# Savings Investment Advice & Stocks and Shares Advice



## Collie123 (1 Sep 2020)

Age: 40
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 39

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 140K
Annual gross income of spouse: 0 (Career break/Rearing children)

Monthly take-home pay: 6K +

Type of employment: Private Sector

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving? Approx 35K Per Annum

Rough estimate of value of home; 500K
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 0 
*What interest rate are you paying?*

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc None

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month?
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? None

Savings and investments: 200K in deposit accounts

Do you have a pension scheme? Yes, defined benefit

Do you own any investment or other property? Yes approx 130K worth on a tracker mortgage

Ages of children: 2,4,8

Life insurance: Yes


*What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?* 
My husband and I are very fortunate to have no debt and approx 200K of savings.

I am looking for invest advice as we have money making no interest in the bank. Open to any suggestions...

I am also interested in stocks and shares but need to understand more about setting up a portfolio and tax element involved, any advice or recommendations on someone i can speak with in Ireland or advice from what others have done recently. Its a minefield of information once i go googling.


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## New2This (7 Sep 2020)

Firstly well done on being in a good financial position. 

You probably are already doing this but make sure you been allocated your have your spouses tax credits (https://www.revenue.ie/en/life-even...-and-civil-partnerships/joint-assessment.aspx). 

I don't see detail on if the investment property is rented, it's value and what the yield is but there a loads of people who often in the analysis of investment properties. Also the detail on the life assurance is missing and while your spouse may not be working it would be important to ensure both of you have cover there.

Unfortunately you can't really get the kind of general investment advice that you are looking for here. Which is probably why you haven't had any responses. Especially as no one knows your risk appetite and investment timeline. It's normally better to have specific questions you want answered or understanding you would like confirmed.

There is lot's of useful information on AAM on the various methods of investing, their pros & cons (including their tax implications):

Directly in shares
Investment trusts
ETFs
Property
State savings
and lot's more
Maybe read through that and then come back to this with specific questions to aid in your understanding. 

I would suggest that you should make sure that your €200k in savings is spread to at least 2 financial institutions to ensure it is covered by the deposit guarantee as that only covers €100k.

Also as you have such a large sum and large regular savings as well as the very specific considerations around a defined benefit pension you might benefit from a consultation with an independent financial adviser.


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## tdunirl (7 Sep 2020)

Collie123 said:


> Age: 40
> Spouse’s/Partner's age: 39
> 
> Annual gross income from employment or profession: 140K
> ...



here is some general advice I gave to another poster which might make sense for you....

As regards investments etc., I think a rule of thumb of a third in equity, a third in property and a third liquid is a reasonable approach. Include all your assets in these calculations (so find out how your pension is allocated) as well as your house. It might seem wasteful to leave a third liquid in a low interest environment, but Government/Corporate bonds offer some returns. An often forgotten advantage of liquidity is having the cash to do something when a crash hits, which will happen every decade or so. If you wanted a second property as an example, but were not in a hurry, I'd save the cash and wait to buy at the right time, which could either be another crash (might not be so far away depending on this darned virus....) or just some good opportunistic option that comes along later. I'd also recommend that your equity be aggressive (i.e. high growth) given your age, plenty of time in your 50's to get more careful there. You can play with these figures depending on you risk appetite, here is an example of a reasonably aggressive portfolio for you age
1. 20 % aggressive stocks (e..g tech etc)
2. 20% other stocks (e..g phara etc, good long term growth prospects)
3. 30-40% property, can include REITs and other property equivalents as well as your house. Stick to the higher end as the lower returns are worth it versus the risk of the second tier stuff, unless you know what you are doing in the shark infested property world
4. 20%-30% liquid, best returns you can get (includes bonds and corporate, but like property, avoid the riskier ones)

All of this depends on your life ambitions as I said, but the above is a reasonable approach for now.


