Informed Decisions Financial Planning & Money Podcast

Hi and welcome to Ireland's dedicated Financial Planning and Personal Finance Podcast. We are on a mission to share ideas and unbiased insights that might help you make beneficial decisions. Speaking of mission we are joined this week by non-other than Andy Agathangelou who founded the Transparency Task Force and which is on a mission to have a positive and lasting difference on financial services and on those that it exists to serve. I was so taken by Andy and the band of volunteers that have joined him that I have accepted the invitation to become Ireland's first (and so far only!) Ambassador. It is my intent to help have a positive difference on this mighty profession so that it can survive, serve and help many more thousands in the years ahead. Thanks for listening! Paddy Delaney QFA |RPA | APA | Qualified Coach  

Hey there and welcome back to Ireland's #1 personal finance blog. This week we are exploring what is quite a common challenge for people, the decisions about investing a lump sum now or waiting for markets to fall or crash. Funnily this is not usually a challenge for would-be investors when markets are calm and rising. It more often becomes a challenge when market volatility hits, or when media is claiming that the market it 'over-priced' or at an 'all-time high'. The Impact Of Time In considering this it obviously makes sense to consider what the intent is with investing. When doing a presentation last week for a group of advisors I asked them what the main purpose of investing is, 50% of the room said it is to beat inflation, while the other 50% of the room said it was to achieve decent growth. If you are considering an investment perhaps it is worth considering what your intent is with that investment. I firmly believe that unless there is a clear goal or plan for the funds then you are much more likely to

Hey there, it's great to be back after a few weeks of rest over the Christmas, it was probably good for all of us to have a break from listening to me! Anyway, very excited about developing what we are doing here, growing the community, and helping more people get the information they need to make good financial decisions for themselves. On reflection over the Christmas I am more keen than ever to keep trying to make a positive difference and to keep telling it like it is! Ever wondered how to get financial advice in Ireland?? This week in our first episode of 2019 I want to outline the options open to people who are perhaps hoping to get their financial lives sorted or who have some big financial decisions to make. Looking for financial advice in Ireland can be confusing; who to trust, how they can help, what they can do or can't do and what do they charge? Here I hope to outline the various options clearly, outline some of the possible pros and cons of each, and ultimately share some ideas that might help..

Welcome back to Ireland's award-winning & independent Financial Planning blog and podcast. We are on a mission to share ideas and educate people to avoid mistakes and make decisions that will benefit them in the future. Drop me an email here with any of your ideas or feedback on making the site/podcast better, would love to hear from you. For a while now I have been really keen to get a 'non-advisor' to tell us what has changed in recent years in the UK in the financial advice arena, and how that has impacted consumers like you and I. The reason I have been keen to get speaking to a non-advisor is because advisors can have tainted views of things particularly when it comes to regulatory change etc, understandably they don't always like it! Rory Percival is the person for the job here, as a former FCA regulator and now running a Consultancy and speaking business that helps advice firms to stay abreast of regulatory change, there aren't too many others as well placed to share some insight with us. We have a

Welcome back to Ireland's independent & award winning Financial Planning Blog & Podcast. We don't claim to be perfect but we have been creating and sharing ideas here on the podcast for the past 2 years and are on a mission to help people of Ireland (& beyond!) to make decisions which benefit them in the long-run. All we ask is that if you like what we are doing that you'd tell a friend or loved-one about us and see if it can be of any use to them! Speaking of long-run we are hugely grateful for your ongoing support, readership and listenership, if the few thousand of you who listen every month didn't do so we wouldn't still be producing the show, so thanks for that, we love it! I know I say 'we' but it is really only me, but for some reason it seems right to me! Maybe we will be a we in future! Last week we tackled Entrepreneur Relief, and had some interesting emails from some entrepreneurs who have learned a thing or two as a result, which is cool! This week I have to vent a little, not for my

