Age: 34
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 33
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 120,000
Annual gross income of spouse: 65,000
Monthly take-home pay 9,500ish
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed
Me public sector, wife private sector
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving about 2,500 per month
Rough estimate of value of home 600,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 300,000
What interest rate are you paying? 2.9% with BoI, 1 year fixed. Overpay by 10% monthly (most permitted). Obviously considerably higher rate than we would like, but there are reasons for this. We switched from AIB 3 years ago for 3% cash back. We got 2% immediately, with the other 1% if you're still with BoI after 5 years, so 2 more years to go before we get approx 3,500. Also, we have both changed jobs in the last 12 months so between probation periods and that kind of thing, we would have been unable to switch. We will go to Avant as soon as we get the 3,500 from BoI.
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
None
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? Zero
Savings and investments:
Prize bonds 80,000
Cash 40,000
Do you have a pension scheme?
I have a PRSA pension from when I was in the private sector and it's worth circa 100,000, no more contributions being made obviously but I left it with the PRSA provider in one of the high growth/risk funds and it will continue to be managed. I am in a DB career average public sector scheme now. No AVCs set up yet.
My wife is in a DC scheme and it's worth approx 40,000, she only recently maxed pension contributions.
Do you own any investment or other property?
No.
Ages of children: 3 and 1, unlikely to have any more.
Life insurance: Both my wife and I have 3x salary.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We feel like we are at a crossroads in our lives now, and if we make some good decisions at this stage, they will pay dividends in the next 10/20/30 years and beyond. The specific questions I would really appreciate people's views on are:
1. We're looking at picking one of the following options in the next 12 months. Should we (a) trade up our PPR (principal private residence), (b) buy a second property as an investment/headstart for kids or (c) buy a place abroad for pleasure? Or any other suggestions welcome! Just to give some further information:
(a) Trade up PPR
Our PPR is in a decent area of Dublin (one of the many Dublin areas that is within 1km of €1m houses and also of very disadvantaged areas) and it's a fairly nice house. It's a 1960s house and has a few problems (e.g. small leak in extension), it's perhaps a little smaller upstairs than we'd like (it's a dormer bungalow), so we would quite like a slightly bigger house in a slightly better area, although the house and area are perfectly adequate. We have decent equity in our PPR having bought in 2015, so although the market is hot right now, we would be benefiting on the sell side as well as paying for it on the buy side. We would be thinking of buying something in the 750,000-850,000 range.
(b) Buy a second property
Neither of us are particularly keen to be landlords, but we like the idea of having a second property if our kids need a headstart in a few years, somewhere they could move into during college or with their partner to save for a deposit. I know this is a fairly long-term view, but I think we could afford to buy a 2 bed property within the canals or on the LUAS line, rent it for a good few years, and then turn it over to our kids for their use when they need it in the future, before returning it to us to form some part of our pension income in future. We'd be thinking of buying something in the 240,000-320,000 range. It would not be a pure investment play, as we appreciate the fact that income tax is paid on rental income and that it would be unlikely to fully wash its face.
(c) Buy a place abroad
We both like the idea of having a place in Spain and having it in the family. We think we would use it plenty (or as much as our annual leave allows), our parents are alive and would get plenty of use out of it, and we would both love to spend 6 months a year in Spain when we eventually retire. That's obviously a long time away, but if we're going to buy a place abroad, we'd like to do it when our kids are young so we could enjoy it and create loads of invaluable family memories there. This option obviously makes the least sense financially!
2. We have too much tied in prizebonds/cash but what else can we do with it for the next 12 months?
We have 120,000 between prizebonds and cash which is obviously too much. We will be using it in about a year or so to avail of one of the options outlined above. Is there anything we can do in the meantime? I feel we have adequate exposure to equities via my PRSA and my wife's pension (please feel free to disagree) and I don't understand crypto so don't want to invest in it. Maybe we should just leave it be for now?
3. Would it make sense for us to meet a financial adviser and, if so, could anyone recommend one?
I'm very happy to pay for financial advice on an hourly basis but I not interested in paying trail/continuing fees (whatever they are called, the ones that keep paying the adviser for years after the product is chosen). I also sometimes feel that we don't earn enough/have enough wealth to justify going to a financial adviser. What do people think? Ideally, I'd like someone who understands public sector pensions, but I understand from reading that forum that such people are thin on the ground.
Thank you for reading.
