Why do you people bother?

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  • amateur_house
    amateur_house Posts: 276 Forumite
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    I am moving house and taking on a mortgage that will finish when I am 67. I chose this term to give me the lowest payments possible, but plan to overpay so that it will be paid off by the time I am 65 (sooner if I get a pay rise).

    My reasons are that it's impossible to predict what our health will be like as we get older, and I would like to be financially secure enough to reduce my working hours before I am 67. If I could find a high paying savings account then I would consider saving the money instead, but other than a few accounts that let you save a limited amount there don't seem to be many of those around.
  • sunnyflower
    sunnyflower Posts: 304 Forumite
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    I took early retirement last year, and used some of my lump sum to pay off the mortgage and credit card. I'm still working but the pressure is off, we don't owe anything to anyone and have been able to save whilst having more money for things such as holidays, and things for the house.
    After years of being skint ( as many people are when raising a family!) it's a nice feeling.:T
  • System
    System Posts: 178,090 Community Admin
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    .You wouldn't?

    I'm not saying they're liquid transactions, but if you buy at anything other than the absolute peak it's normally a safe bet that you can recoup your capital and then some.

    Within the scope of what you said I would and the same is true of shares, but people sometimes treat shares in too much of a short term way because of their liquidity, and are therefore much more exposed to volatility and commission than they otherwise would be
  • SpeedSouth
    SpeedSouth Posts: 333 Forumite
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    edited 8 October 2016 at 8:40PM
    I don't get it really.. I'm simply aiming for mortgage neutrality. I got pretty much as much as I can earning averge 3.7% the rest goes to s&s. My mortgage isn't super low at 1.74%

    Seems from reading some posts people don't understand the term and amounts are irrelevant as opposed to rates
  • TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain
    TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain Posts: 860 Forumite
    This just demonstrates how relatively you joined th mortgage world (I'm guessing).

    I've been mortgage free on a 350k home for 2 years now and if your name is anything to go by I'm just 1 year older than you. I've only achieved it through overpaying and exploiting 0% credit cards. Having 60k on cards between the wife and I seems nuts looking back but with rates at what they were it was worth it as were both disciplined.

    The early struggles when houses were 'cheap' with a 5 year fix st 7.5% being the norm were very real to me.

    We've considered buying more property whilst rates are crazy low (i.e. Anything under 4%) but we've decided to just enjoy ourselves instead and pensions.

    I wonder if the rates we see now are the new norm but it's not a gamble I'm prepared to take.
  • Choppit
    Choppit Posts: 11 Forumite
    Paid off my mortgage 12 years early at 41 due to a combination of health concerns, higher than expected disposable income and RSU vestings. With the benefit of hindsight I should have kept the mortgage because the stock value has rocketed since, but could have gone the other way.
  • SpeedSouth
    SpeedSouth Posts: 333 Forumite
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    edited 9 October 2016 at 12:19PM
    TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »
    This just demonstrates how relatively you joined th mortgage world (I'm guessing).

    I've been mortgage free on a 350k home for 2 years now and if your name is anything to go by I'm just 1 year older than you. I've only achieved it through overpaying and exploiting 0% credit cards. Having 60k on cards between the wife and I seems nuts looking back but with rates at what they were it was worth it as were both ....


    Didn't get our current home until 5 years but did have others prior to that. Do have a BTL thou for the same reasons you are considering. With that equity we could be mortgage free easily, but don't count that against my neutrality figure.

    The 0% credit card game is a risk I'm not prepared to take with 3 kids, although I do see this as free money. But yeah today's rates are not as apealing for low risk exploiting like that.
  • theoretica
    theoretica Posts: 12,292 Forumite
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    I agree with the OP that paying off the mortgage might not be the financially most sensible move. For me, my aim was to be mortgage neutral which I have now achieved - I could use savings and investments to pay off my mortgage immediately if I wanted. I also have a fully flexible mortgage so could take out the overpayments I have made so far. Now it is down at 1.24% interest charged I am considering doing just that.

    I really like having all the flexibility and options in my hands.
    But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,
    Had the whole of their cash in his care.
    Lewis Carroll
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