Should I be concerned by DH's approach to our mortgage / savings?

[PutThatInYourPipeandSmokeIt]

He insists that it's best to pay the interest only on our house and put what we would have put in to pay off the actual mortgage, into options and stock etc. Does this sound reasonable? I am good with money but just do not understand the financial world at all.

The guy is at Smith & Williamson and is putting most stuff on medium to low risk (to suit me) with some on at high risk (to suit him). If I'm correct with this, the return over the past 20 year period, was between 10 and 11%. The fees are 0.75%.

Pru - I'm someone who would keep all our money under our mattress, so I'm perhaps not the best person to take over ou finances if we want to get anywhere!

I sort of knew a lot of that prufrock but didn't want to be too specific with giving out details on your behalf! Just pointing out that you and your DH have somewhat more market knowledge than the average joe public.

I do definitely agree with your point re. making it a joint decision and not just assuming the DH knows what he is talking about.

I would be frightened! We went to see an IFA when we bought our house and were advised to get an offset mortgage. Any money you get (ie salary and any savings) is immediately working against the mortgage interest until you spend it. If you are then saving mortgage interest at something like 6%, then essentially, you are getting 6% return that is tax free and risk free. You are also getting a return on money that would sit on a current account for a few days a month otherwise before it was spent.

I think you just have to look at the worst case scenario and ask yourself if you could live with it.

Lots of people who did basically what you are proposing and took out an endowment mortgage in the 80s are now facing a big shortfall and will have to postpone retirement in order to pay off a debt they thought they would have cleared.

If that happened to you and your DH would you be ok with it?