What age will you pay off your mortgage?

fields5069

69. My favourite number.

mattdavis

 Cheers - what people are saying about over thinking it as well as how life changes is so true. Clearly don’t want to move often due to the inherent costs, but our last move was 14 years ago - back then we had no kids, had come from a tiny 1 bed flat and this place seemed massive. Now we’re 43, there are 2 more humans in the place, uni is not that far off and a global pandemic has shown the unpredictability of life. I’m very lucky in that my job in medicine should be pretty secure if I don’t bugger it up (although I have an anxiety about squeeze on public sector pay now that our nation is hugely in debt again!) and I have a pension (takes up a lot of my income but everyone seems to think the NHS pension is good value). 
So I guess extending term to 58, overpaying if we can, and ‘allowing’ the idea of downsizing in 10 years time if necessary is not an unreasonable plan...

jonnyburgo

Took a 30 yr mortgage in 2006, will be done and dusted by 2024 so 12 yrs knocked off with overpayments and I will be 52-ish. With associated insurances etc we should save around £680a month, along with the usual £500a month overpayment so over a grand. Will be time to look at one o us scaling back on work maybe, who knows what might happen though! No guarantees in this game!

spark240

I guess for some people the potential burden of the mortgage weighs heavy on them.....for me I prefer to balance having a good life and managing the loan ...sure we could hammer the loan and stay in every night , have one guitar no studio, a cheap car.....but I don t what that ...so the cost is a slightly longer term mortgage and little more risk I guess.

strtdv

Took out a 25 year one at the age of 26. There'll likely be a house move in the next 18 months but I don't intend to add any years to the mortgage when I move. 
If interest rates are still low I'll aim to get a 10 year fixed rate and then save during that so I can pay it off after the fixed rate ends, so hopefully when I'm 45.
I'll be aiming to retire in my mid 50s

boogieman

I’m 65. Our last move should be happening soon and we should end up with £100k in our pockets. We’re not even downsizing, just moving to a cheaper area. 

I count myself very lucky though, 10 years ago I was single, living in rented accommodation and pondering quite how long I’d need to carry on working to have enough to pay the rent till I keeled over. I then met my wife and everything changed for the better. You never know what life has in store. 

Rockhard

I have several buy to let mortgages which I consider a separate issue as that's a pension plan . 6 years ago age 53 paid off home mortgage . Being self employed TBH it makes you feel much freer . That said if you are in ' secure ' PAYE employ , rates are low if you want to borrow and keep repayments to a figure that don't stress the budget .

DiscoStu

I'll be 54 when mine's finished, although at less than £250 per month I'm considering paying it off early. We'd like a bigger house at some point so inevitably a new mortgage will have to happen and it'll likely have to be a 15 year job so the monthly payments are gonna rocket.

RandallFlagg

boogieman said:

I’m 65. Our last move should be happening soon and we should end up with £100k in our pockets. We’re not even downsizing, just moving to a cheaper area. 

I count myself very lucky though, 10 years ago I was single, living in rented accommodation and pondering quite how long I’d need to carry on working to have enough to pay the rent till I keeled over. I then met my wife and everything changed for the better. You never know what life has in store. 

Good man, you married her for her looks and charming personality obviously. :-)

Fretwired

I cleared mine aged 38. Haven't had a single loan since. I'm now semi-retired and was looking forward to spending time visiting places. Then along came Covid and lockdown.

BloodEagle

I was 35 when I paid my mortgage off, and I bought the place when I was 25 - it was easily the single biggest factor in allowing me to leave a job I fucking hated and do something I liked. I’m now 45 and hope to retire in 10 years time, I hope I make it that long - as people have already noted you never know what life has in store 

boogieman

RandallFlagg said:

boogieman said:

I’m 65. Our last move should be happening soon and we should end up with £100k in our pockets. We’re not even downsizing, just moving to a cheaper area. 

I count myself very lucky though, 10 years ago I was single, living in rented accommodation and pondering quite how long I’d need to carry on working to have enough to pay the rent till I keeled over. I then met my wife and everything changed for the better. You never know what life has in store. 

