Archive for 2016

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

In 2011, I met a new client who works for a bank. He had been working for this bank for decades and had accumulated a lot of shares in them over the years. During the credit crunch recession, he saw his share portfolio fall from €600,000 to just €60,000. I asked him if there was […]

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E-cigarettes and life cover

When it comes to buying risk benefits, whether you smoke or not is a major factor in the price of your cover. For life cover and specified illness cover, you can expect for the cost to be double for a smoker than it for a non smoker. The increase for income protection isn’t as much […]

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Changes to PRSA’s and RAC’s for over 75 year olds

There wasn’t much in Budget 2017 and the Finance Bill regarding pensions. One thing that did was announced was the closing of an anomaly regarding PRSA’s and RAC’s that were not matured past age 75. If you are over age 75 and have an unmatured PRSA or RAC, it is very important that you are […]

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10% deposit for First Time Buyers

The Central Bank published their Review of the residential mortgage lending requirements last Wednesday. This was a review of the mortgage lending restrictions that they introduced in January 2015. They were under a lot of pressure from all sides to review these rules and make changes to them. The biggest change is the 10% deposit for […]

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The cost of running a household

Last week I wrote about families earning a good salary but having no money. Well, this morning, The Irish Times published an article on how much it costs to run a household in Ireland. For a family of four, it costs up to €45,000 to run the household and pay the bills. If you bought your […]

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Earning a good salary but have no money

I am talking to more and more couples who are coming to me about the same thing. They are earning a good salary but have no money. They are typically professionals in their late 30’s to early 40’s and are getting near the top of their profession. But when they look at their net worth, […]

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The Pensions Authority pension reform

I have always thought that pensions are overly complicated in this country and need to be simplified. The Pensions Authority published their consultation paper during the summer on how they simplify pensions as well as plenty of plans for the pensions industry. Why are they looking to reform private pensions? The Pensions Authority gave a […]

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Transferring pensions from the UK to Ireland

There have been changes to the HMRC rules involving transferring pensions from the UK to Ireland. You can find out more about these changes here A lot of people who left Ireland to work in the UK are now returning home. As much as we give out about Ireland, we always come back. This is […]

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The Pound and How to Manage Currency Volatility

Will the collapse of sterling in the last few weeks, a lot of people have asked how this currency volatility and general currency fluctuations will effect their investments. So this week, we have a guest post from Dimensional Fund Advisors , in which they explain currency fluctuations, how hedging works and when you need to use […]

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The self employed benefit from Budget 2017

Budget 2017 was announced last week in the Dáil. I am not going to go through all of the details of the Budget, there were a few items that caught my eye. The self employed do especially well out of Budget 2017. The Self employed benefit The self employed (and proprietary directors) got a lot […]

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