UK motrgage and financial industry needs an enema.

[nun]

Here is a UK newspaper article about the pros and cons of paying off the mortgage early. I'm not interested in that, but that the article only mentions saving account interest as an investment benchmark against the mortgage interest rate. No reference to equities or bonds at all. This really highlights the vastly different savings/investment landscape in the UK and the US. In the UK people are even less educated about investing than in the US and very conservative. They will probably own something like a mutual fund in a tax free Individual Savings Acount (ISA), which is like a ROTH but without the age limits on withdrawals, but savings accounts and annuities are how most people invest. If they do want to buy mutual funds the expenses are high. It's rare to see expense ratios below 1%.

Also mortgages in the UK come with far more restrictions than the US when it comes to early pay off and fee. The UK financial industry needs a big Vanguard enema.

Paying off your mortage v saving | Money | guardian.co.uk