u/vvolof

Hi all,

So after a long and expensive divorce, I am back on my feet and looking to improve my financial situation so I thought I'd consult the collective wisdom here.

I am late 40s, earning £75k gross. Only my income in the household.

• Mortgage £185k outstanding on my new place, 20 years left (ouch)
• Monthly mortgage payment of £1,419 inc a £250 monthly overpay
• Two small pensions, one £49k (private), and one at £74k (employer) which I contribute 5% and employer contributes 5%
• Just started a stocks and shares ISA, currently putting in £350 p/month
• After all the above and all monthly bills, I have around £1k left over each month
• At the moment I have £30k in the current account, so it doesn't all need to be in there - I want to keep a buffer for unexpected bills etc, but can use some of this to invest

So here are my questions:

• Should I put more monthly into the bigger pension (employer)?
• Or increase monthly payments into the private pension - or combine them?
• Should I over pay more on the mortgage monthly?
  • 2 year fix comes to an end in July 2027 and rates haven't come down as previously projected (thanks Donald)
• If I wanted to take, say, £15k from my current account, how should I split that into investments?
• (I do want to spend about £5k on improvements, decoration etc to my place)

Other than that, I'm pretty frugal - I drive an old, fully paid off car. Don't smoke, don't regularly go out boozing, no other debts, no subscriptions like Netflix, Prime, Spotify etc.

But the marriage and divorce really did a number on me financially over quite a long period, so I know I'm behind the curve for my age, and I know I'll never be a millionaire, but I'd like to make the best of what I do have - so any input would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks!