Hi eco,
in answer to the only question I can see you have asked "
What changes could be made to financial situation?" - the only plausible answers are lots, none, some
But to be serious about it, financial decisions and financial planning should be about how you want to live your life not vice versa. So the first part of financial planning is to look at what you (and your partner) want out of life. Then translate these into financial goals, then look at how to achieve them via planning, budgeting, saving, spending, borrowing, etc.
So to give you an idea you should think about some of the following questions. You don't have to answer them here but they help you with the next step, setting objectives:
1) Do you want to continue working in the sort of job that you are (or rather were) doing?
If not, do you want to engage in further education to change your job prospects?
If yes, what sort of education do you want to do?
2) Do you see yourself always working for someone else or do you envisage yourself running your own business? Is it something you'd ever be interested in or something that you'd see as taking over your life?
3) Do you want children?
4) Do you want to own your own property? Do you want to stay renting?
5) Do you want to stay in Ireland? Would you like to live abroad for a time?
6) What do you think about for retirement?
7) The above are mostly lifetime things but other things to consider are lifestyle choices like holidays and cars.
Have a think about all of those and any others you can come up with and then use them to define some long, medium and short term objectives
Long-term objectives would be things like
- buying a house
- building up a retirement fund
- children (esp education!)
- setting up a business
basically anything that would be achieved over several years.
Medium term objectives could be:
- buying a car
- buying a boat!
- doing a training course or gaining a third level qualification
So anything that reasonably could be achieved in say between one and five years (time is not the only consideration but medium term would probably be at most five years)
Short term objectives could be:
- going on holidays
- planning for Christmas
- a short training course
- a new job
- buying more expensive items like say spectacles if you needed them or paying for unanticipated bills like a doctors bill or a wedding present.
So things that you'd probably achieve in the next year.
Once you have those objectives in mind you can then start thinking about how to acheive them. Your savings are the key to best achieving most objectives. You would probably want to apportion them to different funds:
That would be you'd have a long terms savings for things like house deposit, children, etc. A part of long term savings might be to look at whether it would be right to set up a pension, on your income it may not be the best use of your savings since you wouldn't benefit so much from the tax relief that pensions attract but it is still worth considering before ruling out.
A medium term fund for say putting towards purchasing a car, etc. This fund could double as your rainy day fund for coping with serious reverses.
A short term fund that you plan to use for some specific things like holidays and presents.
The reason I am suggesting considering them separately is twofold, firstly it would allow you to shop around for the best rate of savings for each type of saving. Basically if you are not planning to take out money out of an account for say six months - you may be able to get a better rate of interest for it. Whereas for your short-term savings you'd be planning to have immediate access to them so restrictions on accessing the funds would not be tenable. You don't have to separate them but it may make it easier to do. I see you have already done that by separating out your Christmas fund - well done!
From what you have posted you are financially stable and cautious, you haven't run up any big debts. Your income isn't large but you are using it wisely. I think for you the best thing to do would be to look at how to enlarge your income by training. That way you will - eventually - have more disposable income. The other thing (though I suspect you already must be doing so!) is to set up a budget, planning yearly, monthly and weekly expenses against your pay frequency and expectation.
Other things to consider would be whether you need insurance of any description? I think on the whole (both in your twenties and capable of working, no kids and no property) you probably don't need to, but it is best to think about it first (like for example the way you have pet insurance).
Best of luck - it is tough being out of work but you seem a very capable person - I am sure you will get another job soon.
S