Exactly.Looks like we need to continue doing the same (maximize pensions, and overpay mortgage where we can).
There are 2 ways to look at this. BOI is 2.9% so with 2% cashback, that is an effective rate of 0.9% for year 1, sounds good. However, one of you will be on unpaid maternity leave so your finances/payslips etc may not look good when you want to switch, especially if the €80k income is on maternity leave, so you could easily end up with BOI for 2 years giving you an effective rate of 1.9%. Still good but maybe not what you were expecting. You are then paying childcare and who knows, maybe baby #2 is on the way so again you end up staying with BOI in year 3 on a fairly high rateRe. mortgage, still considering whether to go with BOI for 1yr get the 2% cashback with 90% LTV and switch to ulster (possibly get below 80% LTV to get the lower rate) or just go with ulster directly. Taking the cashback (plus mortgage saver) gives about €6k extra (even after the extra interest), which is a nice sum. Seems like a no brainer to take the extra cashback but not sure if I'm missing something.
Don't worry, any increase in expenses will be offset by a lack of a social life in the first few monthsI agree re travel systems, just started checking and they are not cheap! On this front, with the baby, we have no idea how much our expenses will increase.
That sounds reasonable if flooring/kitchens and bathrooms are already included. Just make sure to do another revision of your budget to make sure you haven't missed anything. New builds often include kitchen appliances but will not include washing machines/dryers and things like blinds/curtains can be expensive when fitting a full new build. Even things like a garden shed are easily overlooked. You might not need it straight away but you will more than likely want one at some pointIts a new build and we are getting the HTB, budgeting 15k for the furniture etc (flooring and all included in the build price)
Exactly.
There are 2 ways to look at this. BOI is 2.9% so with 2% cashback, that is an effective rate of 0.9% for year 1, sounds good. However, one of you will
Don't worry, any increase in expenses will be offset by a lack of a social life in the first few monthsDon't go crazy on clothing, you will more than
White goods are included thankfully and didn't think of the garden shed tbh. Baby and the move-in to new house might happen around the same time, so I doubt we will have much time/energy to focus on the house too much. So any extras on the house will only happen next year.That sounds reasonable if flooring/kitchens and bathrooms are already included. Just make sure to do another revision of your budget to make sure
Thanks for your inputs and Congrats on the baby ; hope everything went well!My position recently was not dissimilar in terms of baby, savings, income, mortgage size. What sort of package has maternity package has your
I would also suggest paying down the mortgage to give yourself some breathing space, utilising savings. I think there is no benefit to holding much
It's just that 2% cashback + 2k from mortgage saver is very attractive to let go! I will work through the numbers, it might not be worth the hassle like you suggest. On your point about are you suggesting to break the contract and switch to UB or pay back extra 10% and stay with BOI?
1. My plan is to maximize pension contributions to avail of the full tax relief and then overpay mortage repayments with any remaining savings. Is that the right course of action or am I better off investing in stocks without overpaying mortgage.
2. Are there any better ways to save for the baby's future (expenses, education etc. )
Thanks for sharing your experience, it looks like I'll be going ahead with BOI, get cash back and switch to UBMy 2 cents given my experience with buying a house, having a baby, switching mortgage.
Yes, I think holidays would cover 2 of the 6 month unpaid leave. I know there is a 2 week leave I can get but wasn't aware that it's increased which is nice. But I don't think my employer would top it up for the extra 3 weeks, I think they do for the usual 2 weeks, need to check though.While on maternity leave, you accrue public holidays and vacation days, so 10 months of maternity leave could well be ~25 days of holidays built up which you either get paid for, or can use to bridge between the end of your maternity leave (6 months paid, up to 6 months unpaid) and your return date. Parents leave will be 5 weeks paid come April (currently 2 weeks). It's state paid, but some companies do top this up. It must be used in the first 2 years from the childs birth.
I can imagine that, there probably is no limit to these small expenses and they add up!For clothes, carriers, calpol (significant quantities), toys, some furniture etc. I've regularly spent over 2k a year on these. Probably more like 3k when you take in the unknown expenses my wife does. This certainly doesn't include creche.
Yes, that's the plan...to slowly furnish the home. Get the basics sorted first and it looks like both moving in and baby will happen around the same time; so we will not have much time for initial 3-4 months atleast.Furnishing the home:
Take your time. Get to know the rooms in the house and how you'd like them. We started with 1 bed, 3 mattresses (2 would of done), and 2 chairs. We bought our dining table and couches soon after moving in, and have just added over time
It's not purely financial. Is your or your spouse's career consistent with having a young family? Think about working hours, commute, ability to go part time, etc. At one point we had two kids under two and two full-time jobs and something had to give. It wouldn't have worked (for us anyway) on salaries of a million each.
As far as I know, both parents are entitled to parents leave. 5 weeks eachYes, I think holidays would cover 2 of the 6 month unpaid leave. I know there is a 2 week leave I can get but wasn't aware that it's increased which is nice. But I don't think my employer would top it up for the extra 3 weeks, I think they do for the usual 2 weeks, need to check though.
!
Following up on the suggestions to sell off my employer stock. I found that, out of the total 80k in stocks ~60% or 50k is fom my employer's stock. On one hand, I agree it's good practice to diversify, I'm not totally sure what to do with that money after I sell. I don't see a clear alternative investment other than picking stocks individually, which probably isn't any less risky. The advice on the internet seems to be to put that money in an ETF that tracks the world index. However, my understanding is that they are not favourably taxed in Ireland: taxed at 41% with a 8yr deemed disposal and comes with a lot of paper work, so that put me off. So, is paying down the mortgage the only option or is there an alternative?
- Sell off any stock you have in your own company. It is generally a good idea not to have all your eggs in one basket (income and shares)
You have an 90% LTV on your mortgage, so I'd pay this down as much as possible rather than investing outside your pension.So, is paying down the mortgage the only option or is there an alternative?
There is also parental leave:
- Maternity Leave for mother (26 weeks paid + 16 weeks unpaid) + annual leave, holidays etc.
- Paternity Leave for father: 2 weeks in the first 6 months of baby's birth. Will get paternity benefit, need to check if my employer tops it up.
- Parents Leave: 5 weeks each for both parents, need to take within the first year of baby's birth. Will get the parents benfit but need to check if our employers top this up (not likely)
There are other options as you have outlined but non that are a guaranteed return the way paying down your mortgage will be. You are about to drawdown a mortgage at 2.9%. With tax and costs, an ETF would need to give you a pretax return of 5.8% just to match the guaranteed return of your mortgage. How much better than 5.8% do you expect it to perform to give you a better return than your mortgage? You are taking a lot of risk for what what might give a marginally better return. IMO, getting your LTV down to 50-60% should be your priority to get the best rates and reduce your debt.So, is paying down the mortgage the only option or is there an alternative?
Hi Black_Knight, I didn't know this. I looked up the various available leaves related to having a child. Let me know if I missed something or if there are some corrections.
I was aware fo the first two but not the last one. Thanks for pointing it out My wife is going to talk with her HR end of this month to see her options and in what order she needs to take these.
- Maternity Leave for mother (26 weeks paid + 16 weeks unpaid) + annual leave, holidays etc.
- Paternity Leave for father: 2 weeks in the first 6 months of baby's birth. Will get paternity benefit, need to check if my employer tops it up.
- Parents Leave: 5 weeks each for both parents, need to take within the first year of baby's birth. Will get the parents benfit but need to check if our employers top this up (not likely)
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