Where would you invest your money?

[Jennyhatesjazz0]

We're not talking huge amounts, probably about £500 a month but these are my current options:

1. Overpay on our mortgage. We've got about £20 years left on a £200k mortgage

1. Overpay pension contributions, we're both investing the bare minimum on a combined salary of about £65k

1. Put it in the savings to buy a better house in a better area for when DS (six months) starts school

1. Go part time, lose that extra money per month and invest my time in my babies early years (working three days instead of five compressed to four resulting in a few very long days)

I just don't know what to do for the best...

Overpay mortgage, or go part-time

Overpay mortgage or extra pension. If the pension extra payments will allow you to buy additional annuity with it then do it (buying a lump sum may not be worth it) - my DP is planning to retire at 55 and the main reason he can do it is because he overpaid his mortgage and bought additional annuity (and didn't have kids so could do both!), but if you can afford to do either of those I always would.

I'd overpay the mortgage (certainly in preference to saving it to reduce your next house purchase, you'll never earn as much interest as you'll save) or put more in a pension.

Extra into your pension. I know it sounds boring, but looking at my pensions that look pitiful and I'm 41, I'm starting to worry.

Mortgage would be ok, have you thought about saving a lump sum and then paying into the mortgage?

Overpay mortgage or extra pension

If you are paying min contributions into pension is there any employer matching you are missing out on? That's free money so I would go for that route first.

Buy to let flat in London, 500 will pay for an interest only mortgage far out of town.

1 is the same as 3, so unless you can find a significantly better savings rate than you are paying on your mortgage, go for 1. You can find better rates by the way, a number of regular savers have up to 3pc, and possibly your mortgage is under 2pc. So, it's worth looking closely at that.

If it were me, I'd probably put half to mortgage and half to pension. But I don't have kids.

Pensions are a bit boring, but if your employer matches your contributions, that is a no brainer. Secondly I would over pay the mortgage, because at some point the interest rates will probably increase. I would also have some emergency easy access savings. Moneysavingexpertcom for best rates
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Buy to let flat? How would they fund the almost obligatory 25% deposit?

Invest it.

I meant invest it in a stocks and shares ISA.

Get rid of your most expensive debts first, if you have none other than a mortgage get that paid down. Then start to think about increasing your pension contributions.

If you're looking to move in the near future I'd make sure I had enough saved for a deposit and the legal costs then overpay the mortgage.

If not I'd work out what my current pension is likely to pay out when I retire and if it isn't enough then the money would go in the pension.

you'll never earn as much interest as you'll save
No? You sure? A mortgage is the cheapest debt you'll ever have. I can afford to may my mortgage off, but its not financially worth it as my money earns more elsewhere.

Pensions are a bit boring, but if your employer matches your contributions, that is a no brainer.
And don't forget that as well as employer contributions, they'll be tax relief too.

How old are you and how do your pensions look at the moment?

I would maybe do a combination of overpay mortgage and pension. I would avoid commiting to anything long term because if for any reasons your financial circumstances were to change you have that flexibility. Also, boring as it sounds but be sure to have at least 6 month's mortgage payments / living expenses accessible just in case.

Most of my investments in a stocks and shares ISA average a return of 10 percent per year (in total they have increased by 300 percent over the past 5 years). No debt is that expensive in the UK.

Pension pension pension!

Buy to let flat? How would they fund the almost obligatory 25% deposit?

Re mortgage the current one to release equity and plough back into the system.

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If you over pay your mort your freeing up money to move. So thats the same as saving money to move.....

Depends what your pension is - I imagine its hugely more than us on those salaries.

Depending how secure your jobs are - with Brexit in mind, economy shrinking etc, I would seriously consider option 4.

You can work until your last day on earth if you can, retire later - but your baby is a baby once and in the flash of an eye they are grown and gone. If your worried about money but able to go part time, and have more time with baby - sounds like a win win to me, as I also assume you can up your days if being at home isnt working out.

I just think we are going to have some rocky times ahead though with Brexit.

Most of my investments in a stocks and shares ISA average a return of 10 percent per year (in total they have increased by 300 percent over the past 5 years). No debt is that expensive in the UK

Thats incredible, are you money minded or you do have a person to help you? ie do you manage and keep on top of it yourself.

Put it into your pension. Having a reliable income on retirement saves years of worry. It comes round sooner than you think.