Moneymakeover 45 year old returning to Ireland in good financial shape - How best to structure?

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glady747

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Personal details
Your age: 45 single no kids or dependents

Income and expenditure
I am on a sort of career break just having sold a business and looking for my next opportunity. So, no regular income, living off of savings/investments. Current expenditure is about €30,000/year.

Summary of Assets and Liabilities
Family home value: €685,000 fully owned, no mortgage
Holiday Home: €330,000 fully owned, no mortgage
Cash: €50,000 in current account - for living expenses
Pension fund: €350,000 in a UK SIPP via Hargreaves Lansdown no longer actively contributing here, should it be moved to Ireland?
Investments: Interactive Brokers account: €850,000 split between a Vanguard International Equity ETF accumulating, and the rest in money market funds about 90/10 split.
Liabilities: Nothing here... No mortgages, loans, credit card debt etc

Total net assets: If we add all of the above: €2,200,000

Other information which might be relevant
Life insurance: I don't have any Life insurance/assurance at all. Should I have?

What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I have lived away from Ireland for a long time, more than 10 years but want to return home to stay. I have been blessed with work and business and have managed to buy a property in Ireland to live in and also a holiday home which I love. I sold a business I founded last year and so I am reasonably cash rich at the moment. I don't have any major outgoings. This is invested mostly through IBKR. I enjoy making investment decisions and learning about the markets but it's certainly not something I want to do daily, maybe once every 6 months or year for reassessment purposes is fine.

I am returning to Ireland and I am trying to figure out how best to structure things. I am not in a hurry to start a new business or go back to a day job and I want to work on a few side projects/possible business ideas for the next 2 years before I return to regular work. Therefore I would plan to live off of savings or possibly by investing in a dividend yielding fund/stock over the next 2 years (say starting this Jan 2026). I think I can comfortably live off of 30k/year without issue.

So I have a few questions, for example:

1) Should I just leave my investments in Interactive Broker as they are? Should those funds instead be placed into some "vehicle" like an Irish equivalent of a UK SIPP pension? Or some other product?
2) Is it a terrible idea to continue investing in ETFs, I'm aware of the exit tax at 41% and the insane DD rules. I like the diversification and simplicity. I don't want too much hassle.
3) Would it make sense to start a Limited Company and loan funds to it for investment purposes, and so that I could pay myself a wage and pay taxes to ensure state pension/benefits etc?
4) Tentatively my plan would be to continue as I am, return to Ireland in 2026, live off of savings (or possibly a dividend yielding fund instead). Is that a terrible idea?

Please let me know if you need any more info. Thanks all!
 
You understand your core issue in that you are asset rich/cash poor.

Firstly, I don't believe you need life insurance. You have no dependent, I would suggest sorting out a will since you have quite a large estate and it will prevent relatives squabbling in the future. However you should be looking at health insurance options.

Do you have/need a car?. Will there be tax implications of bring a car back?. You may need a pool of cash for the once off expenses of moving home, car insurance, health insurance, removal men etc

Is renting out the holiday home (even as an Air BnB) an option?
 
glady747 said:
Investments: Interactive Brokers account: €850,000 split between a Vanguard International Equity ETF accumulating,
Click to expand...

The first thing to establish is if there are any tax planning opportunities.

You say you are returning to Ireland.
Might it make sense to realise investments abroad and bring the proceeds back to Ireland?
You sold a business. Was that abroad? Were you subject to CGT abroad? Could you be hit for it in Ireland?

So you need to sit down first of all with a specialist tax advisor and investment advisor and work these issues out.
Marc Westlake who contributes here under the name Marc has expertise in this area or will refer you to a specialist tax advisor.

everlake.ie

Our Team

We're a small team of Financial Planners and support staff working from our seaside office in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
everlake.ie everlake.ie
 
glady747 said:
Tentatively my plan would be to continue as I am, return to Ireland in 2026, live off of savings (or possibly a dividend yielding fund instead). Is that a terrible idea
Click to expand...

That is a perfectly valid life plan.

Decide what you want to do. You can afford most options.

Then see about the tax planning issues around them. But you should address these now and not after you come back.

Brendan
 
Thanks @Peanuts20 and @Brendan Burgess.

I do not currently have a car but will need one once I'm back so I need to budget for that. I sold a business, that was abroad, CGT/taxes are already taken care of, no outstanding tax bill/liabilities remain. I appreciate the advice on a will, will get that done. For the holiday home, yes, rental/Airbnb is possible but not currently being done.

> You understand your core issue in that you are asset rich/cash poor.

@Peanuts20 - I didn't/don't understand this, is this a common thing in personal finance, is it bad? Could you expand on this status?

@Peanuts20 - In terms of health insurance, is this just a nice to have (which maybe I will get) or would you see this as mandatory, is the Health Service really that bad?

@Brendan Burgess - I am going to get in touch with an Irish tax advisor and will reach out to an investment advisor too, just trying to get a grip on things myself first, thank you.
 
glady747 said:
> You understand your core issue in that you are asset rich/cash poor.

@Peanuts20 - I didn't/don't understand this, is this a common thing in personal finance, is it bad? Could you expand on this status?
Click to expand...

You are not asset rich/cash poor.

You are asset rich and cash rich.

The expression usually refers to an elderly person living in a €1m home and just the OAP to live on. That is not you.

glady probably means that you are asset rich and have a low income. But is absolutely fine if you have realisable assets which you have, so it's not your core issue.
 
glady747 said:
In terms of health insurance, is this just a nice to have (which maybe I will get) or would you see this as mandatory, is the Health Service really that bad?
Click to expand...

It is a nice to have.

It is not mandatory, like in DE, FR or NL.

Over half the population don't have health insurance.

With your wealth, I would buy it,
 
glady747 said:
You understand your core issue in that you are asset rich/cash poor.

@Peanuts20 - I didn't/don't understand this, is this a common thing in personal finance, is it bad? Could you expand on this status?
Click to expand...
Imagine you are running a business with €2m in stock sitting in a warehouse. How long would it be before you go bust if you didn't sell anything because cash flow is king when it comes to running a business. ? LIfe is not different, €1m in property is fine, but it will be a cold dark house if you dont have the money to pay for electricity and gas.
It's a nice problem to have BTW, the challenge is how you use your assets to generate the cash to live a decent and comfortable life
glady747 said:
In terms of health insurance, is this just a nice to have (which maybe I will get) or would you see this as mandatory, is the Health Service really that bad?
Click to expand...
As you get older, I would argue it is a neccessity. Health Service is not bad here, and certainly not as bas as people paint it out to be given it is relatively cheap. Health insurance however gives you an ability to not to have to wait as long for procedures or treatment. Certainly in my own case, when I needed something small done recently, it was 18 months on Public, 2 weeks on Private covered by insurance.
 
glady747 said:
Cash: €50,000 in current account - for living expenses
Pension fund: €350,000 in a UK SIPP via Hargreaves Lansdown no longer actively contributing here, should it be moved to Ireland?
Investments: Interactive Brokers account: €850,000 split between a Vanguard International Equity ETF accumulating, and the rest in money market funds about 90/10 split.
Click to expand...

@Peanuts20

I don't think you read the original post. He is not sitting in a €1m property with no other assets. He has €900k immediately accessible and €350k in a pension.

His house won't be cold and dark for a very long time.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
don't think you read the original post. He is not sitting in a €1m property with no other assets. He has €900k immediately accessible and €350k in a pension.
Click to expand...
I did, and his query is how does he put his liquid assets to best use to ensure that his property won't be cold. Otherwise the assets just sit there accumulating value.
 
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