Advise Please

letap1

Hiya,
My wife is going to be made redundunt on 14th Nov-she will get £30,000 payoff.
My wife does not want to work for a while-we have Twins aged 2 and she wants to be around them while they are growing up.
I earn £26,000 per year.
I have a mortgage approx £76,000 and a credit card bill £5,986-credit card bill to be paid off end of this month.
I have two endowment policies,which are used as a saving plan.
Policy one is £55.67 per month-started March 1993-I phoned them today and they said its worth £8107 if I cash in now-if I go full term with approx 4% rise I could end up with £14,000 approx-It covers me on critical illness and life cover-finshes on 2018.
Policy two £157.69 -Started on !998-with4% rise I could get £44,000-finishes 2023--have not rung them yet so not sure of value for cashing in.
I have savings of £13,000--plus shares worth approx 16,000 with two companies.
Please could someone advise me on what to do, cash in my endowment policies now and pay off my mortgage also using shares money plus savings.
Is there a company that buys endowment policies-so that I could get better price for them.
Is it worth keeping a small amount on my mortgage.
As I am going to be the only one earnig I wanted to reduce my monthly outgoings.
My Mortgage is ending on Jan 2008 after a 5 year fixed-I have been paying £584 for last 5 years.
My wife wants to pay off half only and keep shares for rainy day.
I want to pay as much off as possible.

Any advise would be grateful.

Thanks

17Dave

I think you need a full financial check with a financial adviser as providung all the info on a forum is not really wise or possible.

One or two comments rather than direct advise.

You can approach endowment purchasing companies and get a quote for them to buy your policies - this is often more than the original company will pay. however, will this leave you with no life / critical illness cover if so it will be more expensive to replace than your current premiums.

Also if paying off the mortgage leaves you with no savings you may want to rethink - 3 months salary in easy access savings is recommended. Potentially you could do this with something like an offset mortgage.

I hope this helps a bit - if only to get you thinking more about your situation. Do talk to an IFA and review all your options.

Dan_Collins_2

I agree with 17Dave you need to sit down with an IFA and talk about those endowments.

I would like to add my bit though!

Somtimes you have to take a hit to make your life easier. The two most important ppl in this are your children and having Mum at home is a massive and rare bonus in our times. I my self have had to make some hard choices to have my wife at home with our 3 year old.

If you reduce your mortgage I dont think life/critical illness would be more than your paying at the mo. But obviously it depends on the sum assured.

17Dave is right, you should keep 3-6 months salary a side and maybe more if you can. If you have access to your shares they could be your last resort fund and you have half a salary in your savings.

Good luck with what ever path you take

poppy10_2

Your situation is complicated, definitely get a financial adviser who will be able to go through your full details.

raq

agree with the others, but if it was myself, I would be MORTGAGE FREE as soon as possible. However small or large the mortgage was.