Mortgage or Holidays/Days Out

[40andFat]

What would you prioritise money wise if you had spare money. Paying the mortgage off early so you would have more disposable income later on when your kids are teens.
Or enjoying it now while they are young with holidays days out etc.
For context we are having 3 UK holidays this year and spend about £100 a week after all bills/food/petrol basically everything.
We save £200 a month into a sharesave for the kids and both have pensions but no extra to the mortgage.
Currently will be paid off when I'm 58 DP is 48 kids will be 34 22 and 19?

There is a mortgage overpayment thingie on Money Saving Expert which shows even paying.off an extra £50 per month can really shorten the life of the mortgage
Please check your terms and conditions before you overpay. If we want to overpay our cheapest way is in a lump sum as there's is a £70 admin charge for every transaction. My sister doesn't have the same clause so some months she may not over pay and another she may pay off £1000.

If you were asking one holiday V extra mortgage payments I would say have the holiday and enjoy your kids while they are small. 3 holidays is excessive. And you know that.
WTF!! and you know that what are you on about. I don't think it is excessive, the OP may not either. Others may. I am really pleased that from Primary school right up to they left High school we went skiing in Feb half term, cheap back packing holidays in Europe at Easter, a caravan holiday in May, 2 weeks somewhere in the summer holidays and October half term in Spain. I was disappointed we couldn't go away for Christmas but being a shift worker I had to work one of the holidays. Excessive? No, it was bloody good having loads of nex (corny word but can't think of anything better) expierences with the kids!

If you do get made redundant surely your mortage insurance pays it off. I don't know if it was the same for all mortgages but when DH was made redundant years ago we didn't have to worry about losing the home.

Personally I don't think 58 is too late to be finishing a mortgage these days.I have two separate colleagues are just getting a mortgage ( 1 is 47 and another one from a different department is 45) and they have said they are going to be at the end of their 60s when it's paid. Admittedly I wouldn't want that!

We've just upped our mortgage for a propery nearer seconday schhol and will be 63 when it's paid off in 19 years! It will, however, make more than our previous house. Hopefully.....🤞

Back in the day my parents paid theirs off at 40 but these days I was under the impression many don't have that luxury.

We could cut that 19 years down and not have a holiday/odd weekends away, but as DC get older I see these memories as more important. Worst case, we will downsize if we lost our jobs.

Life is short and finding a balance whenever possible.

Keep having the holidays and days out. Your mortgage will be paid off eventually and you and your DC won't have missed out on all the fun.

3 holidays is excessive. And you know that.
That is your opinion. To me, it is not excessive but I feel eating out more than once a month or spending more than £20/month on alcohol is excessive as I am not a big drinker. I don't expect others to agree with me on this - it is my lifestyle choice.

OP, it is about what works best for you and your family, no-one else's opinions matter.

For us, travelling and holidays make memories so we will always pick them over making overpayments, however, we rarely eat out or get take aways/ready meals (always meal plan and cook from scratch) and hardly spend any money on alcohol so make savings in those areas which go towards the mortgage. That is our personal choice and I accept others will feel they are not enjoying life doing the same. We feel we are not enjoying life if we don't have multiple holidays each year so usually have 2 trips abroad plus a couple of UK breaks too. Our baby is just 9 months but we will be adding a skiing break to that as soon as she is old enough.

Each to their own however. No-one has to agree with you, if your children enjoy the holidays and you can comfortably afford them, make the most of it, you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow

We are all different. We paid our first mortgage off entirely but then decided to get a huge mortgage and buy a much bigger house where I still live. I have now paid the mortrgage off on that one but I'm 55 so it was about time and I don't like debt. We have 2 holidays a year but the number and type and what people want and can afford is entirely up to them. Paying your mortgage off by 58 sounds fine too. Also sadly 50% of marriages end in divorce (one reason my las mortgage took ages to pay off is I had to remortgage to over £1m to pay off the lwer earner ex husband's financial demands!) You say DP not dear husband so do check all the important stuff - would not be a divorce if you broke up, if the house and loan are in joint names, wills, what happens if you part and one wants the house sold but the other doesn't etc.

Jeez Lucky that feels a tad bleak honestly if we split I'd be struggling on my 16k a year part time but I'd get maintanence and we'd have to get a smaller house/mortgage. But that's enough of that we've been together ten years I'm hoping for at least another ten .

Lucy stupid thing!!

For us it's holidays. 3 holidays abroad a year. Good amount of eating out / days out because life's too short. I'm a nurse and seen fat to many people be struck down with illness and death before they grew old. We pay a lot for critical illness cover on mortgage.

I want to create memories with me children too and give them a good childhood. We work our asses off so a holiday together is a really special time for us x

Holidays.

I always wonder why some people 'wait' to live life. I know a couple (with kids) that do this. They save every penny and overpay the mortgage hugely, but live very frugally and don't spend on holidays or anything else. They talk longingly of that time when they'll be 49 and mortgage free and all the great stuff they'll do and buy and spend.

Bugger that. Do the great stuff today because you might be hit by a bus tomorrow.

I think there's a happy medium and it's very personal.

We have meals out / treats / holidays rather than save or pay more towards mortgage. Also a family of 5 so know how expensive it can be. But my husband has had cancer twice (he's been clear now for years) so we're a "live for today" family.