Over 50's, how did you accumulate your wealth?

marlot · 6 October 2017 at 5:43AM

OldBeanz wrote: »

I don't understand the mortgage free stuff...

Having lost around 40% of the value of my first house when I had to relocate - and paying it back for years afterwards, being mortgage free represented freedom.

bugslet · 6 October 2017 at 8:42AM

OldBeanz wrote: »

I don't understand the mortgage free stuff. Santander have been paying me to lend them back their money for the past 5 years.
No kids, no thanks - both our greatest musician (arguably) Elton John and sportsman (arguably) Andy Murray, have said in the last few years that it has been the greatest thing that has ever happened to them.

My father went bankrupt, I had to buy the family home. I'm not manic about being mortgage free, but I've been overpaying anywhere between 10 - 40% for the last ten years. I could finish the mortgage if I had to or really wanted to and that makes me happy.

I suspect there are some celebs of equal standing that might say not having kids is the greatest thing, but it would be professional suicide. Saying you don't like kids, doesn't always go down well. Personally I can't stand them, never wanted one for a nanosecond. Each to their own and all that.

badmemory · 6 October 2017 at 10:16AM

I wonder if mortgage freedom now with rates of under 4% can even bear any relationship to the possibility of mortgage freedom faced by those buying in the 70s with 15/16% interest rates. Of course with rents back then rising astronomically (notice very few mention this) it meant that within 5 years a crippling mortgage, almost double any rent, became thank goodness we made the sacrifice as our mortgage is now less than the rent we would be paying.

As for children & spouses who want them when you don't really & then abandon them - just don't get me started!

If you want to accumulate wealth then don't pay rent & don't have children.

OldBeanz · 6 October 2017 at 10:57AM

bugslet wrote: »

My father went bankrupt, I had to buy the family home. I'm not manic about being mortgage free, but I've been overpaying anywhere between 10 - 40% for the last ten years. I could finish the mortgage if I had to or really wanted to and that makes me happy.

I suspect there are some celebs of equal standing that might say not having kids is the greatest thing, but it would be professional suicide. Saying you don't like kids, doesn't always go down well. Personally I can't stand them, never wanted one for a nanosecond. Each to their own and all that.

There is a whole forum area of Mortgagefree wannabees. It is more psychological than logical. My father landed in the same position as me that he wished he could pass his mortgage rate onto his children (he locked into a 2.5% fixed rate in the fifties and my brother and I could have lived with that in the 70s and 80s). No issue with having the funds to pay a mortgage off just that paying it off is not necessarily the best option.
As for kids. We are genetically developed to want them so I suspect your suspicions are wrong for a vast majority of the population. To state that their children were their greatest achievements was not something either had to say and Ej appears to have indulged in more "short term joy giving" experiences than most

.

adonis10 · 6 October 2017 at 11:09AM

OldBeanz wrote: »

I don't understand the mortgage free stuff. Santander have been paying me to lend them back their money for the past 5 years.
No kids, no thanks - both our greatest musician (arguably) Elton John and sportsman (arguably) Andy Murray, have said in the last few years that it has been the greatest thing that has ever happened to them.

They're also insanely rich which makes the having kids thing a whole lot easier. Bear in mind that the lives of such celebs bear no or little resemblance to the man in the street with less than a few quid to rub together week on week.

bugslet · 6 October 2017 at 11:11AM

I know OB, I've popped by the MFWs - I think they get a bit too obsessional at times. I'm aware that family history in my case is a driver - facing being homeless in your late teens is a tad scary!

The majority of people do want kids, but there is a good tranche of us that don't. I certainly wasn't implying those of us who view the Queen in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a role model ( just joking), are in the majority:D. And if people do find pleasure in thier children, good for them.

MallyGirl · 6 October 2017 at 11:12AM

badmemory wrote: »

I wonder if mortgage freedom now with rates of under 4% can even bear any relationship to the possibility of mortgage freedom faced by those buying in the 70s with 15/16% interest rates. Of course with rents back then rising astronomically (notice very few mention this) it meant that within 5 years a crippling mortgage, almost double any rent, became thank goodness we made the sacrifice as our mortgage is now less than the rent we would be paying.

Ah yes - I remember it well. I bought my first flat in 1991 for £44k - 5% deposit and then almost exactly 3 x my £14k salary which was the most you could get as a multiplier (for good reason). My interest only payments at the beginning were about £420 pcm on my £41,800 mortgage. It was hard but rent was higher.
For this reason I did focus on the mortgage for quite a while, paid it off once then upsized. It is now back to that £40k but I am concentrating now on pension contributions and ISAs with a toe in the water of P2P

Chickereeeee · 6 October 2017 at 12:04PM

Looking back, two (financial) things I wish I had done:

1) Not paid off mortgage. I hate debt (passed from my parents I think) and paid off my mortgage when I was about 40. I should have moved to a larger house (thought about it, but nothing really better in the area, and did not want to uproot the children) and kept/increased mortgage, or BTL.

2) Moved to London in early part of my career. More opportunities in my sector, greater increase in property prices for when moving back out. But moving to a smaller home for more money was too big a wrench.

Not done too badly though, mainly due to being in the technology sector, and willing to take risks with (American, sadly) start-ups.

C

Jackmydad · 6 October 2017 at 1:07PM

Chickereeeee wrote: »

Looking back, two (financial) things I wish I had done:

1) Not paid off mortgage. I hate debt (passed from my parents I think) and paid off my mortgage when I was about 40. I should have moved to a larger house (thought about it, but nothing really better in the area, and did not want to uproot the children) and kept/increased mortgage, or BTL.

2) Moved to London in early part of my career. More opportunities in my sector, greater increase in property prices for when moving back out. But moving to a smaller home for more money was too big a wrench.

Not done too badly though, mainly due to being in the technology sector, and willing to take risks with (American, sadly) start-ups.

C

I did get a bigger place, but I had the cash to do it by that time. I've always bought "doer uppers" though, and this last time bought very well more or less at the lowest prices in recent -ish times.
Some time I'll get around to doing this one up properly! :-)
There was a time when I reckoned I'd made more money in property, than by working.
Lucky though. In fact very lucky. Right thing at the right time. etc.
At least part dumb luck and doing what we wanted to do.
I've always said that the only debt I would have is a mortgage.
I can see the reasons for having one, but I'd rather not. I'm very risk averse in some ways.
A matter of choice though.
As for children, that's purely a matter of choice. We never wanted them ourselves, and have no regrets at all about it.

Terron · 6 October 2017 at 4:19PM

MallyGirl wrote: »

Ah yes - I remember it well. I bought my first flat in 1991 for £44k - 5% deposit and then almost exactly 3 x my £14k salary which was the most you could get as a multiplier (for good reason).

14k salary - 40k mortgage - that was me in 1989. I paid a bigger deposit - almost 25k and lost it all when I sold for £39.5k in 92. It was an endowment mortgage so when I started getting warnings aboit it not covering the mortgage I started paying down the mortgage.

Over 50's, how did you accumulate your wealth?

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