Inheritance - investment and mortgage

DarraghK1978

Registered User
Messages
13
Age: 45
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 39 (wife)

Number and age of children: No dependents
I have a 27 year old son from a previous relationship. He’s very gainfully employed, and has recently purchased his own house with his girlfriend.


Income and expenditure
Annual gross income from employment or profession: €120k, annual bonus is usually around €25k.
Annual gross income of spouse: €130k plus bonus of around €20k

Monthly take-home pay
A bit hard to calculate as I’m paid monthly and wife is every four weeks but roughly €11k.

Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed

Both private sector PAYE workers (tech and financial services, but fairly secure and both have been with our companies 10+ yrs)

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?

Saving

Summary of Assets and Liabilities
Family home worth c. €930k with remaining mortgage of €410k
Cash of €50k- was higher but used a substantial chunk to reduce mortgage term and get a better rate due to LTV in 2021. Also used a lump sum to gift to my son for a house deposit in 2022.
The €50k is split between €10k in on-demand savings account, and the remainder in a 30 day notice account.
Defined Contribution pension fund: €220k for me, wife’s is a bit over €400k
Company shares : €15k
Shares with Davy of €80k (self-managed and took a dive during Covid and still not fully recovered)

Family home mortgage information
PTSB via UB
2.25%
If fixed, what is the term remaining of the fixed rate?
3.25 years
We’ve been maxing out the overpayments on the fixed term (10% of balance) for the past two years.


Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc

None. Have two cars owned outright and won’t need to replace for at least five years.

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month?

Yes

Other savings and investments:

Do you have a pension scheme?
Yes, both have defined contribution pensions through work. I’m paying 7% + company matches then I’m paying 3% AVC, wife pays 8% plus 2% AVC plus company contribution of 10%.

Do you own any investment or other property?
My wife jointly inherited a property last year which has recently sold. After all taxes and fees, she’ll have just over €400k. She has her eye on a particular home improvement she’s planning from her inheritance which will cost €40k, she’s also planning an extended holiday to her family abroad which will cost around €10k between travel costs and the salary hit (she’s buying back annual leave) so proceeds from inheritance will be €350k.

Other information which might be relevant

Life insurance: Just mortgage cover.
Both have death in benefit in work- me 3.5 x my salary, wife 4 x.
Have illness/income protection through work- both 75%


What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?

Look, I won’t pretend we’re not in a good position. The 2008 crash hit us hard so we’ve spent a lot of time since trying to be as financially savvy as possible, while having a nice life with lots of travel, helping family out etc.

Our aim is to clear down mortgage as soon as we can, start maxing out pensions, and retire early- hopefully in 11 years.

We’ll have €350k left from my wife’s inheritance which will go a very long way towards this aim. I’m conscious that we have a really good interest rate currently thanks to fixing at the right time. Breaking out of the fix wouldn’t cost too much but we think it’d make more sense to invest the €350k for the next 3.25yrs until the fixed rate is up, pay whatever we have then towards the balance, hopefully bringing the outstanding mortgage to <€50k. We could then clear this in under two years by going on to a variable rate (will probably have to remain with PTSB, as unappealing as that is, as unlikely to find another lender who’ll take on such a small mortgage) and overpaying by continuing to service it with the amount we pay monthly now.

We have zero interest in becoming landlords so don’t want to invest in more property. We don’t imagine ever moving house.

Is there anything we’re missing here with this plan? I know that we could put more into pensions now- we added the AVCs in 2020 and want to up those.

Savings are probably a bit low when considered overall but it was worth depleting these to get the best fixed rate we could based on getting the LTV well down. Was also worth it to help my son get well established.

Outside of this, any advice in terms of what I need to speak to a financial advisor about specifically? I would love to have the shares managed by someone who know what they’re doing.
 
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Our aim is to clear down mortgage as soon as we can, start maxing out pensions, and retire early- hopefully in 11 years.
These seem like sound priorities - although I'd be maximising the pension contributions sooner rather than later - i.e. I would not wait until the mortgage is further reduced or cleared.
You should also make sure that your pensions have competitive charges and are invested appropriately - almost certainly up to 100% equities.

After than you should think about your other short, medium and long term goals, what funding they will require and how best to provide for this.
Almost certainly for long and maybe medium term plans you should invest in equities - preferably directly rather than indirectly due to the lower costs and preferential tax treatment of the former.

Given your level of wealth you might want to pay an independent professional advisor for more specific advice.
 
This is relatively simple.
You can both contribute a total of 25% of your salary to your pension scheme or about €30k each.
You are currently contributing 10% so you should contribute an extra 15% which would be about €18k each or €9k net.
You should do this.

You have €496k between cash and shares.
You should clear your mortgage.

Ah, the rate is only 2.25%.

Obviously you should not borrow at 2.25% to put money on deposit at 0% .
But should you borrow at 2.25% to invest in shares?

I don't think so. Sure 2.25% is low by comparison to the rates being charged today. But I still don't think you should borrow at 2.25% to invest in shares as the return on the shares will be taxed.

So, tidy up your affairs. Clear the mortgage.

Absolutely no need for a professional financial advisor for such a routine matter. It is risky as they will probably try to sell you a product with high charges which pays them a commission.

Brendan
 
Defined Contribution pension fund: €220k for me, wife’s is a bit over €400k

Your wife is in a bit of danger of going over the tax efficient limits if she contributes the max every year for a few years.
But I think she can live with that risk.
A future government could change the pension contribution rules so that the amount you can contribute is less, so max your contributions now.
Or a future government could increase the caps on pension funds - unlikely but might happen by the time you are approaching them.
Or you or she might want to retire early or you might lose your job.

So everything indicates - max your contributions now. And if you can max them for 2022, do so as well.

Brendan
 
Absolutely no need for a professional financial advisor for such a routine matter. It is risky as they will probably try to sell you a product with high charges which pays them a commission.

Brendan

Thanks Brendan.

In terms of a financial advisor, even maxing both pensions we’ll still have more disposable income if we’re no longer servicing a mortgage. We’ve both enjoyed annual salary increases (not huge but usually a steady 3-5%) since we’ve joined our current companies. If inflation could abate somewhat, we’d have more coming in through wages too. It’s probably more a case of getting advice on what to do with that excess before we get used to spending it. Our “pay yourself first” mentality has always worked well so we’d like to continue that.

Agree re: risk related to a FA. I’ve been recommended a few over the years but struggled to find a genuinely independent provider.
 
Look, I won’t pretend we’re not in a good position. The 2008 crash hit us hard so we’ve spent a lot of time since trying to be as financially savvy as possible, while having a nice life with lots of travel, helping family out etc.

Our aim is to clear down mortgage as soon as we can, start maxing out pensions, and retire early- hopefully in 11 years.
I think some perspective is needed here. You are in a good position however...
  • vs the general population, you have more wealth than most your age
  • vs other dependent-less couples, you are doing ok
  • vs other dependent-less couples with high incomes, you are behind the curve
  • and vs other dependent-less couples with high income who want to retire in 11 years, you are not at the races
Ignoring the recent inheritance, you have still accumulated a decent amount of wealth but it looks like your lifestyle is eating up €180-200k of your €300k income. That in itself is not a problem, you are living within your means but it is a major problem if you have ambitions of retiring early.

You simply won't be able to replace that level of spending so your biggest challenge in the next 10 years will be curbing your lifestyle spending to a level you can maintain in retirement.
 
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