# Sold house, now need advice on what to do next?



## woddle (17 Dec 2007)

My wife and I have two kids, we split up at the start of the year, things were not good, and as a consequence we sold our house, we each made a profit, since we sold the house, we have reconciled.
I am now the stay at home dad while she works, earning 500 a week.
She has 37,000 in her bank acc.
I have 11,000 in irish shares currently worth 9,300
10,000 in a high equity yield fund
8,000 in quinn life
tsb 12,000
Rabo savings 5,000
Credit union 2,000

So I suppose I`m wondering now are these the right places to have my monies stashed away especially that I'm a novice in the stock market and have two small kids and no home to call my own. And I'm gathering I would not qualify for a mortgage now that I've stopped working or would we. I have no loans, only major outgoings is 1,500 rent and kids who also have credit union accounts they are aged two and four. And if someone wants to suggest a complete revamp of our money situation, it would be welcome. Hope I've posted in the right place. Cheers


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## CCOVICH (17 Dec 2007)

*Re: need to know whats the best road to take*

Hi-I've moved this to Money Makeover as there is probably a lot of aspects that will be covered in the answers.


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## CCOVICH (17 Dec 2007)

Does your wife take home €500 a week, or is that a gross amount?  Either way, paying rent of €1,500 probably doesn't leave you much for necessities such as food, ESB, gas etc. and I would imagine you will be dipping into your savings before long?

Are you claiming all applicable tax reliefs and other benefits? 

What rate are you getting on the €12k you have with ptsb?  Is it a deposit or saver account?

What rate are you getting on the CU deposit?


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## woddle (17 Dec 2007)

your right, we have already started dipping into hers, I think credit union is only 3.5 % and tsb  I opened it this year when they had a 5%deal thing going on back in the start of summer and rabo is 5 %


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## ClubMan (17 Dec 2007)

Can you clarify your household income from all sources please? Are you still together as a couple/family or living separately?


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## woddle (18 Dec 2007)

Back together, as in back being married and our living in the same house. only income is 500 take home from my wife and the child benefit plus I have two kids under 6.
outgoings are 275 for playschool
30 for broadband vodafone
1500 rent
we also both drive, so insurance and tax
bills our esb and gas, guessing about 120 a month for both.
I am currently finishing of 3 jobs before I take up my stay at home dad status. these jobs are worth 8,000 take home to me


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## ClubMan (18 Dec 2007)

€26K net p.a. for her sounds like about €28K gross - would that be correct?

Ignoring your income assuming that it's going to disappear sooner rather than later you annual household income seems to be:
Wife's income of €26K
_Child Benefit _of 12 x 2 x €160 (going up to €166 next April but let's be conservative here) = €3,840
_Early Childcare Supplement _of 4 x 2 x €275 = €2,200
Total: €32,040
And your outgoings seem to be (you need to correct any errors or omissions)
Rent 12 x €1,500 (I presume it's monthly!) = €18K
ESB/gas 12 x €120 (are you sure about these?) = €1,536
Broadband 12 x €30 = €360
Car costs?
Playschool - is that €275 p.w. or p.m. or what? Will it still be a cost once you stay at home?
Other living expenses...
Total ?
Then - what's left?

When she becomes the sole earner would you perhaps qualify for _Family Income Supplement_ or maybe some of the other family related _SW _payments mentioned here? Maybe not with your non income means I guess?

*Families and Children

*What specific accounts and investment funds is the money invested in? What rates apply to savings? What are your short, medium and long term plans (e.g. will you be buying a house again any time?)?


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## woddle (18 Dec 2007)

Rent 12 x €1,500 (I presume it's monthly!) = €18K
ESB/gas 12 x €120 (are you sure about these?) = €1,536
Broadband 12 x €30 = €360
Car costs  4,760 for petrol, tax and ins on both cars
Playschool - is that €275 p.m. Total 2,475. and yes will stay the same
shopping about 480 a month. total 5,760
bins 400
not inc enjoying life expenses, these are the main total 33,291,
so we are making a little loss, and will prob keep dipping into savings till she advances in her job, I can always do the odd nixer. Im just unsure if we are making the best of our savings and investments with two young tots and no house to call ours.
I'm very sure on the staying at home part cause I am a believer in one parent staying at home


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## ClubMan (18 Dec 2007)

woddle said:


> Im just unsure if we are making the best of our savings and investments with two young tots and no house to call ours


It really depends on your short, medium and long term plans. My (amateur and personal) opinion is that there is a significant danger of eating into your savings to fund normal living expenses and you may be overexposed to higher risk/reward investments (e.g. the individual shares and other equity investments) than are appropriate for your current situation especially if you plan to look at buying another house in the forseeable future. Depending on your plans your priority might be maintaining the real value of your savings until such time as you can afford to take on more risk. However a lot depends on your personal attitude to risk/volatility etc. 

