News & Articles

 

If you aren’t paying for it, you are the product

How can Google make so much money when their service is free? It took a while before people discovered what was going on. Tech companies were using all the information we were giving them and using it to allow companies to use targeted advertising. We were the product all along. Free Trading Now there is […]

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Variable income in retirement

Ever go to conference? Ever notice that people return to the same seat after breaks. If it is two day conference, everyone will be sitting in the seats they had the day before.  We are creatures of habit and we like routine. One certainty we love the most is getting that pay cheque every month. […]

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Market Correction

The stock market returned 30.98% in 2021. It was a modest 6.25% in 2020 but given the global economy effectively shut down that year, who can complain? 2019 saw returns of 29.91%. In fact, in the last 10 years, there was only one negative year, 2018, when the market was down -4.26% for the year. […]

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Being tax efficient with the standard will

A standard will is pretty straight forward; assets go to the surviving spouse and after that, it is split evenly to the children. This is standard fare and parents don’t want their children to fall out by one getting more than the others. While it is fair that the assets are evenly split, it does […]

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Habit of a lifetime

As a financial advisor, I talk to all sorts of people about their money. Not all my clients are High Net Worth (a term often misapply to people who are high income earners but not wealthy) and I work with a lot of people who work hard, whether through running their own business or through […]

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There for the grace of god

There is a load of noise on social media about a girl called Molly Mae. I’d never heard of her before. She is an influencer and was on Love Island. She is doing well for herself these days and gave a tone deaf interview saying we all have the same 24 hours in the day […]

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Sequence Risk

When we think about investment returns, we think of long term averages. It doesn’t work like that though with returns varying from year to year. If you are assuming a 6% annualised return, there will be years of double digit returns but also years of negative returns. This is fine when contributing to your pension. […]

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Would you like 24 hour trading?

The New York Stock Exchange is open from the hours of 09:30 to 16:00, Monday to Friday. Likewise, the Irish stock exchange is open from 08:00 to 16:30, Monday to Friday, the same times as the London Stock Exchange. This gives both professional and retail investors plenty of time off when they don’t have to […]

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Inflation

Inflation is the big worry at present. It is the one of the republican’s main talking points ahead of the mid term elections next year. High inflation should not be a surprise to anyone. Afterall, Central Banks have been printing money since Covid 19 started. It was this quick action that resulted in the markets […]

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How to increase the allowable size of your pension pot

The maximum pension pot anyone is allowed to have is €2 million. If you go over that, you get hit with some pretty penal taxes which can leave a bitter taste (you’ll be talking about the massive tax bill you got on retiring for the rest of your life). But not everyone is entitled to […]

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