Financial Planning
It's conventional wisdom in financial planning to pay off your mortgage as early as possible and then start to build your investments. That’s what most financial help books say and if I was writing a book I would say the same.
However the books don't tell you what to do at the current record low interest rate levels. If you've got surplus cash to attack your mortgage with, you're looking at saving no more than 2.9% or so right now.
If you invest in shares/funds your expected market return is 7% and we look to have clients invest in ways that achieve above average returns because simple things like:
- smaller companies have historically outperformed the market
- cheaper companies have done the same
- profitable companies have also outperformed the market
For example $1 invested in 1926 in US large companies would have grown to an impressive $9,237 by end of 2019 but the same $1 invested in small companies would have done significantly better at $25,617
We seek to use these rules to outperform the market without trying to outguess it.
So although it is good to read some personal finance books and follow most of what they say, we also need to follow common sense and that tells us that if we are long term investors who can handle ups and downs in the market, we are much better off to get money to work in good investments than to focus on the mortgage. If interest rates move much higher eventually, we have the power change our minds and once again do what common sense dictates, but there is a really strong argument right now to getting your money working for you in a more powerful way.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.