To think I’m not crazy for not paying this off?

If you invest the money you could overpay your mortgage as and when with the interest.

I would have done the same as you . I wouldn’t have given up £75K to save £200 a month as that seems manageable . I would have maybe paid a chunk towards the mortgage but not all of it.

However , I don’t have a mortgage and I don’t know how it works - could that £200 go up ? Is there a possibility of you ever paying it all off ? I would have looked into all this - if I wasn’t going to pay my mortgage off until very late in life then it would have impacted my decision as I would want to be in a position to be mortgage free earlier on so that I have a house to leave my children if - god forbid - anything happened to me at an earlier stage in their lives ,

I would overpay by the 10% you can this year and put the balance in a high interest account. Preferably one which could be offset against your mortgage. Then reassess the situation next year.

Completely depends on your interest rate. I inherited 1:3 of my outstanding mortgage but invested it where it has returned 8% over three years which makes more sense than repaying my 1.8% fixed rate.

I’d keep the money. Cash is king

Ignore anybody saying to pay off your mortgage if they don't know your mortgage rate! Is it 3% or 6% for example? If it's the former get it locked away in a high interest savings account, an ISA preferably so you don't have to pay tax on the interest. You could also look at world tracker funds on a platform like Vanguard. If you have a very high mortgage rate like 6%+ I would consider paying off the maximum it will allow without penalties, eg 10 or 20% usually.

I think it is very sensible to have a year's worth of expenses in savings.

Not crazy at all. Having a savings cushion is not to be sniffed at. In your shoes I’d do the following:
£20k straight into either a cash or isa stocks and shares isa (or half and half as you please). Still relatively easy access with the best ones on the market around 4.5% interest.
£30k off the mortgage - assuming you’re still on a favourable rate take it off the capital rather than reducing your payments as it’ll help when you come to the end of your current mortgage term and save you more in interest long term.
£10k into a fixed term savings product - 1 year perhaps and then dump it into the isa in the next tax year.
£10k easy access savings and likewise with the isa.

The above means you’re taking some off the mortgage (good thing longer term) whilst keeping enough in easy access and relatively easy access but decent yield savings for both growth and security. If it’s in fixed products that should remove some of the near inevitable temptation to dip into it.

Wanting to keep (at least some of it) as an emergency fund isn't unreasonable.

But putting at least some in the mortgage (to reduce your term, not reduce the repayments as you suggest) can often be sensible.

It may be worth looking into a "Lifetime ISA" if you plan is for that fund to only be for true emergencies - you can open one until your 40th birthday, and pay in to it until your 50th birthday at the rate of up to £4k/year. Anything you pay in, the government add 25% to, but there's a 25% penalty if you take it out before you reach 60 (so if you pay in £1k, and take it back out before you reach 60, you pay 25% of £1,250, so only get £937.50 of your money back) so you should not put any money there you may need for anything that isn't a major emergency.

If it was me I'd probably do a 3-way split between mortgage / pension / emergency fund (and put most but not all of the emergency fund in a lifetime ISA)

Pay off a big chunk but leave yourself with small five figure sum. Having easy access money gives you more options in life.

I would pay 10% off mortgage this year. Then 10% again next year if you feel comfortable after that year thinking.
Keep monthly payments the same and you have shaved years off mortgage term so it will be gone quicker. Then those save years you are earning still but mortgage free

💯

But I would not reduce monthly mortgage payments. I would keep paying the same amount, and this will reduce the interest and the term.

firstly a mortgage is no use if you need money for a new car and you have almost 0 balance on mortgage as you paid it off but no savings, work out how much you need to live per month bare bones then multiple by the number of months you feel comfortable with depending on job security how much paid sick leave you would get if seriously ill and needed months off if you work in publiic sector with 6 months full pay and 6 months half pay you need much less in emergency fund than someone you only gets statutory sick pay whatever if you are in the latter category a minimum of 12 months living expenses. plus emergency fund of say £5000 for new boiler, maybe saving towards buying your next car for cash.
check your pension it might be better to invest in that instead.

I'd put £20k in an ISA
Pay £30k off the mortgage
Keep £20k to cover emergencies.

Look at savings accounts that offer a good interest rate for a lump sum.

You can get instant access savings accounts that have just over 5% interest which would give you around £230 a month in interest which you could put towards your mortgage.

Don't forget that you only live once and life is VERY short...

Can you do an offset mortgage ? Assuming you're not tied in. I have that and it works very well to reduce interest payments

You need to work out how much you'd save per month if you paid off £50k vs £70 off the mortgage. How will it effect your monthly incomings and outgoings? Work that out before deciding anything.

~The money that you keep back will probably get spent on other things, let's be honest!

It's nice to have a nest egg, but in the end, your house is your nest egg. It's your home. The relief to have finally paid off your mortgage completely cannot be underestimated. That would be my goal.

Ask around for recs for a decent IFA and see what they suggest.

Your not being sensible, that 70 paid on a mortgage will save you thousands and I mean thousands of £ in interest. That's 1000 extra income every 5 months and a saving of thousands of £ overall. For me I wouldn't even reduce my mortgage payments I'd pay the mortgage and reduce the years I was paying. To save an absolute fortune in interest and have financial security quicker

This, although consider putting the rest in a pension rather than high interest account

But that amount of cash will constantly depreciate. Having a smaller manageable mortgage is a no brainer imo. An extra £200 a month is also a good sum and if you want put it into savings for a rainy day.

Great minds!! 🧠 😁

Put 50k on the mortgage.

Put 20k in a high interest savings account - or premium bonds.

Whatever the monthly mortgage saving - do a standing order to savings.

Yes you’ll lose out on a few £ of interest but to me it’d be worth it for the satisfaction of seeing my mortgage balance reduce by £50k.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Decide how much you want to put in a high interest saving account, how much into your mortgage and how much to make available for spending on emergencies like a replacement car. I’d probably put half into the mortgage.

Very sensible

Illness - long term sickness - redundancy

All good reasons to have a mattress, amongst hundreds of others