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Howard
My 'pots' seem to have recovered since the hammering they took earlier this year.

Is there any particular reason for this do we think? I wondered if it was simply devaluation of the Pound.

I'm feeling quite pessimistic about things, so I'm considering pulling a chunk out and paying off some mortgage debt as I won't be banking a loss (more like a fair gain for the limited time it's been in the market) - we have to remortgage early next year, and the rates are going to be a very different story to last time and our energy bills will be crushing at the same time.

If I keep this chunk in the market (because we think it's going to continue to do well) then it would have to do very well because it would mean
- getting tied in to 3-4% interest rates
- having very little cash left at the end of the month
- little bandwidth to soak up changes to existing costs
- if one of us got sick long term, we'd be a bit fucked
Obvs. I'm angling for more pay at work but that's not a done deal.

Would welcome any thoughts

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NickCJ in reply to @Howard

Is there any particular reason for this do we think? I wondered if it was simply devaluation of the Pound.

The S&P500 is up 13% since the end of Q3, which will help!

As others have said, taking your gains and putting it into a 6-12 month fixed rate account (https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/#1yrfixtable) seems pretty sensible. Would want to figure out whether that crystallises any CGT liability though.

However, one thing to bear in mind is that paying down your mortgage is a pretty inefficient way to reduce monthly expenditure, because you obviously can't re-borrow what you have paid. On a £200k mortgage it "costs" £20k to reduce your monthly payment by £100.

Maybe get an offset at refinance time and fund it with a bit of surplus cash on day-1?

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Jonny69 in reply to @NickCJ

However, one thing to bear in mind is that paying down your mortgage is a pretty inefficient way to reduce monthly expenditure

That may be so, but just using the Google mortgage calculator on its stock settings, putting £20k in and reducing the term until the monthly repayable is the same reduces the total repayable by around £55k. Usual caveats: YMMV / depends what your priorities are / depends how much risk you like / depends on your mortgage deal etc etc.

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