�10,000

[hhhboy]

Financially what would be best for �10,000 i have recieved ? Pay off part of our mortgage which is 60,000 or invest/save the money,i am 46 years old.

[Loosehead]

Out of those 2 choices I would say pay off part of the mortgage. You will struggle to earn what you pay in interest and what you do earn will be subject to tax.

[Sweet G]

Modern consensus in the IFA community, is that in most circumstances it is better to pay off debt rather than to save if you can afford to. Savings rates are usually smaller than debt rates. Check what your lenders rules are on making one-off payments. Having �10,000 in a high interest account is psychologically attractive becasue you see it positively as "your money" compared with the negative debt on your mortgage. However one should think about one's net worth (all debts Vs all assets)rather than just how much savings you have. If you have a flexible mortgage you could reduce the mortgage debt but take some money out of your mortgage account later if you needed it giving you the best of both worlds. If you do pay off the mortgage will it reduce your monthly outgoings, and if so what will you do with the money saved. A compromise might be to have a holiday and pay the remainder off your mortgage or put a little in savings to start off a regular savings account habit say �3,000 and reduce the mortgage with the remainder. Do some sums on different scenarios and the most suitable answer will inevitably reach you.

[BigMac]

Agree with both Loosehead and Sweet G, but would also say: look at an offset mortgage. With these, you can aggregate all your savings (and even the money in your current account) to reduce the amount of the mortgage on which you pay interest. This brings down, often significantly, the time it takes to pay off your mortgage.

If you are going to save it separately, and haven't done so already, put �3,000 into a mini-cash ISA now (each of you can do it - you talk about 'our' mortgage) and then put �2,000 each into the mini cash ISA in the new tax year (after 5 April). You will still have access to the cash - usually you can withdraw with no penalty - and the interest it accrues is not taxed.

[stevie21]

If you've not remortgaged recently (changed provider) I'd get some quotes on this too.
If you get a better deal then you can either
1. Pay less each month and afford more fun things
2. Keep the payments the same, pay the mortgage off earlier and save (literally) thousands of pounds in interest over the term of your mortgage.

Over here
http://www.jeacle.ie/mortgage/uk/
enter a number into the "monthly prepayment" box at the bottom, click enter and look at the �savings and also how much the term of the mortgage is shortened (even just by overpaying by a tenner a month!)

[theo_wyvern]

how about �5k to mortgage and �5k to savings.

[andyjevs]

You could always blow it on wine women and song and have a damn good time in the process !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hamish]

Morgage rates - aprox 5% - interest in some accounts up to 8% - In general then it would probably be better to invest for a short time at high return, then pay off the morgage with the extra cash once the account matures. You will need to check the details of the account though, often they are capped or have other conditions attached - ie 5yrs min inves period (usually a bond). It would appear that it is possible to make more money by investing at the moment than you would save on the morgage. I am still trying to work out how the banks can afford to do this!

[WendyS]

I'd be tempted to use it all to reduce your mortgage on the basis that at 46 you might be slowly edging closer towards the age where it might be more difficult to find another job if the economy dived seriously and you were made redundant. Being free of a mortgage is a wonderfully liberating feeling if times get hard. On the other hand, do you have some emergency "rainy day" savings? If not, I'd be inclined to put �2,000 in the highest interest rate account you can find (using a Cash ISA if you haven't used your annual allowance as this pays interest free of tax) and use �8,000 to reduce your mortgage.
Whatever you do, use it wisely to do something which will give you additional peace of mind. Sums of this amount don't come easily!