Welcome back to Ireland's award winning & independent financial planning blog & podcast, where we are on a mission to share ideas and information that hopefully helps you make decisions that delivers long term results for you. Thanks for the lovely reaction to last weeks' episode, I certainly enjoyed sharing the story! This weeks' topic is kinda closely related to the oul' lizard-brain and relates to entrepreneurship! We are not tax experts but it has been asked of us a few times recently so this week we will share a wee bit of info about how 'entrepreneurs' can stand to benefit from a pretty significant chunk of relief......of the financial sort. A Short Story: Maria Dalmation set up a dog grooming company back in 2010, called 'I Shitzu-Not' Limited (I don't think I'll ever make it in advertising!). Anyway, she had a steady start, and then when she won a national dog-grooming title for her grooming skills her business took off. For the 4 years from 2013 to 2017 she had revenues each year in the regio

Welcome back to Ireland's award-winning Finance Blog where we are on a mission to share ideas that will have a lasting and positive impact for you. This week were are sharing something a little different, and hope that it hits the mark, that it perhaps gets you thinking and perhaps even encourages you to do something you want to do! It is bigger than personal finance or financial planning, this is about you and your life! In November each year, for the past 6 years anyway, there has been an 'unconference' called Congregation happening in the small and lovely village of Cong in Mayo. It was created by and organised each year by one man, a guy by the name of Eoin Kennedy, who is a digital communicator, entrepreneur, trainer and all round good guy it seems! Not sure where he got the idea but he gets 80-100 people to Cong every year, from a hugely diverse range of backgrounds to present their thoughts, ideas and debate on various different topics. Unlike a typical conference where you sit and listen to a speaker

It was in conversation with a friend recently, who has just started working for a new company, that I was asked if I believed it makes any sense to join a pension scheme offered by an employer. He was told that if he put 4% of gross salary into his pension that the employer would put 6% in, totaling 10% of his gross salary. This seems like a reasonable offer from the employer in this Defined Contribution scheme however he had concerns which he shared with me! Having done a little of his own research he had concerns about the fees that he had read of, concerns about the fact that 'you could get back less than you invest', and the mystery about how one goes about taking the money out at the end. These 3 very real and very common questions and concerns lead to, I guess, many people not engaging with pension, and without answers to those questions I wouldn't blame them for a second! Welcome to Ireland's double-award-winning Finance Blog and Podcast where we are on a mission to help readers and listeners make deci

BlackRock Investment Managers conduct an annual piece of research (in the US) of around 30,000 individuals and get their sentiment and preparation for retirement. Obviously it is heavily slanted to the financial. One of the surprising things, for me at least, was that the #1 concern for the majority of respondents was not health or social interactions or purpose, it was 'running out of money'. I guess running out of money in retirement does bring up all sorts of miserable and unfortunate images in our minds, and that is probably enough of a motivation for us to want to do something about it! Sequence risk is something that can result in us running out of money, and which we covered in a little detail last week, and this week we aim to share some ideas in how to minimise the impact of that very occurrence. Welcome back to Ireland's double-award winning Blog & Podcast. On a mission to share ideas which will help you both now and into the future. The biggest compliment you can pay us is to tell a friend abo

We are not talking about death here today, but we will be looking at a thing called Sequence Risk which in my book is one of the most unknown and under-rated influences on your income in retirement. I would go so far as to say that it can have much more of an influence on your retirement lifestyle than the amount that you actually have at the beginning of your graduation out of full-time employment. Plain and simple this is one of the biggest factors affecting people's incomes in retirement. Essentially this is the very real risk of the order of investment returns you achieve being unfavourable. We will show you how big an impact this has on a portfolio, why you should know about it and begin to explain the very real impact it can have on the legacy that you leave your loved-ones. Welcome to Ireland's only dedicated and straight-talking personal finance and financial planning Blog. We are on a long term mission to share ideas and raise awareness about topics that impact us all and which will hopefully be a po

