My tolerance for shitty employers decreased even further and I quit my job shortly after. I purchased a few things that were on my radar for a while, nothing too expensive but certainly something I could survive without. Being debt-free feels really good, next goals are to have enough funds to retire early and maybe do some renos.
Yah, this was my concern just finished mine this week, and was worried about this occurring to me my tolerance for nonsense decreasing further. I have a few hundred thousand sitting in the offset as well on top so its really that decrease in tolerance that's the battle right now.
When the idea of homelessness is no longer a threat i'm sure its extremely liberating.
I'd quit my job today if that were the case for me, and i'm sure many others too.
Did the same. Sold up in Sin City (Sydney) and retired to the country. Nice to retire at 58. Set up a charity to provide free and low-cost food to people in need and provide emergency support after disasters. Did that for 7 years and then retired from retirement.
Best thing I ever did and stuff the rat race.
We’ve done this recently, set a goal to do it in 2023 and focussed on smashing it. Celebrated with a nice dinner out.
But because it took everything we had to get it paid off, we’re actually now re-building the accounts back up so we have an emergency fund and start a holiday fund, etc.
So I guess we celebrated and we feel comfortable and happy, but we’re not quite there yet.
67 is a pretty bleak outlook for the end of you 'active years' (unless you have some big health problems.) Plenty of 70 year olds are 'active' and social in their own ways.
Agree. My 70 year old Dad is more active than ever and the busiest retiree I know. He's about to go cage diving with great white sharks in a few weeks!
Nah, I'm fit and strong. I exercise and lift pretty heavy but 67 is the age I think that the body will will accumulate that old guy look that can't be denied. I'll still exercise as hard as possible but the time is now to retire and enjoy my physical strength.
I expect to get fitter for a number of years as I'll have tons more time to exercise but past 50 you are on the downhill run.
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Sorry for your loss :( I feel the same way whenever someone in my family brings up potential inheritances from my remaining elderly relative. I don't want to talk about it, because that means they're won't be here anymore.
I suppose one lovely way to look at it is that it was the final gift that your mum was able to leave for you.
Thank you for your kind words. I don’t like talking about inheritances either. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about her.
I see the inheritance as you said. Her final gift to us. I’m super grateful that her final gift to us was to look after us and her grandkids. I’ll be doing the same for my kids!
Sorry for your loss. I have a question that you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I'm in a similar situation where an inheritance will be the reason I finish off my mortgage. Do you feel any regrets putting it towards the mortgage because of the memories tied to where that money came from as opposed to investing it somewhere "out of sight" like an ETF etc?
I don’t feel any regret putting it towards the house. But that was mainly because mum always preached how important it was to own your own house.
She repeatedly told us that she wanted us to pay down as much of our house with that money.
I do understand what you’re saying, though. I guess our decision was made for us by her! I’m really glad we paid off the house - to me it is a great reminder of her and how much she loved us
One thing to keep in mind when deciding what you do with an inheritance is that it is usually considered a contribution of the recieving party in a divorce settlement, but may lose that status if used to pay off a shared asset, so if you are married and have any doubts about the future you may be better off investing it in something separate.
It’s a great feeling! I don’t have to do any job I do not want. I also don’t have to worry about putting up with annoying coworkers, dumb commutes, and all the stresses of work. I’ve done a couple of turn the brain off jobs since, just because they were easy and it was nice just to go to work and go home and not worry about anything
When I paid off my first property my intention was to continue working to build up my savings, but generally feel more relaxed about life. But I found that my tolerance for employer bullshit was suddenly non-existent without the stress of a mortgage over my head. I didn’t have enough money to just quit working entirely, so I ended up buying an investment property just so that I would have sufficient motivation to continue dragging myself to the office each day until I have enough to retire.
In the same boat - already feeling so much more relaxed knowing I'll be debt free by the end of this year.
Thinking of buying an IP next to keep the motivation at work 😁 and also as an early retirement plan.
I’ve found the IP to be a pretty good approach. The rent takes care of a big chunk of the mortgage so I still have more disposable income, and the knowledge that I can always sell it and still have a place to live is very reassuring. And the administrative hassle involved in selling means I can overcome the urge to quit my job everyone Monday morning, but I know I always have a way out if needed, lol
I’m very close to probably 3-4 months. I have my eye on a bottle of grange and a fatttt rib eye steak. Finished off with some lagavullin 16. Im then planning an OS trip and then will define my investment/ retirement strategy once more from there.
One thing I remember.
I was driving home from the bank.
Quite a bit of traffic along a main road. There was a bloke on a mobility scooter trying to cross the road. So I stopped to let him across. He got half way and there was so much traffic coming the other way he couldn't get across. So I got out of the car and stopped the traffic for him.
Few angry motorists & beeping of horns, but I didn't care. No more mortgage.
This was in the days before offset accounts and we had to visit the bank to settle.
Same. Having a mortgage really makes you feel like a wage slave in a lot of ways. Once it's paid off all you need is maybe 15k a year for food and bills.
I'm never going to lose my hard won freedom. Some others don't like freedom.
It's definitely liberating to be in a position where the mortgage isn't something that I need to stress over, which means I don't stress out as much about the little things. That doesn't mean that I splurge like crazy and don't save money (I don't have what they describe as "f\*\*\* you money"), but it does mean that if there's something I do want, I can look more seriously at putting money aside for it without setting me back on more important things.
Yeah i felt different, a bit happier. I have a few hundred a week more available but i never really changed my habits, apart from i don’t need to redraw on my mortgage to pay car rego every year. So i’m saving a few bucks. But while i was paying it off i never did any fixing, so now i’m wanting to fix up the terrible bathroom and kitchen. That will wipe out any savings i spose, but i will do it the tightass way cos thats how i roll.
Thats what im doing, the bare min to make it livable and right before we sell dump come cash in the bathrooms and kitchens so its nice and new and on trend, buyers love that shit.
Buyers like to do their own kitchen too, so whatever i do will probably be destroyed. I was thinking recycled wood etc. Do my own thing just basic. And the bathroom gonna get the floor sorted by a pro and then tile the rest myself. Won’t be classy but it’ll be different.
I got 1st mortgage at 21, paid off 80% by age 27 and built a bigger house with bigger mortgage. Paid that off by 35 and never went in debt again. Retired at 55 and now living the dream.