Good man, you married her for her looks and charming personality obviously. :-)

All joking aside, actually I did. I would’ve got together with her no matter what, she’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner. 

mattdavis

That’s lovely @boogieman ;

fields5069

spark240 said:

I guess for some people the potential burden of the mortgage weighs heavy on them.....for me I prefer to balance having a good life and managing the loan ...sure we could hammer the loan and stay in every night , have one guitar no studio, a cheap car.....but I don t what that ...so the cost is a slightly longer term mortgage and little more risk I guess.

Same here. I could overpay quite a bit each month, which seems an odd choice to me. I may be too old to enjoy the extra cash when it's paid off, so we spend it now. We mostly spend on stuff we need to get done though - tree removal, roof work, window renovations, daughters dyslexia support. We can't really dial back on any of that actually, plus I like to maintain a rainy day pot.

RandallFlagg

boogieman said:

RandallFlagg said:

boogieman said:

I’m 65. Our last move should be happening soon and we should end up with £100k in our pockets. We’re not even downsizing, just moving to a cheaper area. 

I count myself very lucky though, 10 years ago I was single, living in rented accommodation and pondering quite how long I’d need to carry on working to have enough to pay the rent till I keeled over. I then met my wife and everything changed for the better. You never know what life has in store. 

Good man, you married her for her looks and charming personality obviously. :-)

All joking aside, actually I did. I would’ve got together with her no matter what, she’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner. 

I'm sure you did mate, only joking.

I married a factory working girl from the council estates and wouldn't change a thing, she is everything to me and more that I deserve.

EricTheWeary

Danny1969 said:

I let the ex wife have the house a few years ago and now rent a large detached 4 bed bungalow. I can't afford to buy the kind of house I like to live in but can afford the rent. No plans to buy another house as I want to live in warmer climates for the winter when I turn 60 ... so the plan is to move abroad around late October and come back in March when it starts to warm up.

There's a few sites locally which are kinda like posh trailer parks. You can buy one for about £30k and then you pay £400 a month plus electric and gas. So live in one of those in the warm months, Spain and Tenerife in the winter  

I’ve known a couple of people who live in those kind of parks. In theory they are supposed to shut down part of the year to stop people using them as residencies but in practice people seem to get GP exemption letters ( not really sure what the wording would be!) and stay there all year.

boogieman

RandallFlagg said:

boogieman said:

RandallFlagg said:

boogieman said:

I’m 65. Our last move should be happening soon and we should end up with £100k in our pockets. We’re not even downsizing, just moving to a cheaper area. 

I count myself very lucky though, 10 years ago I was single, living in rented accommodation and pondering quite how long I’d need to carry on working to have enough to pay the rent till I keeled over. I then met my wife and everything changed for the better. You never know what life has in store. 

Good man, you married her for her looks and charming personality obviously. :-)

All joking aside, actually I did. I would’ve got together with her no matter what, she’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner. 

I'm sure you did mate, only joking.

I married a factory working girl from the council estates and wouldn't change a thing, she is everything to me and more that I deserve.

Same here, I was definitely punching well above my weight when she agreed to go on a date with me. Never been happier. 

Philly_Q

I paid mine off about five years ago, just before I was 51.  

It was a 25 year mortgage, I never moved (still haven't), never extended it.  It was an endowment policy and for a long time I was receiving letters predicting the endowment might not pay off the mortgage, so at one point I paid off a lump sum and at the end of the 25 years the endowment almost exactly covered what was left, I think the difference was less than £100.

It wasn't a big mortgage - flats in London were a lot cheaper in 1990 - but it does make quite a big difference to finances not having that payment every month.

chillidoggy

Paid mine off 2 years ago and retired, which means I can spend more time with the wife.

I do feel for those poor buggers who can’t quite reach the bottom rung of the housing ladder. My own son is in the same position, but as he’s just leased a brand new Mercedes whilst moaning he can’t afford the deposit on a house, it’s fair to say my sympathy has waned somewhat.

Paul_C

IIRC I finished paying mine last year, when I would have been 55.


If I can stop buying pedals* then I'm thinking of retiring from "full" time work (I don't do anything like 8 hours a day now, but I'd quite like to shut the website etc. down and just do setups and pickup swaps for people I already know) at 60, and maybe do some voluntary work instead**






*I can always sell them if I need some money, of course

**sit around playing guitar, reading or listening to the radio all day.