Is it so wrong to pay off my mortgage early?

OldBeanz

Similar position but better offset. I still get a cheap thrill from the £10 Santander give me for paying £1k into my mortgage each month only to withdraw it the same day. They feel obliged to write and tell me as well.
I phoned them up 3/4 years ago and asked if they wanted to buy me out of the mortgage and they said no.
Happy days and almost 4 years left to be paid.
Having had a mortgage since 1978 there have been times when it was considered sensible to pay off your mortgage quicker. This is not one of those times. I laugh when I see the Barclays advert.
Enjoy your profit.

AnotherJoe

Red29 wrote: »

You really don't need to use such a patronising term as "pathetic" - it doesn't make your argument any stronger, it just makes you sound condescending.

You would probably have had the same patronising attitude if I had posted in July 2007, a month before the start of the credit crunch. I am trying to rationally consider economic fundamentals and the precarious state of the world economy in my deliberations, in relation to the fact that I run my own business and there is no other income coming in to pay the mortgage.

I apologise for the word "pathetic", perhaps "feeble" or "poor" would have been better? But otherwise stand by my comments. Pensions dont go bust in that sense (eg your funds are protected and and you still haven't answered who it is that pensions have a "bad rep" with. Uninformed people unaware of the huge tax benefits I suspect?

And FWIW you started to save into a pension at the start of the credit crunch in 2007, you'd have done very well since a large part of your investments would have been made at a low point in share prices and they would have increased disproportionately high since then.

So, how I would have responded is "great but lucky timing".

Atreyu107

AnotherJoe wrote: »

I apologise for the word "pathetic", perhaps "feeble" or "poor" would have been better? But otherwise stand by my comments. Pensions dont go bust in that sense (eg your funds are protected and and you still haven't answered who it is that pensions have a "bad rep" with. Uninformed people unaware of the huge tax benefits I suspect?

And FWIW you started to save into a pension at the start of the credit crunch in 2007, you'd have done very well since a large part of your investments would have been made at a low point in share prices and they would have increased disproportionately high since then.

So, how I would have responded is "great but lucky timing".

I would suggest that the OP is referring to DB/final-salary schemes which frequently run up huge deficits which they struggle to pay off (see: Tata Steel...)

However, what should be made clear to the OP is that these schemes don't tend to exist these days.

What are far more common are personal pensions which run under 'Defined Contribution' rules. Essentially, this just acts as a wrapper, similar to an ISA, in which either you as the individual can buy and sell stocks/bonds/funds etc, or you can appoint an investment manager to do it for you (Hargreaves Lansdown, SJP, Nutmeg etc). Therefore, the investment risk is decided by you, not by a scheme administrator.

The benefits of a pension over an ISA are:
- Tax free on entry
- Tax liability only at retirement age (when your income is likely to be lower than when working)