Hi,
Thanks to the organisers of this forum which I regularly enjoy. I would be very grateful for any advice for a Early 50s couple, kids grown, looking for investment options for lump sum savings
Personal details
Age: 52
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 53
Number and age of children: 2 adult children - both finished uni, in first jobs, living at home
Income and expenditure
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 65K
Annual gross income of spouse: 60K
Monthly take-home pay: ~5300
Type of employment: I am a teacher (new entrant post 2011), spouse is private sector
In general we are saving every month (~1000K) as we got into the habit to save for childrens uni but since the last child has just finished we plan on continuing to save for our future.
Summary of Assets and Liabilities
Family home worth €500k with no mortgage
Holiday home worth €120k with a small 10K mortgage
Cash on deposit: €110K
Defined Contribution pension fund: Total: ~640K (between myself and spouse)
- breakdown (of 640K):
Defined Benefit pension fund:
Lender: AIB
Interest rate: variable ~3.5% on a very small balance (~1K), 10 years remaining. We were fortunate to be part of the redress scheme (thanks Brendan!!) and that reduced the balance down. We don't pay it off as we want to continue to get free banking with AIB as mortgage holders.
This is a holiday home that we dont plan on receiving any rental income from.
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
No car loans. 2 cars fully paid off.
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
Other savings and investments:
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes. Both my wife and I AVC in the maximum allowance for our age (25%)
Do you own any investment or other property? Yes - second home (see above)
Other information which might be relevant
Life insurance:
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We are fortunate to have put the kids through college and now we would like to set new goals (retirement). We would both like to retire / semi retire at 60 (in 8 years time). I think we have covered all the basics - invested in our kids education, paid down debt, AVCing to the max. We are currently reviewing our insurances with a broker since our circumstances have changed with respect to mortgage debt and children dependents. Thankfully we are both healthy non-smokers.
We would like to retire (or semi retire) at age 60 with a salary of ~30K per annum. Our main question (apart from insurances which we are looking at) is what to do with our savings lump sum (110K on deposit). This is getting little to no interest and we don’t foresee an immediate need for these funds apart from 10K that would like to keep on “deposit” as a “rainy day” fund. A lump sum into our AVC plan attracts a 4% fee so that is not an option and we are already AVCing to the max so no tax advantage of doing so.
We are considering an “investment fund” such as the Zurich Prisma 4 Fund and with an execution only agent. Our investment timeframe is 8 to 10 years. I am looking for advice on investment fund options. We would consider medium risk investments given the time-frame 10 years. An alternatively (which I am not so keen on) is some type of direct property investment to help my kids to home ownership but I am not sure I want the hassle and risk with only a 10 year investment horizon.
Many thanks for taking the time to read. I hope I have covered all the main facts.
Thanks to the organisers of this forum which I regularly enjoy. I would be very grateful for any advice for a Early 50s couple, kids grown, looking for investment options for lump sum savings
Personal details
Age: 52
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 53
Number and age of children: 2 adult children - both finished uni, in first jobs, living at home
Income and expenditure
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 65K
Annual gross income of spouse: 60K
Monthly take-home pay: ~5300
Type of employment: I am a teacher (new entrant post 2011), spouse is private sector
In general we are saving every month (~1000K) as we got into the habit to save for childrens uni but since the last child has just finished we plan on continuing to save for our future.
Summary of Assets and Liabilities
Family home worth €500k with no mortgage
Holiday home worth €120k with a small 10K mortgage
Cash on deposit: €110K
Defined Contribution pension fund: Total: ~640K (between myself and spouse)
- breakdown (of 640K):
- Me: €475k (in Irish Life previous employer fund and TUI AVC fund)
- Me: ~€70K in Australian Super (accessible at 60)
- Spouse - €86K (in New Ireland - employee pension fund)
- Spouse - ~€7K in Australian Super (accessible at 60)
Defined Benefit pension fund:
- Spouse has DB pension worth ~3K per annum in retirement at age 65
- I have a Public Sector Single Pension Scheme (from teaching) that will pay out about 10K per year if I work til 68 or about 5K if I work til 60. This is the “new entrant” pension since I moved from the private sector into teaching only relatively recently. Thankfully I did the heavy lifting on AVCs before I joined the public service.
Lender: AIB
Interest rate: variable ~3.5% on a very small balance (~1K), 10 years remaining. We were fortunate to be part of the redress scheme (thanks Brendan!!) and that reduced the balance down. We don't pay it off as we want to continue to get free banking with AIB as mortgage holders.
This is a holiday home that we dont plan on receiving any rental income from.
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
No car loans. 2 cars fully paid off.
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
Other savings and investments:
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes. Both my wife and I AVC in the maximum allowance for our age (25%)
Do you own any investment or other property? Yes - second home (see above)
Other information which might be relevant
Life insurance:
- 333K non term reducing and not assigned to a bank costing 782 per year
- 100K term reducing life assurance assigned against our holiday home. We are planning to let this expire when the mortgage finishes in 10 years. We have a quote for changing this to a €50,000 life policy for each of us for 11years on a convertible term = €25.16 p/m
- I have a serious illness policy with Aviva for about 20K salary costing me 132 per month (before tax)
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We are fortunate to have put the kids through college and now we would like to set new goals (retirement). We would both like to retire / semi retire at 60 (in 8 years time). I think we have covered all the basics - invested in our kids education, paid down debt, AVCing to the max. We are currently reviewing our insurances with a broker since our circumstances have changed with respect to mortgage debt and children dependents. Thankfully we are both healthy non-smokers.
We would like to retire (or semi retire) at age 60 with a salary of ~30K per annum. Our main question (apart from insurances which we are looking at) is what to do with our savings lump sum (110K on deposit). This is getting little to no interest and we don’t foresee an immediate need for these funds apart from 10K that would like to keep on “deposit” as a “rainy day” fund. A lump sum into our AVC plan attracts a 4% fee so that is not an option and we are already AVCing to the max so no tax advantage of doing so.
We are considering an “investment fund” such as the Zurich Prisma 4 Fund and with an execution only agent. Our investment timeframe is 8 to 10 years. I am looking for advice on investment fund options. We would consider medium risk investments given the time-frame 10 years. An alternatively (which I am not so keen on) is some type of direct property investment to help my kids to home ownership but I am not sure I want the hassle and risk with only a 10 year investment horizon.
Many thanks for taking the time to read. I hope I have covered all the main facts.
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