are laughing now. I managed to get a house in 2002, a month later and I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. A friend of mine bought in 2001, his house is paid off and worth 50k more. Unfortunately the property market is all a scam by the banks and Estate agents to get us to buy houses at a bigger price so they can get more return. It’s a game that we all have to play by the looks of it.

We bought our first house in 2000, aged 23. If we’d not moved, we’d have been mortgage-free at 48.

We moved 4 years ago, so will now be in our early fifties, assuming we don’t overpay or change term. But, our youngest only has 3 years left at primary school and the plan is for my wife to start working a bit more then, so we’ll start overpaying and/or reduce the term when we next remortgage. We’ve also got a loan we took out to cover some unexpected costs of moving/repairs that’s due to finish this year, so that extra cash is going to go straight to overpaying the mortgage.

It might be a push, but I’m hoping for mortgage-free by 45 or so through a combination of luck and sensible/safe choices. Though, ironically, if we’d mortgaged ourself to the hilt when we first bough, we’d probably be all but mortgage-free now if we’d downsized a year or so ago.

30 when I paid the first one and 48 when paying the second. A combination of a generous redundancy pay off, free shares, buying at the right time and a general attitude of generally only buying things if not buying them will result in death. In short a lot of luck. I’m even ashamed to say that I can’t even bring myself to buy bikes I really want and can afford because I already have 3 that do everything I need and want them too.

How are people doing this?

Was it buying straight out of Uni?

Yes. Well, a year after.

Living (and borrowing) well within their means?

Yes. Only ever got mortgages based on one of us working.

Using inheritance to pay it off?

No, thankfully. Any inheritance we may eventually get will be of a “go for a nice holiday” amount, rather than a “pay off all our debts and retire early” amount.

Indeed. If you are looking to buy a first home now I can’t see you paying it off in a short time. A few years early may be possible and would save a bit.
I was lucky to buy in 98. Small 3 bed semi and small mortgage. I paid it off in 6 years, aged 30. I moved to a bigger place in 2008 just before things went really scary. I’m glad things are climbing again but not glad at the apparent stupid increases. Housing needs to be affordable.
Still, 6 years in to mortgage 2 and I owe very little, I’ve been fortunate.

A change in circumstances means I’ll be moving again before long and I’ll end up with another mortgage. Hopefully not very large though…. Hopefully.

Congrats to those that have paid it off!
Got our statement through the other day and thought it wasnt bad, but now feeling very inadequate!
40+35+5yo with £190k mortgage (3 bed semi) 😥

If you are looking to buy a first home now I can’t see you paying it off in a short time.

I have younger sisters and a brother who I can’t imagine ever being able to buy. Trying to save a huge deposit while paying rents that are way bigger than my mortgage payments just seems like an impossible hill to climb.

I’m 36

Borrowed well within my means (only needed a two bed house so bought a two bed house)

Offset mortgage really helps to pay down you mortgage quickly if you have a bit of discipline

I will need another mortgage if we move somewhere bigger though, so I’m not really finished with the mortgage treadmill just yet!

How are people doing this?

It’s a lot easier if you buy a house in a cheap area for £60k.

Okay next question and slightly risky (being British an all that)

How big are the Mortgages that have been paid off?

a. <£100k
b. £100-200k
c. £200-300k
d. £300-400k
e. £500k+ 😯

“I have younger sisters and a brother who I can’t imagine ever being able to buy. Trying to save a huge deposit while paying rents that are way bigger than my mortgage payments just seems like an impossible hill to climb.”

Mrs t-rs sister – she is renting in town with a friend for 1100 a month for a 2 bed + silly council tax – we found it tough renting a 1 bed between 2 for 500 total in town -5 years ago- (same flat has been up recently for 700 rental) and saving for a deposit. i cant imagine doing so paying effectively double that for rent each month.

B.
Yep house prices are stupid.
When my parents married they could afford a small 2 bed house.
My niece will have no chance at all. She’s training as a mid wife and here in surrey it’s crazy.
My Dad’s wife has a family of total spongers. Her grandchild got pregnant and was given a council flat to go with it.
The options will be to play the game and grab all the benefits you can or work hard and be shipped into London from your shanty town on the Medway.

Dropped out of Poly after 2 weeks, vowed to buy my first house at 21 when all my mates would be graduating. Saved every penny of overtime and stretched myself to buy a crappy one bed terrace in 1990.

Sold that when I moved south, losing every penny of my own money in the mid 90s crash. Great job move meant 3 bed semi in Crawley,cheapest place to buy for working in Redhill. Met MrsMC, got made redundant in 2000 and decided to head north so we could afford to start a family. Made enough on the Crawley house to buy equivalent near Derby for cash, but went for the forever family house with a £30k mortgage, meaning that with no foreign holidays etc we could afford it on one salary. Paid bits off when we were both working in between kids, overpaid when mortgage rates dropped, will be paid off at end of this year at age 45.

Would have been paid off sooner without the bike addiction 😳

How big are the Mortgages that have been paid off?

