[brenda67]

Were you young when bought your home so your mortgage free in your late 40's to 50's?

Did you refinance to a 15yr loan?

Did you receive a inheritance and pay it off?

Did you receive a settlement?

Did you double your payments to pay it off quicker?

I'm just curious.. My dh and I didn't take out a mortgage loan until we both were 41 yrs old so we have many years to go until we are debt free.

 

[Winkie]

All of the above?
I was under thirty for the first house & a rental. House nearly paid off, then refinanced to clean up all bills. Then divorced, each got a house, still a little mortgage. Remarried a man who had a house & mortgage, sold my house, put proceeds on his house, then made double payments. Sold that one & bought current, more expensive house with some land. Paid off that mortgage with inheritance. We would have had it paid off before retirement, inhertitance just expedited.

 

[Birdie]

I bought my first house at age 24 and when I moved to another town, I rolled over every penny from the first house to the second. Two more moves and the fourth house I downsized a bit and paid cash. But in the interim, I paid extra on my principal monthly and refinanced twice when it made sense. I had two 30 year mortgages and the final two mortgages were 15 year.

I never took cash out of my refinances either. Mostly I paid monthly for years and years and added to the principal. Initially I only added $5 or $10, but eventually it was hundreds every month. It adds up over time.

 

[TDN]

We paid ours off when I was 36 and hubby 45. I was given 5k as a gift and that paid it off. We were luck all around though with hubby buying the land right before we meet so probably '86? He got 2 acres for 20k. I think he took out a small loan to frame and enclose it . We are talking 900 sq ft plus 1 car garage. He lived in a borrowed tiny hunting travel trailer until he was able to move into the garage. It was still a finish as you go thing when we got married in 93. In 99 we took out another loan of 45k I believe to add on almost another 1500 sq ft, got as far as we could then paid as we went. He did pretty much everything himself and had a neighbor/friend with all kinds of equipment he could borrow to do all excavating himself both times around. Had help with foundation work that he traded a motorcycle for. My dad helped sheet rock. Here and there a friend would help out but most of it was done by hubby. We were blessed the way it all worked out.

 

[The Muse]

I paid off two mortgages before age 40.

I bought my first home when I was 26, and paid down the principal as quickly as possible. At 35, I divorced and got half of the house's equity (it would've been paid off within 6 months if we'd stayed together), which I used as a downpayment on an apartment when I moved overseas. I paid off that mortgage a year later and ended up selling that property at a 15% loss when I got engaged to my current husband, and applied the proceeds against his mortgage, which we paid off last spring at age 40.

We're currently house hunting and plan to do as I've done in the past, pay down the principal as quickly as possible. If we stick to our target price range, we'll be mortgage free again in 5-10 years, depending on which end of the range we buy in.

I didn't refinance or get a windfall, I've just lived below my means all of my life and made debt free living a priority. Doing that early on is yielding big rewards now.

 

[Ayanka]

Well I am not debt free, but I should be by the time I am your age, if I just pay the monthly amount on the mortgage (which is about a low as you can go in rent inhere). In my case it is the combo of buying young,having a huge downpayment (1/3) and buying a fixer upper.

 

[nodmicks]

We bought at 27 Paid it off shortly before selling at 42. House multiplied in value a lot . Rolled that along with some cash into our current home so we were still mortgage free. Saved every dime of what should have been a house payment for the almost 4 years in this one. Put that money into a steal of a small rental property. Added a little more from other savings so we could make an all cash offer to a distressed seller.

Our income has taken a hit this year so we are no longer saving what would have been a mortgage payment. We are letting the $ from the rental build until we are ready for another. That will be the down payment. We are very unlikely to ever snag a bargain like we did last time.

We always paid extra when we had a mortgage. If we hadn't started young there is no way we would be sitting in our second paid for home. It was luck we got in when the market was down and out when it was good.

 

[Bernice]

I bought my first house at 25 with husband. Wanted to move when the marriage ended, bought a townhouse for $1000 less than we got for the house, in a better school district. I did not have much equity to put down. I tried to make extra payments when possible. When I sold it 2 1/2 yrs ago to go in on a handicapped house with my folks (my mom is ill, I wanted to be her hospice nurse, my kids were almost out of the nest and the townhouse was too big for just me), the profit on the town house paid for my share of this house so I am mortgage free. Mortgage free and in a much nicer ranch, thank God because I got sick after a year and could no longer do stairs without falling. The townhouse was 3 stories. I don't know what I would've done because I could not be alone 24/7. God put me in the right place at the right time.

 

[frugalwarrior2]

We were 24/25 yrs old when we bought on land contract at 11% and quickly refinanced. The land contract was for $49,500 and we offered $48,000 and they took it. We had recieved $10,000 from a wronful death lawsuit of his brother and I saved my $7000. salary the 1st year of our marriage. So we put $17,000 down and had a $30,000 mortgage which we had @ 8%. This was good back then (1985). We kept the mortgage at that rate and built a garage and driveway on. Put in a new kitchen and a new furnace module. We had $50,000 equity which we put on the 2nd double sized house. The mortgage was now $100,000. We refinanced 1x to buy a car and pay off the CC's to a 7% rate back in 2003? We paid it all off by putting in double and triple payment plus tax returns. We have been debt free for 3 yrs. Mortgage free for 4 yrs. All the mortgages were either at 20yr,or 15yr. never had a 30 yr.