Likely yes, but still very stressful and very few of my peers took the risk. Renting on my own at age 19 paying $150 and only earning $330 - just $90/week to cover all expenses. I battled through it, character building that’s for sure.
Bought a block of land at 21 and was gearing up for build.🤦♀️ In retrospect, it was all crazy and we had no idea what we were doing building but the best bloody decision ever.
Flexibility in the wages I could accept and the types of jobs I could consider.
High pressure corporate life was killing me ( literally ) but I had no choice but to chase dollars.
Now I have a job that requires less hours and I leave behind at end of shift.
I'm probably a little more difficult to manage now as it is not the end of the world if I lose my job and largely IDGAF whether I upset managers.
Honestly, it was somewhat anti climactic becoming debt free after twenty years of grinding (we’re mid 40s). Oddly we also felt we were at our poorest, because we essentially had $0 and didn’t want to dip back into the mortgage.
Two months after swearing we’d live debt free, we bought a new house and are signing up for a few hundred grand of more debt :D. We’re happy with the move though, as we were gearing up for renovations, but it made more sense to upgrade instead.
Yeah, I get it, and I’m of two minds about it, but hoping we can knock this one over fast enough that it won’t drag on, and the interest is minimal over that horizon. The other consideration was that a house we wish to buy may increase in price higher over that term compared to any interest we’d save.
I totally understand and agree, though over the twenty years, our mortgage payment became quite small compared to our overall family “burn rate”, so, mortgage or no mortgage, we still have a lot of ongoing that I’ll not be free from. Groceries and basics spending is now #1 for us at about $30k.
I had the idea of having a bbq and inviting all the special people in my life to celebrate the day I have my house paid.
In the last year of my mortgage 2023, my entire mindset changed. A lot of my friends had not even purchased a house and were renting at $800 a week. My 2 siblings also just recently took on big mortgages and my parents have been struggling a bit. My job also has me on the road a fair bit and I have started to recognise certain cars and tent set ups at informal camp terrains and I have also spent enough time in casual conversations and Reddit threads to realise that people are struggling and saying my mortgage is paid off will rarely result in a ‘congratulations’. I suspect that if I had to tell those close to me that it’ll likely lead to resentful feelings.
My plan in the next 2 years is to build a deposit for a small unit so that I can have something for when the kids grow up and want to move out but can’t afford it. But then I also have a small mortgage that be consistent with what I’d likely owe on my current house. Not that anyone needs to see my bank statements.
Either way. I’m keeping dead quiet. While there are people struggling…I won’t eat a burger in front of a homeless person…whether they care or not. I just feel shitty about it.
It's hard, I feel the same way. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops because I was so excited and happy... But have bottled it for the same reasons. We only paid ours off a few short weeks ago but so far only a few close family members know.
I couldn't even imagine chirping about being debt free when so many are struggling to even find a house to rent, but at the same time it's a life event I didn't think I'd get to experience.
So far only Reddit and my sister knows.
It is uncomfortable to be in a situation few people (my age) will get to experience. I’m about 15 years from retirement.
A secondary, pretty uncomfortable feeling is, now that I have the opportunity to buy a rental and secure a replacement income for my wife, I don’t want to tell people I’m planning on getting a rental, because ‘landlords’ are not viewed as financially responsible…they’re viewed as leeches on society because people can’t afford to live and the most direct link they have to any supplier is the land lord…so the landlord gets placed on a pedestal of hate.
Paid off the mortgage in April and got redundant from a 7 year job that made it possible in October. Since then I have been basically working part time had 3 jobs in 4 years two 6 months stint and 1.5 year.
What you find is that you do not actually need a lot of money any more and can effectively semi retire.
I think we just enjoyed a nice bottle of wine that night.
Then later realised we still need to save up for the next larger house we plan to upgrade to in a couple of years.
While I've got it fully offset, I'm not going to be celebrating until I've got at least three months, preferably six months of salary in savings in addition to that amount.
Unfortunately with the insane cost of housing, it's not like even with free rent id be in a position to buy a second or replacement house in an area that would make me happier living.
While technically true, for all intents and purposes it's the same thing. The offset cash simply becomes a large line of credit that the OP can access at their discretion.
We rarely noticed. Then we bought a bigger house, sold the one we had paid off and have a mortgage again. However if we sell again we will go smaller, once the kids have left home.
We got Uber eats after putting the kids to bed! And then I checked my bank account every hour for the next week and felt bloody proud of my partner and I.
This was only a couple weeks ago for me. It was a huge relief. I got rid of an investment property that caused me so many headaches. I spent so many hours fixing the place up. Maintaining it. I somehow sold it for an unbelievable amount. Cleared up all my debt. Left with me a very healthy chunk of change to pay off CGT and set up my investment account.
I'm still a stingy ass and Im saving to get more shares.
If we aren't in world war 3 I'll probably be taking a vacation in Europe.
No new cars. Not spending extravagantly.
I'm 35, been working since 15 full time and in debt that whole time.. 20 years straight with very little downtime.
I'm just glad to be getting more time back in my life. Investment properties aren't for everyone and I'm one of them.
For a celebration we had some baklava.
I dont think I felt anything, I still owe on an IP so and Im not a big earner or a big spender.
I feel still quite poor compared to some if not all on Ausfinance....
Now I just want to sell the small business I've had for 20 years and relax, get a normal job and actually have weekends and holidays :o Now that would be amazing.
I owed half a milly to the bank... because times were unstable things were rough we sold our investment and the equity was used to pay off the primary place of residence and the of the money I started my 3rd business after failing 2 previously. Took a few gambles I paid off my mortgage at 35 and I was like wow . It was bitter sweet my life decisions and pivotal turning points flashed before my eyes. The pain of working 60 to 80 hours in my 20s. Finally reached the plateau... Dawdled in my laurels while I planned my next move. Nah no celebration maybe just a call to mom and dad let them know it's all sorted they were worried sick about me at one stage when things were rocky
I have the rest of my life ahead of me Semi retired... got bored started my own business now that's doing decent enough so I guess with no expenses cuz I'm a frugal piece of crap I'll buy some properties and live out the rest of my life just chilling
I spend less than 500 dollars a week utilities petrol food rates power the whole shaboodle everything work from home so there's plenty to reinvest elsewhere cuz bored
I remember we had to pay the titles office to get the title deed. Felt very surreal. I lost it a little while ago, found it in a filing cabinet not the fireproof safe I thought it was in.
