to want to pay off the mortgage instead?

Did your parents give instructions when they gave you the money for your DD/DS? As long as you save up the same £100,000 out of your income/spend that much on treats/uni it's the same thing really

Also, are you likely to stay in the area where you currently live? Because with a child who is presumably 4ish now, you have a long time to go before secondary.

Wow, you're not a bad mum!! I would absolutely put it twds the mortgage and when I was given my inheritance that's what i did. Once the mortgage is paid off there is less insecurity if you lose your job/become disabled/other unknown difficulties occur. Money for education can come out of your wages if you decide to make that choice.

Someone once told me that if you ever come into money, you should first pay all your debts - I think that is good advice.

Is the mortgage in both you and DD's dad's names, or just yours? If both, I would be cautious about putting 100k of your money into the mortgage unless you can get some legal paperwork which says you own more of the house in the event of separation

Not in my experience Janieforever.
How many private and state schools have you experienced?

Actually, is it possible to put the money in a high interest account and just wait until she’s reaching secondary age to see if it’s the right decision? She may want to go to the local comp with her friends and you can pay off your mortgage guilt free…

I agree. You don't just wake up and find 100k in your bank account! (If anyone has a way to contact the money fairies please send them my bank details).

I'm not totally clear on the situation here. Is it that there are three competing options (overpay, school fees and you wanting to enjoy life) and the 100k means you can afford two but not three of them?

Presumably you'll be able to save as much as you pay off over your kids school life though? So as long as you do that for your DD/DS it will be fine.

How naive.

Adding to this, private school fees are crazy. You'd be paying for 2 years maximum. You're getting 10 terms (if you're lucky) and then they go back to state-funded school? What are the longterm plans here? Your parents have no say over what you do with the money if they didn't specify what it was for.

Absolutely.

op did you know it was for your child?

OP, you haven't done the wrong thing.

Private school doesn't mean a better education , or better teachers. It just means that you pay for it.

Paying off your some of your mortgage is sensible. You have more money free now for holidays, memories, and tutors.

Oh come on. Who hands over £100k with the intention for it to be used towards a childs education without explicitly having a conversation about it.

We want to give you £100k, do what you want with it
OK i will use it for my mortgage thank you

We want to give you £100k towards GC private schooling.
Thank you
Or I wont be doing private schooling but i would love to accept the £100k and pay off some of my mortgage.

More to this than meets the eyes

Realistically, would 100k get your daughter through private school in your area? How much would it be from year 7 through to sixth form? Thats without additional factors such as trips, uniforms, hobbies, travel etc? Which are all likely to rise in cost in the next few years as well. Personally I’d pay the mortgage and invest time and money in great extra curricular activities, if (and it’s always an if) your daughter chooses to go to university, real life experience will count for just as much as a fancy school place. Plus you’ll be able to help her out a lot more in early adulthood once mortgage free.

School fees, every time!

I’m now second guessing myself as I do have a healthy income and could feasibly just pay the fees from income alone. I wanted to enjoy life though. For context state schools round here aren’t they best but aren’t the worst either

I mean that is quite shit though.

I'd choose my child's education every single time. But your parents should have said this was the purpose of the gift at the time of giving you the money and given you the choice to opt out of recieving it.

State till secondary?
Overpay mortgage whatever you are allowed to
How much would overpaying by 100k shave off your monthly repayment. It might not be a great amount!

What did they say when they gave the gift? Specifying it was for a specific purpose after the fact is a bit silly. If they want to pay for private school fees they should have just offered to pay, rather than giving a gift with strings attached

What you on about, 100k will give most of secondary education years if not all, at 15 -20k a year.

Your mortgage is £208k, the gift is £100k, so you'll have £108k of the mortgage left if you used the £100k on it. You'll be shortening your mortgage term and decreasing the amount of interest owed on it, and you'll be mortgage free much earlier than 45.

On the other hand, you could pay for a private education and still be paying whatever you're paying on your mortgage now.

It's a tough one.

If I had £100k, I'd be able to pay off what's left of my mortgage and buy another property, and that's personally what I would do.

Good luck in whatever decision you choose.

Was the gift for you or your child. It feels you think it was for you and they feel it was for your child.

So it was a gift with strings.
I would pay down the mortgage, so that you can reduce the monthly cost, make it more affordable. Then use the money saved to pay for additional education or clubs or whatever other activities you can't currently do.
£100k won't even touch the sides of private education in a lot of the country, especially if she is not even school age yet.
Or move somewhere the schools are better than not just shit. Which may mean a bigger mortgage.

What if you paid £50,000 towards your mortgage to reduce your monthly outgoings now and keep the remainder back until closer to when you have to decide on secondary school..? Things can change in education quite quickly. You might find that the state schools around you are better at that time in which case use the remainder to pay off the mortgage, or you may feel you want to go down the private route.