Money Advice after redundancy

[MaxKing]

Hello,

I have recently been made redundant after many years working as a company accountant with the same company.

I am 55 years old, married with 2 kids in a non fee paying secondary school. My wife is 50 years old and has a part time job earning c. € 20k p.a.

These are our assets:
PPR - worth c. € 450k
Holiday home - worth c. € 350k
Cash - € 400k
Pension fund for me - € 650k. My wife does not have a pension fund.
2 cars combined worth - € 30k

We have no debts, mortgages etc. We live in a university town.
Medical insurance, life insurance, PHI cover was paid by my job.

The redundancy has been sudden and very unsettling for me. I have a few questions:

1. What, if anything, should I do with the cash ?
2. Should I continue to pay into my pension fund. I will have taxable income this year, not sure about next year obviously.
3. Probably outside the remit of this forum, but how marketable is a 55 year old accountant re employment ? A part time role may suffice.

Thanks.

 

[cremeegg]

Firstly I want to acknowledge how tough it is to be made redundant like this. I know. And take your time to process it, allow yourself space to be unsettled for a while, months at the least.

Your cashflow allows you to make a pension contribution, take advantage of the tax break while it's there.

Work up an idea of how much realistically you need to live on annually, basically what you have been living on less any thing you can easily give up.

What major future expenses have you, 2 kids by 4 years by €6k say €50k, (great to live in a university town).

You can keep that for college pay yourself €35k for 10 years and keep the holiday home. Is that plus your wife's income enough?

Get part time work (easy enough to get on a self employed basis) to renew the cars.

 

[MaxKing]

Thanks cremeegg,

I realise that we are in a fortunate position cash wise etc., and point taken re taking processing time. It has really floored me.

We live fairly modestly, spent money on the houses mostly.

 

[David1234]

Big congrats on being in such a strong financial position.

I am 20 years your junior and also an accountant who has recently been made redundant. You absolutely should no be worrying about your employment prospects at 55. You are a qualified professional with what I can only assume to be fantastic experience giving you access to so many industries and sectors. My only advice would be to take the next few months off to regroup and plan your next step. The job market is relatively slow at the moment so take a step back and enjoy what will hopefully be a nice few months of weather. You could meet with a few executive recruiters in September and let them do the work for you. It may be an opportunity to take a step back into a more relaxed environment or potentially look at taking a step to progress your career.

I would certainly be contributing the max allowable into your pension this year while looking at setting up a pension fund for your wife. I don't have much advice about the cash but I would be looking to diversify it in some way. What sort of a fund is your pension in? If it is lower risk I would be looking to invest a portion of the cash in equities and when you get your next job I presume the cash amount will increase on a monthly basis.