Almost mortgage free - what should I be considering?

lrmulli

Our house is worth about £230k in NW england, after overpaying for many years with an aim to be mortgage free by 40 (for no real reason other than it seemed something achievable to aim for) we only have a relatively small amount remaining on our mortgage (just less than £20k).

We are in a position now where we could pay off our mortgage in full after 13 years of ownership, but we will be waiting until the autumn/winter to do this when our fixed rate ends (also any penalties for early payment end then too).

My wife and I are both 36, 2 primary school aged children and a household income between £100-110k.

We don't have any plans to move, we have a semi detached that we extended to 4 bedrooms 5 years ago, so it should be plenty big enough as my children grow. 

Is there anything I should be considering about/before paying my mortgage off? Any downsides?

Lrmulli
 

FatJock

I don't see any real downsides to being mortgage free. If you paid off the remaining amount would you have anything in reserve to cover an 'emergency' (for example: new boiler/car/roof etc.)? 

I know I'd like a small pot of readily available funds to cover such an issue and reduce the stress of finding the money to pay for them.

Congrats on getting to this point.