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I bought well within my means and had the advantage of already lowest ever rates. So my repayments could basically be made if I just didn't go to the pub two nights a week. Smashing the fuck out of the whole mortgage 20 years early is pretty good feeling though. I know some people say there's good debt and all that, but I'm old school and boring and in my feeble brain debt is bad. Paying it off sooner allows you to quickly build up cash reserves again for that midget dungeon or whatever you come up with next (we want to redo the kitchen now - 10k not 70k :P).
hippy-
Smashing the fuck out of the whole mortgage 20 years early is pretty good feeling though.
Yeah, looking forward to this... would've had a mortgage for only 8.5 years in my whole life, and never intend to have one again.
I'm old school and boring and in my feeble brain debt is bad. Paying it off sooner allows you to quickly build up cash reserves again for that midget dungeon or whatever you come up with next (we want to redo the kitchen now - 10k not 70k :P).
Old school too, I don't have the network to master the more complex arrangements, will keep things simple.
I would recommend a builder for you but I don't think his labour fits into your budget ;)
Velocio
I figure that I'm OK... in that the only big expense in my life is the mortgage and it doesn't exceed more than a national average % of take home pay at the moment, so even without much in the way of a safety net I have a lot of flexibility. Should the roof fall in and that need £30K to be spent on it, I could put that on Amex and afford the repayments without needing to adjust the mortgage.
The huge risk is if I cannot work and the income is threatened, but getting the mortgage paid off sooner is the way to mitigate that, savings would be burned through in no time at all even if I held it back, but having the option to later reduce the mortgage, or to not need to worry about it, is the best way to bet on a no income scenario.
If I get the mortgage paid off in a few years, then it should be smooth sailing from then on, future income things cannot be relied upon but the big debt in my life would be gone.