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## tdunirl (7 Sep 2020)

tdunirl said:


> here is some general advice I gave to another poster which might make sense for you....
> 
> As regards investments etc., I think a rule of thumb of a third in equity, a third in property and a third liquid is a reasonable approach. Include all your assets in these calculations (so find out how your pension is allocated) as well as your house. It might seem wasteful to leave a third liquid in a low interest environment, but Government/Corporate bonds offer some returns. An often forgotten advantage of liquidity is having the cash to do something when a crash hits, which will happen every decade or so. If you wanted a second property as an example, but were not in a hurry, I'd save the cash and wait to buy at the right time, which could either be another crash (might not be so far away depending on this darned virus....) or just some good opportunistic option that comes along later. I'd also recommend that your equity be aggressive (i.e. high growth) given your age, plenty of time in your 50's to get more careful there. You can play with these figures depending on you risk appetite, here is an example of a reasonably aggressive portfolio for you age
> 1. 20 % aggressive stocks (e..g tech etc)
> ...



as on add on, the reply above was to a lad in his late 20's and single.  You are 40, so preservation becomes as important as growth now.  Including your pension and house, I'd still suggest that at least a third of your portfolio should be in growth stocks, given you have 20+ years to benefit from growth.  I'd want to make sure half of such a portfolio was focused on the tech giants given their power and control, one must assume they will continue to grow and add value.  The other half could include a mixture of regular growth (especially medical/pharma, even food) and maybe a bit for more aggressive, new markets, new IPO's in the right area (say no more than 10% of your stocks in these).  There are 1000's of funds out there, and it is a very personal choice as to where you want it invested, so do your homework......cheers, t


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## Collie123 (9 Sep 2020)

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.  Just to answer some of your queries...

- We both have life insurance cover.
- House Investment Property is jointly owned investment with an outsider, tracker mortgage. House is worth approx 270K with 180 remaining and generates a monthly income of approx 1100. 
- Investment timeline - 10 years + 
- Risk Appetite - Medium, maybe aggressive on a certain percentage of shares.

Just wondering what do people do when investing in stocks and shares, do they typically go it alone with Degiro or alternative or go through a company and pay x amount annually on charges/advice etc..  Any recommendations on companies to use.


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## Techhead (12 Sep 2020)

Degiro, Revolut, E*TRADE. You can pay a fund if you like but they will take their slice. Brendan has advocated in the past picking stocks and I concur with this one. My investing strategy is pick companies with good balance sheets that i think will be around in 30-40 years.. Apple, Microsoft, coca-cola etc. Try not to focus on one industry. Yeah I know I have 2 tech companies in there btw . Tech is always going to be a rollercoaster but long term the big guys are a safe bet... aviation for example is a bigger rollercoaster imo and I wouldn’t touch them. Although I believe Ryanair will be around  in 30 years and dominant so I’ll invest in them when the price is right!


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## Jim2007 (13 Sep 2020)

tdunirl said:


> here is some general advice I gave to another poster which might make sense for you....
> 
> As regards investments etc., I think a rule of thumb of a third in equity, a third in property and a third liquid is a reasonable approach. Include all your assets in these calculations (so find out how your pension is allocated) as well as your house. It might seem wasteful to leave a third liquid in a low interest environment, but Government/Corporate bonds offer some returns. An often forgotten advantage of liquidity is having the cash to do something when a crash hits, which will happen every decade or so. If you wanted a second property as an example, but were not in a hurry, I'd save the cash and wait to buy at the right time, which could either be another crash (might not be so far away depending on this darned virus....) or just some good opportunistic option that comes along later. I'd also recommend that your equity be aggressive (i.e. high growth) given your age, plenty of time in your 50's to get more careful there. You can play with these figures depending on you risk appetite, here is an example of a reasonably aggressive portfolio for you age
> 1. 20 % aggressive stocks (e..g tech etc)
> ...



A very high risk portfolio.  Best avoided.


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