Welcome to Ireland’s only dedicated and straight-talking Personal Finance & Financial Planning Podcast. Delighted you have decided to have a look at this weeks’ episode. Firstly, want to say a heart-felt thank you to all listeners of the Podcast and readers of the Blog for their encouragement and feedback over the past 2 years, we picked up the title of ‘Ireland’s Best Finance Blog’ at the Irish Blog Awards last week in Dublin, totally surprised to win it for the 2nd year in a row, particularly against such top-drawer blogs as the Zurich, Bank Of Ireland, Taxback.com to name just a few. I’m a big believer is not focusing on the past too much, whether it is a high or a low, o lets get stuck in to this weeks’ episode! We are joined in conversation by Derek Bell, the Chief Exec of the Retirement Planning Council of Ireland, which is based in Dublin. While it might sound a little like just another pensions company they are actually anything but. They provide, what to me sounds like, an invaluable service to p

'I'm not a procrastinator, I just prefer doing everything in a dead-line induced panic!'......Honest words shared with me by an acquaintance recently. And to be fair it totally struck a chord with me, as a former repeat procrastinator it sounded so accurate a description of the logic a procrastinator uses to rationalise their behaviour (or lack thereof). It is only when the pressure is on, the procrastinator will them him or herself, that I am at my best....so there really is no point in that particular item until such time as it is time-sensitive or urgent! We did touch on the subject previously and shared a story about a granny and €8k! We are not now here to criticise or condemn that approach, rather to try and understand why it is a default for so many of us in lots of aspects of our lives, and not just financial planning & money aspects. Welcome back to Ireland's only dedicated Financial Planning Blog & Podcast, we're on a mission to share ideas and help you make decisions about your money that w

In 2016 The Natural Environment Research Council in the UK invited the public to name their latest scientific research vessel, which was costing £200m. This vessel was going to be doing (and currently is doing) really insightful and exploratory work, making new discoveries and so on. Really important, noble and global research for the good of the natural world. In the initial stages the likely suggested winner was names such as 'Endeavour' and 'Poseidon' etc. Which made sense. However  you can imagine the consternation internally when the public unanimously got behind a viral idea of calling it something rather ridiculous, yet pretty hilarious at the same time. And so it was that the winning vote, by some margin, was ‘HSS Boaty McBoat-Face’! In the past week we saw the 2019 Budget being released, and depending on your level of interest you may have either read every single iota of info in it, listened-out for any major bits that will impact you, or paid no heed to it at all. Each to their own. For me at least

If you have ever invested money in a fund or collective fund with a 3rd party, either through a pension or through an investment structure (product or platform) you will most likely have already completed a 'Risk Questionnaire' or 'Risk Survey'. It may have formed part of the bigger conversation about your investment goals, or it may have been the sole basis on which you made your investment decision. If it was the latter than there may be cause for some concern. Welcome to Ireland's only dedicated and straight-talking Personal Finance Blog & Podcast, and thanks for reading! If you want to gain some insights about money, hear from some super guests and to help yourself to make financial decisions which benefit you, then you are in the right place! We are always keen to hear from readers so please do send me a mail with any ideas, suggestions or feedback, you can mail me here. The Conflict: If an individual seeks financial guidance they generally do so in good faith that the person they seek it from will h

Are you swimming in the nip dear reader? This week we share some ideas with you about a what the State Pension looks like currently, how much we might get, how we go about qualifying for it, and how the level of income we have from 'guaranteed sources' when we do retire determines how we can access other retirement funds we have set for ourselves.......so a nice simple one!! Welcome to Ireland's only dedicated and straight-talking Financial Planning and Personal Finance Blog & Podcast. We are on a mission to share insights and to help people to help themselves. In return if you feel it is of value to you then please do tell a friend! We'd love to hear from you with any feedback, suggestions or questions, drop me a mail here. This week we help answer the following questions..... How Much Is The State Contributory Pension Right Now (at time of writing!) What Age Can I Get The State Pension? How Do I Qualify For Contributory State Pension? How Much PRSI Need I Pay To Qualify? Why It's Not Enough? Hope you en

