Having spent some time mulling this over, it seems as though I can continue to pay large amounts off over the next few years and be mortgage free in 5 years or reduce this amount and increase my mortgage length but give ourselves enough money for an annual family holiday. Thoughts or experiences very welcome
I remember when our kids were about 8 to 10ish, we told them we would take them to Disneyland. They obviously had a chat about, and came back and asked whether we could go to the Isle of Wight instead (where we had spent a few long weekends).
We had a week on the IOW
Property 'values' in most of rural West Sussex are ludicrous, just for a laugh I looked at what RH20 prices are.
Apparently £750,000 for our 3 bedroom Cottage, I can only presume that it would have to be a DFL who would bite at that.
Not that we have any intention of going until we are carried out...
I really wouldn’t have wanted to rent all these years……. I’d have hated that……
I got on the ladder @ 20 as it was cheaper than renting, which even as a kid I always thought was paying someone elses pension . . . . big difference between then and now is a deposit was the equivalent of 6 months salary, not 2 years.
It's a personal choice, but I'd go holiday every time. When the kids have grown up and buggered off, you're going to look back fondly on the memories of family holidays far more than you would on the memory of not having a mortgage that you're only paying 2-3% on anyway.
Another alternative I've been doing since 2018 is to make massive salary sacrifice payments - as in up to the max of 40K per year - into my pension. I can retire a decade early and use the 25% tax-free lump sum to pay off the balance of my mortgage. If I took that 40K as income instead, I'd only end up with 23K (net of tax and NI) left to make any mortgage overpayments.
I’m watching my kids with the whole property thing now and I just think wow…..
Just moved to a new house and have a big 30 yr mortgage after reaching the point we could have cleared it in a few years on our old house...was reaching the point I had to go for it if I wanted the dream home.
managed to lock in for 5 years at 1.49% though
That is a very good point.. i may put some thought into just adding more to the pension... the one down side is if mortgage rates are high when my mortgage term ends then i will be hit by massive monthly payments... i want my remaining mortgage to be as small as possible when my 5 year fixed ends.