Informed Decisions Financial Planning & Money Podcast

Welcome to Ireland's award-winning investment and financial planning Blog & Podcast. If you are wondering if now is the right time to invest or not, this piece might be of some value. Indeed if you are unsure if you should invest in equities now, or wait for the crash, this Blog-post hopefully will help educate and inform, a little! Paddy Delaney QFA RPA APA

Emerging Markets might sound a little technical, but please do bare with me, even I can understand it, so you'll be totally fine! It might even be worth your while reading on, if you ever intend investing in Emerging Market Index Funds in Ireland! We explore the past investment returns, what the 'experts' are suggesting they might deliver in the future, and what to watch out for when picking the index funds you desire. Paddy Delaney QFA RPA APA

Looking for Financial Advice in Ireland you can trust? A few weeks ago I did a piece on finding 'Independent Advice in Ireland', this week I intend to share some ideas that might help you evaluate a firm before engaging them. "I just checked my investment portfolio - now I know why they call them Brokers" - anonymous. I came across that quote in a sketch cartoon recently and found it amusing. With MSCI Index up over 20% so far this year it's not really applicable however! Perhaps you already have an advisor but are unclear about their intent, fees or abilities. You may have had several over the years but none really 'did it' for you! Or perhaps you are thinking about engaging one for the first time. I hope this piece will help a little. I fully accept also that being a fully independent fee-based advisor, I will carry some biases here - but as always I'll tell it as I see it. Paddy

This week I aim to share some brief insights that might be worth knowing when you are building an investment portfolio in Ireland. When it comes to investing it’s probably fair to say that there is so much choice, probably too much! Reminds me of that weird situation referred to as the ‘paradox of choice’ where, when confronted with too much choice we can stall, suffer from inaction and often make choices that are far from the ones that really wanted! Barry Schwartz’s TED Talk is here, worth a watch! That same paradox seemingly happens to often to investors and pension-holders in Ireland also. When we are faced with a choice of multi-asset funds, private banking funds, insurance products, index funds, Lithuanian car parks, Alaskan leisure centres, you name it, there are options available for all tastes!   Paddy QFA RPA APA

Expat Tax is a subject that I often get asked about from listeners. These are individuals that may be leaving or returning to Ireland. Tax being such a specialist area I felt the best thing to do was to invite someone onto the show who specialises in tax mobility.  I was delighted to be joined by Barry Murphy of Expat Tax Services Ireland (www.etsi.ie). In this episode we discussed and chatted about: - Tax Domicile and Residence, and the impact these have - Pension transfers across different countries - Applying for tax reliefs and grants on relocation - Employment Tax Reliefs - How to benefit from State Pension if living/relocating from abroad - Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP Ireland) - How to split your tax year between countries - Foreign Earning Deduction (FED Ireland) Expat Tax is such a niche area, with limited credible information available. If you know anyone currently living abroad whose thinking of coming back to these fair shores, do them a favour and send this to them! And vice-versa! I

Ever wondered which is the best multi-asset investment Fund in Ireland?? Well if you have, you came to the right place! Welcome back to Ireland's dedicated Investment and Financial Planning Blog & Podcast! In my work with clients I frequently get asked about Multi-Asset Investments, whether they are any good, and which ones might be best. So this week I aim to answer a question that I think has yet to be answered in these parts; which is the best Multi-Asset Investment Fund in Ireland! Owning any investment is kinda like 'Pick n Mix' sweets, you can have all of one type of you can have lots of different types in the one bag! Paddy Delaney QFA RPA APA

'Mind the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves' is a well-worn saying, the origin of which I have no idea! While it might give the perception of being 'mean' or 'tight' I reckon it's basis is in being proactive and deliberate in our approach to managing our personal finances. This week I share 10 small changes that can have a siginificant and positive result for you as an investor, saver or retiree. I hope it helps. Paddy.

