Age: 45
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 46
Annual gross income from employment or profession: €125,000 plus discretionary bonus c €25/30,000
Annual gross income of spouse:€98,000 plus discretionary bonus c €20,000
Monthly take-home pay €8,200 after AVC
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed
Both employed private sector
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving
Rough estimate of value of home €800,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: €112,000 after many years of overpaying where we could
What interest rate are you paying? 2.75%
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
None but need to trade up cars soon, have never had car finance
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes on direct debit
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? Nil
Savings and investments: c €125,000
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes. Both have DB with small pension of c€13k per annum accrued at retirement (closed to future accrual). Both c €230k in DC scheme. Both maxing AVCs since DB closed to future accrual. Both employers contribute c 11% to DC fund.
Do you own any investment or other property? No
Ages of children: 3 kids under 9.
Life insurance: Death in service benefit plus life assurance policy each.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We realise we are very lucky to be where we are financially. However we have busy stressful jobs so not sure we can keep going at this pace until we are 65, so earnings can’t be assumed to continue at this level. We have a good bit of savings that is earning no interest while at same time paying interest on the mortgage. We have the mortgage to a comfortable level we think so are focusing on maxing AVCs each year now, but are considering more payments against mortgage. We wish we had made less mortgage overpayments & more AVCs in our 30s while the tax benefits were there.
Two questions :
(1) If we are thinking of needing capital in say the next 5 years are we better holding onto our savings for that or just reduce debt now & look for finance when we are at that stage? We are looking at potentially developing rear garden subject to pp. I worry we wouldn’t get the lower mortgage rate if the loan was not for our PPR.
(2) We are saving the children’s allowance for college years & I’d like to know more about savings products to try to make that work better for us. But not a product that is the child’s when they turn 18.
Thank you !
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 46
Annual gross income from employment or profession: €125,000 plus discretionary bonus c €25/30,000
Annual gross income of spouse:€98,000 plus discretionary bonus c €20,000
Monthly take-home pay €8,200 after AVC
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed
Both employed private sector
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
Saving
Rough estimate of value of home €800,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: €112,000 after many years of overpaying where we could
What interest rate are you paying? 2.75%
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
None but need to trade up cars soon, have never had car finance
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes on direct debit
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? Nil
Savings and investments: c €125,000
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes. Both have DB with small pension of c€13k per annum accrued at retirement (closed to future accrual). Both c €230k in DC scheme. Both maxing AVCs since DB closed to future accrual. Both employers contribute c 11% to DC fund.
Do you own any investment or other property? No
Ages of children: 3 kids under 9.
Life insurance: Death in service benefit plus life assurance policy each.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
We realise we are very lucky to be where we are financially. However we have busy stressful jobs so not sure we can keep going at this pace until we are 65, so earnings can’t be assumed to continue at this level. We have a good bit of savings that is earning no interest while at same time paying interest on the mortgage. We have the mortgage to a comfortable level we think so are focusing on maxing AVCs each year now, but are considering more payments against mortgage. We wish we had made less mortgage overpayments & more AVCs in our 30s while the tax benefits were there.
Two questions :
(1) If we are thinking of needing capital in say the next 5 years are we better holding onto our savings for that or just reduce debt now & look for finance when we are at that stage? We are looking at potentially developing rear garden subject to pp. I worry we wouldn’t get the lower mortgage rate if the loan was not for our PPR.
(2) We are saving the children’s allowance for college years & I’d like to know more about savings products to try to make that work better for us. But not a product that is the child’s when they turn 18.
Thank you !