What to do with inheritance

Daisyboo

New Member
Messages
4
Personal details

Your age: 46
Your spouse's age: 45
Partner's age if not married:

Number and age of children:
14yrs, 12yrs, 9 yrs

Income and expenditure
Annual gross income from employment or profession: 35,000 (part time worker)
Annual gross income of spouse/partner:
240,000

Monthly take-home pay:me 2200
spouse 9,500

Type of employment - e.g. Employee or self-employed.employees
Employer type: e.g. public servant, private company.me: public, spouse, private

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
We are saving as we were thinking of moving house. But now I have come into a good bit of inheritance so we will still move but have more cash now.


Summary of Assets and Liabilities
Family home value: 1million
Mortgage on family home: 200000
Net equity:800000

Cash:150000
Defined Contribution pension fund: I have civil servant pension but I am a job sharer so it won’t be a full pension when I retire
Company shares : 0
Buy to Let Property value:0
Buy to let Mortgage:0

Total net assets:


Family home mortgage information
Lender avant
Interest rate 1.9
Type of interest rate: tracker, variable, fixed.
If fixed, what is the term remaining of the fixed rate? Fixed for 3 more years
If tracker, what is the margin e.g. ECB + 1%

Remaining term: (Original term is not relevant)
Monthly repayment:20 years left

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? No loans or Cc
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?

Pension information

Value of pension fund: I did an online calculator and I should get 32000 including state pension
Spouse has maxed out his pension contributions

Buy to let properties
Value:
Rental income per year:
Rough annual expenses other than mortgage interest :
Lender
Interest rate
If fixed, what is the term remaining of the fixed rate?

Other savings and investments:


Other information which might be relevant


Life insurance:
I have civil service death in service. Spouse has excellent 4 times salary

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

I have been left a large estate from my friend who sadly died of cancer. After the inheritance tax I am left with 2 properties 1. 530k and a holiday home 270k. There is cash of 200k.
Although the holiday is home is lovely I think I will sell it.
We were thinking of moving house. Our dream house is circa 1.6 million. Should I sell both properties to fund this or hang on to one as an investment ?
 
Hi Daisy, you are in a very good position financially so you have loads of choice.

If you are interested in property investment and the rental market and becoming a landlord then investigate how much you would earn, and see if your asset is working for you.
Say you bought a house for €500K, rented it out at €30K per year, paid roughly 50% taxes, costs etc, you would end up with a profit of €15K on a €500k investment. That is 3% per annum. Would you get more return if you invested in equities? You will need to do the sums yourself.

Otherwise, sell the two inheritance houses, buy your new home - you will need a modest mortgage of ~€400K, then sell your current home, pay off the mortgage and you are mortgage free with about €350K in cash. Then get independent financial advice on how to invest that along with your current savings, as you will no longer be funding a mortgage.

Assets
Home €1000K
Holiday house €270K
Inherited house €530K
Cash €350K

Mortgage €200K

Net worth €1950K

New house €1600K
Remaining wealth €350K

I suppose with fees, moving, renovating and decorating it will eat into the €350K, but your take home if €12K a month so you have great savings capacity.

An alternative is to keep a 20 year substantial mortgage on your new home and use the cash you have to invest in equities which should return greater than the mortgage cost.
 
You have plenty of wealth so you do not need the hassle of property ownership.
Sell both properties and buy your ideal home.
Then sell your existing home.
Max your pension contributions.
Invest the balance in equities
 
Sorry for your loss.

You actually have sufficient assets to trade up to a (mortgage-free) €1.6m home, while retaining the €270k holiday home.

Do you think you would make use of the holiday home on a fairly regular basis?

Strikes me as a nice thing to have from a lifestyle perspective while your kids are still relatively young.
 
Never really got Holiday homes, always struck me it was better to rent, once you close the door on your way home you're finished with it and no need to pay for upkeep/repairs insurance/taxes.

If you sit down and input all costs into an excel sheet you'd probably think twice.

Another downside is it anchors you to that one location, very hard to justify going elsewhere when the holiday home is on your books pining for a visit from you.

Additionally there is the opportunity cost of this asset that doesn't generate cash unless you get into short term let's and all the hassle that goes with it if its a good distance away
 
You have plenty of wealth so you do not need the hassle of property ownership.
@Brendan Burgess
As I have read your views on property investment on these forums am I right in saying that what you really mean is...
"There is no amount of wealth a person could have that would make property ownership worth it, other than your own home."?

Your reasoning is probably because in Ireland the advantages of investing in equities, via your pension, (tax free, less risk) far outweigh potential returns of property investment (taxable income, more risk)?

I don't suppose you mean:
"People who do not have plenty of wealth could consider investing in property as a way to grow wealth."?

I'm in this dilemma myself and the OP might chose to hold on to a second property as an investment too. Or they may choose to hold on to a second property that will never earn them any income at all (even worse?).

I think a problem facing many people in making this choice (perhaps Irish people especially) is that if you can make it work to hold on to that other property it can be very difficult to part with it even when you can see advantages of selling it in terms of taxation and risk. I don't know how you persuade people (like myself) with that in-built mindset because for those people it is not a black and white situation but a huge psychological challenge.
 
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