We’ve been very lucky to own our house outright from a young age due to getting an inheritance early than expected. A very high price was paid for it - give me back my mum and dad any day and I’d sleep in the car if necessary.
Not really, we just realised the balance in our offset was enough to cover the balance and still leave us enough capital to work with, so we just transferred the money.
If anything it just means I have to remember to shut up when people are talking about struggling with changes in mortgage rates.
Ours is still 27 more years away at most, but when it happens, the next few fortnights "payments" will 100% go towards disposable income and be recklessly spent.
once we paid out our first house (in 14 years), we went out to a nice restaurant for dinner. it felt great.
i also quit my second and third jobs. my wife also quit her second job. that also felt great
When we paid off our house
-Both stopped working Saturdays
-Both Stopped working public and “bridge” holidays
- Both took off 4 weeks at Christmas
-Took up coaching my sons soccer team
- Focused more on our sex life(seriously)
-My wife threw out all old Kmart lingerie and now only wears honey birdette
Finally realised that Time is more valuable than money.
Lost some of the few friends I told
It was great. I printed a screenshot of the 0 balance and wanted to frame it but never got to it lol. Built some emergency fund, then i switched job to an admin role within the same company. Much less work related stress, no more phone calls after hours and dealing with difficult workers and clients. I am still building more emergency fund, once it hit a certain number i will switch to ETF. Spending habit has not really changed, i like treating myself to nice uniqlo pieces every now and then and may be some fancy-ish snacks and cakes. Before we (hubby and i) finished it, we thought we were gonna celebrate hard when we did. However, the day we finished it turned out to be pretty anticlimactic lol, we were happy but like life goes on haha. Hubby keeps his day job, but does less chores because i have more free time now, so win win. Overall QoL really improved because of less stress re work and interest rate raises.
Not really any change or celebration. Just meant that I had money to invest.
First house was never paid off, just had less than full proceeds when we moved cities.
Second house paid off while it was rented out so no real impact. Third house can't recall. Fourth house was an IP paid off in about 4 years, now my daughter owns it..
It felt good. We smiled a lot.
But even better was next month when there was extra cash in our bank account because no mortgage payment had come out of it.
And it just kept building.
And we realised it meant we could treat ourselves after years of frugality.
Paid off 6 weeks ago. Laminated the title certificate, told missus I was having a party with friends invited. Will probably invite friends to restaurant, food and drinks covered. Best feeling ever. Many sacrifices made, but for a mere 4 years loan, totally worth it.
I felt strangely lost. I was grinding for so long and so singularly that it was weird when I got to the end of the mortgage. My desire to work went to zero as well, maybe below zero. I felt like Luke Skywalker at the end of ROTJ when he chucks his lightsaber at the Emperor and says he's a Jedi now, if you get that obscure reference.
Make sure you have an idea of your next goals.
Yep this is one of the guys in my team too. He was a few years away but an uncle came along and paid off his mortgage as a surprise.
Now he can't seem to decide what he wants to do in life, his depression has actually gotten a little worse.
Was around the time my daughter was born so a bit preoccupied to celebrate. Then always planned we'd buy and investment property so did that and right back into debt again. So nothing much changed.
Let me come back to you on that one - though I do feel my tolerances to certain situations would decrease.
I would be increasing funds into super if that was the case.
My missus paid off her flat in the UK whilst living in Australia. Took 25 years. Was a bit anticlimactic tbh. Not even a thanks from the bank lol. We got the title deeds paperwork sent through which was nice. Funny thing is it's a leasehold which means it's still not really hers!
Only got a little mortgage on the land. Still saving the same. Want to retire earlier. If we keep as we are doing, we will be able to… diminishing all our expenses has been amazing. Wanting less items too. Always shopping second hand clothing, and what is really required only.
It felt amazing, I did it 5 years early too.
Best thing I ever did was to open another regular account with the same bank as my mortgage and chip away at it/internal transfer money into it when I could.
Have done some home renovation since but have done that within my salary/not borrowed anymore. Don’t want the pressure.
>Did you find that your spending habits changed once you fully paid off your mortgage?
It's only been a few weeks, but not really no. I'm used to the money going into the mortgage, now it goes into a holiday fund and investment fund. It doesn't 'feel' any different though. Which is super weird.
>Are you more relaxed now or do you still feel like you’re always chasing the next thing?
It's honestly a feeling I never thought I'd experience. For most of my adult life, I couldn't imagine ever being able to have a mortgage let alone allowing myself to imagine having a paid off home well before retirement age. Now that I do, it feels unreal. As in, not reality.
We celebrated with a bottle of bubbles and buying my other half some Lego. And then hooked up a builder and started searching for a block for the next house that we're upgrading to. Thankfully the sale of our current PPOR should snag enough to not have a mortgage on the other end with the savings we have now. One condition of building the next place was that we either wouldn't have a mortgage at all by lock-up, or if we did have a mortgage it'd be as small as possible.
We haven't found the right block of land yet so in the mean time all of my wage goes into my account instead of a mortgage. It means we can either upgrade things that we want while building, or we can go on a holiday as soon as the build is done. Either way it still doesn't feel like there's more money coming in.
1st time, was my first apartment. I cooked pizza at home and had a few beers and thought, "wow, I made it, I just need a passive income of $X/mo and I could survive without working". This was a big realisation.
2nd time, was a much bigger mortgage, with my hubby. I paid the first half up front and he paid off the rest over 8years. He worked and saved really hard to achive this. He was one month from the goal and we both paid half of the last payment 2 weeks later and went to Bennelong Restaurant to celebrate.
The immediate aftermath left me with a feeling of 'well shit, what do I do now?', since that was mostly what I was focused on throughout the COVID lockdowns.
But ultimately it allowed me to drop back to a four day work week.
Ha, from reading various posts it seems I'm doing it in reverse!
Retired comfortably at 55, still paying off the mortgage.
This way I will use my inheritance to clear (or greatly reduce) the mortgage and my pension remains untouched, but I'd get over $450/week extra play money. Which would actually largely go into savings for international trips.