What specific accounts/rates and investments is the money in? You haven't clarified.

Have you also considered stuff like life assurance cover and how either of you or the kids might be catered for if either or both of you died or became incapacitated?


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## woddle (18 Dec 2007)

12,000 in my tsb current acc, I think 5 %
Rabo savings 5,000 at 5 %
credit union 2,000 at 3.5 %

8,000 in quinn life the bulk of it being in eurostoxx and Japan
10,000 in a high equity yield
11,000 in 6 companies on the iseq and a 1,000 in one company on the ftse

when we sold the house I tried to get rid of as much money, so that I couldn't  spend it and so that it was hard to get access to it


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## ClubMan (18 Dec 2007)

woddle said:


> 12,000 in my tsb current acc, I think 5 %


I doubt that you are getting 5% on €12K in a current account! Even _Halifax_ who pay 10% only do so on a maximum of €2K.


> Rabo savings 5,000 at 5 %
> credit union 2,000 at 3.5 %


Are you sure about the 3.5% from the _CU_? Is this an interest rate or last year's dividend or something? Remember that there are higher yielding demand and term deposit accounts than this - see the _Financial Best Buys _lists for example.


> 8,000 in quinn life the bulk of it being in eurostoxx and Japan


You mean you originally invested €8K? How much is it worth now?


> 10,000 in a high equity yield
> 11,000 in 6 companies on the iseq and a 1,000 in one company on the ftse


Ditto.


> when we sold the house I tried to get rid of as much money, so that I couldn't  spend it and so that it was hard to get access to it


To me this sounds a bit ominous (that if you had the money handy you might blow it) especially when you will probably be living beyond your income once your wife becomes the sole earner. 

What about "her" €37K - where is that? Is it earning as much as possible?


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## davidoco (18 Dec 2007)

woddle said:


> .
> 
> I am currently finishing of 3 jobs before I take up my stay at home dad status. these jobs are worth 8,000 take home to me


 I m assuming you have nt done much staying at home all day caring (apologies if incorrect) but it s not all it's cracked up to be. It s hard work. Mothers have all the support groups and even then it can be testing work. Be careful not to put an extra strain on your new repaired relationship by trying something radically new like swapping the roles just on a whim.  I also believe that the one parent at home is the ideal set up but certainly not when finances may be put under strain or one parties wish to have it a certain way. Once again apologies for posting this as i understand its the financial advice your after


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## woddle (18 Dec 2007)

appreciate the post, and your not far off, we our trying some role reversal, My experience at caring is I use to be a care worker for the health board for five years before changing careers to an electrician, and during the health board days I use to mind my little brother 21 years my junior, he is 7 now, also genuinely love kids. Her money is in her aib current account and your right I'm not too sure of the rates.

I suppose I'm looking for a plan to fit our life styles as best can be, and clubman use to be a bit of an impulse buyer on gadgets, last one was the ps3. but I think I'm finished all that now


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## ClubMan (18 Dec 2007)

woddle said:


> Her money is in her aib current account and your right I'm not too sure of the rates.


Even current accounts that pay interrest these days only do so in limited circumstances and on limited amounts. As such large sums on deposit in a current account are probably losing real value due to low/no returns and inflation.

You haven't really commented on the issue of short, medium and long term plans/goals and consideration of these is essential to any financial planning that you may do.


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## woddle (18 Dec 2007)

as far as the shares are concerned, I'm happy to leave them there long term, roughly 10 years secondary education and college funds and stuff.

my quinn life is pretty much still worth the same as I invested 8,000

I suppose I don't really know what the goals our, other than trying to buy a house and staying at home with the girls, 
Believe it or not the house we are renting was our own house, We sold it to my parents as it was my grandads house and they wanted to keep it in the family, so I'm in no hurry to move but we do want our own house again


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## ClubMan (18 Dec 2007)

So buying a house is your main short to medium (?) term goal? In which case you probably want to at least maintain the value of your lump sum (other than the portion that you have decided to invest long ter) I presume - i.e. in order to have your deposit etc.? Which means that you may need to address the fact that right now your normal living costs are going to exceed your houshold income by the looks of things? It's very difficult to offer hard advice to somebody who has not really clarified their goals to be honest.


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## Bronte (19 Dec 2007)

This doesn't make sense to me.  You are going to live on one income that does not cover your living costs.  You say you have already dipped into the savings, to me this means you are living on your savings and they will soon be gone.  In any case the interest you will receive is derisory - it's won't even cover inflation.  Your grocery bill looks cheap for 4 people, ditto your heating/electricity bill, how do you pay for clothes/shoes, medical bills, presents, going out, replacing the cars.  Who's paying money into the kids credit union account.  How much have you spent on gadgets in the last year so we can get an idea of the problem spending as I've no idea what a ps3 is nor how much it costs. It can be difficult to make a relationship work where there are constant money problems.


