Pay off mortgage or invest?

boingy

We have no regrets about prioritising the mortgage. Our pension contributions continued at about 15% of salary but everything else went into the mortgage with the result that we've been mortgage free for about 15 years. It's a great feeling!

Bigwheels1111

I paid my mortgage off in 10 year and 4 months I think it was.
December 2000 moved in, first payment January 2021 and last payment April 2011.
Was self employed, no pension other than state.
My circumstances changed at 43 years old.
I moved in with my best friend to care for them, sort of retired.
Got to live off the grand sum of £65 ish pound a week carers allowance.
Rented the house out, as had no mortgage I did quite well.
Now sold and money put in savings.
I get a nice income of over 10k a year for the next 5 years.
To be honest I don’t even manage to spend my carers allowance as I have no bills.
So in 5 years I will have saved 65k more, 
Strange world, when I worked I never had enough money.
No I don’t, I don’t need money.
I can’t explain the feeling making that last payment had on me.
Good luck with your choice.

njkmr

Pay off the mortgage I would say.
I had about £90k left on my mortgage at Xmas and sold two buy to let properties. 
I used the money to pay off my mortgage. It was about £1200 per month of which £380 was interest payment.
I now consider myself as £380 a month better off. We invested the remaining money elsewhere. It wasn't a fortune as they were relatively cheap properties.
My list of direct debits has shrunk dramatically and it feels fantastic each month to see our wages go in the bank and still have most of them left after our bills have gone out. We have now upped our pension payments as well. It's early days for us but it feels like a heavy weight lifted off our shoulders for sure.

jaceyboy

Personally always get rid of loans! Mortgage for me

hornetgirl

Our goal was to pay off the mortgage by my 50th birthday. We actually made the final payment in the month following my birthday. That was almost 14 years ago. Whether it was "financially" the right decision I have no idea, but for us it was absolutely the right decision. We have no regrets at all.

surreysaver

A mortgage is likely to be the lowest rate loan you'll normally have. If you can earn more money than you'll save in interest, then its worth saving or investing.
When interest rates were really low, I was paying less than 1% on my mortgage. There was no sense in paying it down. Now interest rates are higher again, it makes sense to put my savings into my mortgage to balance the debt so I'm paying no interest (I have a flexible offset mortgage). Plus those savings that are offsetting the mortgage aren't attracting tax either 

jimjames

mortgageFTB said:

Invest for sure.

That's what I did. Admittedly through a good period for investments when interest rates were low but it massively paid off

allegro120

brucethefish said:

Hi

Probably an age old question! I have been saving like mad as my fixed rate ends in September 25, and have about £17k saved, and will have about £33k by then

I was planning on about £8k as part of a new car, £20k on mortgage, but now not too sure

House is worth approx £165, and will owe £100k by next september

As soon a the option to repay mortgage early became available I've turned it to a goal and it was one of the best financial decisions I've ever made.  It's great to have roof over my head outright and liberation from debt is a good step towards financial security. 

Qyburn

I don't see the mortgage interest rate mentioned anywhere. Surely that's a key factor. If its currently on a good fix, less than the interest you'd get from a savings account, it makes zero sense to pay it off.

Yorkie1

I note that you say you are self-employed. This means you are not auto enrolled into a pension by an employer. At 43, you are still young enough to make decent inroads into setting up a pension and investing enough that will build for retirement - if you don't already have such plans set up.

And as others have said, what is your current mortgage interest rate, and how many years overall does the mortgage have left to run? You have another 18 months on your current fix and will doubtless have overpayment limits to bear in mind.