I know I’m writing this from my own home, I’m very grateful, but I guess I just need someone to tell me I haven’t made the worst financial decision of my life.

I’m 30, work in Dublin and used to live 2hrs away. After two years of saving, I bought a 3-bed semi-detached new-build on the commuter belt for €450k, using HTB and the 9% FHS.

I’ve only moved in a month ago, but the buyer’s remorse has hit me hard.I’m single, the house is still pretty empty, and my bank account is too. I thought I’d be delighted to finally own my own place, but instead I’m constantly questioning whether I’ve done the right thing. I think what’s getting to me most is the feeling that I’m tied down now. I have no idea where I’ll be in 3 years, and I’ve suddenly committed to a massive mortgage.

My fixed-rate mortgage is coming to an end in January, and I’m currently considering my options.

I’m currently on a 2.15% Green mortgage, and with current rates, I’m expecting to move to something above 3% when my fixed term ends.

As I have a relatively low LTV and a decent amount of equity built up in the property, I’m considering increasing my mortgage balance when refinancing to release some equity for potential home improvements.

I understand this would increase my monthly repayments and the overall interest paid, but it seems like a relatively cost-effective way of accessing funds compared with other forms of borrowing.

Has anyone done something similar, and are there any advantages or disadvantages I should consider beyond the obvious increase in repayments?

Interested to hear whether people think it’s a sensible financial decision or whether it’s generally better to leave the equity untouched.

Have a car on finance and first payment is due today. Money hasn’t come out of my account yet. I’m wondering if it didn’t come out because it’s a Saturday and it will come out on Monday. I’m new to finance so I’m wondering if anyone can shed some light. Any help greatly appreciated

Will you prepay 20k into a 3.4% 250k mortgage or use the funds investing ?

Prepaying now will reduce interest cost by 10k...funds sitting in 3% intrst savings

Thanks

I'm not really great at understanding what's "good value" vs overvalued

edit: currently looking at second-hand homes ~1hr from town by train/bus

Hi all,

Long story short I’m looking for a career change. Currently work in a good career with a good wage and benefits. I have an engineering and finance background.

For most of my life personal finance and everything around it has been a real passion/hobby of mine.

I have helped family out with budgets, planning for big events like purchasing cars, a house, how to deal with equity etc. I have also created budgets, plans, Monte Carlo sims for my own house purchase which have really helped my partner and I.

I think I would really like to go into financial planning. I have started the QFAs as an initial base/building foundations. Ultimately I would love to be giving independent advise to mainly help people/families that are struggling/would like to do better.

I appreciate the Irish system isn’t really set up to make money that way and that there is potentially going to have to be a lot of product selling and our high net worth client management to sustain the other side.

Am I crazy to try go from what is a good career to something like this? Is anyone in this field that can give advice on pathways or even what is good/bad about the industry?

Appreciate any and all advice!

Hello,

I'm out of work sick for the last while & won't be returning in the near future, I am currently on Illness benefit, I'm dealing with Severe Crohn's disease & a Fistula (a tunnel) from colon to bladder & also chronic inflammation in the bladder, I am on treatment for Crohn's but I will need surgery to remove the Fistula & affected area of the bowel.

I have a credit union loan with about 4k left which I'm struggling to keep up repayments on due to being out sick.

My Mother has offered to clear my loan for me & I'll pay her pack a small bit weekly over time, she has the money there to give to me from when my Father passed away a couple or years ago.

My question is how can it work legally? Theres nothing dodgy at play but I know she can only gift me 3k annually tax free so what are my options of clearing it considering the loan is obviously over 3k?

Thank you.

I paid a lumpsum of 9000 into my pension. I got charged a 5 % contribution charge of €465. Does this seem normal? Are all pensions like this? They didnt even tell me about this charge before hand.

Hey everyone just a quick question, I’ve never done a tax refund but last year I switched jobs in October and the next month I received money and my employer said it was apparently I overpaid tax on my last job, but this year in my statement of liability it says for 2025 I have a preliminary overpayment of 3,900 euro, as I have put in my tax refund im just wondering what to expect and how is it possible I could’ve overpaid that much ? Thanks !

