Moneymakeover Mid-40s & need to be ready for early (unplanned?) career exit

One possibility would be to dollar cost average into a diversified portfolio of dividend paying blue chip stocks to generate long term income. With your wife's gross income at €11.7k she is leaving a lot of potential standard rate tax band on the table that could be earning dividends. The considerable downside here is that it requires researching and forming a view on stocks which is not for everyone, particularly if you already have a demanding full-time job. Unfortunately, for reasons that will remain a mystery, the Irish personal taxation environment makes it very difficult to do the (imo) highly ethical and moral job of building a cushion to reduce the risk that one ends up a burden on other taxpayers.

Fully concur with your understanding of the risk around high salaried employments in this environment and the fact you recognise this puts you in a good position.
 
I have been reading up on investment options & I assume ETFs seem like the right path forward for me. I have neither the time nor the capability nor the risk apatite to be picking out individual dividend-paying stocks. If I am missing something, let me know.

dollar cost average
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I get the concept & it makes sense I take that approach given my current cash position & market uncertainty. Just not sure what investment I should make every month: should I be doing €1k / month, €5k/month or €10k/month? Any perspectives?
 
sm7940333 said:
I have been reading up on investment options & I assume ETFs seem like the right path forward for me. I have neither the time nor the capability nor the risk apatite to be picking out individual dividend-paying stocks.
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And nor should you unless what you’re after is gambling.

Assuming you’ve maxed out all the other more tax-efficient and guaranteed return avenues (AVCs, any ESPP or tax-efficient stock purchase scheme your employer provides), which it looks like you have, then invest in a accumulative passively-managed index fund tracking the global equity market (tracking the MSCI World or FTSE Developed World index). Pick the one with the lowest fee. And that’s it. Don’t touch it then no matter what the market does. In your situation, I’d keep at least one year of expenses in cash however.

Later on, if you have more time and headspace to look into those things and really want to get into gambling, you can start to do stock picking or build a portfolio of funds. I wouldn’t advise it myself but some like the thrill.

sm7940333 said:
I get the concept & it makes sense I take that approach given my current cash position & market uncertainty. Just not sure what investment I should make every month: should I be doing €1k / month, €5k/month or €10k/month? Any perspectives?
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Honestly, don’t overthink it. It’s been shown time and time again by just about every study that time in the market beats everything else. And no-one has a crystal ball that can tell what will happen tomorrow, next month or next year.

Yes, the market is uncertain. But you could have said that at any point in the last 5 years. Anyone who held off investing because of uncertainty would have lost a massive upside opportunity.

Dollar cost averaging’s purpose is purely to assuage the feeling of “what if I invest it all today and the market crashes tomorrow”. But in practice, it’s actually counter-productive.

I can’t post links here but search for “Dollar Cost Averaging vs Lump Sum Investing” by Ben Felix on YouTube. And generally speaking, his videos and his Rational Reminder podcast are some of the best, if not the best, sources of down-to-earth, grounded and rational investment advice based on actual academic research instead of personal opinion (just keep in mind that he’s Canadian so you still need to layer on the added complexity of the Irish tax laws).

So if you’re going to invest your lump sum:
  • The cold, rational way that’s the most likely to provide the best return: invest it all in one go as soon as possible.
  • If, from a psychological point of view, you’re too anxious to do this (“what if it crashed tomorrow, I’ll always regret it”), take your lump sum, divide in 12, invest the same amount once a month over a year. Again, I have no crystal ball here. I picked 12 because it sounds nice. The main thing is to be invested as quickly as you can bear it.
 
PandPs - agree, yet "investing all in one go" must be qualified with something on levels of diversification, right? Are we talking all of it into an an ETF heavily focused on the S&P500 - the go to for many in recent years, or go all in but across multiple asset classes to secure large diversification?

The purests on the forum will remind us nobody can time the market. Yet for the past quarter many whales and institutions are flowing cash into gold, silver, and similar "safe havens". Maybe the rational move remains - go all in in one go - yet it feels like a good time to ensure diversification at the higher end of the spectrum.

sm7940333 do review your outgoing ASAP. Even factoring holidays, it is really not clear what might be driving your monthly costs if you don't have flash cars or mortgages. I'd be concerned there might be some problematic outgoing that you aren't aware of e.g., fraudulent monthly withdrawal.

Small point - if your partner is on a low income or part-time job ensure you are triggering all possible revenue allowances to reduce your tax. I examine this yearly and despite being informed I still seem to unearth some incremental credits. ChatGPT is not bad at helping audit/unearth these things too.

Congratulations on working yourselves into a great position. It feels like even in high earning gigs the DB pensions are still extremely rare to bag. Dare I ask the sector?
 
Thanks for the push @PandPs. After many years of thinking about it, I finally made the next step after your post. I invested €270k in Vanguard FTSE All-World.

@presidenttttt Good point - I'll do a deep-dive on spent & post in due course.

Currently, I am maxing out my monthly AVCs and will take full advantage of share purchase scheme in the coming months. I still have €265k in the bank. I need to put some thought into how much of an emergency fund I need (related to current out-goings). Then look to invest excess. Also, will look into how to diversify further.

As for tax credits, I think we're good. I do a check every year & will do so again in the coming weeks as I prepare to submit 2025 numbers to Revenue.
 
Since my first post in OCT25, we've put some effort into reducing our Cost of Living. As a reminder... we were spending on average €10k per month across Cost of Living & Vacations – I don’t have the split. Our monthly net income is approx. €10k.