Ever wonder about Financial Advice in Ireland? Are financial advisors worth their salt? Are financial advisors worth paying? Should I bother getting financial advice? My take is that it totally depends on what you are hoping to achieve, and what support you are hoping to get. The thing that strikes me about both of the examples above is that both Client A and Client B are probably already PAYING for financial advice, irrepsective of whether they are actually benefiting from it or not! In pretty-much every retail financial product relating to financial planning (investments, protection, pension, savings) there is probably a commission going to the advisor or agency that you bought it through, even if you have not seen sight nor sound of them since! Unfortunately this it totally true, and what I believe is as equally as unfortunate is that you could potentially be benefiting from the equivalent of an extra 3% in investment returns per year! Paddy 

I was fortunate enough to get to attend the annual Nucleus Platform Conference in Manchester last week. They had an agenda with some of the most exciting speakers in Financial Planning from Canada and USA. While Nucleus are a UK-only platform I was really chuffed to get on the ticket, and made full use of my day over there, meeting lots of quality advisors, hearing some extra-ordinary speakers, and have a super fun time too! In this episode I get to share insights with you from the following: Westside Financial Planning, Sheffield. Vanguard Michelle Hoskin Nick Lincoln Alan Smith I hope it is of some value! Paddy.  

When it comes to Financial Planning in Ireland it is fair to say that it is a pretty new service to many. It seems many of us are aware of the role of traditional Brokers and Insurance Agents, but perhaps not the same level of awareness or understanding of Financial Planning. In this short piece I hope to convey what Financial Planning is and how it can potentially be of significant value to people. Paddy Delaney

I frequently get asked by listeners and readers about funding into a Self Administered Pension. There seems to be a lot of confusion about what it is, or indeed isn't, and who they are or aren't well suited to. So that is this weeks' objective, to answer these very queries. I hope it is of use. My father used to shoot. He'd go out with his busted old shotgun with the stock taped on with insulation tape! He'd walk around fields for what seemed like days at a time, coming home with the occasional pheasant! As frowned upon and macabre as that may seem to some today, when you are from the midlands of Ireland that was (and remains) the equivalent of golfers hunting for birdies today! I remember vividly the first time he took me out shooting. Being fiercely animal-centered I wasn't up for shooting any live animal, but I do remember taking my first shot with a shot-gun in the wilds of Kilkenny. Aiming for a tree, with nerves and an unsteady hand (I was 10!) I let fly a cartridge, missed the tree and very nearly shot

Welcome back to Ireland's award-winning Financial Planning Blog & Podcast, with me Paddy Delaney. Delighted you have decided to join me! This week we are going to explore an approach to retirement income planning that I mentioned months ago. It is customary for retirees in Ireland to decide to generate pension income by using either an annuity, or an ARF. In Blog113 we explored the pros and cons of both of these in isolation. However, as we like to look at things a little differently here we're going to dissect the merit or otherwise of using a combination of the two. If you google it you'll find millions of results for articles and pieces outlining why an ARF or why an Annuity, but you might struggle to find one which addresses the topic we are about to! We will briefly summarise the probable outcome from using an ARF only, an annuity only, and only then will we analyse using a combination of both. Paddy Delaney RPA QFA APA

Welcome to Ireland's award-winning Personal Finance Blog & Podcast. This week we explore a topic which is being asked more and more, what fees are payable, and what is the impact of these fees on a pension, with particular focus on Approved Retirement Fund (ARF). We will not just determine the impact monetarily but also the impact on how long that ARF might actually last you, which is kind of a big deal! This won't be a long episode, but I sure hope it helps shed some light on a dark corner!  If you haven't already caught last weeks' episode, which helps explain how to maximise the duration of your ARF, you can grab that here. Now it goes without saying that you get nothing for nothing, and that we will pay fees in both the accumulation phase of pension/retirement planning, and in the spending-phase. Much like an egg-timer, where you turn it over, there is no halting it, there is a finite amount of grains in the top and there is a finite amount of time before they all pass through. We are precious of eve