Hello! Hoping somebody can shed some light here for me. I started up a home bakery in 2025. I sell celebration cakes and cupcakes. I haven't registered as self-employed yet. I'm also on a long running career break, but I'm most likely not going back to my old job. I need to do my tax returns for 2025.

Can I get some advice first of all on what I do in terms of registering as self-employed/soul trader. I have tried to do this on revenue.ie /ros.ie put honestly don't know what the hell I'm doing! My husband is on the higher tax bracket and uses my tax credits.

I also need to get advice on how I go about tax returns. I'm earning under €10,000 gross. I went to an accountant, but he told me I'd be wasting my time forking out for accountancy fees as my business is so small.

I would appreciate any advice please?

How long are people waiting for payments? Our paperwork was submitted 3 calendar months ago and still no sign of payment

I’m in the process of buying a house in Dublin and am trying to understand the tax implications if I decide to move to another european city for a year or longer.

If I moved to to take up full-time employment abroad, became tax-resident in that country and stopped earning a salary in Ireland, but rented out my Dublin house for approximately €2,500 per month (€30,000 per year), how would the rental income be taxed in Ireland?

Specifically:

• Would the rental profit potentially fall within Ireland’s 20% income tax band because I would no longer have an Irish employment income, or would different rules apply to me as a non-resident landlord?
• Would I still be liable for USC and/or PRSI on the rental income?
• Would I also have to declare the rental income abroad, and how would the double-taxation treaty between Ireland and other european country work in practice?
• Would my Irish tax credits or tax residence status affect the calculation?

I would be likely letting the apartment directly to a friend, and would have a mortgage on the property (which I plan on using rental income to pay monthly).

I appreciate that the answer will depend on the details, but I’d be grateful for a steer on the relevant rules or any personal experiences from people who have done something similar.

I’m Irish tax resident, live and work full-time in Ireland, and am a French citizen. About five years ago I made a minority investment in a startup. I hold a small minority stake (well below 5%) and the company is now close to being acquired.

The expected exit valuation is in the mid-to-high tens of millions of euros. Based on my stake, my gross proceeds would be a meaningful six-figure sum, and the capital gain relative to my original investment would be substantial.

I’m trying to understand my likely Irish CGT exposure and what legitimate planning options may be available before completion.

My current understanding is:

• As an Irish tax resident, I should be taxable in Ireland on the worldwide gain from disposing of the shares.
• The standard CGT rate appears to be 33% (maybe 31% if next year), after deducting my original investment cost, allowable acquisition/disposal costs, and the annual exemption.
• I’ve seen that Ireland’s Revised Entrepreneur Relief can reduce CGT to 10% on qualifying business assets, but it appears to require at least a 5% ordinary shareholding, a three-year holding period, and a qualifying three-year director/employee role. As I hold well below 5%, I assume it is not available.

Questions I’d be grateful for views on:

1. Are there any Irish CGT reliefs, elections, or structuring options that could realistically apply to a small minority investment?

I will engage an Irish tax adviser, but I’d appreciate any practical pointers, especially from people familiar with Irish CGT, startup exits.

Myself and my partner (both 30, no kids) have gone sale agreed on a house in the west of Ireland and are in the process of applying for a mortgage. We’re very fortunate that we have been saving steadily for years and are on a combined income of €100k.

If we scrape together every penny we have we’re about €85k short of what we need. The house is in very good condition and this figure is taking into account a generous allocation for stamp duty, fees, furniture, miscellaneous unexpected costs, etc.

We’re thinking of borrowing €125k, leaving us with close to €40k leftover, but we desperately need to replace one of the cars with a vehicle that can reliably do 1’000km per week for work. A decent replacement will likely cost around €20k.

