Age: 43
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 43
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 120k
Annual gross income of spouse: 65k
Monthly take-home pay €8200
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed Both Public Sector
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving varies depending on projects undertaken around home etc. Generally in the region of €2500 - €3000 per month
Rough estimate of value of home €400,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 0 mortgage just paid off
What interest rate are you paying? N/A
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc Small car loan remaining – total interest due on money approx. €500 over next 18 months.
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? N/A
Savings and investments: 15K Cash , 50K invested in stocks
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes, both are in defined benefit public sector pension schemes. Spouse can retire at 60 (non new entrant). We will both be marginally short of full service at retirement so are maximising using AVCs.
Do you own any investment or other property? N/A
Ages of children: One child - 11
Life insurance: Yes, Life, Income Protection, serious illness all paid for through salary deductions.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
This is the bit that confuses me somewhat – it doesn’t look like I am comparing like with like in terms of costs? For example are there other costs with the Goodbody fund that I am not seeing?
I am looking for advice on where the best fund for us may lie? I understand that we will have to pay 41% and the eight year revenue implications and that they have a government levy of 1%. I am looking for a fund that has the capacity to cover its costs and provide a return (taking into account that investments can also go down). I have a reasonable tolerance to risk but don’t want all of my eggs in one basket. We have a cash deposit of approx €15k and feel this is probably adequate given employment status and ability if absolutely required to unload some equities.
All advice appreciated.
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 43
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 120k
Annual gross income of spouse: 65k
Monthly take-home pay €8200
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed Both Public Sector
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving varies depending on projects undertaken around home etc. Generally in the region of €2500 - €3000 per month
Rough estimate of value of home €400,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 0 mortgage just paid off
What interest rate are you paying? N/A
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc Small car loan remaining – total interest due on money approx. €500 over next 18 months.
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? N/A
Savings and investments: 15K Cash , 50K invested in stocks
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes, both are in defined benefit public sector pension schemes. Spouse can retire at 60 (non new entrant). We will both be marginally short of full service at retirement so are maximising using AVCs.
Do you own any investment or other property? N/A
Ages of children: One child - 11
Life insurance: Yes, Life, Income Protection, serious illness all paid for through salary deductions.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
- How much would people recommend to hold in such an execution only account before the risk becomes too high? We have approx. €50k in this joint Goodbody execution only account.
- I have been reviewing different funds over the last number of months and reading on here and have a reasonable understanding of how they operate. My plan here would be to set up a saving/investment fund with monthly contributions, which I can basically forget about for a period of time. A couple of specific questions here:
- Is this the correct route at all?
- Should I look at just setting up with one provider or is there any merit in going with more than one? For example would it make sense to have one lower risk fund and a second higher risk fund?
- Some seem to have different pricing structures – what ones would people recommend?
- At present I am looking at ones such as:
- Goodbody Global Leaders Fund (where I can get a zero entry and exit charge with an ongoing 0.75% charge. They also have similar information presented on their other funds that I am reviewing.
- Foursight Savings Plan for Public Sector employees (through Cornmarket) with a € 375 consultation fee to set up and then a 1.5% AMC.
- I have also been looking at options such as Zurich Savings plans that have entry costs of 1.53%, portfolio transaction costs (-0.05% to 2.85%), and other ongoing costs (1.72% to 2.86%).
This is the bit that confuses me somewhat – it doesn’t look like I am comparing like with like in terms of costs? For example are there other costs with the Goodbody fund that I am not seeing?
I am looking for advice on where the best fund for us may lie? I understand that we will have to pay 41% and the eight year revenue implications and that they have a government levy of 1%. I am looking for a fund that has the capacity to cover its costs and provide a return (taking into account that investments can also go down). I have a reasonable tolerance to risk but don’t want all of my eggs in one basket. We have a cash deposit of approx €15k and feel this is probably adequate given employment status and ability if absolutely required to unload some equities.
All advice appreciated.