Age: 32
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 33
Annual gross income from employment or profession: €70000 (+ 12% bonus)
Annual gross income of spouse: €45000 (+10-12k in weekend pay when not on maternity leave)
Monthly take-home pay: Around 6,200 currently or 6,500 when she returns to work.
Type of employment:
I'm private sector and spouse is public sector.
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving around €1800-2000 a month but this is not always consistent.
Rough estimate of value of home:
Last valued at €220,000 in 2019, prices have shot up around here since then and we've added a small extension alongside some other renovations so it will be worth more currently.
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: Around €118,000
What interest rate are you paying?
KBC 2.25% fixed. Payments are €560 per month.
Other borrowings – None
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
Savings and investments:
Approx €14k in savings, we recently spent 45k on home improvements so trying to build this back up a bit. Saving around 2k most months but things like holidays, new furniture and other big purchases come out of these savings. I'd say we actually manage to save around 15k a year that doesn't get touched (with the exception of our renovations this year).
Have around 8k in employer shares scheme, won't get tax benefit on these for a few years.
Do you have a pension scheme?
Yes, I pay in 8% and employer pays in 10%, currently at 40k. 5% is the minimum I need to contribute in order to maximise employer contributions.
Wife is on the single service pension scheme, she will have 30 years service by the time she hopes to retire at 60, we believe this will be worth roughly 7k a year with a 51k lump sum if our maths are correct, assuming no breaks in service. She very recently started a PRSA to facilitate the early retirement and is contributing €400 a month to this also (€240 net).
Do you own any investment or other property? No
Ages of children: 7 weeks old
Life insurance: Yes but not sure what it's worth
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
1.
We've recently become parents and would like to start planning now for our child's college education to take some pressure off us in the future. We live close to 2 big universities, we also hope to have one more child in a couple years.
The plan is to invest the child benefit monthly and the fund we are considering is Zurich Prisma 5. Is this a decent choice considering we have very little knowledge of investments?
2.
We have been considering our pensions and when we would like to retire. Right now, 60 seems to be the golden number which gives us 27 years to prepare. Trying to strike the right balance between contributing enough to be in a good position but also not sacrificing too much now for something so far in the future. Our contributions at the moment are comfortable for us. I will be due a 2-5% raise early next year so I'll likely add that to my pension fund also.
3.
We are lucky to have a low mortgage and maybe we should be overpaying here? We are currently happy with where we are living. There is still the possibility of future upsizing in 5+ years depending on circumstances but its not a necessity.
4.
When my wife returns to work next year, my father will do childminding for us. We'd like the money we pay him for this to count towards his public pension contributions as he is still a bit away from retirement age and not currently working. Is this possible? Would he need to actually register as a childminder? How do we set this up?
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 33
Annual gross income from employment or profession: €70000 (+ 12% bonus)
Annual gross income of spouse: €45000 (+10-12k in weekend pay when not on maternity leave)
Monthly take-home pay: Around 6,200 currently or 6,500 when she returns to work.
Type of employment:
I'm private sector and spouse is public sector.
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving around €1800-2000 a month but this is not always consistent.
Rough estimate of value of home:
Last valued at €220,000 in 2019, prices have shot up around here since then and we've added a small extension alongside some other renovations so it will be worth more currently.
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: Around €118,000
What interest rate are you paying?
KBC 2.25% fixed. Payments are €560 per month.
Other borrowings – None
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
Savings and investments:
Approx €14k in savings, we recently spent 45k on home improvements so trying to build this back up a bit. Saving around 2k most months but things like holidays, new furniture and other big purchases come out of these savings. I'd say we actually manage to save around 15k a year that doesn't get touched (with the exception of our renovations this year).
Have around 8k in employer shares scheme, won't get tax benefit on these for a few years.
Do you have a pension scheme?
Yes, I pay in 8% and employer pays in 10%, currently at 40k. 5% is the minimum I need to contribute in order to maximise employer contributions.
Wife is on the single service pension scheme, she will have 30 years service by the time she hopes to retire at 60, we believe this will be worth roughly 7k a year with a 51k lump sum if our maths are correct, assuming no breaks in service. She very recently started a PRSA to facilitate the early retirement and is contributing €400 a month to this also (€240 net).
Do you own any investment or other property? No
Ages of children: 7 weeks old
Life insurance: Yes but not sure what it's worth
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
1.
We've recently become parents and would like to start planning now for our child's college education to take some pressure off us in the future. We live close to 2 big universities, we also hope to have one more child in a couple years.
The plan is to invest the child benefit monthly and the fund we are considering is Zurich Prisma 5. Is this a decent choice considering we have very little knowledge of investments?
2.
We have been considering our pensions and when we would like to retire. Right now, 60 seems to be the golden number which gives us 27 years to prepare. Trying to strike the right balance between contributing enough to be in a good position but also not sacrificing too much now for something so far in the future. Our contributions at the moment are comfortable for us. I will be due a 2-5% raise early next year so I'll likely add that to my pension fund also.
3.
We are lucky to have a low mortgage and maybe we should be overpaying here? We are currently happy with where we are living. There is still the possibility of future upsizing in 5+ years depending on circumstances but its not a necessity.
4.
When my wife returns to work next year, my father will do childminding for us. We'd like the money we pay him for this to count towards his public pension contributions as he is still a bit away from retirement age and not currently working. Is this possible? Would he need to actually register as a childminder? How do we set this up?