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## woddle (19 Dec 2007)

Hi Bronte appreciate your post. A ps3 is a playstation 3, it cost me approx 700, I bought a canon digital slr camera 880, a motor bike for 2,500 which I've yet to drive, dont want to fork out for the bike insurance yet, being the winter and all. We are very good and diciplined at the grocery shopping, don't bother with brands and ditto with gas and esb, I'm an electrician and I do have a good energy heating system installed. but I think what I'm learning here is that I definitely need to sit down more and think, didnt even think about clothes and stuff or medical, My wife and I just bought two new cars out of the profits from house so won't need changing for some time.
And to clubman we have no life assurance or real plan of action for any bad situations and yes I think short to medium term the plan is to buy a house


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## ClubMan (19 Dec 2007)

woddle said:


> Hi Bronte appreciate your post. A ps3 is a playstation 3, it cost me approx 700, I bought a canon digital slr camera 880


Sounds like you need to knock this sort of (unplanned?) expenditure on the head although you do mention above that this is the plan.


> a motor bike for 2,500 which I've yet to drive, dont want to fork out for the bike insurance yet, being the winter and all.
> 
> ...
> 
> My wife and I just bought two new cars out of the profits from house so won't need changing for some time.


 Do you really need two cars and a motorbike?

I'm also curious about how your wife managed to buy two cars and have €37K left over from her share of the house profits when you don't seem to have anything near that. Can you explain? Perhaps her €37K is unrelated to the house sale, you didn't split any profits 50:50 or you blew some of yours or something?


> but I think what I'm learning here is that I definitely need to sit down more and think, didnt even think about clothes and stuff or medical,


 Yes - you really need to itemise/estimate all annual expenditure and then break it down by weekly, monthly and sporadic amounts that need to be covered. If you were already living off your savings without considering such irregular expenses then you will definitely be living (probably well) beyond your income when you do!


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## woddle (19 Dec 2007)

we did split the profit 50 : 50 and we each made over 100,000 each.
we paid of outstanding gas and esb bills, credit cards, I went to munich and got my teeth done , we went to euro disney for 5 nights and have also paid to go in Easter and My wife went on two summer holidays, In August I paid a lump sum of rent to my parents to keep me in the house till the end of Jan, so We wil be paying them rent staring Feb.
My car cost me 10,000 and hers 16,500. we also paid a debt back to my parents, but we have def stupidly blown alot, I put it down to getting back together and trying to pay for fun


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## ClubMan (19 Dec 2007)

woddle said:


> we paid of outstanding gas and esb bills, credit cards,
> 
> ...
> 
> we also paid a debt back to my parents, but we have def stupidly blown alot,


Sounds like your financial planning in the past has been a bit of a mess and you really need to put strict budgeting plans in place to avoid a rerun of accumulating debt etc.? Have you read the various budgeting resources in the _Banking/Borrowing _forum key posts and looked at the _MABS _website etc. If you have habitually spent when you felt like it in the past then it will take some discipline to stick to a strict budget.


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## elcato (19 Dec 2007)

When you finish your work you will need to collect your social welfare benifits as well. This should boost your weekly income. Get rid of one car and the bike asap. 
Another suggestion : You're an electrician. Could you work part-time a few evenings and a Saturday ? I would imagine you could get a decent income this way.


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## woddle (19 Dec 2007)

are you refering to what clubman said re _Family Income Supplement. and She will be the sole earner 99 % of the time but I will keep my business books going in case of that job that is to good to say no to. would this affect the social welfare cheers_


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## elcato (21 Dec 2007)

No - I'm refering to the social welfare entitlement that everyone is entitled to if they have sufficient stamps paid, otherwise you would be on means tested assistance. Why not pay them a visit to see if they will advise you ? Obviously any changes in your work would have to be reported to them but no point in waiting for the great job to arrive as oppose to checking your entitlements straight away.


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## ClubMan (21 Dec 2007)

elcato said:


> When you finish your work you will need to collect your social welfare benifits as well. This should boost your weekly income.


But he's giving up work to become a stay at home father so presumably won't be available for and seeking (full time) work in which case he would not meet one of the key qualifying conditions for claiming _Jobseeker's Benefit _or  _Jobseeker's Allowance_. The _Homemaker's Scheme_ might be relevant though:

*Homemaker's Scheme*


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## elcato (21 Dec 2007)

> But he's giving up work to become a stay at home father so presumably won't be available for and seeking (full time) work in which case he would not meet one of the key qualifying conditions for claiming _Jobseeker's Benefit _or  _Jobseeker's Allowance_.


Fair point. I forgot about the fact that he was giving up work to mind the children.


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