starting a family

J

jezzebel2008

Guest
Age: 29
Spouse’s age: 31

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 34K
Annual gross income of spouse: 40k

Type of employment: public sector

In general are you spending more than you earn or are you saving? Saving
Rough estimate of value of home 240,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 180,000
What interest rate are you paying? 4.9%

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?

Savings and investments: 8k
Spouse:12k

Do you have a pension scheme? yes

Do you own any investment or other property? no

Ages of children:none

Life insurance: yes... the most basic for the mortgage


What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We are married a year and hoping to start a family soon but are very worried about money.... is there anything that we could be doing now that would make life easier
for when we may have a child?

All advice appreciated..
 
Re: advice before starting a family

Why are you worried? You seem to have no unsecured debts, significant savings, jobs for life including pension cover, a mortgage of c. 75% LTV and a competitive rate (or is this just a year one discounted rate?)?

All I can suggest (to improve further on what seems to already be a good/comfortable situation) is to keep a spending diary, see where further savings might be made (within reason - you don't seem to be in any sort of tight spot!) if you want to make your money go further, draw up a spending budget and stick to it and then make sure that you are maximising your savings/investment returns (e.g. look at the Financial Best Buys forum and www.itsyourmoney.ie lists of the best savings accounts/rates on offer and maybe put some money into longer term, higher risk/reward investments such as low charges unit linked equity funds).
 
Re: advice before starting a family

Thanks for the quick reply.

Unfortunately not jobs for life! I wish! I'm on a 2 year contract.. as is himself...
The mortgage is fixed at this rate for 3 years... we're just entering our third year in August.

I'll have a look at itsyourmoney .. thanks.
 
Re: advice before starting a family

I assumed public sector meant permanent and pensionable?
 
Re: advice before starting a family

Ha! Not nowadays! Half my peer group... (maybe it's just my circle?) are on short-term contracts bouncing from one short-term contract to another within the public sector... could be worse though.
 
Re: advice before starting a family

You could if you wanted start a childcare fund - put away a few hundred a month for creche/childminder fees so that you have enough to cover a years' childcare.With both of you on contracts there is a chance someone will be out of work at some stage (possibly). Also if and when you do find yourself on maternity leave you may not get any employer maternity benefit top up if you are not in a permanent job. Better still could you try and get a permanent and pensionable job before you start your family, even if it means a bit of a drop in salary. That way you will get maternity benefits and the option to go back to work.​
 
Re: advice before starting a family

That's good advice re the child care fund.. at least a certain amount would be put aside. Looking at creches here in Cork and the average price near us seems to be €200-230 a week. Some of the girls here at work said they give a private child minder about €150 a week... so at least we have an idea of what we'll be likely to expect down the road...
 
Re: advice before starting a family

That's really useful. Thanks ClubMan.
 
Re: advice before starting a family

sadie said:
Better still could you try and get a permanent and pensionable job before you start your family, even if it means a bit of a drop in salary. That way you will get maternity benefits and the option to go back to work.​
Click to expand...

Unfortunately having a permanent job that is pensionable does not mean that you will get maternity benefits in the form of employer top up. I have a permanent job in a large company that considers itself very progressive and forward looking, yet they give no maternity benefit to any of its female staff (and there are only a few of them).

In my experience this is the norm in most Irish companies (please do correct me if I am wrong) although they are unlikely to disclose this type of information to women until after they have taken a job. It will not be mentioned in interview or in contracts, so it is very difficult for women to work this out in advance. In my experience, most women would not ask this type of information at interview for fear of not getting the job over a man.

Maybe I am totally off the mark here, but this is just my personal opinion on the issue. Has anyone else experienced this, or are there some nice family-friendly companies out there!? I really do hope so.
 
Re: advice before starting a family

Pantone said:
Unfortunately having a permanent job that is pensionable does not mean that you will get maternity benefits in the form of employer top up.
Click to expand...
I don't think that the previous poster was necessarily referring to partial or full salary payment during maternity leave. I assumed they just meant Maternity Benefit (assuming you have the required PRSI contribution track record).

It is certainly not unusual for some employers not to pay ANY salary during maternity leave. It's a contractual issue and there is no statutory entitlement.
 
Re: advice before starting a family

It's a shame that it is optional for employers, or at least its a shame that some choose not to offer anything to employees.
 
Re: advice before starting a family

It is optional for employers to pay salary during maternity leave. Some choose to do so, many as you pointed out ... don't.
 
Re: advice before starting a family

It is also a shame that some employers are already close to going bust - the cheek of them!
 
Re: advice before starting a family

Pantone said:
It's a shame that it is optional for employers, or at least its a shame that some choose not to offer anything to employees.
Click to expand...
Well employees are free to choose an employer or negotiate a contract of employment that guarantees this sort of benefit as part of the package.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top