25% Tax free and investing it or paying off debt

DancingBadger

ThinkingOutLoud wrote: »

Yes, it was fear of losing. He is a man in the street who listened to many supposed experts from the IMF to every other headline.

To the experienced investors who quote their wise and sage words above and saw beyond the fear - their various truths have worked out so far.

How about some advice what he should do now, instead of salt in his wounds? (beyond the obvious of not becomes a Florida property magnate?) He is 90% in cash - but could "rebalance"? If he doesn't do something inflation alone will eat at his pot.

There are a couple of posts saying pay off the mortgage and some saying why do that. He is faced with the same dichotomy of expertise he saw before Brexit.

That is the challenge for this forum's collective wisdom.

There are elements of the OP's circumstances which we don't know, i.e., the value of his fourth pension fund (and if it is a DB, which is why he's not included its value) and the amount of his savings.

As far as the mortgage is concerned, the obvious route is not to pay it off. However, calculators don't factor in the psychological effect of being mortgage-free. If the prospect of keeping the mortgage running until it's paid off is too daunting for the OP, he might want to consider using his savings to redeem it. Using pension funds is a definite no-no.

Without wishing to insult the OP in any way, it does sound as if he needs an IFA on side to manage his pension funds. Professional advice can appear expensive, but the returns are often far greater than an inexperienced investor can achieve by going it alone - and certainly much more than by being 90% in cash. :eek:

AnotherJoe

ThinkingOutLoud wrote: »

Yes, it was fear of losing. He is a man in the street who listened to many supposed experts from the IMF to every other headline.

To the experienced investors who quote their wise and sage words above and saw beyond the fear - their various truths have worked out so far.

How about some advice what he should do now, instead of salt in his wounds? (beyond the obvious of not becomes a Florida property magnate?) He is 90% in cash - but could "rebalance"? If he doesn't do something inflation alone will eat at his pot.

There are a couple of posts saying pay off the mortgage and some saying why do that. He is faced with the same dichotomy of expertise he saw before Brexit.

That is the challenge for this forum's collective wisdom.

That's why I said - pay the mortgage off. Fits his risk attitude and gives a guaranteed risk free return.

I did consider an IFA to manage his cash but I thought that whatever the IFA arranged for him he'd be uncomfortable when (not if) it fell, and in order to have a very safe investment to avoid worry, he'd only be matching his mortgage rate and so might as well just pay his mortage off.