What age did you pay off mortgage ?

todayisagreatday

We will be 46 when ours is paid (we are on a fixed rate til then and are saving hard so we have enough to pay it off rather than getting another mortgage). We are lucky we have our dream home after a huge renovation and people think we are well off, but we just saved hard and sacrificed things, living for 3 years with no heating, didn't spend a penny on it etc. That all said we both have decent jobs (£60k each) and no children. 

RelievedSheff

We have one year and 4 months left on our current mortgage and will then remortgage for five years which will see the mortgage paid off.

I will be 46 by then.

Our house was brand new when we bought it in 2019 and we have no plans to move from here.

MWT

Could have paid it off when I was 43, but as it was an offset mortgage we kept it going until maturity when I was 61. Paid little or no interest for the vast majority of that time but having a line of credit available to use at will over those years was very handy.

eschaton

49 for me, was originally supposed to end in August 2030 when I’ll be 55. 

Paying it off early was never on my horizon as I didn’t think it was really feasible. To the amazement of everyone, I went without changing my car last year and made do with the one I have for the next few years. 

Back in April I’d made 4 standard monthly mortgage payments of £582. Two weeks later I received a gift of £4k. I decided to use it as my first ever mortgage overpayment and it took 9 months off the term. Buoyed by that I did the same the next day and paid £4k from my savings. 18 months off. 

Then I decided to pay £8k in July when I decided not to buy a new car. In August I decided no new car for a few years and paid another £9.3k. I now had 6 years remaining before overpayments and intended paying the balance over the next 12 months to clear it in August this year. 

Not two months had passed and I’d cleared the balance. 

I’ve wiped my savings out completely but it has been worthwhile. I can now start to rebuild and save towards a new car in the future. 

I’m fortunate that I’ve had the money saving vision for years and only buy what I can afford. I haven’t borrowed to buy a car since 1998 and being mortgage free won’t change that outlook. At least by doing that instead of a monthly payment for a car, I’ve still got an asset worth £15k. 

I’ve been on a +0.99% BR tracker since the mortgage started and had the benefit of low rates for years. 

Seeing monthly interest payments to slowly go from £40pm odd to over £200pm started to get my attention last year. 

RedLipstick

Some very inspiring responses!

@eschaton Well done! I'm currently paying circa £520 in interest per month, it's super painful seeing all these money going. My mortgage is fairly new, started in Sep 22 but this year I have decided to tackle the mortgage with some heavy overpayments to at least get it down to below £500! Not ready to wipe savings, not a lot of there really but almost a year worth of expenses just in case, planning to add extra £10k for a nice buffer. I have days when I'm extremely conflicted between overpaying or saving but reading responses like yours gives me the needed kick!

todayisagreatday

I'm mid 40s and one thing I have noticed is friends of a similar age (or mid thirties upwards) all have brand new cars on lease, have their mortgage spread out over the max term, no interest in paying more or saving to pay off or reduce term/get mortgage paid off with a variety of things all on credit. They criticised us for living in the conditions we did when we bought our dream home and why we got stuff on Freecycle and didn't bother to do anything whilst we saved for our grand design type reno, whilst they were also buying a house/upsizing like us, whilst also getting brand new everything. They now comment we are rich because we will be paying our mortgage off but we have just worked hard with our 15 year old cars....

The younger mid 30s friends that took on big mortgages 5 years ago + when interest rates were low maxed out on a mortgage, got help to buy loan and are now coming a bit unstuck having saved nothing to pay off the loan and are finding their mortgage rates are rising as they never thought they would be paying 5% upwards!

Jaco70

eschaton said:

49 for me, was originally supposed to end in August 2030 when I’ll be 55. 

Paying it off early was never on my horizon as I didn’t think it was really feasible. To the amazement of everyone, I went without changing my car last year and made do with the one I have for the next few years. 

Back in April I’d made 4 standard monthly mortgage payments of £582. Two weeks later I received a gift of £4k. I decided to use it as my first ever mortgage overpayment and it took 9 months off the term. Buoyed by that I did the same the next day and paid £4k from my savings. 18 months off. 

Then I decided to pay £8k in July when I decided not to buy a new car. In August I decided no new car for a few years and paid another £9.3k. I now had 6 years remaining before overpayments and intended paying the balance over the next 12 months to clear it in August this year. 

Not two months had passed and I’d cleared the balance. 

I’ve wiped my savings out completely but it has been worthwhile. I can now start to rebuild and save towards a new car in the future. 

I’m fortunate that I’ve had the money saving vision for years and only buy what I can afford. I haven’t borrowed to buy a car since 1998 and being mortgage free won’t change that outlook. At least by doing that instead of a monthly payment for a car, I’ve still got an asset worth £15k. 

I’ve been on a +0.99% BR tracker since the mortgage started and had the benefit of low rates for years. 

Seeing monthly interest payments to slowly go from £40pm odd to over £200pm started to get my attention last year. 

I bought my first house, when I was 27, for about 35k. After a year or so I had a dividend from work, and wrote to the mortgage company (an actual letter in the post) asking if I could pay 10k off, maintain the payments and reduce the term.
If I remember correctly, it knocked nine years and eight months off the loan.
I still have the house, but with a BTL mortgage roughly twice the value of the original purchase price. 

aussie_in_wales

Got my first mortgage as a single person in 2015 at 39 moved once which resulted in increased borrowing. Regular overpayments will mean I'll pay it off by December this year

eschaton

RedLipstick said:

Some very inspiring responses!

@eschaton Well done! I'm currently paying circa £520 in interest per month, it's super painful seeing all these money going. My mortgage is fairly new, started in Sep 22 but this year I have decided to tackle the mortgage with some heavy overpayments to at least get it down to below £500! Not ready to wipe savings, not a lot of there really but almost a year worth of expenses just in case, planning to add extra £10k for a nice buffer. I have days when I'm extremely conflicted between overpaying or saving but reading responses like yours gives me the needed kick!

With hindsight I wish I’d started earlier and gone without a car or two over the years. With rates so low for a good number of years I didn’t see the point. At the same time, you need to live as well so I have no regrets. 

When you reflect back, what you spend on interest payments is eye watering. I only borrowed £115k back in 2005 and I still had to pay &39.5k last year to clear it. 

Good luck on your journey. 

ian1246

74 years old is when my mortgage is until.

Currently 35 years old,  just come out of a divorce & had to take a 40 year mortgage to be able to comfortably afford the mortgage on my new house.

Fortunately the first £3700 from a 12month regular saver has just matured, so hopefully that'll be my first overpayment!  My son also starts School in September,  freeing up another £200 a month in saved childcare fee's.

I could have had a smaller term, but then I'd be locked in paying a set amount. Currently I can overpay if I have the capability.

On top of that, in the long run the mortgage amount will shrink with inflation, whilst my income will grow...