How old will you be when your mortgage gets paid off?

**ironmaiden** · 06-20-2007, 08:54 AM

A new friend who moved into the neighborhood one year ago. She was saying that she is planning on refinancing to a 40 year mortgage. I asked her how old would she be in 40 years - answer 82. How does she plan on paying for a mortage in her 70's and 80's? I think that there is going to be a lot of people with a mortgage past the 65 retirement age. They all say that when they retire they'll just sell the house. But some people get really attached to their homes, or may have kids still living there, or the market may be really bad, or there may be less equity than needed to buy another place.

I did meet a woman in her early 70's who was selling her house and she was saying that she had lived there for 40 years. As this was at the high of the market, I commented that she'll have a nice sum for her retirement thinking she must have bought it for about $15,000 many years ago. She looked away embarassed and said that the house was completely mortgaged.

Around here, people have pulled lots of equity out of their homes and by equity I mean the rise in housing costs as opposed to money they've actually paid down on their mortgage - to finance cars, new kitchens, vacations, paying off the credit cards just to charge them back up, and college for their kids.

I see the equity in our house as insurance. Insurance is something you have, hope you never use, and you are thankful to have in emergencies.

**lanford66** · 06-20-2007, 09:52 AM

I hate to say this, but I think the mortage companies love people like your friend. The longer the mortgage, the more interest they make. My opener was after we bought our 4th house and wanted to refinance to a lower interest rate. At the time we had a 30-yr. loan, and he showed me the figures if we went down to a 20-yr loan. It would save us almost $60,000 in interest ALONE!! I was absolutely floored! Needless to say, we opted for the 20-yr. loan. LOL. We purchased it 11 years ago for $78K, and now w/addition and improvements, it worth well over $300K. Right now, we have about 15 yrs left and am going to start snowballing that so we should have it paid off in about 8 years. We'll be 48-50 years old when its paid, but really looking forward to it. Both my hubby and I want to retire early.

**cheappearls** · 06-20-2007, 10:42 AM

Geez. I couldn't imagine for that long.

We don't have a mortgage now but we are planning on buying a house in the next 2 years. If we can swing it, we want a 20 yr mortgage, because it saves so much on interest. 40 years is a seriouly long time.

**Jayne** · 06-20-2007, 10:50 AM

We are working on a refi deal right now that will take all our ccdebt, equity loan and mortgage and combine them...we will be doing a bi-monthly payment and it will knock the whole thing out in 12 years...since we will also have a bigger cash flow by doing this , we will be adding more to the payment and reduce it even faster..we are 48 and 46 know so 60 years old or sooner...

**Cricket1** · 06-20-2007, 10:55 AM

I will be 45 when the mortgage is paid off.

**danni** · 06-20-2007, 10:55 AM

Mine will be paid off next year and I will be 35.

**Jaded** · 06-20-2007, 11:02 AM

I figure I'll be dead before my mortgage is paid off. I bought this house when I was 45, and it's a 30 year mortgage. Seriously, I've thought of selling and not owning a home anymore. I have a hard time with upkeep, living alone, and I don't see myself ever getting married again.

I'd love to sell this house and move away from Florida. If I do that, I could probably pay cash for a place, and not have a house payment. That would be nice. Then maybe I could concentrate on rebuilding my retirement account.

**Simple Living Mom** · 06-20-2007, 11:17 AM

Really really old .. or at least that's how it look son paper. But we are allowed to pay off early without penalty so our goal is to put any extra that comes towards the mortgage.

**Missy** · 06-20-2007, 11:29 AM

+/- 50 years old. not too long, 20 years, we've had it near 10 already.

**Amanda W** · 06-20-2007, 11:47 AM

Assuming we stay in this house, I'll be 36 and DH will be 39.

**ubumartin** · 06-20-2007, 11:57 AM

I am 41 and my dh is 44 and he paid it off a couple of months ago. It wasn't easy. There was so many things that I would have like to do like the kitchen, add an addition, pool, etc... but he stuck by his plan and paid it off early. I am very thankful for that. We will do all of those things I want but it will take time. Alot of my friends and family couldn't wait to save for those things and have taken out big equity loans and have thousands on credit cards.

**PB&J** · 06-20-2007, 12:28 PM

I will be 60 and DH will be 61. We bought our house in March 2006.

DH's parents are both in their late 50s. They have refinanced their house so many times, taken out so many home equity loans...their house will never be paid off and they bought it in the 80s. My parents house was paid off this month.

**frugalfriend** · 06-20-2007, 12:54 PM

Well, I'm 40, and if we can sell our house (it has been on the market for 3 1/2 months), then we will pay off our mortgage and buy another house outright. This has been an extremely frustrating time trying to sell though! We have come close, so we're praying it won't be much longer!