MF Just Shy of 40??

Trundley27

Hi. 

I am currently 37 (So is my partner). Always been financially savvy and earn very good money - Occupation -  (Projects Engineer/Manager - O&G Pipelines). We live in our forever home and have two children, (Daughter 9.5y & Son 2y). Lived here since March 2014, over the years paid around £15,000 in overpayments. Our balance in April 2026 will be ca. £56,800. We live in NE England so yes back then and I suppose now you get a lot for your money. 

I have around 28k invested in a passive fund which has been doing really well with Vanguard since 2019. But that nagging mortgage is always there and I have always been one of these MFW minded people!! Also I have no other debt. 

I am thinking of just cashing in the full amount and hitting the mortgage hard with it, then having it paid off in around 2.6 to 3 years from now. maybe I will be sub 40 or just 40. 

Also in the meantime increasing my pension. 

As I am still classed as youngish (Middle age) whatever it is, what are your thoughts on this plan? Long term I still have (Providing employment is good etc) time to reinvest for another 20 or so years with increased pension contributions before retiring maybe 60. 

I just would like some honest reassurance that what I have in my head is a good plan. 

It would leave me with an empty savings account but I can draw on the disposable income if I needed a 'boiler' but a lot of work has been completed on the house. 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and the very best for MFW in 2026. 

Best Wishes

Keep_pedalling

What is your mortgage rate? No point in paying off dept if the amount of interest is lower than what you could obtain from savings.

What are your pensions looking like?

What is your marital status? If you are not married or civil partners an early death could leave the surviving partner facing financial difficulty with an IHT liability to cope with. Also critical in those circumstances to have both wills and LPAs in place.

South_coast

What was the plan for the Vanguard money when you started paying in to it? 

Emmia

I'd probably aim to be mortgage neutral, i.e. to have an amount in savings that would clear the mortgage - but which is available to you should you need it for some reason.

I'd then work towards mortgage free ensuring a suitable emergency fund is always available.

MFWannabe

Personally I’d keep the savings and plan to overpay every month on the mortgage to reduce the term 
I wouldn’t leave myself with no savings 

Trundley27

I have 100k currently in Pension. We are not married, but have wills leaving everything to each other. I want to increase my pension in February, I currently have a employee contribution of 7% and 5% Employer Contribution, i want to go up to 10% OR 11%. 

My thinking was that I am young enough still that I could risk hitting the balance of my mortgage with the ISA, then restart saving in a couple of years once mortgage free. I have no other debt. 

I also thought that if I hit the mortgage with the savings and brought the balanced to 28k, then I could remortgage on 20 years, the monthly payment would drop to £173 per month and I would overpay the the difference between my current mortgage payment of £750 (So still paying the same) but this allows me to drop to a low payment in case something financially hit us etc, then the outgoings would be very low. 

I originally had no plan with the Vanguard when i started it in 2019, I just wanted to save into a S&S Fund instead of a cash ISA to get better returns. I have never touched the ISA. 

My house is worth about £185,500, but as I said we don't need to move. We have completed lots of work already, new roof, drive, patio, rewiring, plumbing all redone. Yes there is some configuration down stairs to adjust but no rush, I am handy and can do 75% myself, so this doe help. 

Does this plan same silly? 

South_coast

Trundley27 said:

I also thought that if I hit the mortgage with the savings and brought the balanced to 28k, then I could remortgage on 20 years, the monthly payment would drop to £173 per month and I would overpay the the difference between my current mortgage payment of £750 (So still paying the same) but this allows me to drop to a low payment in case something financially hit us etc, then the outgoings would be very low. 

I originally had no plan with the Vanguard when i started it in 2019, I just wanted to save into a S&S Fund instead of a cash ISA to get better returns. I have never touched the ISA. 

If there's no real other plan for the ISA money, then I'd agree this seems a sensible use of it. One word of caution on dropping the payments very low and overpaying the difference though - a lot of lenders will tie you in to a maximum amount that you can overpay each year before incurring fees, so if you're still paying the same £ amount, but more of it is an overpayment, then you're going to burn through that allowance a lot faster. It might be worth doing some sums to see whether reducing the term even further and keeping the contracted payments a little higher might make more sense for you

Trundley27

My thinking is I have age on our side. If I was to remortgage over 20 years on the £28k (Ish) after using my current savings to hit the mortgage balance reducing it from £56k to £28k, my old monthly payment vs. my new monthly payment would give me an extra (£750 - £172 = £578.00), I could save this £578.00 x 12months = £6936.00 (This would be my new savings fund as the year progresses. I then at then end of the 2 year fix will have £13,872.00 (£6936.00 x 2), in the stocks and shares ISA, I would then use this as another large overpayment, leaving around £3500.00 after year 2 on the final balance on my mortgage. 

So in effect I maintain a emergency float only paying off at the end of the 2 year fix so I have cash to draw on if needed. 

Does this make sense or am thinking this wrong?

After the mortgage is gone in around 2.6 years from April 2026, i would drive my pension up to 20% then save every month back into my S&S ISA.