How should I cover shortfall in my endowment?

Q Could you please tell me why the mortgage lenders seem to advise increasing my mortgage payments to cover the expected shortfall in the endowment? My ?50,000 endowment is forecast to be ?l3,000 to ?l4,000 short in 2018. I have considered putting about ?70 a month away in a building society or other savings scheme to cover the shortfall, but documentation from my lender suggests that mortgage payments are the most cost effective way to cover the difference. How is this so, and are there additional risks in doing this?

MD

A You seem to have a choice of either increasing your savings to try and cover the expected shortfall in repaying your mortgage in 20l8, or reducing the size of the debt by paying more to the lender. Returns from investments, even if the share markets recover, are likely to remain at a low level (assuming inflation and interest rates remain subdued). So I agree that reducing the size of the mortgage loan would be a more effective and safer way of reducing the shortfall.