To not want to pay off my mortgage?

@Entertainmentcentral why wouldn’t they advise you do this? Surely, it’s contextual - if your interest rate is higher than the interest you can earn on savings, then you’d be better off. If it’s a marginal decision, then I’m sure many would make an emotional decision.

some cautionary advice: if MiL gives you 50k to help pay off the mortgage, is she likely to keep reminding you that 'she paid off your mortgage' ? Also, is it likely that she may have an increased sense of entitlement over the property, or perhaps even want to move in, in the future ('since she paid for part of it').
If she will only give you the 50k if you also use your 50k, this just isn't normal behaviour/thinking.

YOu can either be mortgage free or not have the £50k. I cannot see how you would wisely turn down the money! I have given each of my 5 children the same sum for a first property. The gift was only for a property, not for anything else, not for an ISA, not for a sure fire winner bet on the stock market, not to go into savings for a rainy day - I was only prepared to give it to go into their first property. Obviously they all took it. Of course now they have it they can sell the house and spend the money on alcohol etc if they want (none of them has).

Take the money from the very very kind mother in law and reduce the mortgage by the sum she gives to you and hope it is done before later this week Labour might tax gifts! You have a very few days

It's been a fair few years since I worked in FS, but most advisers at that time would go with "only retain debt if it costs less than the earnings on your savings" - so if savings interest rates are higher than debt (mortgage) interest rates, leave the savings, otherwise pay off the debt. Is that not the case any more @Entertainmentcentral

You've mentioned several times that you wouldn't be able to access the nest egg as it would be "in the mortgage", but I got the impression that if you accepted the £50k and combined with yours, you'd be mortgage-free? Would you still have a mortgage left to pay after? If not, then the nest egg isn't "in the mortgage", it's that you own your home outright. If you needed extra money in future, say, for a safari, you could take another small mortgage to cover that. You'd just be saving slightly less of the £30k interest saving. Alternatively, you could put away the £500+ each month that you'd save on mortgage payments, and use that for the holiday...

How long would it take you to save up the money you are being coerced into using?

Our mortgage and all associated costs (insurances etc) are £1,000 pcm. So if we were disciplined we could save £50,000 in less than 50 months (hoping for some interest!) but if we decided to have a bit more fun it would be longer.

I hate the stings in your behalf but having grown up with housing insecurity I'd accept the strings! I'd find a way to make them into pretty ribbons. 😆

Can you take her £50 and just lie to her and say you paid it off. Or pay her £50k off then just dont pay your bit?

Even if it was well intentioned I personally would find it totally infantilising for an adult to do something that was my responsibility. If it was a nest egg for children that's different. Why is she bothered about you putting all your savings in?

Well, you would be £80k better off, so there’s that. Only you can decide whether that’s worth putting up with more ties to your in-laws. You can build up another nest egg again, relatively quickly since you won’t have mortgage payments.

With no mortgage to pay surely you could pretty quickly afford to do this? Unless your mortgage its tiny now.

Agree with this.
I know many people are saying pay off your mortgage but I would prioritise an emergency fund if you don't already have one with the money you already have and decline your MILs offer.

At the moment, many, many people pay less interest on their mortgage than they can get on savings - even cash savings in the bank so no risk.

That means every mortgage overpayment instead of saving money loses that person money (more interest would have been paid on the savings than is saved on the mortgage).

Having said that, I paid off my mortgage anyway because of the emotional component to doing so. I just did it knowing it was costing me money.

Edited to say: also, leaving yourself with no savings runs the risk of having to take out a high interest loan in an emergency. Most FAs advise on having an emergency fund first.

If your financial considerations are that you have greater benefit from a safari than paying down the mortgage, then I can fully see why MIL is trying to put in some caution via her DS. Why should she give you £50k for you to blow it on another holiday, because after safari comes disneyland or diving or whatever other experience? All money has the same value, wherever you put it. If you lose a jobs or the boiler blows up, you can get credit with no mortgage owed but a big asset... the safari and mortgage don't help you out there. Universal credit will pay your bills and not your mortgage, did you even know that?

As a person who has IL's who only give gifts with strings, no...don't accept it. It causes more arguments than it's worth. People won't understand it, that's fine. But when you are told "we did this for you...." and it's held over your head, it's hard to accept "gifts" from them. It's not a gift if it has strings

As previously stated, not if you go to a fee paid financial advisor.

If someone chooses to go to a financial advisor who makes money off particular advice, they are choosing to take the risk that the advisor will have ulterior motives (and mis-selling isn’t allowed so they’d have to have a dishonest advisor even then).

We are mortgage free and it's much easier living without it. If you sell your house with a mortgage you need to pay off the mortgage before you can move. Without you get all the proceeds less costs.

Theres more to life than money.
Not a hope would i take anything with strings attached.

Read the whole thread, lots of good reasons

Your financial reasoning is completely nonsensical and illogical and self-sabotaging. I really can't make head or tail of it.

You're right that nothing comes without strings attached from a woman like you paint your MIL to be. Only you can know if the price is worth paying.

What's the reason for this? Can't find any

You could also save some interest on your mortgage by overpaying.

What is your current interest rate? Lots of savings accounts over 4% (and many better).

I'd keep some ring fenced and earning interest. If you already have a 50k emergency pot then you don't really need monthly savings. So instead direct that to the mortgage. Most allow at least 10% overpayment per year but you need to check.

You also need to check there aren't penalties for early repayment.

I could pay off mine in full but it would cost me more than the interest saved (it's not high now). Instead I am overpaying so it will be done when the fix ends.

Google the money saving expert mortgage overpayment calculator. It lets you compare savings figures so you can have a sensible discussion with your husband armed with full figures.

There seem to be two separate issues here. One is whether it makes financial sense to pay off the mortgage. The other is the OP's concern about being beholden to her MIL.

The answer to the first question is: yes, of course it does. I am puzzled by the people saying a financial adviser would say otherwise. My experience is that financial advisers always tell you to prioritise paying off your mortgage. It simply makes sound financial sense because of the interest it saves you over the years. Of course it doesn't tie you to the house, because it's just as easy to move from a house you've paid the mortgage on as one you haven't. If you suddenly feel the need to go on safari somewhere, you can always borrow against the value of the house.

It may be that the OP has it in mind that one day she might want to leave her husband and she likes the idea of having a sum of money in a bank account she can draw on. That's a different kettle of fish and one I can't help with.

On the question of being beholden to the MIL, well, only the OP can decide if it's worth accepting a gift that has emotional strings attached. But I think that's completely separate from the issue of whether that money goes on paying off the mortgage or something else.

Which is her right as a grown up, with her own money. The point is that accepting £50k now means that she effectively gives up control of her finances and that everything needs MILs sign off. I would rather have £50k that is mine than £100k that someone else controls.

You pay the mortgage off so that you are no longer paying interest.

You then save what you would have been paying into the mortgage and earn interest on it.

Madness to turn down a £50k gift.

Please get some proper financial advice because most of your listed reasons make no financial sense at all.

So it's got nothing to do with paying off the mortgage?

The question is really 'should we accept 50k from MIL when it comes with strings'.

My answer to that would be different.

But she’s talking about blowing her emergency fund on a holiday. 🤷‍♀️