Firstly, well done on the savings, looks very impressive on paper.
I would suggest you take a look at the following "Best Buys" thread: http://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/savings-best-buys.90481/
It deals with best buys for fixed term, regular and instant access savings.
You dont mention anything about investing so I'm guessing you are happy to stay in cash (i.e. deposit accounts). From looking at your deposit split, you don't seem to have any structure e.g. E49K in an instant access deposit account, E27K in another and E23K in another. Basically you have E99K in demand accounts, which is beyond crazy - why would you need E99K on demand?!!
Also, your regular savers at 1.75% are terrible, KBC pay a 3%, while NationWide UK Ireland have a 15 month account for 4%. All info is in bests buys above. You and your spouse can open individual ones too.
You need to decide what money you need access to (emergency fund in instant access accounts), what lump sum money you may need in medium term (lump sum in 1 or more fixed term accounts for 1 or two years), and what money you can save day-to-day (regular saver at highest rate of interest).
Thank you all so much. You are all a great help. Honestly we have had our heads stuck in the sand regarding the savings & the pension! After allocating the money for the bills / car every week, we have just been spending the rest and do not give any thought to the different saving accounts etc.
Regarding the pension, my husband is with the Construction Workers Pension Scheme. I think this is the only pension scheme he can be part of. At 31/12/2014 the value of the account was €61k, avc value was €34k. For 2014 the employer contribution was €1592, employee €1061 and avcs paid €2850. I have increased the avcs to €100 per week lately.
on the p21 for 2014 €5241 was charged at 41%, can I send in an avc cheque for this amount to CWPS, will this entitle my husband to a refund of 41% of this amount? Good idea or no? Will I increase his weekly AVC's further for 2015 or wait until year end?
I have just reduced the amount in the rabo account to 19500 which means for now at least we are on a rate of 1.75%. The only trouble is I know have the difference sitting in my current account!!
So I need to organise the NTMA savings scheme & the other Rabo 30 day account.
The two 21 day notice PTSB accounts with the €7400 & the €14900 are for the kids, we have just put away whatever gifts / childrens allowance over the years into these accounts. I would prefer to keep these separate and continue to lodge the childrens allowance every month to these accounts. Any suggestions for this? KBC or Nationwide UK Ireland? Can I have two accounts or can I have them in our separate names with their names as reference?
Thanks again, I know we are a disaster!!! We do realise we are in a fortunate situation in that we don't owe anybody any money but we do need to get sorted!!
Kbc and nationwide uk have best regular Saver interest rate. Don't waste this on children's allowance (as I assume mo n they amount is fairly small). Instead ensure you deposit the max allowed for these per month, 1k, in order to get most interest. Put children's money in some other account then. You can open both kbc and nationwide simultaneously, as can your husband.
Life insurance: none
You are of course correct but I find it very difficult to get excited about regular saver accounts.
What's the difference, after DIRT, over, say, 12 months between putting €1,000 in a Nationwide UK regular saver account and a PTSB regular saver account? It's probably less than €100 - every little help and all that but is it really a sufficient saving to justify the time and hassle involved with opening and operating a new account?
Don't forget to spend some money on yourself too and enjoy life , I had a look at the state savings ,interest rates are so low now everywhere it's depressing I can't find the urgency to move bank account for tiny percentages here and there , personally I'd rather the cash to hand rather than lock it away for 3 years in NTMA , I'm thinking of the oppurtunity cost in locking it away small chance I see a good deal in the next 3 years land / property a business maybe that's just me though , great advice sarenco you really know your stuff , quick question if you don't mind ( sorry for hijacking thread )
An AVC or pension contribution is only good because you get tax relief , is this correct? I work part time so pay a tiny amount of tax 30 a week maybe so an AVC is no use to me ? I'm better off or equally as well just investing in equities for my own future ?
Well in my opinion there's no point people complaining about poor deposit rates if they aren't maximising what's available. Minimal hassle IMHO to setup new account and after that it's just a direct debit, zero hassle.
Thanks very much for your detailed reply Sarenco , some points there about pensions I had no idea about , i'll hopefully post up here my own situation soon and pick the great brains on this site. Thanks again .
Ps I also complain about the rates , it's not so much the rates but the fact that the government have DIRT so high when deposit interest is so low thats very annoying and almost sinful
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