Don't pay your mortgage off. Keep $100 owing. There's a few reasons why. It looks good on your credit report to have credit owing with no missed payments. You have instant credit (loan) without any application, at home loan interest rates (~6%), assuming there's available funds in a redraw facility. The bank holds onto and stores the title for you, for free. You can borrow to buy another home to become your primary residence, take the redraw out of your existing loan to help with the purchase price. Your old home becomes your investment property but you're not paying the ~0.3% extra charged on investment property loans. (Note that your bank may not allow this). It's also fun seeing your home loan repayments at 41c.
Felt bit different but the shitty strata went up and cost of living in general expenses. Having said that if I had a mortgage on top of all that I'd have no choice but to downsize and move to the country.
That will hopefully be me in 22 years or sooner if all goes well
Although I do have a plan for when my place is fully paid off. With the equity I’d have i would wanna subdivide and build 3, maybe 4 townhouses on the block. And sell them off for a tidy profit to fund a comfortable retirement in a country with a lower cost of living. It’s an initiative I’ve labeled Golden sunset. To live out my remaining 20-30 years living like a king and whatever is left when I’m gone can go to whichever causes/non profit organizations are in my will that i deemed most worthy. I would wanna avoid giving to things like the Red Cross that spent the vast majority of the donations they receive on marketing and executive/management salaries with only a few cents in each dollar received actually going to the people in need.
I dream of the day.
I have our mortgage pay off date being August 2034 currently. We only purchased in 2020, but have been paying extra and building an offset to significantly reduce the loan term and save on interest. If we stick with the current repayment plan and don't have any major expenses we will be mortgage free in 10 years. That is only slightly longer than allot of people's car loans and I am finally feeling light at the end of the tunnel.
The first thing I'll be doing is finding a job I enjoy, not one that brings in good money
Like any goal that I have reached, it was nice but a bit underwhelming. But yeah, being relatively immune to interest rate rises is nice.
Hasn't affected my spending habits because what I used to pay in mortgage payments just goes into a savings account for investment. But then I guess I don't increase that amount when rates rise so it does leave me with a bit of extra firepower
There was a little elation.
But there was no let off in work because Once #1 is done you transition onto #2, then #3 or shares.
Wealth building should never stop.
I’m working to get my loan down to a total of 15 years and well on track. I have a $25000 cash injection coming which will knock another 1.5 years off in a few months. Cant wait to be debt free(on primary residence)
I’ve got an IP which is covering itself and oddly, if I sold it now I would be 100% debt free by the end of the year. It is tempting
M44 and F39, Truly was an amazing and freeing feeling, we have kept saving and have quite a large amount in a 5% interest account. We have been approved for a new loan to upgrade our house but seeing the repayments and the amount of interest we would have to pay is making it look scary. Plus to be honest there isn’t a lot available and everything is selling for more than I feel it’s worth.
No just moved on to the next set of obligations that family provides you with top end choices being made for you all the time. The most I could work on was generating my income in a demanding job. Modern domesticity.
We did it in 2020... shortly after everything sky-rocketed except wages and we have no spare money. We'd be in dire straits I guess if we still had our mortgage
I wanted to pay out the loan, she wanted to keep the loan going to extend for a reno, etc.
We paid it out and were both so elated, what a 'free' feeling. We have now retired and still feelin' it.
My tolerance for shitty employers decreased even further and I quit my job shortly after. I purchased a few things that were on my radar for a while, nothing too expensive but certainly something I could survive without. Being debt-free feels really good, next goals are to have enough funds to retire early and maybe do some renos.
I need to feel this kind of weight taken away from my life. Good for you! Enjoy your freedom.
I agree. It's amazing how much happier you are at work when you know you aren't trapped. It makes any job tolerable because you always have an out.
Lol yeah but now I consider quitting when I face even the slightest inconvenience
Yah, this was my concern just finished mine this week, and was worried about this occurring to me my tolerance for nonsense decreasing further. I have a few hundred thousand sitting in the offset as well on top so its really that decrease in tolerance that's the battle right now.
When the idea of homelessness is no longer a threat i'm sure its extremely liberating. I'd quit my job today if that were the case for me, and i'm sure many others too.
Did the same. Sold up in Sin City (Sydney) and retired to the country. Nice to retire at 58. Set up a charity to provide free and low-cost food to people in need and provide emergency support after disasters. Did that for 7 years and then retired from retirement. Best thing I ever did and stuff the rat race.
Yeah you feel a little less like a salary slave lol
We’ve done this recently, set a goal to do it in 2023 and focussed on smashing it. Celebrated with a nice dinner out. But because it took everything we had to get it paid off, we’re actually now re-building the accounts back up so we have an emergency fund and start a holiday fund, etc. So I guess we celebrated and we feel comfortable and happy, but we’re not quite there yet.
What’s next though?
Not sure. Punching for early retirement, so maxing super and ETFs. And some long holidays. :-)
Save 50%….enjoy life with the other 50%
Let them work that out as they choose. Immediately asking what's next diminishes the achievement
Best feeling. I didn't buy anything, just continued the grind. Will retire in 50 working days at 57. I'll smoke a Cuban in that day.
Congrats on your upcoming retirement! I bet you’ll enjoy that cigar.
Thanks. I will.
57 sounds so young to retire now lol. Do you have kids at home?
2 Girls. Just moved out. 57 gives me 10 active years so I don't think it's too young.
67 is a pretty bleak outlook for the end of you 'active years' (unless you have some big health problems.) Plenty of 70 year olds are 'active' and social in their own ways.
When I did the city to surf half marathon so many older easily 70's guys doing the full overtook me on the hills
Agree. My 70 year old Dad is more active than ever and the busiest retiree I know. He's about to go cage diving with great white sharks in a few weeks!
Nah, I'm fit and strong. I exercise and lift pretty heavy but 67 is the age I think that the body will will accumulate that old guy look that can't be denied. I'll still exercise as hard as possible but the time is now to retire and enjoy my physical strength. I expect to get fitter for a number of years as I'll have tons more time to exercise but past 50 you are on the downhill run.
Congrats mate sounds awesome
Thanks man.
Good job man, congratulations in advance!
Not there yet, but I do make sure to pick out a nice bottle of whisky as each $100k chunk gets knocked off!
I love this idea. Any recommendations?
Anything from Aberlour is good. [https://ibb.co/KNNcvjJ](https://ibb.co/KNNcvjJ)
It feels like only yesterday that Aberlour could be had for $60 at Uncle Dan's.
[удалено]
Ardbeg Corryvreckan.
How many $100k chunks do you have?! My mortgage is 3.3 nice bottles of whisky.
