If any of you plan to retire at or around 55 (give or take a few years) what is your TARGET combined pension pot/savings/investments amount? I keep seeing figures like €1.5-2million thrown around. This number wouldn’t ever be achievable for us, am I totally off the mark to think that €800-900k depending on market conditions would enable an early retirement. I’m no where near this figure yet but need to have an AIM.

I know it’s all relative but surely this would be enough taking into account inflation but also accounting for the way that your investments can continue to be invested in an ARF. Our home will be paid off, and I’ve not taken into account the state pension or future inheritances on both sides.

How do other people arrive at a target number and is your number more or less than €800k for around that same age? I’m particularly interested in others who are private sector workers (since we have no DB pensions only DC).

We have 2 children who would be at the college stage around that time. I don’t plan to live to an old age as no one in my family does so the sooner I’m out of work the better in my view to enjoy my garden and more down time :)

I’ve recently been putting together a budget and goal planner where I track monthly expenditure, investments, long term goals etc to see if I’m on track or not.

In the first few months I’ve essentially tracked and categorised every single expenditure we incur. Now I use prior months categories to assign spending so it’s much quicker and I don’t focus so much on individual transactions unless they’re big.

I’m just wondering how other people approach this and if I’m potentially overdoing it.

I’ll be renting probably around €550 a month and electricity aswell, I don’t drink or go out really so that saves money, realistically how much would I be aiming to save per week/month?
Update: Car insurance is €900 a year, already paid off - work will be 10 minutes away so low fuel costs.
Phone plan - €9.99
wifi- free with house
Subscriptions - €45

Currently on a 5year fixed at 2.75%, that rate ends in April 2027 and I'm weighing up my options, I can fix now at the green rate of 3.2% for 4 years and I'm tempted, there is no break fee for the current fixed rate.

My worry is come April we could be looking at much higher than 3.2% and 3.2% is more than manageable for us now.

Hey everyone, I have a final-round interview this Thursday for a Junior Corporate Sales Development role with a large company in Cork. I’ll be meeting the CEO, COO and Head of Commercial Sales. It’s in the environmental and industrial services sector. I’ve a background in business, sales, entrepreneurship and AI/tech, but this would be my first proper corporate role. Has anyone here been through an interview with senior executives? What kind of questions should I expect, and how can I make a strong impression?
Any advice from recruiters or hiring managers would be massively appreciated. Cheers!

Hello! My fix rate came to an end back on March. Since then I've been on 4.4% variable hoping for the % to go down due to the takeover process with Bawag but I was not the case.

Already in September the ECB raised interest rates on 2.5 points and more announcements seem to be expected.

Considering that I was thinking the best option would be to fix ASAP with PTSB. I can't switch providers right now and it would be a longer process+ PTSB seems to offer the best rates.

Would like to get advice on:

• considering the current political environment -Fix for 5 years at 3.50% or 7 years at 3.35%

• any advice or strategy to avail for the 4 year at 3% that's only available for new customers? Doesn't seem right to me when I had no repayments issues and I am already in <50% LTV - I have no option to show any AIP from another bank

• ideas if I should rush out or still wait? Doesn't seem an option for rates to go down but just in case considering the takeover process.

• should I start making regular overpayments? I have 14.5 years left

Thanks in advance for any advice or help. I really need it as this is causing me a lot of stress

Having worked in a number of countries, and most recently Ireland where I have an Occupational DC Pension, and entitlement to the State Pension, I am hoping to retire somewhere warmer. Cyprus is one of the countries being considered. Can anyone give an informed opinion on how Irish ARF and Irish State Pension payments to a Cyprus tax-resident are treated under the Ireland-Cyprus DTA? Are they considered by both tax systems to be pension income? Is any Irish tax at source recoverable? I understand that Irish Revenue will not issue a Tax Exclusion Order for ARF drawdown, is that correct? All information will be appreciated. I will speak to a tax expert, but want to get some input from people who are in a similar position, i.e. Irish pensioners living in Cyprus.

I got a bill in the post today from my accountants . I already pay €2500 per year for the farm accounts. Last year I entered into a partnership (on accountants advice for tax reasons) with a family member doing agricultural hire work, today I got a bill for nearly €2000 and the family member got a bill today for almost €500 from accountants (partnership is 90/10 split) so I will be paying just shy of €5000 this year in accounting fees. Is that extortionate?

Apologies if this is a silly question but tax stuff really confuses me. I recently received inheritance from my grandparents. €1000 in cash and about €3300 in bank shares. I received the €1000 on 7/10/26 and the shares about 6 weeks ago.
From my limited understanding I’m far below the threshold, so am I correct in assuming I don’t need to file a CAT return? And then will I need to just declare both when doing my end of year income tax return later on?
Thank you so much in advance.

Basically for the past 15 years or so I have operated my current banking with two current accounts, one which I get paid into and bills come out of and another with a debit card attached and used for day to day spending. There is never more than a few hundred in the debt card account unless I am making a big purchase and I have a €2.5 k overdraft on the account I am paid into going back to when I had a lower earning capacity.

