Pension or Savings A/C?

Age: 38

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 46K


Type of employment: 2 pt contract jobs & pt retained firefighter

In general are you spending more than you earn or are you saving? No

Rough estimate of value of home: 200k
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: approx 110k - 19 years left
What interest rate are you paying? With NIB LTV tracker - think its 5%

Other borrowings – None

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


Savings and investments:10k with First active + 100 savings per month. 3k in Credit union. 20k sitting in current a/c

Do you have a pension scheme? No

Do you own any investment or other property? No

Ages of children: None

Life insurance: Eagle star minimum for house purchase


What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
As stated, I have no pension plan in place. I have been offered a part-time superannuation pension with the firefighters. But I'm wondering should I just put my money in a high interest savings a/c. I have noone to leave my house to and I would like to use its collateral in my later years to get me through my retirement - is this being silly??

What is your priority in terms of savings/investments? Short/medium term expenditure or long term/pension income? Comparing a high rate deposit account to a (preferably low charges) equity/other asset based pension is comparing apples and oranges. The tax advantages, liquidity (i.e. locked away until retirement), risk/reward/potential growth profile etc. of the latter are totally different to the former. Have you read the consumer guides on www.itsyourmoney.ie and the AAM Guide to Savings & Investments?