My boss recently announced he was retiring at the age of 53 after getting a large inheritance. It made me stop and think where I am in life.
Age:52
Spouse’s/Partner's age:50
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 93000
Annual gross income of spouse: 18000
Monthly take-home pay around 5,500
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed both private secotr, I’m full time with an IT services company, wife is part time with a charity
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving
Rough estimate of value of home €225,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: €75,000
What interest rate are you paying? Tracker: 0.95 above ECB Rate. Currently overpaying by approx. €200 per month
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc None
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?
Savings and investments: approx. €55k in cash between bank and CU. There are additional funds also but those are ringfenced for a change in cars and some home improvements.
€30k in a monthly investment bond (€200 per month paid in) and a small amount of shares.
Do you have a pension scheme?
Do you own any investment or other property? None and have absolutely no interest in investing in property
Ages of children: 14 and 10
Life insurance: Yes, both on PR and through work
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
Firstly, I’m concerned my pension position is messy with 3 work pensions and whilst I am normally good with money, I find pensions confusing at best
Living down the country so if the 2 smallies decide they want to go to college in Dublin/Cork etc, I reckon I need to have €150-€200k (given the cost of student accom etc) to fund all of that and am probably half-way there at the minute. What’s the best way of investing over the next 5 years to get to the rest? I want to give them the best start I can
Any other advice gratefully received, we have a good health insurance package through my work and are in our forever home so in a very good stable position but could we do better?
Age:52
Spouse’s/Partner's age:50
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 93000
Annual gross income of spouse: 18000
Monthly take-home pay around 5,500
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed both private secotr, I’m full time with an IT services company, wife is part time with a charity
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving
Rough estimate of value of home €225,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: €75,000
What interest rate are you paying? Tracker: 0.95 above ECB Rate. Currently overpaying by approx. €200 per month
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc None
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?
Savings and investments: approx. €55k in cash between bank and CU. There are additional funds also but those are ringfenced for a change in cars and some home improvements.
€30k in a monthly investment bond (€200 per month paid in) and a small amount of shares.
Do you have a pension scheme?
- Current employment pension worth approx. €175k- currently I’m paying 5% and employer paying 7% of salary into it.
- Previous Irish employer scheme (small, transfer value of approx. €35k)
- UK employer scheme from a previous employer with a transfer value of £84k- Can take a pension on this at 63
- Wife has a previous pension through an old employer worth approx. €250k.
Do you own any investment or other property? None and have absolutely no interest in investing in property
Ages of children: 14 and 10
Life insurance: Yes, both on PR and through work
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
Firstly, I’m concerned my pension position is messy with 3 work pensions and whilst I am normally good with money, I find pensions confusing at best
- Should I combine my 3 into1?
- Should I be paying AVC’s or topping up what I and my employer pay in (I can do this via a “flex” arrangement which reduces my salary accordingly
- What are the tax implications (if any) of bringing my UK based pension home?
- I have 11 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions in the UK. I’ve seen mentioned before that you can “buy” more years. Is that correct?. Overall, what impact does a UK pension have on a contributory pension here?
Living down the country so if the 2 smallies decide they want to go to college in Dublin/Cork etc, I reckon I need to have €150-€200k (given the cost of student accom etc) to fund all of that and am probably half-way there at the minute. What’s the best way of investing over the next 5 years to get to the rest? I want to give them the best start I can
Any other advice gratefully received, we have a good health insurance package through my work and are in our forever home so in a very good stable position but could we do better?