Savings,ISA's, mortgage pay off decisions??

busy_b

Posted on a few sites now so sorry to keep repeating myself but lots of decisions to make, here goes...

We have sold a second property and now have 44k...
We could now pay off our 35k mortgage or offset the whole amount against it. (Bit jumpy about paying it all off so probably offsetting the whole amount).
OR:-
would we be better off investing the money in something else as opposed to paying off the mortgage. (We have no other debts).

We have approx 30k in ISA's (10 different ones with around 3k in each - didn't realise we could place them into one, looking into that...)

We basically need to know if we should be investing in anything more worthwhile, (We invested 7k each into Tech ISA's and lost the lot, so jumpy about stocks & shares stuff too).

We run a small business that's ticking along but even though we may appear to have done ok...we now need to know if our money is actually working for us.

We are basic rate tax payers, on a basic tracker mortgage at the moment and any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

dunstonh

We basically need to know if we should be investing in anything more worthwhile, (We invested 7k each into Tech ISA's and lost the lot, so jumpy about stocks & shares stuff too).

What you mean is that you dived right in the deep end into a very high risk investment area and lost money. You didnt invest in in equities to a level that matched your risk profile. Stocks and Share ISAs can invest in non-stockmarket funds as well as stockmarket funds and the risk level of stockmarket funds is not all the same.

Had you invested in a cautious or medium risk spread of funds at the same time you would probably have more than doubled your money in the same period.

It really depends on your attitude to risk as to whether you should pay the mortgage off or invest. In the long term, investing in ISAs and maximising your contributions can be far more beneficial and save you far more money but sometimes people are happier with paying the mortgage off.

busy_b

We did invest cautiously for many years and decided to jump in with the Technology ISA's when we had money that we could afford to lose. (It backfired and we lost out but we have learned the hard way and won't take such a risk again)

As I have stated, I have found myself in a the lucky position of now having enough to pay off my mortgage and also an equivalent amount in cash ISA's and I don't know what to do!

My gut instinct is to offset my savings against my mortgage and place the ISA's into one top payer but I really don't know if that's the right option.