To not want to pay off my mortgage?

I felt confused by you saying "trapped in the mortgage" because if you paid it off there would be no mortgage! But I think you mean "trapped in the property value of the house". Is that right?

What do you mean by that? Would your MIL act as if it was then partly her house? And would expect a say over whether you could ever sell up? Or maybe demand to move in?

My MIL was a bit like that. Lots of money but she used it to gain and maintain control. Easier to go without!

I think you need your savings accessible, mortgage is only one of your expenses if something were to happen.

I agree, it makes financial sense as the interest is wasted money. We’ve had advice and have Been told to pay off mortgage.

Selling your soul for 50k... Is it worth it?
Def would be a no from me.

100% op

Only if the person looking for advice went to a commission based advisor or one tied to a particular organisation. This belief is why independent fee based advisors are best - they get paid the same no matter what advice they give so there is no benefit to them recommending one thing over another.

I don’t completely understand but if she’s basically manipulating you about what to do with “your” 50k, by adding money but only with conditions, you’d be justified in saying no. Though I’d be tempted to take the 50k, pay off the mortgage and then remortgage for 30k or something. Technically you’d have kept to the bargain…

Also if you think this is a way to maintain a relationship with her then that’s another totally justified reason for saying no. But equally if you’d be seeing her anyway most likely you might just be cutting your nose off to spite your face…

"very selfish, self-centred " people do NOT giveaway £50K

Seeing OP's second post:* *

It always comes with strings. And the strings often put me and my DH at odds. PILs are very selfish, self-centred and "help" us in ways that often don't help at all and make things worse. MIL giving us the money gives her more entitlement to our time and energy.
I can't really be specific as it could be outing but it's bad enough that a bit of me would rather go without. In the past, we have taken the money and the consequences and its never been painless.

This is enough for me to extrapolate that the gift may not be just for generosity's sake and will have some downsides to OP, not least, dictating what OP uses her own money for.

Op I would just take the money and pay the mortgage off..there is no better feeling and the money you pay on your mortgage now you can set a standing payment to another account to save it so you don't waste it.

It didn't feel like anything to me.

But anyway, a better feeling would be investing £100k and making £10k per year on it while only paying £5k mortgage interest, to be honest.

These are better reasons than anything you've stated in your OP. If you'd said THIS in the OP, might be getting different responses.

The reasons in the OP are a bit flimsy.

There's a post from a chartered IFA making the point better than I could.

Because you can almost always match or even beat the interest cost with savings and/or investments.

Only reason to pay off a mortgage is if you'd otherwise fritter the money on non essentials.

If you can manage not to do that, there's likely no financial benefit and you could always use the savings to cover the cost if you can't afford essential bills eg if you lose an income.

But if its the only way to get the £50k from MIL, I could suck it up. I'm also very good at ignoring emotional blackmail and interfering in laws when it suits me.

Well no because that money can be made to work harder in investments rather than giving the bank the pleasure of doing so. I agree about the emotional thing.

Yes but clearly the op is being vague on this..

This is what I would do.

In fact, this is what we did (no one gave us £50k though).

We might move, but it means we would only be taking a mortgage out for the difference between our current house and where we move (minus any savings we are building).

If you're looking at it from an outright best way to maximise the investment of the £50k, then you'd leave the mortgage in place and get the £50k into pensions asap, especially if you're a higher/additional rate tax payer as you gain so much in relief.

40% tax = 67% immediate return
45% tax = 82% immediate return
62% tax = 163% immediate return

(62% being the effective tax on earnings just over £100k)

A good advisor would certainly be taking such things into account, dependent on age.

Edit obviously the additional £50k available from MIL complicates it somewhat.

How about an offset mortgage? You can put your £100k total into an offset and achieve both goals - mortgage "paid off" and still have access to your money if needed.

Hi. I am a Chartered Financial Adviser.

Yes, on the face of it, making £100,000 from £50,000 sounds, at first glance, too good an offer to pass up. But our job is not simply to maximise someone's wealth. It is to identify objectives, where someone wants to be, what makes them tick, what does a happy life look like. If an upfront £50,000 comes with strings that hurt their objectives, and comes with major drawbacks, it is not necessarily the right thing to do.

Why on earth would you not pay off your mortgage.

You are getting another 50k on top and saving 30k in interest so are a net 80k up and will be mortgage free.

Madness chucking away 80k you must be very well off or stupid.

How would she even know whether you paid YOUR money off of YOUR mortgage? Does she get to see paperwork?😮

Sounds to me like your MIL should wind her neck right in, and your OH should acquire a backbone. I say this as a parent who has given each of my children £50K - with no strings attached

Is it, so your husband doesn’t want to pay the mortgage off?

Op I would just take the money and pay the mortgage off..there is no better feeling and the money you pay on your mortgage now you can set a standing payment to another account to save it so you don't waste it.

When my MIL found out I was pregnant with her first grandchild, she wanted to buy us a house outright to own and live in. We were paying 925pm for rent and she doesn't want any money back. She bought DH a £350k house. We now direct a payment of 500pm straight to another account for savings and we live a more comfy life with the other 425 and this works for us. We are eternally grateful and she was happy to do this for us otherwise why would she offer

Your MIL wouldn't offer something that's going to f her over so I'm unsure why you'd need to feel guilty..the gift of being mortgage free is amazing.

Why? Is there a simple explanation, please?

I can't reconcile paying the interest unnecessarily. But I'm from a family that didn't handle money well so I don't have good instincts.

So your husband wants to pay it off, and your mil has offered a signficant gift to help you both, and you would rather keep the debt?