Selling stocks to clear mortgage

SonicRR

SonicRR

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I'm 46 with a 200k mortgage and 15 years left to pay it off.
I have a healthy investment portfolio which has earned 200k+ over the past few years. I have a pension, a good emergency fund, and a couple of other properties with no mortgages.
I'm wondering if I should sell enough stock to clear the mortgage (and pay the capital gains tax) while leaving the initial stock investment in place. Or would it be better to leave the stock as it is and continue paying off the mortgage each month for the next 15 years.
Thanks!
 
@SonicRR you have a geared position in the stockmarket. How much gearing depends on your overall portfolio which you did not disclose. But let us say that your overall equity exposure is €400k (net of CGT) . It is backed by €200k mortgage. That means that you have a geared exposure to the markets of 200% - you stand to win or lose double the market's performance compared to an ungeared position.
It has served you well to date obviously. Whether you are happy with that level of risk is really your call, you seem to be in comfortable enough position to take risks if that's your thing.
I am certainly not going to advise as to where I think stocks are going in the short term.
What I do in a position like that is do a bit of whatiffery. For example what if stocks fall 20% next year how would I feel in either scenario. If I have ungeard I will be quite happy even though I would be nursing losses on my net position. If I hadn't ungeared I would be sick as a parrot especially as I was thinking about it. I think the very fact you are thinking of ungearing will force you to carry it through.
 
What rate is the mortgage? Doing a money makeover post might get you better replies.
 
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