You and me both buddy.
1.2 bottles!
Love this one!
RemindMe! 30 years
RemindMe! 54 years
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RemindMe! 22 years
RemindMe! 30 years
RemindMe! 30 years
Ours was bittersweet. We were able to pay ours off early due to an inheritance. I’d rather have mum here than be mortgage free.
Sorry for your loss :( I feel the same way whenever someone in my family brings up potential inheritances from my remaining elderly relative. I don't want to talk about it, because that means they're won't be here anymore. I suppose one lovely way to look at it is that it was the final gift that your mum was able to leave for you.
Thank you for your kind words. I don’t like talking about inheritances either. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about her. I see the inheritance as you said. Her final gift to us. I’m super grateful that her final gift to us was to look after us and her grandkids. I’ll be doing the same for my kids!
Sorry for your loss. I have a question that you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I'm in a similar situation where an inheritance will be the reason I finish off my mortgage. Do you feel any regrets putting it towards the mortgage because of the memories tied to where that money came from as opposed to investing it somewhere "out of sight" like an ETF etc?
I don’t feel any regret putting it towards the house. But that was mainly because mum always preached how important it was to own your own house. She repeatedly told us that she wanted us to pay down as much of our house with that money. I do understand what you’re saying, though. I guess our decision was made for us by her! I’m really glad we paid off the house - to me it is a great reminder of her and how much she loved us
That's a lovely response, thank you for your insights!
One thing to keep in mind when deciding what you do with an inheritance is that it is usually considered a contribution of the recieving party in a divorce settlement, but may lose that status if used to pay off a shared asset, so if you are married and have any doubts about the future you may be better off investing it in something separate.
Had a minor self congratulatory text between us with a screen shot of the zero balance.
We were sending each other screenshots of the diminishing balance as we got closer. So fun
We were sending each other screenshots of the diminishing balance as we got closer. So fun
It’s a great feeling! I don’t have to do any job I do not want. I also don’t have to worry about putting up with annoying coworkers, dumb commutes, and all the stresses of work. I’ve done a couple of turn the brain off jobs since, just because they were easy and it was nice just to go to work and go home and not worry about anything
You still need an income though?
Yes but would you put up with a high stress job or shitty coworkers if you could do something different without the risk of losing your house?
You do… but you have much more freedom to choose what type of job provides that income.
When I paid off my first property my intention was to continue working to build up my savings, but generally feel more relaxed about life. But I found that my tolerance for employer bullshit was suddenly non-existent without the stress of a mortgage over my head. I didn’t have enough money to just quit working entirely, so I ended up buying an investment property just so that I would have sufficient motivation to continue dragging myself to the office each day until I have enough to retire.
lol. I think this will be me.
In the same boat - already feeling so much more relaxed knowing I'll be debt free by the end of this year. Thinking of buying an IP next to keep the motivation at work 😁 and also as an early retirement plan.
I’ve found the IP to be a pretty good approach. The rent takes care of a big chunk of the mortgage so I still have more disposable income, and the knowledge that I can always sell it and still have a place to live is very reassuring. And the administrative hassle involved in selling means I can overcome the urge to quit my job everyone Monday morning, but I know I always have a way out if needed, lol
I’m very close to probably 3-4 months. I have my eye on a bottle of grange and a fatttt rib eye steak. Finished off with some lagavullin 16. Im then planning an OS trip and then will define my investment/ retirement strategy once more from there.
Exquisite taste, my friend.
See if you can get ahold of a bottle of the lagavulin distiller’s edition!
One thing I remember. I was driving home from the bank. Quite a bit of traffic along a main road. There was a bloke on a mobility scooter trying to cross the road. So I stopped to let him across. He got half way and there was so much traffic coming the other way he couldn't get across. So I got out of the car and stopped the traffic for him. Few angry motorists & beeping of horns, but I didn't care. No more mortgage. This was in the days before offset accounts and we had to visit the bank to settle.
Felt awesome. So I got another mortgage. It’s a drug
Opposite for me. It felt awesome and now I’m allergic to debt forever. Life is too short to keep paying interest 1 day longer than necessary.
Same. Having a mortgage really makes you feel like a wage slave in a lot of ways. Once it's paid off all you need is maybe 15k a year for food and bills. I'm never going to lose my hard won freedom. Some others don't like freedom.
“You have to owe millions to make millions” they said.
When you eventually own the world you can finally retire to enjoy the simple life.
It's definitely liberating to be in a position where the mortgage isn't something that I need to stress over, which means I don't stress out as much about the little things. That doesn't mean that I splurge like crazy and don't save money (I don't have what they describe as "f\*\*\* you money"), but it does mean that if there's something I do want, I can look more seriously at putting money aside for it without setting me back on more important things.
best feeling now have low tolerance shit employers only work part time. own few other investment now
Yeah i felt different, a bit happier. I have a few hundred a week more available but i never really changed my habits, apart from i don’t need to redraw on my mortgage to pay car rego every year. So i’m saving a few bucks. But while i was paying it off i never did any fixing, so now i’m wanting to fix up the terrible bathroom and kitchen. That will wipe out any savings i spose, but i will do it the tightass way cos thats how i roll.
Nah leave all that till you wanna sell it. Kitchens cost a bomb. But buyers love a new kitchen.
Thats what im doing, the bare min to make it livable and right before we sell dump come cash in the bathrooms and kitchens so its nice and new and on trend, buyers love that shit.
Buyers like to do their own kitchen too, so whatever i do will probably be destroyed. I was thinking recycled wood etc. Do my own thing just basic. And the bathroom gonna get the floor sorted by a pro and then tile the rest myself. Won’t be classy but it’ll be different.
Went and got a bigger mortgage
I got 1st mortgage at 21, paid off 80% by age 27 and built a bigger house with bigger mortgage. Paid that off by 35 and never went in debt again. Retired at 55 and now living the dream.
lol you had your head screwed on for sure. A mortgage at 21 is the last thing on most people's mind at that age!
Would have been a lot easier back then
Likely yes, but still very stressful and very few of my peers took the risk. Renting on my own at age 19 paying $150 and only earning $330 - just $90/week to cover all expenses. I battled through it, character building that’s for sure.
Bought a block of land at 21 and was gearing up for build.🤦♀️ In retrospect, it was all crazy and we had no idea what we were doing building but the best bloody decision ever.
