Retired — and still paying off the mortgage

[washed up contractor]

Contractors with a mortgage!? What are you people on, £125 a day or are you really permies trying to pass yourself off as a contractor?

[Whorty]

Always had an interest only mortgage and overpaid when we could. Paid off mortgage by 37 - never plan to have a mortgage ever again. So liberating clearing the mortgage and knowing the house is ours and we owe no one. House value about £750-800k so if we ever need cash we can always sell up and down size. Just can't imagine having a mortgage until I'm 69 ..... poor sods, really feel for this generation.

[MrMarkyMark]

Just perfect, all paid off for the government to come and take the full resale value for their long term nursing care

[Martin@AS Financial]

I prefer to have my debts paid off.

I'm the same as you but this is the way our age group was brought up though. I took my mortgage over a longer term but now overpay by as much as possible.

[Cirrus]

And in my middle age I don't want to worry about finding £thousands each month to pay the mortgage or the bills.

This is the whole point. I try to explain it to my missus but being a girl she doesn't get financial services.

My mortgage is £130 per month. My total expenditure is £5000+.

People think paying off the mortgage gives them safety and freedom.

For many people it is just early 20th Century self delusion.

(For me, trying to reduce 2.5% mortgage interest would mean I would have to suck out cash from the company/drawdown pot at an extra 20% supertax penalty.)

[ChimpMaster]

Always had an interest only mortgage and overpaid when we could. Paid off mortgage by 37 - never plan to have a mortgage ever again. So liberating clearing the mortgage and knowing the house is ours and we owe no one. House value about £750-800k so if we ever need cash we can always sell up and down size. Just can't imagine having a mortgage until I'm 69 ..... poor sods, really feel for this generation.

Your example is perhaps of one where you managed to buy the property at a much lower price many years ago. Anyone that bought before 2003 or so will be sitting pretty now.

For example, in 1997 the house I live in could have been bought for almost a quarter of what it is worth now. In 2004 it was half the price. So the mortgage would have been piddly compared to what someone now would have to get, and could have been paid off much more easily.

[ChimpMaster]

This is the whole point. I try to explain it to my missus but being a girl she doesn't get financial services.

My mortgage is £130 per month. My total expenditure is £5000+.

People think paying off the mortgage gives them safety and freedom.

For many people it is just early 20th Century self delusion.

(For me, trying to reduce 2.5% mortgage interest would mean I would have to suck out cash from the company/drawdown pot at an extra 20% supertax penalty.)

£5k/month expenditure without a mortgage! eek

Your mortgage balance of £65k or thereabouts isn't a lot in this day and age, and certainly I would be comfortable leaving that kind of balance and doing it your way.

Paying off the mortgage - or at least paying it down to a low level - of course buys you freedom. Most people have to work to pay rent/mortgage without fail every month, else they will be kicked out of home. Not having that burden means you have greater choice in what to do with your time and with your life.

[VectraMan]

and we're smiling about it.

Should move to Germany or France spend half that amount get twice the size or retire sooner and enjoy life.

Why are Brits so keen to work until the grave?

My Father and Step-Mother bought a cheap house in France about 10 years before they retired, and spent a lot of time going over and doing it up before finally moving out after retirement. When they sold up in the UK they still had some mortgage left to pay off (at 67). Of course there's now no way they can afford to come back.

And we're not talking a £1m house in the South East. I think they sold for about £170K. I'm not sure what else they could have done but move abroad.

[BrilloPad]

This is the whole point. I try to explain it to my missus but being a girl she doesn't get financial services.

£5k/month expenditure without a mortgage! eek

I think its in divorce payments.....

[MrMarkyMark]

I think its in divorce payments.....

They, the gentler sex, can pick up the financial aspects on rapidly, given the right motivation, as a number on here will surely testify