# Money Advice



## Kildareman (27 Jan 2018)

*Cohabiting couple*
Age 40 /36
*2 children* 2 & 5 years

Take home monthly wage : *2160.00* employed
Partner: monthly wage: *320.00*
Children's allowance: *280.00*

No credit card
No pension plan
Mortgage 30 year mortgage 13 years into it : payment is *700* monthly tracker *130.000* left on mortgage.
Current selling price of house similar in our are 230.000.

Bank loan for car & van 10.000 left to pay.
Monthly payment 290.00

*Weekly* breakdown of *outgoings* below

*100.00* grocery a week
*25.00*.  Gas bill
*25.00*.   Electricity bill
*5.00*.     Bin charge
*30.00*.   Petrol &diesel combined
*25.00*.   Car and van insurance combined
*11.50*.    Car and van tax combined
*5.50*.      House insurance
*72.50*.   Payment on bank loan for car&van
*7.00*.      Sky TV charge
*26.00*. . Cost of our  2 mobile phones
*175.00*.  mortgage
*6.00*.  Mortgage cover and life
                assurance combined

We don't smoke or drink

We have no health Insurance.
No medical card.

We have never received any financial advice from parents as they have never been very financially savvy.

We are due to recieve €13.000 payment

The house is 13 years old and is not very well insulated Windows and doors could do with been replaced.probably cost about €6000.
With €7000 we could update home a little or would it be best to pay off bank loan we have for our car and van?


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## moneymakeover (27 Jan 2018)

The car and van loan €10,000 will be more expensive than your tracker

Therefore you're best option is to repay this bank loan

If you put €7000 off it, you should be able to clear the remainder in 10 months ie end of 2018


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## goingforgold (27 Jan 2018)

Agree with above...clear the more expensive loan asap.
Also by my calculations your total monthly income is ~2760 and outgoings are ~2060, hence you should be saving ~700 per month? I'm assuming not as there would be other costs like children's school events, parties, sporting events, clothes etc.
 You seem to have your costs cut to a minimum so not sure what else to advise here, ie in my opinion you are doing extremely well and on what is a v modest income for a family of four. Are you maybe entitled to FIS (Family income supplement)? Maybe the mobile costs of ~100 per month could be cut further.


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## Kildareman (27 Jan 2018)

Thanks for your reply frequent poster & going for gold.Yes very modest income for the times we live in.Easier when children are young to get away with not spending more than we earn.


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## emeralds (27 Jan 2018)

Do you have separate life cover apart from the €24 per month combined mortgage/life cover. If you died would your partner be left in a precarious financial position?


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## emeralds (27 Jan 2018)

And I agree with goingforgold that €100 per month for 2 mobile phones is very expensive. Can you maybe cut that by €40 per month?
Also have you made a will? Everyone with children should make a will.


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## Kildareman (27 Jan 2018)

No I don't have separate life cover.How much would I expect to pay for good life cover a month?Roughly.We have not done a will either.


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## DublinD (28 Jan 2018)

Might be only a small one but Tesco Mobile is 25€ per month (30 day contract)...might help save you overall 50€ a month to help you pay off the loan. Even switch over for a year to clear things a bit quicker.

Have you checked bonkers.ie to see if any benefit of a combined electricity/gas deal?

Having no Health Insurance/Medical Card- do you have any doctor/prescription fees you can reclaim from Revenue?

Some Credit Unions offer a free will service if you're a member-perhaps look into opening an account if not a member with a token small lodgement? Or if already a member ask if they offer the service.


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## emeralds (28 Jan 2018)

I would say making a will should be your first priority along with life insurance.
Google 'life insurance quotes' and you will get lots of Irish websites. Ours is with Irish Life. How much your quote is will depend on several things - especially smoking, alcohol intake, health issues etc...

Are both your names on the deeds of the house? 
And would you give consideration to getting married do you think?


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## ReesesPieces (29 Jan 2018)

We got a mortgage around the same time we got married and they talked us through what would happen if one of us died as a way to flog more life insurance to us. (At the time, we decided to wait until we have children before revisiting that kind of insurance) One of the things I had no idea about was that there is still a widow's pension equivalent which is about 200 euro/week which you get if you are married, but not if you are cohabiting. So if you died and you and your partner were married, then she would get 800/month until either she remarried or retired. If not, she would get nothing. Its not means tested, its based on your own PRSI payments. We lived together for years before we got married and I think if we'd known that we might have done it sooner. You can find the info if you google 'death related benefits'

Also, if one of you were to die unmarried, the survivor might really struggle accessing money as accounts would be frozen. With no will, money would not go to your partner, but I believe be held in trust for your children which wouldn't be helpful for her trying to feed them in the meantime. Finally, with your house, it makes a different if you're tenants in common or the other kind - I think that with one, ownership of the house would pass directly to the other partner, with the other they would be liable for inheritance tax and because you are unmarried the threshold is incredibly low.

In your situation, I would arrange a civil marriage and not tell anyone about it if I had ideological objections to marriage/didn't want to pay for a big wedding, etc. Arrange the party another time or forego it entirely, but you really haven't protected your children if you don't at least put alternatives in place.

Re: life insurance, it gets more expensive the older you get, but I think its a similar enough rate to the life insurance on the mortgage depending on level of protection - in the 30-50 euro/month bracket. I'd also consider insurance for what might happen if you were so seriously injured you couldn't work but didn't actually die. This unfortunately happened to someone I know - the mortgage insurance doesn't kick in, you can't earn but the mortgage still needs paying. I know you need to prioritise but its worth considering if its, say, a trade for a cheaper mobile phone plan. Obviously not if it involves going without something more critical.


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## Kildareman (29 Jan 2018)

We really appreciate all the solid advice from all the above posters.We will defo take it all and make sure our family are more secure.
It's a strange situation when both sides parents were never very good at living financially secure or acting like real adults.
The above make sound like an excuse for not thinking more maturely but it really can trickle into the next generation without the awareness & sound advice from others.Thanks again


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## DeclanDublin (30 Jan 2018)

Maybe also check switcher.ie for gas, electricity, mobiles etc.


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