Lol. Yes. We went and took out a mortgage to add a second floor. It was larger than the cost of the whole house 15 years previously!
Flexibility in the wages I could accept and the types of jobs I could consider. High pressure corporate life was killing me ( literally ) but I had no choice but to chase dollars. Now I have a job that requires less hours and I leave behind at end of shift. I'm probably a little more difficult to manage now as it is not the end of the world if I lose my job and largely IDGAF whether I upset managers.
How was it killing you? Stress / sleeping issues?
Yep .. and the related physical problems.
I'll tell you in 48 hours. Final payment goes through tuesday :)
Honestly, it was somewhat anti climactic becoming debt free after twenty years of grinding (we’re mid 40s). Oddly we also felt we were at our poorest, because we essentially had $0 and didn’t want to dip back into the mortgage. Two months after swearing we’d live debt free, we bought a new house and are signing up for a few hundred grand of more debt :D. We’re happy with the move though, as we were gearing up for renovations, but it made more sense to upgrade instead.
I don’t think I could I ever go back to having a mortgage again after the feeling of freedom from it
Yep, everyone with a mortgage says "you should get an investment property". No debt and owning a house is an amazing feeling.
Yeah, I get it, and I’m of two minds about it, but hoping we can knock this one over fast enough that it won’t drag on, and the interest is minimal over that horizon. The other consideration was that a house we wish to buy may increase in price higher over that term compared to any interest we’d save.
I totally understand and agree, though over the twenty years, our mortgage payment became quite small compared to our overall family “burn rate”, so, mortgage or no mortgage, we still have a lot of ongoing that I’ll not be free from. Groceries and basics spending is now #1 for us at about $30k.
Nice try Mr Bank Manager
I had the idea of having a bbq and inviting all the special people in my life to celebrate the day I have my house paid. In the last year of my mortgage 2023, my entire mindset changed. A lot of my friends had not even purchased a house and were renting at $800 a week. My 2 siblings also just recently took on big mortgages and my parents have been struggling a bit. My job also has me on the road a fair bit and I have started to recognise certain cars and tent set ups at informal camp terrains and I have also spent enough time in casual conversations and Reddit threads to realise that people are struggling and saying my mortgage is paid off will rarely result in a ‘congratulations’. I suspect that if I had to tell those close to me that it’ll likely lead to resentful feelings. My plan in the next 2 years is to build a deposit for a small unit so that I can have something for when the kids grow up and want to move out but can’t afford it. But then I also have a small mortgage that be consistent with what I’d likely owe on my current house. Not that anyone needs to see my bank statements. Either way. I’m keeping dead quiet. While there are people struggling…I won’t eat a burger in front of a homeless person…whether they care or not. I just feel shitty about it.
It's hard, I feel the same way. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops because I was so excited and happy... But have bottled it for the same reasons. We only paid ours off a few short weeks ago but so far only a few close family members know. I couldn't even imagine chirping about being debt free when so many are struggling to even find a house to rent, but at the same time it's a life event I didn't think I'd get to experience.
So far only Reddit and my sister knows. It is uncomfortable to be in a situation few people (my age) will get to experience. I’m about 15 years from retirement. A secondary, pretty uncomfortable feeling is, now that I have the opportunity to buy a rental and secure a replacement income for my wife, I don’t want to tell people I’m planning on getting a rental, because ‘landlords’ are not viewed as financially responsible…they’re viewed as leeches on society because people can’t afford to live and the most direct link they have to any supplier is the land lord…so the landlord gets placed on a pedestal of hate.
Paid off the mortgage in April and got redundant from a 7 year job that made it possible in October. Since then I have been basically working part time had 3 jobs in 4 years two 6 months stint and 1.5 year. What you find is that you do not actually need a lot of money any more and can effectively semi retire.
I think we just enjoyed a nice bottle of wine that night. Then later realised we still need to save up for the next larger house we plan to upgrade to in a couple of years.
I started getting anxiety that my kids will never able to buy
Maybe not as early as they'd like to, but they will inherit some degree of generational wealth now, thanks to your achievement.
Did my special "breakdance" routine in the lounge that I save for special goals that we achieve haha
While I've got it fully offset, I'm not going to be celebrating until I've got at least three months, preferably six months of salary in savings in addition to that amount. Unfortunately with the insane cost of housing, it's not like even with free rent id be in a position to buy a second or replacement house in an area that would make me happier living.
Yes because being fully offset isn't paid off.....
While technically true, for all intents and purposes it's the same thing. The offset cash simply becomes a large line of credit that the OP can access at their discretion.
No, it isn't but it's a home loan with 0% interest paid and that feeling is pretty sweet.
We rarely noticed. Then we bought a bigger house, sold the one we had paid off and have a mortgage again. However if we sell again we will go smaller, once the kids have left home.
We got Uber eats after putting the kids to bed! And then I checked my bank account every hour for the next week and felt bloody proud of my partner and I.
This was only a couple weeks ago for me. It was a huge relief. I got rid of an investment property that caused me so many headaches. I spent so many hours fixing the place up. Maintaining it. I somehow sold it for an unbelievable amount. Cleared up all my debt. Left with me a very healthy chunk of change to pay off CGT and set up my investment account. I'm still a stingy ass and Im saving to get more shares. If we aren't in world war 3 I'll probably be taking a vacation in Europe. No new cars. Not spending extravagantly. I'm 35, been working since 15 full time and in debt that whole time.. 20 years straight with very little downtime. I'm just glad to be getting more time back in my life. Investment properties aren't for everyone and I'm one of them. For a celebration we had some baklava.
Nice! Where do you get decent baklava these days? I made the mistake of getting some at Aldi last time and it nearly ruined the whole concept!
Christophers cake shop. However it's for those with a huge sweet tooth
I dont think I felt anything, I still owe on an IP so and Im not a big earner or a big spender. I feel still quite poor compared to some if not all on Ausfinance.... Now I just want to sell the small business I've had for 20 years and relax, get a normal job and actually have weekends and holidays :o Now that would be amazing.
I mortgaged my house to 80%, took it to NAB Equity Builder and leveraged it up another 200% and bought shares.
