Sold house, now need advice on what to do next?

woddle

Registered User
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My wife and I have two kids, we split up at the start of the year, things were not good, and as a consequence we sold our house, we each made a profit, since we sold the house, we have reconciled.
I am now the stay at home dad while she works, earning 500 a week.
She has 37,000 in her bank acc.
I have 11,000 in irish shares currently worth 9,300
10,000 in a high equity yield fund
8,000 in quinn life
tsb 12,000
Rabo savings 5,000
Credit union 2,000

So I suppose I`m wondering now are these the right places to have my monies stashed away especially that I'm a novice in the stock market and have two small kids and no home to call my own. And I'm gathering I would not qualify for a mortgage now that I've stopped working or would we. I have no loans, only major outgoings is 1,500 rent and kids who also have credit union accounts they are aged two and four. And if someone wants to suggest a complete revamp of our money situation, it would be welcome. Hope I've posted in the right place. Cheers
 
Re: need to know whats the best road to take

Hi-I've moved this to Money Makeover as there is probably a lot of aspects that will be covered in the answers.
 
Does your wife take home €500 a week, or is that a gross amount? Either way, paying rent of €1,500 probably doesn't leave you much for necessities such as food, ESB, gas etc. and I would imagine you will be dipping into your savings before long?

Are you claiming all applicable tax reliefs and other benefits?

What rate are you getting on the €12k you have with ptsb? Is it a deposit or saver account?

What rate are you getting on the CU deposit?
 
your right, we have already started dipping into hers, I think credit union is only 3.5 % and tsb I opened it this year when they had a 5%deal thing going on back in the start of summer and rabo is 5 %
 
Can you clarify your household income from all sources please? Are you still together as a couple/family or living separately?
 
Back together, as in back being married and our living in the same house. only income is 500 take home from my wife and the child benefit plus I have two kids under 6.
outgoings are 275 for playschool
30 for broadband vodafone
1500 rent
we also both drive, so insurance and tax
bills our esb and gas, guessing about 120 a month for both.
I am currently finishing of 3 jobs before I take up my stay at home dad status. these jobs are worth 8,000 take home to me
 
€26K net p.a. for her sounds like about €28K gross - would that be correct?

Ignoring your income assuming that it's going to disappear sooner rather than later you annual household income seems to be:
  • Wife's income of €26K
  • Child Benefit of 12 x 2 x €160 (going up to €166 next April but let's be conservative here) = €3,840
  • Early Childcare Supplement of 4 x 2 x €275 = €2,200
  • Total: €32,040
And your outgoings seem to be (you need to correct any errors or omissions)
  • Rent 12 x €1,500 (I presume it's monthly!) = €18K
  • ESB/gas 12 x €120 (are you sure about these?) = €1,536
  • Broadband 12 x €30 = €360
  • Car costs?
  • Playschool - is that €275 p.w. or p.m. or what? Will it still be a cost once you stay at home?
  • Other living expenses...
  • Total ?
Then - what's left?

When she becomes the sole earner would you perhaps qualify for Family Income Supplement or maybe some of the other family related SW payments mentioned here? Maybe not with your non income means I guess?

Families and Children

What specific accounts and investment funds is the money invested in? What rates apply to savings? What are your short, medium and long term plans (e.g. will you be buying a house again any time?)?
 
  • Rent 12 x €1,500 (I presume it's monthly!) = €18K
  • ESB/gas 12 x €120 (are you sure about these?) = €1,536
  • Broadband 12 x €30 = €360
  • Car costs 4,760 for petrol, tax and ins on both cars
  • Playschool - is that €275 p.m. Total 2,475. and yes will stay the same
  • shopping about 480 a month. total 5,760
  • bins 400
  • not inc enjoying life expenses, these are the main total 33,291,
so we are making a little loss, and will prob keep dipping into savings till she advances in her job, I can always do the odd nixer. Im just unsure if we are making the best of our savings and investments with two young tots and no house to call ours.
I'm very sure on the staying at home part cause I am a believer in one parent staying at home
 
Im just unsure if we are making the best of our savings and investments with two young tots and no house to call ours
It really depends on your short, medium and long term plans. My (amateur and personal) opinion is that there is a significant danger of eating into your savings to fund normal living expenses and you may be overexposed to higher risk/reward investments (e.g. the individual shares and other equity investments) than are appropriate for your current situation especially if you plan to look at buying another house in the forseeable future. Depending on your plans your priority might be maintaining the real value of your savings until such time as you can afford to take on more risk. However a lot depends on your personal attitude to risk/volatility etc.

What specific accounts/rates and investments is the money in? You haven't clarified.

Have you also considered stuff like life assurance cover and how either of you or the kids might be catered for if either or both of you died or became incapacitated?
 
12,000 in my tsb current acc, I think 5 %
Rabo savings 5,000 at 5 %
credit union 2,000 at 3.5 %

8,000 in quinn life the bulk of it being in eurostoxx and Japan
10,000 in a high equity yield
11,000 in 6 companies on the iseq and a 1,000 in one company on the ftse

when we sold the house I tried to get rid of as much money, so that I couldn't spend it and so that it was hard to get access to it
 
12,000 in my tsb current acc, I think 5 %
I doubt that you are getting 5% on €12K in a current account! Even Halifax who pay 10% only do so on a maximum of €2K.
Rabo savings 5,000 at 5 %
credit union 2,000 at 3.5 %
Are you sure about the 3.5% from the CU? Is this an interest rate or last year's dividend or something? Remember that there are higher yielding demand and term deposit accounts than this - see the Financial Best Buys lists for example.
8,000 in quinn life the bulk of it being in eurostoxx and Japan
You mean you originally invested €8K? How much is it worth now?
10,000 in a high equity yield
11,000 in 6 companies on the iseq and a 1,000 in one company on the ftse
Ditto.
when we sold the house I tried to get rid of as much money, so that I couldn't spend it and so that it was hard to get access to it
To me this sounds a bit ominous (that if you had the money handy you might blow it) especially when you will probably be living beyond your income once your wife becomes the sole earner.

