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Thanks everyone for very informative and interesting points. At this stage we are only planning. We are 7 years away from planned retirement so a lot can happen in between. Its good to discuss these points ahead of time. I am an avid planner. Sometimes planning something is as enjoyable as...

I am confident I can fill a week with my own hobbies and interests. I am amazed at people who say they would be bored in retirement. Working in any capacity would be a last resort for both of us. But each to their own.

Life events will certainly get in the way! I like to think I am planning and preparing rather than overengineering :) I had not considered paying into pension over the tax limits. Thanks for that advice, I will definitely consider it.

I am looking into investing options, its not my area so am very risk adverse and don't want to lie awake at night wondering if I made the "right" choices. I take your point though, accumulating cash is not the wisest move. Its something I plan to look into. I don't understand your point about...

I keep a close eye on monthly spend. All of my salary goes into savings but we take holidays and school fees out of that. My spouses salary goes into our day to day current account and we never spend above that and often have a running 1-3K left over which gets absorbed around Christmas or...

At the moment we have private school fees and expensive kids activities and holidays 2-3 times a year for 5 people. All of which will drop off in retirement (except for our holidays off peak times). I have been closely reading Leper and Cervelo's great tips for heading to Spain :) We are not...

Thanks for the advice. Any recommendation on fixed-term products? State savings certs? Interest on savings is very low.

Yes I agree. I was late starting a pension (early 30s). I made the decision to favour paying off the mortgage because I was alarmed at the pension levy which was introduced and my thinking was they could do worse in the coming years. As it turns out they didnt. I would rather own my own...

I have often thought of that too. At the moment the company is going through high growth and we will either be acquired in the next 5 years or we will be market leaders, at least that is the thinking. Our shares are doing well. My personal view is cashing them in now is the wrong time. I...

Personal details Age: 51 Spouse's age: 51 Number and age of children: 14, 14, 11 Income and expenditure Annual gross income from employment or profession: 167K + 35% bonus Annual gross income of spouse/partner: 103K Monthly take-home pay: Combined 12,300 monthly (after max pension/AVC up to...

Does "signing on for credits" mean that you don't need to be working but you will get the equivalent of PRSI contributions recorded to count towards your pension credit total? Apologies I have never claimed social welfare, never been unemployed, I worked abroad for 6 years early in my career...

I don't want the hassle of pretending to be available for work for 8 years.

Can anyone explain how much you need to pay for voluntary PRSI contributions if you stop working before retirement age? Various posts on here have said it costs €500 per year. However that appears to be Class S only...

Bronte, totally agree but they have us over a barrel with the tracker switching product. We can't take our business elsewhere as the difference in rates is too much. The senior person in the bank who called me and resolved the issue said that the bank manager of the branch involved had been...

Just a quick update, after contacting senior persons in the bank, I got the letter this morning! Thanks for the advice here.

I think all the banks are scaling down their customer service desks however you expect a branch to perform basic functions or it's useless. Why have a mortgage advisor if they don't do any work? I have no idea what the guy does ever day but in three months and over twenty phone calls ( I first...

Brendan since you asked I will tell you that it's Bank of Ireland. I didn't want to name and shame here just wanted advice as to who to contact next. Between your and Gerry's advice hopefully I will get some response. It's so frustrating that a necessary document is being withheld effectively...

Yes it certainly is, I thought this part of the process would be the easiest but it's turned out to be just as difficult as the buying and selling. I will take your advice, thanks.

We have a tracker mortgage on a house not in negative equity. We have been trying to move house for the past 18months (sale and purchase have separately fallen through twice since last summer for reasons outside of our control), and we are trying to switch our tracker with a tracker switching...

Do you need specific work clothes (suits, uniform)? Dry cleaning of work clothes? Lunch out with work mates on fridays? Donations for leaving presents for people? All these things add up.