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  1. M

    Lets try to increase the 'prizes' in prize bonds......

    Incidentally (and I know that there has been a thread on this before), what are people's thoughts about Prize Bonds over saving account over a period of three years? A relative of mine has been working overseas and has savings of approximately 80k. She is planning to spend the full amount on a...
  2. M

    Advice needed about splitting an asset after divorce

    Surely if there was to be a divorce down the line the decision re assets would be made on the basis of need? For various reasons, I contributed a good bit more to the deposit on our house than my husband (we weren't married at the time). But we've since had 2 kids so if we split up surely their...
  3. M

    Leaving private sector choppy waters for Civil Service?

    It isn't. COs do a wide variety of stuff - processing applications, a lot of front-facing roles (the people behind the counter in social welfare offices would mainly be COs, admin, accounts, HR etc. I don't know of any who 'just answer the phone' ....
  4. M

    Leaving private sector choppy waters for Civil Service?

    Hi SCurry My tuppence (as a civil servant) I would look into the Department and the office you are likely to be employed in in a bit more detail. You are clearly an intelligent person and ambitious person. If you were in Dublin or Cork, I would tell you to go for it, as even if you ended up in...
  5. M

    Key Post How much savings do you need to feel safe

    Thanks mtk for the ideas. We are blessed with a tracker, ECB + 0.6%, so I don't think overpaying the mortgage is the best use of money. I will definitely take your advice re checking out AVC options. Still leaves the issue though of how best to save/invest for expenditure that I'm likely to need...
  6. M

    Key Post How much savings do you need to feel safe

    Slightly off topic but any thoughts on what the best way to save once you have achieved the 6 - 12 month salary buffer in a bank account? I'm more than 20 years off retirement and am a middle-ranking public servant (I don't expect by the time I retire that pensions will be half of final salary...
  7. M

    Marriage Breakdown Stay Local or Move Some Distance Away

    Stay local - ideally within walking distance, although no need to be as near as 1 - 2 minutes walk. Your future possible relationship is just that - something that might or might not happen in the future. Your children exist in the here and now and are presumably going to find the break up of...
  8. M

    Help- In over our heads !

    You can deduct the cost of the agent against the tax owed, so ultimately it may not make much of a difference to your overall costs. Make sure you are also deducting PRTB registration fee, rental house insurance, maintenance costs, wear and tear, costs of advertising the property for rent...
  9. M

    PAYE worker underpaid Tax over the last 2 years

    Don't forget that your wife, if she is in the public sector, also has deductions for USC, PRSI, pension, pension levy and possibly Union subs. You need to look at her payslips to see what deductions are tax and what deductions are non-tax.
  10. M

    Investment makeover for 35 year old living abroad

    Sorry, one more point. Whoever wrote Millionaire Next Door has clearly never been to Ireland. You estimate that if you moved back to Ireland, your net income would be 38k. Never mind the most upmarket areas and modest or immodest houses, 76k wouldn't get you a hovel anywhere in Ireland, never...
  11. M

    Investment makeover for 35 year old living abroad

    I am not by any means an expert in investment strategies but a couple of things strike me from your post. You say that yet you are assuming as part of your investment strategy that you will have 1k a month to invest on an ongoing basis. Surely you can only be confident of this for the next 2...
  12. M

    Are tracker loans profitable after all?

    A lot of trackers from the 2004 - 2007 period are much lower than ECB + 1%. Mine is ECB + 0.6% and I know quite a few people who took out loans in the same period who have 0.75% and 0.8% trackers. I wonder what the lowest limit is for a bank to break even? I doubt they are breaking even on mine.
  13. M

    AIB announcement: allowing to move with tracker

    Thanks Brendan, very interesting. I'm a bit confused though about the two statements above which are a bit unclear in the case of houses in positive equity. In my case for instance, the figures would be Current mortgage outstanding: 260k @ ECB + 0.6% (term remaining 11 years) Value of...
  14. M

    Married/Civil Partnership/Co habitation equivilency?

    No. Department of foreign affairs staff are only paid the married allowance if they are married or in a civil,partnership and as far as I know, all other departments that send people abroad on posting use the dfa allowances scale and definitions.
  15. M

    Gifting to grandchildren

    My parents in law have kindly offered to gift 3k to each of our 2 children per year starting from this year. The idea is that the money can be used by us for education, extra-curricular activities and other costs related to their upbringing and wellbeing (I can see expensive orthodontics coming...
  16. M

    Was I taxed too much ?

    Nope, other than claiming back 20% of our medical expenses and bintags - which adds a hundred or two to the family budget! The actual PAYE amount is not particularly high, it is the USC and PRSI and pension levy that is the killer ....
  17. M

    Was I taxed too much ?

    Welcome to the higher tax band : - ( I was struck by your post on your gross and net pay (34 gross which is 2830 approx a month, €2280 net). My gross pay is 85k which is 2.5 times your gross but my net is €3700 which is only 1.6 times your net. Unfortunately, despite being a 'low tax economy'...
  18. M

    Changing euro to Brazilian real

    Heading to Brazil on business for 10 days and want to take about 250 euro in cash. What's the best place to change it - are the Bureau de Change at the airport charging high commission rates or is it much of a muchness?
  19. M

    Anyone having problems accessing www.banking365.com ?

    I don't like the new look, although I'm willing to accept that this is an innate 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' conservatism on my part which may be misplaced once I get used to it. But the SLOWNESS .... holy god, if this continues, I am changing banks. It took me 35 minutes today to look...
  20. M

    Advice on tax due on overseas inheritence

    Apologies in advance if the info in this thread is a little vague ... In a nutshell, it seems likely that my husband is in line to inherit from a distant relative a substantial amount of shares (currently valued in the low six figures in euro). As far as I can work out - and this is still a...
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