Well I never borrowed a huge amount – guess it peaked at £150k – but my house is worth a lot more than that so mostly down to price increases over 3 properties including a significant renovation on the 2nd.

thanks to buying 1st house in 98 (baby on the way, wouldn’t have considered it otherwise as was still in early 20s), and inheriting money from grandparents I was close, so very close to being mortgage free

Then I got divorced – now I have a big mortgage all to myself

still get grumpy thinking about it

Definitely going to stop reading this thread now before I throw myself off a cliff.

37 and 95k to go

If you hear a bang it’ll just be me and my service revolver.

5 and a bit years to go here, will be 46 when its paid off.

Overpaying whilst interest rates have been low has allowed us to knock years of the term of the mortgage.

This is on a mortgage of cat C (£200k-£300k) taken out in 2006.

How are people doing this?

Combination of buying at the right time, and not buying as big as we could and two good redundancy payments. But given between my wife and I we’ve had 3 redundancies we’re very relieved to be in a position that we’ll always have a roof.

I remember 2 things that really stand out with my first house and mortgage.
1. I saved hard to get the deposit as soon as possible and to be able to over pay. All my mates spent the first few years out of university enjoying their new wages.
2. for 3, 4 or maybe 6 years in the 2000s I reckoned my house went up in ‘value’ by more than I earned in the same period, before tax!

I never envied my mates about #1 at the time, but by the time we were 30 or so I started to. I had a nice place and little mortgage but they were all married. When I wanted to go out a bit more and maybe meet a nice girl it seemed my mates all started having kids and couldn’t get out. Sometimes it is RIGHT to spend now and not to save for a future that may, or may not happen.

I know my mates envied me about #2, as the upshot was they all bought smaller places, with bigger mortgages. Life is often greener on the other side it seems.

43 and a shade over 2 years to go on mine. It will be a very good day when it’s all paid

I never envied my mates about #1 at the time, but by the time we were 30 or so I started to. I had a nice place and little mortgage but they were all married. When I wanted to go out a bit more and maybe meet a nice girl it seemed my mates all started having kids and couldn’t get out. Sometimes it is RIGHT to spend now and not to save for a future that may, or may not happen.

Nice post neil.

From my perspective, having lost a couple of close friends and family long before their time, I find putting life on hold to “own” a property crazy.

Do what makes financial sense, but not to the detriment of your enjoyment of life. Too many people look at tomorrow and never really enjoy today.

Don’t be surprised if you don’t get any deeds back. I used to work for Bristol and West and Bank of Ireland (Post Office mortgages) and both of them along with many many other banks and building societies destroyed all the deeds they used to store as the ownership of a property is held by the land registry. Basically what have an extra storage cost when it was not needed.

it has nice sentiment peter but there is a fine line.

to many folk end up paying for yesterday tomorrow in order to have everything now.

silly things like – the latest phone , the latest car , the all inclusive 5 star holiday in the med…..

but thats some folks idea of living

Indeed. A few years ago I started to get quite upset at the thought of staying single and rattling a round a nice house on my own instead of being with a family like my mates were. Hopefully that’s changed now, I’ve met a wonderful girl. Hence I suspect I’ll be buying another house before long!

How are people doing this?

Running crappy cars & bikes when mates were buying flash
Always renting out spare room
Living on pennies and investing everything spare
Buying wrecks, doing them up, selling. Repeat.
Was mortgage free at 39.
And then we moved. Probably 55 by the time this one is clear.

ah now I would never advocate borrowing, spend now pay later. Just that while saving hard for the future makes clear financial sense, there are other factors that are never clear as you don’t know what the future will hold.

I’m an obsessive saver. For example, I hope I get to enjoy my pension. That’s a gamble I take.

I’ve effectively had no mortgage since I and Mrs OD were in our late 30s <edit>. We have savings/investments in excess of mortgage – but getting a better return than paying on mortgage (until recently that is as term investments mature..)

Mainly a result of getting on mortgage ladder in early 90s, buying current house in late 90s for less than 100k with significant equity from previous house. No kids so smallish house, reasonable earnings, not spending all spare money on flash cars etc. But still not exactly lived like a monk. It really is mainly to do with dumb luck in hitting the sweet spot on the housing price/interest rate index.

To buy where I live now would require a testicle crushing amount of debt. I really feel for those who have come onto the market subsequent to us.

Ahhhh, another one here feeling inadequate and reading this with envy (and due respect of course). I have become obsessed about paying my mortgage off but then again I am old. I am genuinely astonished at the youth of those managing it on here – but well done!

Getting divorced more than once and being tipped down the pile to try to buy as prices have gone up really isn’t conducive to sensible lifetime financial planning. I am so pleased to still be working hard to pay my mortgage now for the last lazy one to sit at home doing nothing but eat chocolates in the house that I in effect bought for her, but I’m not bitter, honest! I am determined to do it and it’s starting to feel in touching distance at last – or was until I realised at the weekend that the roof is in such poor shape that I really must replace it this year……