# In a mess



## Christine (29 Mar 2004)

Hi I am 30 year old single female whose finances are in am bit of a mess. four years ago I started a personal pension with Eagle Star (following parents advice your never too young etc.........) I pay €86 per month into that, which is rises every year and I realise is a bit low. But last year I changed jobs and have now been made permanent, and the option of joining the pension scheme is now available to me, I am not sure about the % they pay in, but I am wondering what options are available to me re pensions, then I was reading a post when Brendan Burgess said that really saving for a deposit should be a immediate priority. Now I am really confused, as I am paying rent every month and I know it is dead money, however what little I do save the deposit for house seems to become more unattainable each month. I do pay €100 per month into an SSIA. I really need to get orgainised.


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## Brendan Burgess (29 Mar 2004)

Hi Christine

Find out about your employer's pension.  A few employers match your contribution up to a certain maximum. If you put in 3% of salary, they put it 3% of salary. If this is the case, you should contribute the maximum to your employer's scheme. 

Assuming your employer does not provide such a scheme, your first priority is to maximise your SSIA contribtion. The government adds 25%, which is unbeatable. 

You should focus on buying a house, and stop contributing to the Eagle Star scheme. You probably have to stop anyway if you are in another scheme. 

Brendan


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## zag (29 Mar 2004)

I'm not entirely convinced by the don't-contribute-to-a-pension-scheme-,-save-for-a-house-instead argument.

A house is nice to own.

Rent can be considered dead money.

Rent can also be considered money well spent if it keeps a roof over your head for many years.

It will be little comfort when you retire to have a nice house and no pension other than the state pension, if that is still around by then.

It's not a clear cut argument one way or the other - I believe that it is nice to have a house and be in a pension scheme, but if I had to choose between the two I wouldn't automatically go for the house.  I may go for a smaller house and a smaller pension, but in your situation this doesn't apply as you don't have a house to start with.

I am a big believer in the value of employer contributions - this is extra tax free money your employer will willingly give you.  Maybe you won't get your hands on it for 30 years, but it is still free tax-free money.

The 'normal' situation is that an employer will match your 5% (if they match anything).

z


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## Jeff (29 Mar 2004)

*.*

So what happens if you invest in a pension and do not invest in your own house.

When you get to 65, you'll have a pension but have nowhere to live.


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## zag (29 Mar 2004)

*Re: .*

Yes, but you can possibly afford to rent somewhere . . . and not need to maintain the 4 bedroom house you have lived in for the last 30 years.

As I say, it's not clear cut, but I don't subscribe to the "everyone MUST own a house" idea.

z


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## Guest (29 Mar 2004)

*Re Finances*

Christine,

You need to decide for your self whether or not you want to prioritise buying a house at this moment in time.

As for sorting out your finances, I recommend writing down all your incomings and outgoings over a couple of months and then review this and make a few decisions on how to improve your finanancial situation.

E.g. have you any loans or credit cards and what are the interest rates - could you get a better rate elsewhere.

On a simpler level, I did this and discovered that that one coffee every day was adding up to a substantial amount of money every month - I went out a bought a jar of coffee instead. 

There are lot's of minor adjustments such as these that could serve to make a huge difference.

Good Luck


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## Christine (30 Mar 2004)

*getting it together*

Thanks for all the replys so far, my boss has arranged for me to meet with the brokers that the company uses,so I need to know the best questions to ask them. I don't have any other loans at the moment and I take the point of making out a list of what I spend,that is a good idea, one which I will certainly be following up, to enable me to save as much as possibe towards a house.


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## <A HREF=http://pub145.ezboard.com/baskaboutmoney.s (31 Mar 2004)

*Re: getting it together*



> Hi I am 30 year old single female whose finances are in am bit of a mess. four years ago I started a personal pension with Eagle Star (following parents advice your never too young etc.........) I pay €86 per month into that, which is rises every year and I realise is a bit low. But last year I changed jobs and have now been made permanent, and the option of joining the pension scheme is now available to me, I am not sure about the % they pay in, but I am wondering what options are available to me re pensions, then I was reading a post when Brendan Burgess said that really saving for a deposit should be a immediate priority. Now I am really confused, as I am paying rent every month and I know it is dead money, however what little I do save the deposit for house seems to become more unattainable each month. I do pay €100 per month into an SSIA. I really need to get orgainised.



You don't really post enough information above for anybody to decide whether or not your finances really are in a mess. However if you think that they are then it might make sense to start doing a daily/weekly budget/account to see exactly what comes in and what goes out and where (see MABS below). Once you have an objective assessment of your finances you can start looking at where you need to focus your attention and where you can make savings or improvements. If you are not going to buy a house in the next few years then you might be better off maximising your SSIA contributions and then using the maturing SSIA for the deposit at that stage. However, I'm jumping the gun in giving any advice in the absence of more detailed information. These links might be of use:

www.mabs.ie
[broken link removed] (MABS budget calculator)
www.fool.co.uk/debt/debt.htm
www.askaboutmoney.com/guide/index.htm


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## rainyday (2 Apr 2004)

*Extra Income*

Hi Christine,

Why not develop a new income stream?

_Link to MLM spam deleted_


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## <A HREF=http://pub145.ezboard.com/baskaboutmoney.s (2 Apr 2004)

*Re: Extra Income*

If somebody is experiencing difficulties with their finances (not proven in this case yet) then they would be better of sorting those out before launching into some sort of (part time?) business venture in my view.


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