Irish person living in UK. Where should I invest?

wobblywonder

Registered User
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14
Age: 32
Spouse’s/Partner's age: N/A

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 70000 EUR
Annual gross income of spouse: N/A

Other income:
I have expenses as part of my job role and also as much overtime as I want (I do believe in a work life balance) however with conservative overtime I can earn approx 700 EUR extra (net).

Monthly take-home pay: about 3,900 EUR

Type of employment:
private company

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving √
(c) spending what we earn

Rough estimate of value of home: N/A
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: N/A
What interest rate are you paying? N/A

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc: No other loans.


Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month?
yes
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? -

Savings and investments:
I have 53k EUR invested in the NTMA bond scheme which matures in 7 years with an equivalent interest rate of 45% on maturity (approx 77k EUR) gross.

17k EUR equivalent in a instant access current account (Santander 1,2,3 in the UK) earning 3% interest with incurs a 6.50 admin fee each month.

Do you have a pension scheme?
Yes, I contribute 8% of my salary to the defined contribution scheme which is matched by my employer.

Do you own any investment or other property?
None

Ages of children:
none

Monthly bills: Sky 65 euro, rent 640, car (diesel/car tax/insurance per month)160, gym 50,

What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I currently live and work in the UK. I have a rainy day fund if I choose to move back home NTMA fund which matures in 7 years which I intend to use a deposit for a home (if I do actually move back to Ireland). For the moment though I intend to stay in the UK to focus on my career and avail of the opportunities it has.

I don't have any assets as such (no property in Ireland or in the UK). I have looked at the UK property market but its a little unstable at present due to changes the UK government announced a few months back which will be introduced on the 1st of April. These may affect the property market as the new changes relate to tax and stamp duty to cool the Buy to Let market. Its predicted this may lower the prices of properties hence I wish to wait to see how these changes will pan out.

Is there any another worthwhile investment that may be prudent to invest in?


I have been looking at the commodities market and gold looks to have been a good investment a few months back?


Many thanks. Dan
 
As a general principle, you should not be tying up your money in long term products such as the NTMA. You have a plan at the moment to stay where you are for a few years and then return. But plans change quickly. If you decide you want to buy a house in Ireland, or even in the UK, you will be caught out badly by your NTMA investment. I presume you can cash it, but the interest rate you get will be poor.

The correct long term investment is to buy your home. When you buy it, you want to have as big a deposit as possible so that you will benefit from the lower mortgage rates which attach to lower Loan to Value mortgages. So all your money should be easily accessible at short notice.

If your plan is to return to Ireland at some stage, you should probably not buy a house in the UK. There are advantages in being a First Time Buyer, and you would lose that status by buying in the UK.

As you seem to have an investment horizon of a few years, I think you should invest in the equity market. Of course, the risk is that when you are ready to buy a house, the value of your investment might be lower. But this risk reduces the longer you hold the shares. And the risk/reward is better than any other investment.

As a non-dom in the UK, you probably have options to invest overseas quite tax efficiently.

Having said that, ISAs and direct holding of shares in the UK seem quite tax efficient as well.

Brendan
 
This is an area of specialist advice where there are many planning opportunities based around domicile and residence and the different tax, investment and retirement systems in both the UK and Ireland.

Most UK advisers will have no idea how Ireland works, just as most Irish advisers will not be qualified in the UK.

We are uniquely positioned in this respect with adviser firms in both the UK and Ireland and a common investment service based in London for both jurisdictions.
 
As a general principle, you should not be tying up your money in long term products such as the NTMA. You have a plan at the moment to stay where you are for a few years and then return. But plans change quickly. If you decide you want to buy a house in Ireland, or even in the UK, you will be caught out badly by your NTMA investment. I presume you can cash it, but the interest rate you get will be poor.

The correct long term investment is to buy your home. When you buy it, you want to have as big a deposit as possible so that you will benefit from the lower mortgage rates which attach to lower Loan to Value mortgages. So all your money should be easily accessible at short notice.

If your plan is to return to Ireland at some stage, you should probably not buy a house in the UK. There are advantages in being a First Time Buyer, and you would lose that status by buying in the UK.

As you seem to have an investment horizon of a few years, I think you should invest in the equity market. Of course, the risk is that when you are ready to buy a house, the value of your investment might be lower. But this risk reduces the longer you hold the shares. And the risk/reward is better than any other investment.

As a non-dom in the UK, you probably have options to invest overseas quite tax efficiently.

Having said that, ISAs and direct holding of shares in the UK seem quite tax efficient as well.

Brendan


Hi Brendan,

Thanks for the reply. One of the reasons I invested in the NTMA fund was I didn't want to be exposed to the volatility of the currency exchange markets between GBP and EUR and thought it would be better to leave it in EUR currency and to have the available funds to move within the EU if the opportunity existed. It also represented a low risk option to stash it as when I met the financial advisers in my local bank their financial products were only offering a 1% return.

I am looking for something to put my money into for the next say 2 years that would offer a decent return. Any advise on what other possible options as well as the equities markets would be greatly appreciated.
 
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