# Advice regarding little savings and no pension



## Toots1980 (15 Sep 2014)

Age: 37
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 40 

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 35K  
Annual gross income of spouse: 24K

Monthly take-home pay 

Type of employment: PAYE Private sector ( Both of us) 

In general are you:

(b) saving - Save €50 a week between the 2 of us.

Rough estimate of value of home: €250K
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: €205K - 27 years remaining
*What interest rate are you paying? Tracker*

Other borrowings – No other loans. Credit card paid off each month on time ( Usually no more than €100 is spent a month using the credit card).

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:

Savings: €10k
Prizebonds: €3k
Shares: €4k

Do you have a pension scheme? Neither of us have a pension. 

Do you own any investment or other property? Yes. Value is €200K. Outstanding mortgage of €149K with 27 years remaining.

Rental income covers mortgage repayment and all other associated costs.

Ages of children: Girl aged 9, Boy aged 2.

Life insurance: I have life assurance for €200k & my wife for €60k.


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

I am concerned that we have so little savings and no pensions.

After all expenses such as car tax, insurance etc etc we (at best) save €50 a week in total.

Obviously when the kids are older they will require different things and also hopefully go to college so I want to have the savings for this.

Any suggestions as to how to increase our financial situation?


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## niceoneted (15 Sep 2014)

Whats the actual take home pay?
What are the monthly mortgage repayments?
Can you list typical weekly/monthly bills and see if any savings can be made there?
Start a spending diary and you will/might see where money is being wasted.


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## Toots1980 (15 Sep 2014)

Total take home pay is: €3840 per month.

Mortgage repayment on our home is €680/month

Mortgage repayment on rental property is €810/month

Spending list is a good idea.

Thanks for your input.


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## goingforgold (15 Sep 2014)

Your financial situation is actually better than most as you have positive equity in both houses and some savings. 

Was your income higher in the past to get yourself into this situation?

In order to increase savings you will need to do spending diary as already advised. Any chance of increasing income in the future through new job, promotions etc?


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## Bronte (16 Sep 2014)

Why is your wife not insured for the house mortgage amount?

You are saving on two fronts, all capital repayments on the house and investment property. 

You can consider the investment property as your pension if you want. 

Both properties in positive equity, and both affordable.  Good situation compared to many who post on here.  It's hard to have money at the beginning, when you start out with a mortgage, and have two young kids etc.  

To increase your savings you have to cut back, if that's possible. When you post the figures up we might have some ideas.  Be honest !  

I presume you are all tax compliant on the rental, you don't want that to come back and bite you.


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## kennyb3 (26 Sep 2014)

Bronte said:


> Why is your wife not insured for the house mortgage amount?



I'll hazard a guess they have a separate mortgage policy for each property and the above policy mentioned isn't assigned against either property.


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## ashambles (26 Sep 2014)

Bronte said:


> I presume you are all tax compliant on the rental, you don't want that to come back and bite you.


Judging by many of the threads here there's impressive tax management going on in the Irish BTL market particularly in the more amateur single investment property end of things.


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