47, preparing for retirement.

theObserver

Registered User
Messages
81
Personal details

Your age: 47
Your spouse's age: NA
Partner's age if not married: NA

Number and age of children: 0


Income and expenditure
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 77k
Annual gross income of spouse/partner: NA

Monthly take-home pay: 3.4k net

Type of employment: Employee
Employer type: private company.

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?

Saving 4.5k each month including pension contributions.
2k into pension
2k into ETF investments
350 into BoI Regular Saver paying 3% interest
Rest left in current account.


Summary of Assets and Liabilities

Family home value: 250k (conservative estimate)
Mortgage on family home: 0
Net equity: 250k

Cash: 17k
Defined Contribution pension fund: NA
Company shares : 5k vested
Buy to Let Property value: NA
Buy to let Mortgage: NA

Total net assets: 272k


Family home mortgage information
NA

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
None

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

Pension information

Value of pension fund: 157k
New Ireland.
Default life styling.
5% personal contribution + 5% employer + 20 AVC = 30% total monthly pension contributions.


Other savings and investments:

54k in Emerging Markets and S&P ETFs via Trading212. (Holding the S&P stock; not buying more).
53k in FTSE Developed ETF via Lightyear.
50k in Irish government NTMA ten year bond at 2.1% AER interest


Other information which might be relevant

Expected sole inheritance of parents estate including a three bed bungalow worth 300k. I intend to live in this bungalow long term and sell the Dublin apartment. I will become a full time carer to one or both of my parents if needs be. They are both in their 70s.

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

1) If I retire from full time work at 55, in seven years, and live off my personal investments until 65, should I adjust how my pension is invested?

My current rate of savings could potentially see my personal investments at over 360k and my pension at 320k in the next seven years, ignoring any unrealized p/l and ignoring any sale of property.

My thinking is roughly: Aggressively invest for the next seven years, then settle the deemed disposal tax and rebalance into a standard 30% bonds/70% stock portfolio to support myself on from ages 55 - 65 using the two bucket withdrawal strategy of holding 1-2 years cash and rebalancing quarterly then start drawing down my pension from 65 along with the state contributory pension from 67.

Should this change how I want my pension invested? Currently I am using the default Lifestyling with New Ireland which will see a gradual shift towards bonds especially during the last 5-10 years. Would I be better served instructing New Ireland to invest some or all of my pension in a more passive global index as I will already hold bonds in my personal portfolio?

2) Should I withdraw the 50k stored in NTMA bonds to invest the money in my ETFs instead?

Admittedly having nearly 33% of my portfolio in bonds earning just 2.1% AER after ten years is giving me FOMO when my ETF investments are returning 14% YTD. These bonds were intended as the safe portion of my investments, a “at least” fall back should the rest fall apart. Since then I have realized holding 12 months cash, around 25k, provides far more psychological comfort and holding these NTMA bonds don’t have any purpose. Is this just FOMO or should I really cash in the bonds and invest? I have 1 10k, and 2x 20k bonds.
 
I personally think your portfolio is too conservative. Property and bonds (via NTMA and bond portion of pension) must be close to 450k, or 60/70% of your portfolio. Your property alone gives you the same diversifying effect of bonds. You actually run the risk of not growing your portfolio aggressively enough to retire early imo.