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 33
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 120,000
Annual gross income of spouse: 65,000
Monthly take-home pay 9,500ish
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed
Me public sector, wife private sector
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving about 2,500 per month
Rough estimate of value of home 600,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 300,000
What interest rate are you paying? 2.9% with BoI, 1 year fixed. Overpay by 10% monthly (most permitted). Obviously considerably higher rate than we would like, but there are reasons for this. We switched from AIB 3 years ago for 3% cash back. We got 2% immediately, with the other 1% if you're still with BoI after 5 years, so 2 more years to go before we get approx 3,500. Also, we have both changed jobs in the last 12 months so between probation periods and that kind of thing, we would have been unable to switch. We will go to Avant as soon as we get the 3,500 from BoI.
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
None
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? Zero
Savings and investments:
Prize bonds 80,000
Cash 40,000
Do you have a pension scheme?
I have a PRSA pension from when I was in the private sector and it's worth circa 100,000, no more contributions being made obviously but I left it with the PRSA provider in one of the high growth/risk funds and it will continue to be managed. I am in a DB career average public sector scheme now. No AVCs set up yet.
My wife is in a DC scheme and it's worth approx 40,000, she only recently maxed pension contributions.
Do you own any investment or other property?
No.
Ages of children: 3 and 1, unlikely to have any more.
Life insurance: Both my wife and I have 3x salary.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We feel like we are at a crossroads in our lives now, and if we make some good decisions at this stage, they will pay dividends in the next 10/20/30 years and beyond. The specific questions I would really appreciate people's views on are:
1. We're looking at picking one of the following options in the next 12 months. Should we (a) trade up our PPR (principal private residence), (b) buy a second property as an investment/headstart for kids or (c) buy a place abroad for pleasure? Or any other suggestions welcome! Just to give some further information:
(a) Trade up PPR
Our PPR is in a decent area of Dublin (one of the many Dublin areas that is within 1km of €1m houses and also of very disadvantaged areas) and it's a fairly nice house. It's a 1960s house and has a few problems (e.g. small leak in extension), it's perhaps a little smaller upstairs than we'd like (it's a dormer bungalow), so we would quite like a slightly bigger house in a slightly better area, although the house and area are perfectly adequate. We have decent equity in our PPR having bought in 2015, so although the market is hot right now, we would be benefiting on the sell side as well as paying for it on the buy side. We would be thinking of buying something in the 750,000-850,000 range.
(b) Buy a second property
Neither of us are particularly keen to be landlords, but we like the idea of having a second property if our kids need a headstart in a few years, somewhere they could move into during college or with their partner to save for a deposit. I know this is a fairly long-term view, but I think we could afford to buy a 2 bed property within the canals or on the LUAS line, rent it for a good few years, and then turn it over to our kids for their use when they need it in the future, before returning it to us to form some part of our pension income in future. We'd be thinking of buying something in the 240,000-320,000 range. It would not be a pure investment play, as we appreciate the fact that income tax is paid on rental income and that it would be unlikely to fully wash its face.
(c) Buy a place abroad
We both like the idea of having a place in Spain and having it in the family. We think we would use it plenty (or as much as our annual leave allows), our parents are alive and would get plenty of use out of it, and we would both love to spend 6 months a year in Spain when we eventually retire. That's obviously a long time away, but if we're going to buy a place abroad, we'd like to do it when our kids are young so we could enjoy it and create loads of invaluable family memories there. This option obviously makes the least sense financially!
2. We have too much tied in prizebonds/cash but what else can we do with it for the next 12 months?
We have 120,000 between prizebonds and cash which is obviously too much. We will be using it in about a year or so to avail of one of the options outlined above. Is there anything we can do in the meantime? I feel we have adequate exposure to equities via my PRSA and my wife's pension (please feel free to disagree) and I don't understand crypto so don't want to invest in it. Maybe we should just leave it be for now?
3. Would it make sense for us to meet a financial adviser and, if so, could anyone recommend one?
I'm very happy to pay for financial advice on an hourly basis but I not interested in paying trail/continuing fees (whatever they are called, the ones that keep paying the adviser for years after the product is chosen). I also sometimes feel that we don't earn enough/have enough wealth to justify going to a financial adviser. What do people think? Ideally, I'd like someone who understands public sector pensions, but I understand from reading that forum that such people are thin on the ground.
Thank you for reading.
