# 1 income 3 kids-insurance? (pension?)



## first_timer (26 Jan 2009)

Hi, these are our details:
*Age:  *36*
   Spouse’s/Partner's age: *43*

   Annual gross income : *none, stay-home-mum for the time being
*    Annual gross income of spouse: *32500 (net January 2265)
*Other income:* 500€ net in rent every month
*
   Type of employment: *private sector
*
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
*Spending about everything - might be able to start saving a little bit but need to get organized to do that
*
   Rough estimate of value of home *350k€
*    Amount outstanding on your mortgage: *80k€or 454.8/month                 *What interest rate    are you paying?  *4.85%with BOI fixed 'til  nov 2011* - *it would cost 3k penalty to get out of fixed rate and onto a BOI 3.7% variable* - *in the next 3 years the change in rate would save us about 1.8k in interest - or it would cost us about 1.1k to pay off a lump sum of 30k(see savings below)*

   Other borrowings – *none*

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


   Savings and investments: *about 3kwith Rabo *- *some with Evergreen fund in BOI (it was about 12k a year ago, I dread finding out how much that is now) - about 7k somewhere else - will get my redundancy of about 34k in the next few weeks - could pay it off against mortgage, or put it somewhere where it makes at least 4.85% until 2011 when we come off the fixed rate
*
   Do you have a pension scheme? *I used to contribute to my employment pension fund - the balance isn't great though
*Spouse:* yes, 6% of income every month
*
   Do you own any investment or other property? *apartment abroad worth about 100k* 

   Ages of children: *6, 3 and under 1*

   Life insurance: *                               125k€ mortgage protection with BOI plus critical illness, cost eur 106.63/month - renewal in February

*What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
*I am about to officially become a stay-home-mum when I get my redundancy - it looks like our finances are a bit messy, in particular:
-where should we keep our* lump su*m savings and how much do we need of them?
-we get *monetary presents for the kids* from granny and grandad every so often: where should we keep those (we don't want to access them for maybe another 15 years)
-yes, we need to set up a regular *monthly saving account* asap
-*pension*: what do I need to do?
-*life insurance*: I'm sure 125k is inadequate, how much do we need? do we need critical illness? hubby has income protection through work, but what if I get sick? do we just top up our existing policy, which is linked to our mortgage, or take up a new one?
-what is the best thing to do with my *redundancy money*?
Thank you very much!


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## first_timer (27 Jan 2009)

Hi, could someone please please advise? I know our situation isn't as bad as that of some of the other people in this forum, but my key questions are: 
what happens if one or both of us dies?
what if one of us gets very sick and unable to work?
what if my husband is made redundant and can't get another job?
I think we are not sufficiently covered financially if any of this happens - what is the best way to go about it?
Thanks a lot


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## PaddyW (27 Jan 2009)

In relation to saving for your kids, check out post office savings  : http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainContent/Personal+Customers/Money+Matters/Savings+and+Investments/

or AIB parent saver plan if you're going to be saving monthly, great rate of interest up to 200 euro per month [broken link removed]

106.63 EURO per month is way too high, IMO, per month. Shop around, try LA Brokers etc and I'm sure you could do much better.


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## first_timer (27 Jan 2009)

Thanks a lot Paddy, that's very helpful.
I still need to establish though how much cover I would need for life insurance - perhaps I should open a thread under the insurance section?
I think maybe 20 times our family's income should be a guideline (e.g. 640k?), to support the kids until they have finished their education? maybe half that amount each of us, with a dual cover? maybe separate from the mortgage protection, which could be reduced to the bare minimum to cover for the mortgage? 
thanks again


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## annR (27 Jan 2009)

Hi
I was wondering this myself some time ago and I found a useful post - hope it helps.  
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=62936&highlight=ravima%27s+answer

A


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