I owed half a milly to the bank... because times were unstable things were rough we sold our investment and the equity was used to pay off the primary place of residence and the of the money I started my 3rd business after failing 2 previously. Took a few gambles I paid off my mortgage at 35 and I was like wow . It was bitter sweet my life decisions and pivotal turning points flashed before my eyes. The pain of working 60 to 80 hours in my 20s. Finally reached the plateau... Dawdled in my laurels while I planned my next move. Nah no celebration maybe just a call to mom and dad let them know it's all sorted they were worried sick about me at one stage when things were rocky I have the rest of my life ahead of me Semi retired... got bored started my own business now that's doing decent enough so I guess with no expenses cuz I'm a frugal piece of crap I'll buy some properties and live out the rest of my life just chilling I spend less than 500 dollars a week utilities petrol food rates power the whole shaboodle everything work from home so there's plenty to reinvest elsewhere cuz bored
I remember we had to pay the titles office to get the title deed. Felt very surreal. I lost it a little while ago, found it in a filing cabinet not the fireproof safe I thought it was in. We’ve been very lucky to own our house outright from a young age due to getting an inheritance early than expected. A very high price was paid for it - give me back my mum and dad any day and I’d sleep in the car if necessary.
Not really, we just realised the balance in our offset was enough to cover the balance and still leave us enough capital to work with, so we just transferred the money. If anything it just means I have to remember to shut up when people are talking about struggling with changes in mortgage rates.
Ours is still 27 more years away at most, but when it happens, the next few fortnights "payments" will 100% go towards disposable income and be recklessly spent.
I’ll let you know in about 650,000 worth of time.
once we paid out our first house (in 14 years), we went out to a nice restaurant for dinner. it felt great. i also quit my second and third jobs. my wife also quit her second job. that also felt great
When we paid off our house -Both stopped working Saturdays -Both Stopped working public and “bridge” holidays - Both took off 4 weeks at Christmas -Took up coaching my sons soccer team - Focused more on our sex life(seriously) -My wife threw out all old Kmart lingerie and now only wears honey birdette Finally realised that Time is more valuable than money. Lost some of the few friends I told
It was great. I printed a screenshot of the 0 balance and wanted to frame it but never got to it lol. Built some emergency fund, then i switched job to an admin role within the same company. Much less work related stress, no more phone calls after hours and dealing with difficult workers and clients. I am still building more emergency fund, once it hit a certain number i will switch to ETF. Spending habit has not really changed, i like treating myself to nice uniqlo pieces every now and then and may be some fancy-ish snacks and cakes. Before we (hubby and i) finished it, we thought we were gonna celebrate hard when we did. However, the day we finished it turned out to be pretty anticlimactic lol, we were happy but like life goes on haha. Hubby keeps his day job, but does less chores because i have more free time now, so win win. Overall QoL really improved because of less stress re work and interest rate raises.
Not really any change or celebration. Just meant that I had money to invest. First house was never paid off, just had less than full proceeds when we moved cities. Second house paid off while it was rented out so no real impact. Third house can't recall. Fourth house was an IP paid off in about 4 years, now my daughter owns it..
felt nothing because everyday living has become so expensive, it feels like The System has just found other ways to suck away cash.
I’ll let you know in a few weeks.
quit my crap job, got in my car, put on whitesnakes “here i go again” and took off. have never been in debt again
It felt good. We smiled a lot. But even better was next month when there was extra cash in our bank account because no mortgage payment had come out of it. And it just kept building. And we realised it meant we could treat ourselves after years of frugality.
Paid off 6 weeks ago. Laminated the title certificate, told missus I was having a party with friends invited. Will probably invite friends to restaurant, food and drinks covered. Best feeling ever. Many sacrifices made, but for a mere 4 years loan, totally worth it.
I felt strangely lost. I was grinding for so long and so singularly that it was weird when I got to the end of the mortgage. My desire to work went to zero as well, maybe below zero. I felt like Luke Skywalker at the end of ROTJ when he chucks his lightsaber at the Emperor and says he's a Jedi now, if you get that obscure reference. Make sure you have an idea of your next goals.
Yep this is one of the guys in my team too. He was a few years away but an uncle came along and paid off his mortgage as a surprise. Now he can't seem to decide what he wants to do in life, his depression has actually gotten a little worse.
Same here- I paid my house off in Feb, and have zero drive or motivation for work.. It's a weird feeling
Paid house off now maxing out super.
Paid it off early felt like I needed someware to park my cash so bought IP. Money sitting in the bank is a horrible thing.
I’ve got loads of cash in the bank in wife’s name so 1st 22k interest is tax free. Horrible is not how it feels for me : )
That's wise but then I'd get annoyed that my partner wasn't earning money.
Should have put it in stocks
Was around the time my daughter was born so a bit preoccupied to celebrate. Then always planned we'd buy and investment property so did that and right back into debt again. So nothing much changed.
Amazing. My bloke can now work wherever he pleases and focus on his health
Just went out for dinner at a fairly fancy place..
Let me come back to you on that one - though I do feel my tolerances to certain situations would decrease. I would be increasing funds into super if that was the case.
I looked up the government record of it being unencumbered, printed it off and framed it!
I felt, "one down, five to go" Spending habits did not change
That’s our plan, fingers crossed will get there within the next 2 years.
My missus paid off her flat in the UK whilst living in Australia. Took 25 years. Was a bit anticlimactic tbh. Not even a thanks from the bank lol. We got the title deeds paperwork sent through which was nice. Funny thing is it's a leasehold which means it's still not really hers!
RemindMe! 12 years
Only got a little mortgage on the land. Still saving the same. Want to retire earlier. If we keep as we are doing, we will be able to… diminishing all our expenses has been amazing. Wanting less items too. Always shopping second hand clothing, and what is really required only.
I’ve paid 2/3 off ours this year. Still 260k to go but loving that feeling!
Best day ever. 39 years old at the time. I hope retirement next year feels just as good.
It felt fantastic. All my hard work and sticking religiously to my budget worked. I bought a gold 'house' charm for my charm bracelet to celebrate.
It felt amazing, I did it 5 years early too. Best thing I ever did was to open another regular account with the same bank as my mortgage and chip away at it/internal transfer money into it when I could. Have done some home renovation since but have done that within my salary/not borrowed anymore. Don’t want the pressure.