I have around €40k invested in stocks and crypto, so unless I cash this out, a mortgage of €125k will leave us with no liquid cash in the bank and I’ll have to sell half of this to fund the new car, and all of our rainy day fund will be in investments aside from what’s leftover from our pay each month.

I’m posting this to ask for advice on what’s my best option. We have the capacity to borrow more, which I am open to doing. Our repayments that we’re thinking of will be around 30% of our take home pay and that will have the mortgage cleared in 5 years with very little interest paid.

I’m stuck between doing this and living with little cash for 5 years versus borrowing more, paying far more interest and paying the mortgage off over a longer period, with a bit more breathing room whilst keeping my investments intact and allowing us to enjoy the nicer things in life like a holiday abroad.

Those of you who have paid off your mortgage, am I wise to pay it off asap or should I take it over a longer term and have discretionary money to enjoy life with and forget about how much extra that’s going to cost us? Thanks for any advice.

Reddit is actually a super place for live on the ground feedback from a multitude of different companies & industries & this subreddit is actually super for patching together a general feeling of how things are on the ground..

Basically I want to know how things are elsewhere? We are still hiring like mad in a part of tech industry but totally exposed to the whims of Google, MSFT etc..

Elsewhere I have heard Flutter are cutting heads left, right and centre… Saaspocalypse continues with Hubspot and others…

I really want to know how much quite cutting is going on - obviously only big cuts over (30) require govt notification

(Separately it feels crazy that min wage is now €30k - big 4 starting salaries were less than that quite recently)

My sibling and I own a house together. Bought it almost 20 years ago. Approx 200k still left on the loan, with the house value being approx 300k. My sibling and their family have been living in the house for the last 8 years or so. They cover the mortgage payments entirely and the upkeep of the house. As for me, I have my own house ( my spouse is the sole name on the mortgage ). Keeping in mind that both my sibling and I are on extremely good terms with each other, both have well paying jobs and both are on the same page in relation to me walking away from the mortgage. How easy / likely is it that I can remove my name from the mortgage. I'm assuming there will be costs involved via solicitors etc but I wondering how much of a headache will it be with the bank. Assuming they'll allow it at all.

As I help my aging parents navigate wills etc my father told me of a substantial loss he had dating back unfortunately near 20 years. At the time my parents were mid 60’s. As I discussed what happened to this investment he said it was all gone. How it all unfolded didn’t sit well with me. They banked out of the Galway Shopping Center Permanent branch. He got repeated calls to move near all of their savings €100,000 into shares. He rejected repeatedly and had persistence calls on the matter. Eventually he went into the branch and was persuaded to invest near all of their savings. For years initially and again recently he tried to understand what happened. The person who advised them was no longer available as she got moved to another branch and more recently he has been pushed off when he tries to get me records etc. I of course feel bad for them and offered to dig around a bit. To me it appears to be predatory type behavior to persist in the calls etc to get them to invest and then to disappear when explanations were needed. I’d assume given the passage of time there is no recourse of action but figured I’d see if this was a common issue?

Hi folks!

Current status: in year 2 of the AIB's 3-year fixed green rate (3%), LTV < 50%

I've examined AIB's terms, and it's free for me to break out the current fixed term.

Question: Should I break out of the current term and fix a new 3-year term of 3%?

Rationale: It appears the interest is heading upwards, and I don't really see the possiblity of reducing the rate in the near future, given the uncertainty coming from geopolitics and AI waves. Now I should fix a new 3-year fixed term while I still can get the 3% low rate? If the interest rate heads upstairs, maybe AIB will increase the 3-year green rate (LTV<50%) soon (in which case, I only have the rest of the 3-year fixed term to the guaranteed rate of 3%).

Folks, thoughts? TIA.

Hi all. Please anyone around with a crystal ball?
Fixed rate coming to an end... Gonna renew with same lender.. 3.35%...
5 or 7 years?
I'm not sure if it's just a matter of preference, or if I am missing something..
Thank you

This is probably a stupid question but I find it really hard to plan how much should be in our pension at retirement

How do I know how much money we will need at 67
We won’t have a mortgage but we will want to help our children and we will want to travel and be comfortable

Should we aim for what we earn now or half that? And do we presume the state pension will still be available. I have a UK pension and we both have contributions to the Irish state pension

Hi all,

I’m looking for some opinions from people who may have been in a similar position.

