Why be mortgage free?

powerspowers

Echo what others have said about flexibility, security and choice once the mortgage gets lower (my target is to get back to where we were financially before upsizing). 

Look at mortgage overpayment calculators and see how much interest you pay- for me £5 a day on a fairly low mortgage with good LTV. I’d rather have that in my pocket! Some people over pay to get a better LTV and save money that way. 

Each to their own though 🤷‍♀️ 

maisie_cat

Nonnadiluca said:

If you don't have to pay for a roof over your head you can get by on quite a small income. OH and I are having a great life having retired early as we don't have a lump of money to pay out every month on a mortgage or rent. It's a great comfort to know that if the shtf at least we've got a home.

I couldn't have said it better myself, we live on a relatively small income where our largest expenses are food closely followed by council tax.
We have modest savings for capital items and emergencies. We could have a small mortgage and more savings but can't see why we would do that.

andys15

I am now mortgage free. My initial motivation was a few years back when the company I worked for started talking about redundancy. It scared me, as I am in a high paying job, but it’s a specialised job and if I didn’t have it, I couldn’t have found a similar paying job. 

I figured that owning the house would mean in a worst case scenario I could get any job and still have my house. 

Now I am mortgage free and still in the high paying job, it will now allow me to retire early. 

I save my mortgage payments and as soon as I have enough I will retire ( hopefully before I am 50). I can then move to Spain and my house will generate me an income. 

I also have the flexibility to reduce my hours at work if I want and the company will allow me. 

It definitely  gives you more flexibility. 

Cornish_mum

Original motivation was the size of our mortgage and the threat of redundancy/increasing interest rates. I felt we were quite vulnerable, as I was concerned about my employment situation and prospects of securing the same salary if I was made redundant. This brought the debt down to a more manageable level (we could survive for a considerable period on one salary plus our EF).

Now MOPs are part of our long term goal for early retirement (~57-60) and to free up cash to support our kids. We have switched our focus to tax efficient savings but do a MOP now again when we can spare the money.

badmemory

Perhaps imagine the difference in receiving a redundancy threat when you have a mortgage (OMG OMG panic stress) & when that mortgage is paid (bring it on I can deal with it)

andys15

badmemory said:

Perhaps imagine the difference in receiving a redundancy threat when you have a mortgage (OMG OMG panic stress) & when that mortgage is paid (bring it on I can deal with it)

Exactly. My best case scenario is being made redundant in about 2 or 3 years now. Fingers crossed.