Pensions for ex-pats coming back

K

Kevin5

Registered User
Messages
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Hi

Myself (31) and partner (34) are moving back to Ireland in August 2006. It has always bothered me that we dont have pensions and I think now is the time to start.

Can someone advise us whats the best way of going about starting 2 pensions ? and if it is possible to start them now while we are living abroad ?

when we move over ( or before ) we will be looking for employment and hence eventually a house, so therefore we would like to start off I think with 2 pensions that dont cost the earth...and eventually increase it ...when we find our feet.

I looked at the pensions chapter.......its a bit long winded. Any advise would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Kevin
 
Where are you returning from? You may have pension entitlements (e.g. national insurance payments) that can be transferred back to Ireland regardless of what you do in terms of putting in place additional funding for retirement. See . If you will be buying a house when you return then you should really concentrate on that first before committing to a pension. Once you have the house/mortgage then you can look at your pension cover.
 
thanks for replying clubman.

I am returning from Germany. I was working over here as a contractor freelance, so I wasnt paying into any pension scheme. Just income tax and also the vat i charged . still I would like to start it now.....because both of us are over 30 and it could be another 2 years before we buy a house, and that would be 2 years that we were paying into a pension.

rgds
Kevin
 
Kevin5 said:
I was working over here as a contractor freelance, so I wasnt paying into any pension scheme. Just income tax and also the vat i charged .
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But were you paying any German equivalent of PRSI/national insurance/stamps which might be transferrable and included in any assessment of qualification for state contributory pension payments when the time comes?

still I would like to start it now.....because both of us are over 30 and it could be another 2 years before we buy a house, and that would be 2 years that we were paying into a pension.
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If it's a choice between saving towards your house and saving towards your pension then you should consider concentrating on the former. However if you can afford both then by all means do both (assuming that you don't have debts that need to be cleared first etc.). If you browse/search this forum you will get a better idea of the sort of pension options open to you. Whether you will be self employed or PAYE may have a bearing on the options open to you and the most appropriate thing to do.

If in doubt talke to an independent, professional advisor (authorised advisor, good multi-agency intermediary but not a tied agent).
 
ClubMan said:
If it's a choice between saving towards your house and saving towards your pension then you should consider concentrating on the former.
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I would agree, you might not get the tax breaks a pension fund gives you but assuming you pay off the mortgage before you retire then a house is effectively part of your pension as you won't find yourself paying rent out of your pension income.
 
Kevin5 said:
I looked at the pensions chapter.......its a bit long winded. Any advise would be much appreciated.
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Given that your pension will have a huge impact on the last 1/3rd of your life, I think it's worth the 15-30 minutes that it will take to read the chapter. Give it a shot.

Have you checked out Irish property prices? I wouldn't put a penny into a pension until I was confident that I could afford to get the kind of property I need, if I were you.
 
Do you mean that the chapter was too long or that you couldn't understand the gist of it? As I said you should really get independent, professional advice even after reading such material and soliciting feedback here if you are not clear on what the most appropriate choices/decisions are for your specific case.
 
Are you saying that you have €45K in savings/investments right now? If these are in any way liquid then they should go some way towards helping to fund the house deposit/purchase. You should also consider clearning any debts rather than maintaining them while you also have significant savings. The latter generally does not make sense (with the exception of mortgage borrowings). Once again if buying a house is your priority then you should concentrate on that and review the pension situation later on.
 
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