Negative attitude to becoming MF by a friend!

LookAfterThePennies_4

Sounds like your friend is either jealous, ignorant or a mixture of both. With MF the best thing to do is not tell anyone. I became MF last year and very few friends know. The way I see it is that my finances are no-one else's business!

seven-day-weekend

We have been mortgage-free on our family home for fifteen years and completely mortgage-free for five. Our next door neighbour, who in his 70s still has debt and a mortgage, often says things like 'oh well, of course you don't have a mortgage', when bemoaning his lot, as though an angel came from Heaven and paid it for us. He and his wife have always had better-paying jobs than us, but are not as tight.

To the OP, it is just jealousy, pure and simple. Take no notice,but keep your mouth shut too, as imho most people will have a sour face about it.

Primrose

There are no grapes more sour than when you've lived extravagantly all your life and are still paying off a mortgage in retirement when your next door neighbour has lived prudently and is mortgage free. Watching them enjoy their retirement while you scrimp & save and can't afford to turn up the heating is the punishment you pay for not learning that life is not a dress rehearsal. You usually only get one opportunity to get it right financially as far as being mortgage free is concerned, and that's as early as possible in your mortgage term.

gabyjane

Hi a couple of my friends are very 'house' orientated and tbh they are both very different in what you can tell them! One last week asked me how we got on with our motgage being redone which i kind of avoided the reply as knew it would turn into the usual 'oh you earn too much' etc..which is not true we have at the mo just done well out of it..doesn't mean to say after a few years it will all go pear shaped! Another friend is fine and we chat about all aspects and there is no feeling of competition.
Tbh take no notce, it is your decision at the end of the day and there will always be people who prefer to be renting for various reasons as well as those wanting to buy.x

Cazzdevil

My parents are really proud of my efforts to become mortgage free earlier than dictated by the bank. My folks have had their own money troubles in the past and still have 4 years left on their own mortgage (if my plan works I've only got 7 left!), so it's very reassuring to them to see me making efforts not to end up in the same predicament as they did and that I could be mortgage free by the time I'm 36.

Friends however... Some get it and are either doing it themselves or wish they COULD do it, but some don't really see the point and try and encourage me to mortgage myself to the hilt arguing that in xx years the house will be mine anyway so why not just bite the bullet and buy the biggest most expensive house I can now.

I don't see the logic in that. I have an okay house, not brilliant but okay, I have a really low mortgage which I'll be clear of in 7 years then I have a whole house worth of equity to put towards somewhere better.

DJ_Mike

I know quite a few people in the mortgage club, and rather than tell them that I'm planning to pay my mortgage off in 8 years, I instead encourage them to try to pay off that little bit extra - "whatever you can pay off extra now, even if it's a little bit, will save you loads in the years to come".

So rather than paint a picture of me being the one gloating about my vastly reduced mortgage, instead it's nice to try to get people to think differently about a mortgage - it's not a 25-year (or 30 or 35-year) noose - it's just a debt, like any other, that you can pay off more quickly if you choose.