Financial Plan for 2026
We are targeting a monthly spend of less than €4,700 per month => €56.4k per year. Given we have no mortgage, it’s probably on the high-side for a family of 5; but it would be a significant reduction vs 2025 spend. Separately, we're going to budget €17k for vacations. Probably on the high side too, but life is short. So we’re going to budget for a total annual spend per year of €73k.

Currently thinking of keeping 1-year Cost of Living (say €56k) as the emergency fund. Keen to get feedback on that approach.

In addition, we're already maxing out our pension contributions & my partner has also opted-in for MyFutureFund. With the excess cash (say €4k per month), we’ll look to invest €36k per year – more on this topic in a future post.

Critically, we’re going to try to do a monthly review of spend & that will help us course correct as necessary.

How are we doing so far?
For JAN-26, our Cost of Living was €5,381 - details below. We know we're not at our budget target yet; but we've taken actions that will help get us there. We’ll see the benefit of changing our electricity provide in FEB (€800 per year); other changes like changing mobile phone provider & broadband will happen in the coming months. This does not include the vacation spend of €8,408 in JAN-26 for flights & accommodations for later in the year.

JAN-26 Cost of Living Analysis
€5,381 = 1/12th of Annual Spend + Regular Spend... I do need to forecast the other big one-off spends through the year (LPT, car insurance, etc.) & factor it into the plan. This may have an impact on our budget target.
Total Monthly Cost of Living
€850​
€5,311​
€6,161​
Category​
Annual Spends​
Regular Spend​
Total​
Grocery
€1,215​
€1,215​
Insurance
€561​
€253​
€813​
Eating or Going Out
€793​
€793​
Cash / Unknown
€535​
€535​
Sports & Fitness
€531​
€531​
Bills
€472​
€472​
Health
€365​
€365​
Clothes & Accessories
€344​
€344​
Online & Random Purchases
€272​
€272​
Car / Fuel
€256​
€256​
TV Licence
€160​
​
€160​
IT
€99​
€51​
€150​
Learning & Development
€100​
€100​
Pet
€90​
€90​
Banking
€30​
€13​
€43​
Charity / Gifts
€21​
€21​


JAN-26 One-off-Spend Analysis
Total One-Off Spends
€11,391​
€0​
€11,391​
Category
Annual​
Regular SpendTotal
Vacation
€8,408​
€0​
€8,408​
AVCs for 2025
€2,983​
€0​
€2,983​
 
I’d appreciate some guidance on investing a lump sum of ~€250k, pension allocations & diversification. This follows a recent Money Makeover.

We’re in a fortunate position financially. However, my role is senior & at risk to re-orgs. If I were made redundant, I expect I’d find work, but likely at a significantly lower level of compensation. The aim is to make the most of our current earnings while managing downside risk.

If we budget appropriately & reduce our cash / emergency fund to €40k, we have approximately €250k available to invest, with the potential to invest an additional €3k per month. We are both in our mid-40s, have no mortgage & max out pension contributions annually.

​

Key Questions
Open to any suggestions, but specifically trying to answer:
  • Pensions: Are our current pension fund allocations appropriate given our age & risk tolerance?
  • ETFs: Should we continue investing in the same ETF or consider diversification?
  • Single-Stock Risk: Should I sell shares from my previous employer & reinvest into a diversified ETF?


Current Pension & Asset Overview
Me – PRSA (Current Employer, Irish Life)
  • Current Value: €13k
  • Funds:
    • EMPOWER Growth Fund (Risk 4/7): €1.9k
    • EMPOWER High Growth Fund (Risk 5/7): €11.3k
  • Annual Contribution: €44k (incl. employer)
​

Me – AVC (Previous Employer, Mercer)
  • Current Value: €82k
  • Funds:
    • Aspire High Growth Portfolio F4 SICF (Risk 5/7): €24k
    • Passive Global Equity Unhedged B2 SIPB (Risk 6/7): €17k
    • Aspire Moderate Growth Portfolio I4 SHYI (Risk 5/7): €22k
    • Active Global Equity Unhedged Y (Risk 6/7): €17k
​

Me – Defined Benefit Pension (Previous Employer)
  • Expected Benefit: ~€50k per year
​

Partner – PRSA (Zurich)
  • Current Value: €137k
  • Funds:
    • Dynamic Fund (Risk 5/7): €112k
    • Performance Fund (Risk 5/7): €24k
  • Annual Contribution: €3k
​

Other Assets (Non-Pension)
  • €153k in shares from previous employer / MNC (after tax)
  • €270k in ETF – Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS
​

Any thoughts on risk balance, over-concentration, or alternative approaches would be very welcome. Happy to clarify anything if needed.
 
Sell the shares
Think about your pension allocations - why are you mixing those funds instead of picking the level you want?
Stop spending so much on random stuff and clothes
Stop using cash
Question your car costs. Are you driving too much or running inefficient vehicles
 
There is a lot of overlap of holdings in the various pension pots. At your ages, I would simplify and invest each pension pot 100% in whatever global equity index fund is offered by each provider.

It would probably be worth doing an audit of the costs associated with each pension to make sure you are getting good value.

As regards your after-tax savings, given the reliance on your income and the perceived lack of security of your position, I don’t think it would be excessive to keep 2 years of projected expenses - around €150k - on deposit. Anything over that can be invested in a global equity ETF.

I agree with others that you should start to liquidate the shareholding in your previous employer - it’s too concentrated a holding.
 
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