What about "her" €37K - where is that? Is it earning as much as possible?
 
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I am currently finishing of 3 jobs before I take up my stay at home dad status. these jobs are worth 8,000 take home to me
I m assuming you have nt done much staying at home all day caring (apologies if incorrect) but it s not all it's cracked up to be. It s hard work. Mothers have all the support groups and even then it can be testing work. Be careful not to put an extra strain on your new repaired relationship by trying something radically new like swapping the roles just on a whim. I also believe that the one parent at home is the ideal set up but certainly not when finances may be put under strain or one parties wish to have it a certain way. Once again apologies for posting this as i understand its the financial advice your after
 
appreciate the post, and your not far off, we our trying some role reversal, My experience at caring is I use to be a care worker for the health board for five years before changing careers to an electrician, and during the health board days I use to mind my little brother 21 years my junior, he is 7 now, also genuinely love kids. Her money is in her aib current account and your right I'm not too sure of the rates.

I suppose I'm looking for a plan to fit our life styles as best can be, and clubman use to be a bit of an impulse buyer on gadgets, last one was the ps3. but I think I'm finished all that now
 
Her money is in her aib current account and your right I'm not too sure of the rates.
Even current accounts that pay interrest these days only do so in limited circumstances and on limited amounts. As such large sums on deposit in a current account are probably losing real value due to low/no returns and inflation.

You haven't really commented on the issue of short, medium and long term plans/goals and consideration of these is essential to any financial planning that you may do.
 
as far as the shares are concerned, I'm happy to leave them there long term, roughly 10 years secondary education and college funds and stuff.

my quinn life is pretty much still worth the same as I invested 8,000

I suppose I don't really know what the goals our, other than trying to buy a house and staying at home with the girls,
Believe it or not the house we are renting was our own house, We sold it to my parents as it was my grandads house and they wanted to keep it in the family, so I'm in no hurry to move but we do want our own house again
 
So buying a house is your main short to medium (?) term goal? In which case you probably want to at least maintain the value of your lump sum (other than the portion that you have decided to invest long ter) I presume - i.e. in order to have your deposit etc.? Which means that you may need to address the fact that right now your normal living costs are going to exceed your houshold income by the looks of things? It's very difficult to offer hard advice to somebody who has not really clarified their goals to be honest.
 
This doesn't make sense to me. You are going to live on one income that does not cover your living costs. You say you have already dipped into the savings, to me this means you are living on your savings and they will soon be gone. In any case the interest you will receive is derisory - it's won't even cover inflation. Your grocery bill looks cheap for 4 people, ditto your heating/electricity bill, how do you pay for clothes/shoes, medical bills, presents, going out, replacing the cars. Who's paying money into the kids credit union account. How much have you spent on gadgets in the last year so we can get an idea of the problem spending as I've no idea what a ps3 is nor how much it costs. It can be difficult to make a relationship work where there are constant money problems.
 
Hi Bronte appreciate your post. A ps3 is a playstation 3, it cost me approx 700, I bought a canon digital slr camera 880, a motor bike for 2,500 which I've yet to drive, dont want to fork out for the bike insurance yet, being the winter and all. We are very good and diciplined at the grocery shopping, don't bother with brands and ditto with gas and esb, I'm an electrician and I do have a good energy heating system installed. but I think what I'm learning here is that I definitely need to sit down more and think, didnt even think about clothes and stuff or medical, My wife and I just bought two new cars out of the profits from house so won't need changing for some time.
And to clubman we have no life assurance or real plan of action for any bad situations and yes I think short to medium term the plan is to buy a house
 
Hi Bronte appreciate your post. A ps3 is a playstation 3, it cost me approx 700, I bought a canon digital slr camera 880
Sounds like you need to knock this sort of (unplanned?) expenditure on the head although you do mention above that this is the plan.
a motor bike for 2,500 which I've yet to drive, dont want to fork out for the bike insurance yet, being the winter and all.

...

My wife and I just bought two new cars out of the profits from house so won't need changing for some time.
Do you really need two cars and a motorbike?

I'm also curious about how your wife managed to buy two cars and have €37K left over from her share of the house profits when you don't seem to have anything near that. Can you explain? Perhaps her €37K is unrelated to the house sale, you didn't split any profits 50:50 or you blew some of yours or something?
but I think what I'm learning here is that I definitely need to sit down more and think, didnt even think about clothes and stuff or medical,
Yes - you really need to itemise/estimate all annual expenditure and then break it down by weekly, monthly and sporadic amounts that need to be covered. If you were already living off your savings without considering such irregular expenses then you will definitely be living (probably well) beyond your income when you do!
 
we did split the profit 50 : 50 and we each made over 100,000 each.
we paid of outstanding gas and esb bills, credit cards, I went to munich and got my teeth done , we went to euro disney for 5 nights and have also paid to go in Easter and My wife went on two summer holidays, In August I paid a lump sum of rent to my parents to keep me in the house till the end of Jan, so We wil be paying them rent staring Feb.
My car cost me 10,000 and hers 16,500. we also paid a debt back to my parents, but we have def stupidly blown alot, I put it down to getting back together and trying to pay for fun
 
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