Welcome to Ireland's #1 Personal Finance Blog and Podcast, with me Paddy Delaney! This week we explore an important topic for many, and that is managing our income when we leave full-time employment. When we enter 'Life 2' we are switching from accumulation to spending, which is a big shift for many people to take. I hope this piece offers some insights that will help you. In this article I aim to answer the following questions that I frequently hear in working with clients who are in this stage, and for many are a cause of concern, until answered: How much can I safely take from my Approved Retirement Fund? Should I be flexible about how much I take from my Approved Retirement Fund (ARF)? Should I invest in Bonds in order to avoid volatility Drop me a mail here. Paddy Delaney - Informed Decisions

Welcome back to the #1 Investment and Retirement Planning Blog & Podcast in Ireland. Of late our focus has been very much around preparing our finances in advance of, and indeed after we leave full-time employment. Some people call it retirement, other people don't like that term (hear Fin's interview here!). This week, as promised we will explore that big question for many, When can I retire? A few readers got in touch after Blog 118, where we looked at maximising the income you achieve from an ARF. They were asking why not just retire earlier? So here we go! Oh, for those of you that don't like the term 'retirement' I'm delighted to share an alternative! I came work by a US guy, Don Ezra recently. All about preparing for retirement. He calls retirement phase 'Life Two'. He suggests it came about when the accronym for 'Life After Full Time Work' (LAFTWO) was converted into 'Life Two'. I like it! I also like 'Accumulation' phase and 'Spending' phase however if you are anything like many who find their c

The concept of Financial Independence Retire Early means different things to different people. Friend of the show, Fin Goulding has no shortage of experience when it comes to the investment and insurance industry, and joins us on the show to share his own take on FIRE, and how people can achieve Financial Independence. Be sure to stay till the end where Fin shares his take on how to manage and achieve long term investment success. Paddy Delaney Fin's Twitter  

If you have, or are soon to have, an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) you might benefit from the following research. Wondering how to make your ARF last longer? How to generate as much income as feasible from your ARF? This week we continue where we left off 2 weeks ago, and as promised share some strategies that can Welcome to Ireland's #1 Finance Blog, where we're on a mission to share insights that'll hopefully help you with money. If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions on the back of this piece please do get in touch with me directly here. Would love to hear from you. Paddy

Welcome to Informed Decisions Podcast, Ireland's #1 Finance Blog & Podcast.  As we continue out focus on managing and optimising pension and retirement income in Ireland we are delighted to bring you one of the leading lights in the academic research of this topic, Abraham Okusanya. As the creator of Finalytiq in the UK, author of 'Beyond the 4% Rule', and host of the 'Science Of Retirement' Conference there is not much that he does not know about delivering results for customers in their investing and retirement planning. Sit back and enjoy! Paddy Delaney P.S. apologies for the dodgy sound quality when I am speaking - my fault entirely. Will sort it for the next interview!  

How long will my ARF Income last? This week we continue our analysis of how we can actually go about drawing and maximising our pension and ARF incomes when we reach the age where we start to 'spend' instead of 'accumulate' our money. For me at least this is the fun bit for us. We don't have pensions because we want a pension, we have pensions because we want what it can potentially give us. Ultimately what it will hopefully give each and every one of us is financial independence and choice when we get to that stage of life. Unfortunately this is the bit that doesn't get very well covered in media and education. What we tend to read and hear about is 'the pension' or 'the ARF' (the products people are trying to sell us!) - we rarely hear about the finer details, and the details that will be the most significant when we get to that stage. I aim to arm you with the ideas and knowledge now so that you can achieve tangible results when you get there yourself and you are drawing an income from your ARF or other pe

Investing in Bonds, particularly in retirement (or once we stop working full time!) is the norm. If you are a member of an Occupational Pension scheme or you have a mass-market pension fund you are more than likely signed-up to LifeStyling on your scheme. We covered it in Blog 53. What LifeStyling will do is move a large chunk of your pension or investment portfolio from Equities and into Bonds as you approach your 'normal retirement age'. Can be a good thing, can be a not-so-good-thing. This week I aim to share a short piece outlining the key aspects of Bonds, how they work, what you need to know about them if investing in them, and how they can stand to benefit/hinder investors in the mature stages of their financial planning. We will focus on Bond funds, and Bond Index Funds specifically in this weeks' edition. Paddy Delaney