Personal details:
Your age: 43
Spouse's age: 41
Number and age of children: 7,9,12
Income and expenditure:
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 52k(Private sector employee)
Annual gross income of spouse/partner: 75k(Public sector employee)
Monthly take-home pay: 3132
Monthly take-home pay of spouse : 3291
Expenditure Pattern: Savers, we would generally save in and around 10k per year. We don’t make a conscious effort to save per se but wouldn't spend money foolishly.
Other borrowings:
None
Savings and investments:
90k savings.
Do you have a pension scheme?
Myself – Private defined contribution, I pay 6% of salary per month and company matches this(Current value - 152k)
Spouse – Public service defined benefit pension, spouse has also been paying AVCs for approx. 5 years with a view/option to retire at 55.
Do you own any investment or other property?
Family home value: 450k
Mortgage on family home: no mortgage, own the property outright, paid off our mortgage 8 months ago.
Other information which might be relevant
We both have life cover and death in service benefits, my wife also has salary protection.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We have both been in full-time employement for 20+ years, paying into pensions all of those years and have reached a point where we have paid off our mortgage. We also have 90k in savings as mentioned above(this was in an AIB fixed term savings account over the past year or so). So recently we have had to think about how we can make this money work for us going forward(beat inflation etc). If we put 20k aside for a ‘rainy day’ we have 70k to work with. Our next big financial outlay is likely college, part of me would like to think we would be able to afford that without calling on the 70k when the time comes. So, looking for advice on where/how to invest this(8-10 years), some options/thoughts on reading these forums(kudos to all the excellent contributors btw):
1) AVCs, so this jumps out from reading the forums, i need to make AVCs, my thought is to increase to 15% of my salary for now at least, this allows me so maximise the tax saving at the 40% rate.....i think!?!). If after a few months this feels manageable i might up it to 25% but conscious of the fact that we need to live a little too and it feels like a long way to retirement
Next Steps in terms of the 70k, this is where we are unsure, we are generally risk averse(throw in the current uncertainty with a possible AI bubble, ongoing Geo-political fallout etc) but need to take the plunge I guess:
2) Direct shares: seems to be the most tax efficient way(no deemed disposal, avail of yearly CGT). Downside: feels riskier as it is ‘self-managed’, would need to upskill in this area.
3) ETFs: Relatively safe in the long term as it is tracking an index but the headache of deemed disposal/high exit tax etc is off putting in Ireland.
4) Managed Funds: Have looked into Zurich Prisma funds for example, conscious of the the management fee's here of course.
5) National solitary bond, guaranteed return. Downside - most of the return is near the end of the term and the return is average at best.
6) Property: We had toyed with the idea of saving towards a second property (there are a lot of Air BnBs locally with a healthy tourist season and good returns), but house prices are extortionate and i know a few have mentioned new regulations around Air BnBs and the general trend of getting more difficult for landlords so this is probably a non-starter/bad idea.
7) Any other options? Or anything obvious I am neglecting. I know there is a new state savings plan coming down the tracks as recently announced, but probably a bad idea to sit tight until that is rolled out(very little info around what/when etc).
Grateful for any suggestions(so much to consider!) and thanks for reading
Your age: 43
Spouse's age: 41
Number and age of children: 7,9,12
Income and expenditure:
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 52k(Private sector employee)
Annual gross income of spouse/partner: 75k(Public sector employee)
Monthly take-home pay: 3132
Monthly take-home pay of spouse : 3291
Expenditure Pattern: Savers, we would generally save in and around 10k per year. We don’t make a conscious effort to save per se but wouldn't spend money foolishly.
Other borrowings:
None
Savings and investments:
90k savings.
Do you have a pension scheme?
Myself – Private defined contribution, I pay 6% of salary per month and company matches this(Current value - 152k)
Spouse – Public service defined benefit pension, spouse has also been paying AVCs for approx. 5 years with a view/option to retire at 55.
Do you own any investment or other property?
Family home value: 450k
Mortgage on family home: no mortgage, own the property outright, paid off our mortgage 8 months ago.
Other information which might be relevant
We both have life cover and death in service benefits, my wife also has salary protection.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We have both been in full-time employement for 20+ years, paying into pensions all of those years and have reached a point where we have paid off our mortgage. We also have 90k in savings as mentioned above(this was in an AIB fixed term savings account over the past year or so). So recently we have had to think about how we can make this money work for us going forward(beat inflation etc). If we put 20k aside for a ‘rainy day’ we have 70k to work with. Our next big financial outlay is likely college, part of me would like to think we would be able to afford that without calling on the 70k when the time comes. So, looking for advice on where/how to invest this(8-10 years), some options/thoughts on reading these forums(kudos to all the excellent contributors btw):
1) AVCs, so this jumps out from reading the forums, i need to make AVCs, my thought is to increase to 15% of my salary for now at least, this allows me so maximise the tax saving at the 40% rate.....i think!?!). If after a few months this feels manageable i might up it to 25% but conscious of the fact that we need to live a little too and it feels like a long way to retirement
Next Steps in terms of the 70k, this is where we are unsure, we are generally risk averse(throw in the current uncertainty with a possible AI bubble, ongoing Geo-political fallout etc) but need to take the plunge I guess:
2) Direct shares: seems to be the most tax efficient way(no deemed disposal, avail of yearly CGT). Downside: feels riskier as it is ‘self-managed’, would need to upskill in this area.
3) ETFs: Relatively safe in the long term as it is tracking an index but the headache of deemed disposal/high exit tax etc is off putting in Ireland.
4) Managed Funds: Have looked into Zurich Prisma funds for example, conscious of the the management fee's here of course.
5) National solitary bond, guaranteed return. Downside - most of the return is near the end of the term and the return is average at best.
6) Property: We had toyed with the idea of saving towards a second property (there are a lot of Air BnBs locally with a healthy tourist season and good returns), but house prices are extortionate and i know a few have mentioned new regulations around Air BnBs and the general trend of getting more difficult for landlords so this is probably a non-starter/bad idea.
7) Any other options? Or anything obvious I am neglecting. I know there is a new state savings plan coming down the tracks as recently announced, but probably a bad idea to sit tight until that is rolled out(very little info around what/when etc).
Grateful for any suggestions(so much to consider!) and thanks for reading