 

[CookieLee]

We got lucky. Appreciation helped a lot.

Bought a house in CA for $137,000 and when we bought, that was expensive! When everyone else was taking home equity loans, we were paying extra on our mortgage (and feeling exceptionally foolish while everyone else was off buying new cars and going on fancy vacations.) We sold that house nine years later for $325,000. (The house would sell today for over $600,000 and trust me - it is a crappy house!)

Moved to Idaho and bought a house for nearly all cash. We held some of that equity in investments so we chose to have a small mortgage. The house was a fixer so we also spent some of our equity on remodeling. Sold that house 11 years later for more than we paid for it - and that was during a depressed housing market in terrible economy while three houses around us were being sold as foreclosures.

Moved to MS. Bought our house and opted to have a small mortgage (the bank adds an extra layer of checks during the buying process so even though it is a HUGE hassle we think it is worth it). A year later the bank acted crazy by drastically raising our escrow account payment. I spent weeks trying to get someone to explain what they were doing and why AND I COULDN'T! After talking to FIVE different bank officials we decided we couldn't continue the relationship. We liquidated some investments (remember those?) and paid off the mortgage.

 

[zakity]

DH and I were just shy of 30 when we bought this house. DH's mother died and he inherited a small amount of money. We used that money as the earnest money that you give to the realtor. We also got a no-money-down-VA loan. We paid off the house in 15 years. Mainly, on just his income because we homeschooled the guys. I did for several years work at night when the guys were little because we couldn't afford the twins when we had them. Before I quit working, I used the money from my income to pay off whatever bills we might have had.

We paid off the house by living frugally. We drive old cars. DH does all the car and house maintenance. When we needed a new roof, we did the work ourselves (got a beneficial use out of having three sons). I cooked from scratch (now the guys do all the cooking - still from scratch). I bought in bulk (still do where I can).

 

[CookieLee]

I have to say, paying cash for a house was a weird concept for me. Everyone had a mortgage, right? The first time I had heard about being mortgage free it was when reading history books where they talked about changes in credit / lending. There used to be a time when no one had a mortgage. If you couldn't afford a house or land, you didn't buy it. You HAD to save up the money because there was no such thing as a mortgage for a private residence. Even then an interest rate of even 3% was considered high!

The next time I heard about the concept of mortgage free living it was in "The Tightwad Gazette". Amy and her husband bought a farmhouse and paid off their mortgage - early! Wow. What a crazy thing to do! Everyone knows, especially back in the 1980's, you need a mortgage because you want that deduction.

Then I was talking to my sister-in-law after they bought a new house in California. I can't remember how it came up but she mentioned they paid cash for the house. Huh? Yeah, they move so much, they had been mortgage-free for years. It was easier that way for them. My mind was BLOWN! I actually knew someone who was mortgage-free. I thought paying off a mortgage was only for old people entering retirement.

 

[larabelle]

Rented as I moved around here to there...then bought a house 3 years ago... paid cash...

 

[mndtrp]

Bought in my late 20's. Paid extra, put a small inheritance and settlement towards the mortgage, refinanced to a 15 year somewhere in there. Paid it off in 7 years. In hindsight, if I would have known I would have received the settlement and inheritance, I wouldn't have refinanced.

 

[Mrs K]

I think we are oddballs. My husband worked and saved up and at 26 built his house with his father. He was given the land and paid cash for the house. We met at his open-house party!
We are lucky that we have been able to travel and now I quit my job to study full time last August. Obviously we couldn't afford to do that if we had a mortgage.
We are the only ones we know, in our age groups who don't have a mortgage.
Also, Dh's friends made fun of him when he was working and saving up to buy a house... guess who's laughing now?

 

[brenda67]

I can't tell you how proud I am of all you being mortgage free and hearing your stories on how you accomplished it...You know not many people can say that now a days!

HUGS..

 

[CookieLee]

I think more and more people are seeing the light. A few years ago I used to talk to many people who worried about paying off their mortgage "because we need the tax deduction". Well, the standard deduction is so high now, you have to have a pretty large mortgage to not take advantage of it. If we tried to itemize at this point, even with an average mortgage, we'd be losing money!

 

[biohazard]

You all are very inspiring and awesome!

 

[frugalwarrior2]

My Dparents never had a mortgage. They bought land on a land contract and it had a barn building. It was a partially converted house and they lived there 10 yrs. After that the sand co. wanted their land and paid them 3x their purchase price. Ddad bought a house for $11,000 cash and they lived there since 1963 until he passed 2 yrs. ago . Dmom is still there. So no mortgage is hereditary.lol

 

[Brat]

Bought first home at 22. Had a 5 year mortgage paid off in 2 years. Second home was a $500 fixer upper .. Worked on it for 25 years while living in it and paying cash for each project.. Down sized after the kids left home. Took a 10 year mortgage paid off in less than 5 years. I still own it and daughter lives there rent free. I bought this home and paid cash for it so at 65 I am mortgage free.