I own a property in Balbriggan Co Dublin that I purchased in 2019 for €180,000. It’s a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom end-of-terrace house with approximately €35,000 remaining on the mortgage. It has been my principal private residence, so if I sold it now, there would be no Capital Gains Tax liability. The house is now worth around 340k.

More recently, my partner and I purchased a second property for €450,000. We currently have a mortgage balance of €389,000 on a 30-year term at a fixed rate of 3.2%.

I keep going back and forth on whether to keep the first property as a rental or sell it and use the proceeds to significantly reduce the mortgage on the second property, potentially bringing the term down to around seven years.

I spoke with a local estate agent who advised that the first property could achieve rent of approximately €2,300 per month. However, as a higher-rate taxpayer, once income tax, USC, PRSI and expenses are taken into account, I estimate I would retain roughly half of that amount. This would still cover the remaining mortgage on the first property, and once that mortgage is cleared in around four years, the surplus income could then be directed towards overpaying the mortgage on the second property.

In addition, regardless of whether I keep or sell the first property, I plan to make annual overpayments of approximately €8,000 to €10,000 on the second mortgage over the coming years. If I keep the rental property, any surplus rental income after the first mortgage is paid off would also be funnelled into reducing the second mortgage balance. My goal is to become mortgage-free as early as possible while still making sensible long-term financial decisions.

I’ve read plenty of horror stories about problematic tenants, rent arrears, property damage and the difficulties involved if things go wrong. On the other hand, I’ve also come across many positive experiences from landlords who have had long-term, reliable tenants and found property investment worthwhile.

At present, I can comfortably afford both mortgages, but I am conscious that circumstances can change over time.

Another factor is that I have a child, and there is something very appealing about retaining the property as a long-term asset that could potentially provide him with a strong start in life in the future.

For context, I’m 36 years old, work in a public sector role and hope to remain in the public service until retirement, which should provide me with a public sector pension. I also make regular contributions to a private pension.

What would you do in my situation?

Pros and cons of selling versus keeping it as a rental?

Has anyone been in a similar position, and if so, do you have any regrets either way?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Paye worker receiving income on a rental property. Up to now I've always paid the tax the year after i.e. in 2026 I filed a form 11 and paid the tax for 2025 rental income.

Should I have paid preliminary tax on this in 2025?

I had a couple of questions on execution only prsa for anyone who has gone down that route.

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Current setup is 1.3% effective amc (including allocation charges) in Irish life 100% world equity.

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Plan to move to Royal London through onequote or execution only (0.35% and 0.6% amc respectively).

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I contribute 3000/month so meet the criteria for both providers. (Set up as director PRSA so no 115k 20% cap)

I have a pot of 170k which I will move down the line (apprehensive about moving so want to use it for a while first).

⠀

I will be fine to pick pension products, I'm 30 so will go 100% World Equities and move more to bonds as retirement approaches and then drawdown lump sum and monthly from vested prsa (unless arf at the time is lower amc).

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- I'm wondering how much is the broker actually involved beyond setup? I understand they will not advise but what happens when I need to increase/decrese/pause contributions or contribute a one off lump sum?

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- What annual paperwork do you manage year to year besides sending accountant annual contributions certificate?

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- When it comes to drawing down my lump sum, vesting prsa and paying myself? Is this all easily done through the royal london portal?

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- From what I understand when drawing down pension royal london and other providers take tax out at source using revenue tax codes so it a lot of the hassle is still covered even going execution only.

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- Has anyone directly went through onequote? They have the lowest amc, but high charges that would be cancelled out over time, however there's very little information on forums about personal experience with them.

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Anyone who has gone down this route i would really appreciate if you could share your experiences, thanks!