One of the best things about returning to work after a long career break is that I finally have some money.

But with the budget now spent by four teenagers aged 11 to 19 still at home, I was debating whether to overpay my mortgage or concentrate on building the retirement wealth I had left.

This is a difficult dilemma. Like many couples in their mid-forties, I share a large mortgage with my husband and it would be great to clear that up early.

In 2001, at the age of 23, we were lucky enough to get on the property ladder with a deposit we had accumulated over several years of work, something that now seemed out of reach for our children.

But when I turned 70, our mortgage wasn’t finished yet. Do I really want to work that long?

When I first stepped onto the housing ladder, I naively thought we would pay off our mortgage by age 50. But over the next few years rising house prices and buying a larger family home meant our mortgage soared. It would be great to reduce our mortgage now with higher interest rates and increasing monthly payments.

On the other hand, I too has a small pension This needs to be strongly supported. Despite my best efforts, my retirement benefit remains below what I need for a reasonable retirement income.

After arriving in my mid-twenties with no pension, I became obsessed with filling my pot. Many employers did not offer pensions, and those that did were allowed to close your program if you worked there for less than two years.

When I got my next job, I started saving as much money as I could afford, but it wasn’t long before I gave up work to stay at home, mom. It wasn’t planned, but I ended up taking a long break from my career, juggling freelance work and caring for our four young children.

Being away from work for years meant my pension suffered because I didn’t have an employer to pay it to. I was continuing to pay as much as I could, but my pension was still severely delayed.

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My dream is to retire with a decent-sized pension in my mid-sixties and A mortgage that is fully paid off. But what’s the best way to get there?

I’ve thought long and hard about this, and despite the huge mortgage, I’m firmly committed to team retirement for a few reasons.

I’m hoping that building a large retirement pot will give me the best of both worlds. With a large enough pension, I plan to use my tax-free lump sum to pay off my mortgage in my late fifties and free up my finances. Currently, when you reach age 55, you can withdraw 25 percent of your pension tax-free; This rate will increase to 57 in 2028.

For me, it makes sense to focus on my retirement because long-term investing is one of the best ways to build wealth. Money invested early should benefit longer from the investment mix, which snowballs over time as investment growth builds on previous growth.

Of course, returns on investment are not guaranteed, but investments have historically outpaced inflation and interest rates over the long term.

I also love that retirement savings helps lower my tax bill, as contributions get a big boost from the tax system. Pension tax relief means that if you pay £80 into your pension, your contribution increases to £100, giving you an immediate tax increase of £20.

Surprisingly, the tax system is quite generous to those with no income when it comes to pensions. Even if you don’t pay any tax, you can benefit from a tax deduction on your retirement contributions. By making the most of this quirk, I was able to pay small amounts into my retirement for many years, even during my career break.

In terms of money, if you, as a basic taxpayer or non-income earner, put £200 into your pension each month, this will increase to £250 thanks to tax relief. Over 40 years this investment could rise to £381,000; This is well above the £120,000 you paid initially, assuming average investment growth after fees of 5 per cent each year.

Now when I retire I aim to save £300,000 in retirement.

Of course, there are many surprising benefits to paying off your mortgage early. You will have financial freedom and having no debts to pay will be a liberating thing.

In theory, it’s possible to pay off your mortgage early and save money for your pension once it’s cleared. But in my opinion there are a few problems with this approach.

Even though I write about money, I am not a natural preservative. I’m not convinced that if I pay off my mortgage early, I’ll have much more money coming into retirement later on. Realistically, I would probably work less or take nice holidays instead. That’s great, but it could also mean that I don’t have a large enough pension to allow me to retire when the time comes.

When it comes to my retirement, another problem is that investing money later gives my investments a shorter period of time to grow. I can reach retirement with a smaller retirement pot.

I took a look at some recent research on this thorny question from the interactive investor investment platform. Their data shows that future interest rates and investment returns matter. Simply put, if investment returns exceed interest rates, you’re better off filling your pension with extra cash. But if interest rates exceed investment returns, you may be able to save by overpaying and paying off your mortgage early. This assumes that you will transfer all of your mortgage payments into your pension once your mortgage debt is cleared.

Ultimately, if you’re lucky enough to have spare cash, the good news is that there’s probably no wrong choice here. Both options are a great way to grow your long-term wealth and put you on a strong financial foundation for the future.