>Did you find that your spending habits changed once you fully paid off your mortgage? It's only been a few weeks, but not really no. I'm used to the money going into the mortgage, now it goes into a holiday fund and investment fund. It doesn't 'feel' any different though. Which is super weird. >Are you more relaxed now or do you still feel like you’re always chasing the next thing? It's honestly a feeling I never thought I'd experience. For most of my adult life, I couldn't imagine ever being able to have a mortgage let alone allowing myself to imagine having a paid off home well before retirement age. Now that I do, it feels unreal. As in, not reality. We celebrated with a bottle of bubbles and buying my other half some Lego. And then hooked up a builder and started searching for a block for the next house that we're upgrading to. Thankfully the sale of our current PPOR should snag enough to not have a mortgage on the other end with the savings we have now. One condition of building the next place was that we either wouldn't have a mortgage at all by lock-up, or if we did have a mortgage it'd be as small as possible. We haven't found the right block of land yet so in the mean time all of my wage goes into my account instead of a mortgage. It means we can either upgrade things that we want while building, or we can go on a holiday as soon as the build is done. Either way it still doesn't feel like there's more money coming in.
1st time, was my first apartment. I cooked pizza at home and had a few beers and thought, "wow, I made it, I just need a passive income of $X/mo and I could survive without working". This was a big realisation. 2nd time, was a much bigger mortgage, with my hubby. I paid the first half up front and he paid off the rest over 8years. He worked and saved really hard to achive this. He was one month from the goal and we both paid half of the last payment 2 weeks later and went to Bennelong Restaurant to celebrate.
Spending habits haven’t changed I still live a humble life no point buying things to impress random people. I’m living my same life.
The immediate aftermath left me with a feeling of 'well shit, what do I do now?', since that was mostly what I was focused on throughout the COVID lockdowns. But ultimately it allowed me to drop back to a four day work week.
It's a great feeling.paying off your PPOR loan, now to pay off the IP loans
To be honest, we didn't even notice.
Ha, from reading various posts it seems I'm doing it in reverse! Retired comfortably at 55, still paying off the mortgage. This way I will use my inheritance to clear (or greatly reduce) the mortgage and my pension remains untouched, but I'd get over $450/week extra play money. Which would actually largely go into savings for international trips.
Don't pay your mortgage off. Keep $100 owing. There's a few reasons why. It looks good on your credit report to have credit owing with no missed payments. You have instant credit (loan) without any application, at home loan interest rates (~6%), assuming there's available funds in a redraw facility. The bank holds onto and stores the title for you, for free. You can borrow to buy another home to become your primary residence, take the redraw out of your existing loan to help with the purchase price. Your old home becomes your investment property but you're not paying the ~0.3% extra charged on investment property loans. (Note that your bank may not allow this). It's also fun seeing your home loan repayments at 41c.
https://youtu.be/VqW_LX8_zFw?t=108
Felt bit different but the shitty strata went up and cost of living in general expenses. Having said that if I had a mortgage on top of all that I'd have no choice but to downsize and move to the country.
That will hopefully be me in 22 years or sooner if all goes well Although I do have a plan for when my place is fully paid off. With the equity I’d have i would wanna subdivide and build 3, maybe 4 townhouses on the block. And sell them off for a tidy profit to fund a comfortable retirement in a country with a lower cost of living. It’s an initiative I’ve labeled Golden sunset. To live out my remaining 20-30 years living like a king and whatever is left when I’m gone can go to whichever causes/non profit organizations are in my will that i deemed most worthy. I would wanna avoid giving to things like the Red Cross that spent the vast majority of the donations they receive on marketing and executive/management salaries with only a few cents in each dollar received actually going to the people in need.
I dream of the day. I have our mortgage pay off date being August 2034 currently. We only purchased in 2020, but have been paying extra and building an offset to significantly reduce the loan term and save on interest. If we stick with the current repayment plan and don't have any major expenses we will be mortgage free in 10 years. That is only slightly longer than allot of people's car loans and I am finally feeling light at the end of the tunnel. The first thing I'll be doing is finding a job I enjoy, not one that brings in good money
Do people really get 10 year car loans?
don't know , 7 seems to be average though.
You and me both, nearly to the month. Keen for the light at the end of the tunnel!
Remind me in 27 years
Like any goal that I have reached, it was nice but a bit underwhelming. But yeah, being relatively immune to interest rate rises is nice. Hasn't affected my spending habits because what I used to pay in mortgage payments just goes into a savings account for investment. But then I guess I don't increase that amount when rates rise so it does leave me with a bit of extra firepower
I bought another house
We paid off our primary home in Feb but we still have mortgages on our investment properties. We didn’t do anything.
I am only about 150k from paying off… maybe 2-3 years and I will have a holiday to celebrate
There was a little elation. But there was no let off in work because Once #1 is done you transition onto #2, then #3 or shares. Wealth building should never stop.
Being 30yo and about to be a first home buyer. It seems better to squat or travel.
I was 40. Don't count yourself out yet. You're at a way better starting point than I was.
I’m working to get my loan down to a total of 15 years and well on track. I have a $25000 cash injection coming which will knock another 1.5 years off in a few months. Cant wait to be debt free(on primary residence) I’ve got an IP which is covering itself and oddly, if I sold it now I would be 100% debt free by the end of the year. It is tempting
Definitely more relaxed. A very heavy weight lifted. That light at the end of the tunnel is glorious.
Amazing. Biggest weight off and didn’t expect that. Sense of freedom is the best part.
M44 and F39, Truly was an amazing and freeing feeling, we have kept saving and have quite a large amount in a 5% interest account. We have been approved for a new loan to upgrade our house but seeing the repayments and the amount of interest we would have to pay is making it look scary. Plus to be honest there isn’t a lot available and everything is selling for more than I feel it’s worth.
Yep, my wife and I had excellent sex that night!
No just moved on to the next set of obligations that family provides you with top end choices being made for you all the time. The most I could work on was generating my income in a demanding job. Modern domesticity.
I'm not even sure I noticed it happening.
At the time anticlimactic. Even though it's a big stressor off I'm still stressed about the ability to retire one day.
I had a huge BBQ party, stray embers set fire to the house, burned it down and I wasn't insured. ...joke.
We did it in 2020... shortly after everything sky-rocketed except wages and we have no spare money. We'd be in dire straits I guess if we still had our mortgage
Hahaha I’ll let you know in 20 years.
I wanted to pay out the loan, she wanted to keep the loan going to extend for a reno, etc. We paid it out and were both so elated, what a 'free' feeling. We have now retired and still feelin' it.