Age: 40
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 29k
Monthly take-home pay: 1900
Maintenance: 480pm (This is regular for now but is not guaranteed)
Child Benefit: 280 pm
Type of employment: Public sector
In general I am saving.
Rough estimate of value of home: 250k
No mortgage. I had good savings starting out. I have interest free borrowings of 70k to a family member. I pay them €200 a week.
No other borrowings.
Car value 13k. It's a few years old but I've no plans to change it.
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
Savings and investments: I keep 3k in my current a/c and I have an emergency fund of 6k (I could use this to pay off some of my loan but there's no urgency on the other person to get any more than the current arrangement). I have cash sinking funds of about 2k at the moment towards future costs – car expenses, house insurance, birthdays, Christmas, back to school.
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes. DB public sector, pre 2011, post 2004. However, because I am not working full time, my pension contributions are halved. If I continue with my reduced hours, I will have 21 years service at age 65. I may go back full time in the future but not while the children are small. I also have an AVC with Irish Life, current value 12k but that's just the value of my contributions to date, I haven't made any gains on it. In fact, it has just recovered from a loss. I currently contribute €200 pm to that. I don't know should I leave that or increase/decrease it. I have chosen a high risk plan. Maybe that's not a good idea but I'm not close to retirement.
Do you own any investment or other property? No but part of my home is pretty much a self contained unit that I could potentially use as an air bnb in time but I don't know how motivated I am to do that.
Ages of children: 6 and 5
Childcare: Both are in school and childcare around that is managed by family, fortunately.
Life insurance – no
Income protection - no
Health insurance – yes.
Should I insure my life or salary? I think there is some sort of Death Benefit were I to die in service and there is a Spouse and Child's element to my pension, although I don't have a spouse.
Where to from here? How can I best save for my children's education and futures? Should I be investing now in some way? My eldest will be finished school in 12 years followed a year after by my youngest.
For those familiar with Dave Ramsey, I am on steps 5 and 6 (Children's education and Pay off house early). I don't know how to get onto step 7! I wouldn't even know how to invest. I could go back working full time and earn more but I feel that I am in a very privileged position to not 'have to' do that right now but I might at some point when the children are older so that would increase both my take home pay and my pension and give us a better lifestyle in terms of holidays/life experiences. However, for now, I'm more present in my children's lives, can take them to sports etc and am able to do half of the school runs, which I think is fairly priceless. I know that I'm in a position that many are working towards but for some reason, I feel that I should be doing more somehow.
Any advice is very welcome.
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 29k
Monthly take-home pay: 1900
Maintenance: 480pm (This is regular for now but is not guaranteed)
Child Benefit: 280 pm
Type of employment: Public sector
In general I am saving.
Rough estimate of value of home: 250k
No mortgage. I had good savings starting out. I have interest free borrowings of 70k to a family member. I pay them €200 a week.
No other borrowings.
Car value 13k. It's a few years old but I've no plans to change it.
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
Savings and investments: I keep 3k in my current a/c and I have an emergency fund of 6k (I could use this to pay off some of my loan but there's no urgency on the other person to get any more than the current arrangement). I have cash sinking funds of about 2k at the moment towards future costs – car expenses, house insurance, birthdays, Christmas, back to school.
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes. DB public sector, pre 2011, post 2004. However, because I am not working full time, my pension contributions are halved. If I continue with my reduced hours, I will have 21 years service at age 65. I may go back full time in the future but not while the children are small. I also have an AVC with Irish Life, current value 12k but that's just the value of my contributions to date, I haven't made any gains on it. In fact, it has just recovered from a loss. I currently contribute €200 pm to that. I don't know should I leave that or increase/decrease it. I have chosen a high risk plan. Maybe that's not a good idea but I'm not close to retirement.
Do you own any investment or other property? No but part of my home is pretty much a self contained unit that I could potentially use as an air bnb in time but I don't know how motivated I am to do that.
Ages of children: 6 and 5
Childcare: Both are in school and childcare around that is managed by family, fortunately.
Life insurance – no
Income protection - no
Health insurance – yes.
Should I insure my life or salary? I think there is some sort of Death Benefit were I to die in service and there is a Spouse and Child's element to my pension, although I don't have a spouse.
Where to from here? How can I best save for my children's education and futures? Should I be investing now in some way? My eldest will be finished school in 12 years followed a year after by my youngest.
For those familiar with Dave Ramsey, I am on steps 5 and 6 (Children's education and Pay off house early). I don't know how to get onto step 7! I wouldn't even know how to invest. I could go back working full time and earn more but I feel that I am in a very privileged position to not 'have to' do that right now but I might at some point when the children are older so that would increase both my take home pay and my pension and give us a better lifestyle in terms of holidays/life experiences. However, for now, I'm more present in my children's lives, can take them to sports etc and am able to do half of the school runs, which I think is fairly priceless. I know that I'm in a position that many are working towards but for some reason, I feel that I should be doing more somehow.
Any advice is very welcome.
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