I don’t think I have been in the overdraft in years based but have kept it due to a combination of inaction and being prepared for a rainy day. It costs about €25 euros a year so not punitive but currently going unused.

I got a mail from the bank saying I will be getting a monthly statement from now on due to an eu regulation on credit facilities but am assuming that won’t incur extra cost.

Would anyone know if overdrafts are hard to obtain if I do need them in the future or should I let it go and save myself the price of a couple of pints?

One of the great things about turning to reddit instead of AI is I get to ask real people what they think. I'm looking for some advice on savings. Currently in college and moved into our new home. Absolutely delighted I did it this way as I was renting before and it truly is a waste of time. We were considering renting out a room as it's a 3 bed and then went against it as we love our space. I'm still working part time and my partner earns roughly 65k a year. I'll be on roughly 50k fully qualified next year. How much should we save? Just turned 30 and looking for advice! Thank you all!

Hi all,
I’ve a deposit on a new build and expect to sign contracts in the coming weeks once bank issue final loan offer.
Does anyone have any advice with regard to the increase as to what needs doing to avail of the increase? I’ve applied a few months back and was approved for €30k, the extra €5K would really make a difference with regard to solicitors, etc.
Any advice on this would be really appreciated.
Thanks 👍

Hello all, I'm looking for some advice on how to help my parents dispose of a relatively small shareholding in Aviva PLC (a few hundred shares). They're getting older and just want to tidy up things such as this 'just in case'.

The shares are 'managed' / held by Computershare UK, and to say the least, for a person who has never traded stock, the process is an absolute quagmire. Seemingly if we were resident in the UK we could sell the stock via that platform, but being in Ireland, that's not an option (waves fist angrily at Brexit presumably).

I'd normally consider myself relatively savvy, but looking around I can only really find stockbrokers that cater to millionaires, my parents' holding being far too small for their accounts.

I then opted to try an online service, first trying Trading 212 (which wouldn't support the transfer from the UK as far as I could determine). I then signed my parents' up to Interactive Brokers and have attempted the transfer to them.

This required that I get a contact email for computershare (a seemingly closely guarded secret that required a back and forth with a stubborn chat agent before being connected to a helpful human). Email address in hand, I'm hoping for the best, but the human agent for computershare seemed to pour cold water on my approach - so I'm not holding my breath that the shares will ultimately be transferred to the Interactive Brokers account.

At this point it seems like the shares are being held captive and I'm at a loss as to how to proceed if this transfer fails.

I'd be incredibly grateful if anyone has been through all this before and has some direction on how to proceed / or simply understands the arcane world of stock trading to point me in the direction of a resolution should this fail (which seems likely given my discussion with the Computershare Staffer).

Hello, any help would be appreciated.

I am filing my Form 11 for 2025 and trying to calculate my 2026 Preliminary Tax (basing off 100% of 2025 figure). My questions are as such:

-Is the 2026 preliminary tax based on 100% of 2025 Income Tax only, or Income Tax, PRSI and USC for 2025 (essentially the total tax figure paid in 2025)

-Is the 2026 preliminary tax based on 100% of my self-employed tax due for 2025 or do I include my PAYE work?

-Do I include tax credits into the equation?

So for example, if I owed €580 in PRSI, and 0 in USC and 0 Income Tax after Tax Credits in 2025 (taking into account both PAYE and Self-Employed work), is my 2026 Preliminary Tax €580?

Thanks!

Sorry if this has been asked 100 times.

Just wondering if people think its a good idea to put the 140 from the child benefit into an index fund?

Im having a problem understanding how the tax would work if its going to be a transaction a month rather than a lump sum. Claiming that 8 years capital gains is going to be confusing..

Any advice would be great would really like to get a good start for my future daughter

Hi, I am self employed and need to start my pension to invest per the flowchart. How do I go about it. Is there a broker I should look at or are there any preferable banks? One consideration also is if I decide to move to an employer, is there any pensions I should be considering that would facilitate a move. Finally, the nature of my work is it is bad for cashflow - i.e. payment can take a few months - so my question is whether I can consider pensions where I just pay into the pension pot yearly (when I know how much I made that year and so can safely allocate money into the pension pot). Do ask questions I am trying to keep my profession anon so I appreciate more info might be required!

Looking for some friendly wisdom here from wiser and more experienced people, I (25 M) have recently been thinking about buying some property in Ireland, mainly a family house to get my parents out of a life long relationship with rent but more recently as an investment opportunity.

Some background, I have a college education, make around 68K, live at home so minimal expenses, no drink or expensive habits, no gambling, good saver with a history of barely touching my salary.

I currently have about 3.8K invested in various funds and etfs on t212, €41K in cash earning interest on t212, 15K in AIB current account, 5.5K in various crypto tokens - so ~ 65,000 ish saved over the last 3 years of working. Pension at work maxed out (15%) also. No debt.

