# Money Makeover - trying to decide next steps...



## HilariousBerry (25 Apr 2016)

Age: 29
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 27

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 76000 + bonus ~12000
Annual gross income of spouse: 45000 + bonus ~6000

*Monthly take-home pay 6480 * (after deductions for family health insurance, pension and BIK etc.)

Type of employment: Private Sector

In general are you:

(a) spending more than you earn, or

*(b) saving? √*


Rough estimate of value of home  - Renting @ 1900euro PM


*Other borrowings – Car loan (PCP) *- 370 per month - finished this September with option to pay balloon (approx 10K) or swap.


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



*Savings and investments:*

Savings - 19500euro (saving minimum 700euro per month)

Stocks (vested) - 13000USD (approx 11500euro - tax already applied at source, will apply CGT at sale).


*Do you have a pension scheme?* (Him) - yes - contributing max amount and matched by employer.


*Monthly bills:*

UPC, Gas, Electricity. Nothing too crazy.


*Do you own any investment or other property?* No


*Ages of children: *1 Kid - 2years.


*Life insurance:*  (Him) - generous coverage through work.



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

I think we are doing okay but rent is killing us. Moving further away from work is simply not an option given the level of responsibility and roles. We’d really like to buy a house but are caught in a catch 22 situation because of rent and/or deposit situation. We have considered further away but it wouldn’t be possibly to find new employers with the same income levels and opportunity for growth.


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## moneybox (25 Apr 2016)

After deducting the €2927.00 for your rent, car payments and  savings you still left with circa €3500.00, where is it all going, maybe you eating out a lot, buying lots of clothes etc maybe you need to keep a spending diary for a week. Also is it not possible to get somewhere cheaper to rent, €1900 is dreadfully expensive.


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## Boyd (26 Apr 2016)

Agree with Moneybox, you need to see where almost 50% of your take home pay is going, as it's unaccounted for above (childcare maybe?). On take home pay of almost 7k, I would expect you should be able to put at least 2k per month towards a house deposit.
Myself and GF are paying 1500 rent while saving 2k per month between us towards deposit. I definitely think this should be your minimum target based on salaries. You need to detail all spending to see where money is going and then see what you can change.


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## Bronte (26 Apr 2016)

That seems like a very high rent for 3 people.  Can some savings be made there.

Can you explain the car options.  Surely it's best to just pay the 10K out of your savings.  How old is the car.


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## Clara16 (26 Apr 2016)

are you forgetting childcare costs in your monthly spend?


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## HilariousBerry (9 Jun 2016)

Correct, I've excluded childcare costs of 1050 out of that too.


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