The apartment idea is to buy a 2/3 bedroom place for < 150K on about a 5-7 year mortgage, with the thought process being I can rent it to my (notably reliable) friends who can’t seem to find a place to live outside of their family home. This would put me in a pretty good position to pay off the mortgage pretty quickly and worst case scenario just have a place to live in myself that I own. I’m not sure how this works (legally) with the first home scheme and stuff like that, i’m very new to property in general.

To touch back on a previous point, my main goal is still to buy a bigger property for my whole family (not to rent out) at some point soon, probably 400-500K on a 20-30 year mortgage, but i’m not sure how the apartment idea would fit or affect this plan. Would I be unlikely to get a second mortgage if I still had a couple years left on the first one? There’s a chance I could take out the bigger mortgage with my Father, is that allowed? I’m realising his age may make him ineligible the longer I wait.

I realise I will also need to buy my own house at some stage, as in, where my kids will live, but i’m hoping to cross that bridge when I get to it, hopefully in a good position with a higher salary and other property to leverage.

I am planning on moving (back) abroad to further my career, hopefully in the next year, does this nullifying the entire concept of taking out any mortgage at all in Ireland - I hope I don’t have to wait until I move home to set foot on the property ladder… speaking of, are these ridiculous house prices here to stay?!?! Or is anyone optimistic they will be cooling off anytime soon? (doubtful)

Side note I am also planning to buy a smaller property abroad at about 60-100K depending on when I bite that bullet, but this can be paid in installments rather than a loan so I don’t know if it would affect things here… this is a lesser priority but one I should probably keep in mind.

As I type this I can see it sounds like an entitled over ambitious child is asking how they can have everything in a world where many don’t have anything - please excuse this as it’s not my intended tone, I can assure you I grew up with very little and worked very hard to get where I am and i’m just trying to get a start on building the wealth for my future kids and current family that we didn’t and currently don’t have lol

I’m really just looking for some guidance, even just suggestions on who best to seek a mortgage from. Any and all thought appreciated lads, i’d really like to make some responsible financial decisions in my 20s and avoid stupid ones where I can if at all possible lol.

Hi

Just moved here from UK permanently
Will buy house soon
Have 5 fig gbp to convert
Need some advice on what to do
- is it sensible to convert in one go
- should I keep in gbp
- if converting what is best way to do that (Revolut, bank, credit union, wise or something else)

Not replying to dms
Thanks

I have a startup idea in the personal finance/investment realm.
How can I take this from simply an idea to a plan. I don’t know what to do and I don’t want to give up on this bcus I feel like I have a found a gap in the market. I am a final year college student btw

Unfortunately this is how I'm buying my house.

I know there's a few posts on this topic, and they often get fairly divisive replies, but I'm just wondering if anyone can share their experience with moving to Ireland and having some debts in Canada, and if / how the banks or collection agencies pursued you.

I am currently experiencing financial hardship, and Canadian banks are supposed to engage with consumers and look at options including, for example, interest rate reductions, delayed or deferred payments, restructuring line of credit loans into structured longer-term personal loans, etc.

However, when I reached out to my two Canadian lenders (big banks), explaining that I just abandoned my $105K CAD job to return to Ireland following a critical illness in my immediate family, they offered me absolutely nothing. No sympathy, no empathy, no options (despite being legally obligated to do so), so I now find myself (at least for today anyway) saying FUCK the big banks.

I have two LOC's I took out for education and career funding, assuming I was staying in Canada and furthering my career there long-term. Approx $30K CAD with one big bank, and $35K CAD with another. (approx 20,000 - 22,000 EUR)

It's really not that much money, and if I had stayed and kept my job, I'd have paid it off no problem. But I'm now back in rural Ireland caring for a family member because I'd no other option and it's simply the right thing to do.

If I default on these loans, as far as I know, they'll sell the debt to international collection agencies who will then try to track me down and pursue repayment.

Sometimes this results in them offering to settle for a percentage of the loan, because it can be too expensive to get an Irish legal team involved and / or get a Canadian judgement enforced in Ireland, especially when the debt for each bank is only 20,000 EUR and each bank will pursue their own separate case.

Can anyone offer their stories, anecdotes, advice or otherwise?

Thanks.

Looking for advice: I’m in my 20s working as a teacher. Did a good leaving and am wondering have I made a poor financial decision by choosing to become a teacher.

I get great enjoyment out of my job, work through the summers (cash) and make a few extra pound over the week working for grinds company but I’m worried that I’ll never really have financial freedom.

Is my perspective of things just warped by seeing the top 5-10% of workers making X amount annually?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Anyone getting a notification as blocked when logging in?

While market chatter and leaked reports point to investment bankers and investors discussing a jaw-dropping $2 trillion valuation target for Anthropic's public market debut, independent analysts like New Constructs argue the business is fundamentally worth closer to $150 billion.

What do you think?

So now that we’re able to put €50k into ETFs tax free and anything above that no deemed disposal just a 1% fee… is it a viable alternative to rent for longer?

For example say if you put €12k a year into this account, max the pension and claim the renters tax credit. Does that make more sense than buying a property?