This week we are finally getting round to a topic that has been on 'the list' for quite a while. One of the main benefits of pensions that 'the industry' of financial services harks on about a lot is the tax relief that is available on contributions, and that is certainly true. Having said that what is not true is that pensions are the only tax effective vehicle in which to invest in this fine country of ours, there is also (among a handful of others) the Employment and Investment Incentive Scheme as declared by the Revenue. This is the artist formerly known as Business Expansion Scheme (BES)! We will now share the ins-and-outs of this scheme, the pros & cons and hopefully a few examples which will show how an investor (with a lump sum) might aim to reduce his or her income tax bill by investing in such a thing. Like night becomes day the rules around this Scheme can change in future but they are a reflection of things as they stand today! As is customary I would like to welcome you to Ireland's only dedi

Charles Dickens' novel about Dr. Manette, his 18 year incarceration in Paris and subsequent relocation to London to spend time with his daughter Lucie, and all the messing that apparently ensued is meant to be quite a read. I haven't managed it myself but am reliably informed that I should. Some day I will, as soon as I have read every investment and retirement planning book in existence! A Tale of 2 Cities was set against the back-drop of the run-up to the French Revolution and one could potentially say that there may be a revolution ahead in terms of investing in Ireland, there is a groundswell building around the inconsistencies in how investments are taxed and the access to various investment options. This week we explore the tax implications of investing in 2 different vehicles in Ireland, what tax an investor will pay, and the net impact that that means over the term of an investment. It's an investment tale of 2 cities as such......I know, a very tenuous link indeed! Welcome to Ireland's only dedicated

Welcome to Ireland's only dedicated and straight-talking Personal Finance & Financial Planning Blog. We are on a mission to make a positive difference and to help people take control of their finances in a meaningful way. If you have a suggestion, question or feedback for us please do drop me a mail here, love to hear from readers.  This week we are joined in conversation with Eric Brotman from US-advisory form Brotman Financial. Eric shares with us many ideas and helps answer many questions including: How best to prepare for 'graduating into retirement'? What is Fiduciary Advice and how does it differ to other types of financial advice? Should I invest a lump sum or clear my Mortgage? He also tells us a little about the challenges faced in the US with the infamous 'student loans' situation, which if nothing else might make you feel a little better about your own situation! Thanks for checking it out...... Paddy Delaney QFA | RPA | APA | Qualified Coach    

This week we are hoping to answer several questions we have had from listeners in the past 6 weeks or so. It has been put to me that it would be valuable to share our thoughts and to explore whether it would be more beneficial to invest in a low-cost investment plan, achieve a decent level of return and pay whatever tax is due on withdrawal, or to invest into a pension, achieve the same level of return, pay what tax is due on withdrawal.......on the face of it, to me at least, it seems there will be no competition, but you know what they say about assumptions (My favourite quote about assumptions is...... 'Don't Make Assumptions'!) Welcome to Ireland's only dedicated and straight-talking Personal Finance & Financial Planning Blog. We are on a mission to make a positive difference and to help people take control of their finances in a meaningful way. If you have a suggestion, question or feedback for us please do drop me a mail here, love to hear from readers. Oh, and one more thing, we are trying to make

This week we are taking a closer look at the fabled '4% Rule' relating to drawing-down on investment or retirement pots. This particular 'rule' gets plenty of airtime in the US, UK and many other countries but from my own experience very few investors, pension holders here in Ireland seem to have heard of (and indeed even many advisors!). Let's try fix that! We are not going to challenge this 4% Rule today, merely we'll determine what it is, how it is relevant and how to go about figuring out what it might suggest for you. Welcome back to Ireland's only dedicated and straight-talking personal finance blog/podcast. We are on a mission to tell the truth about money and are so thoroughly enjoying the journey! It is always great to hear from listeners so if you have any suggestions or ideas for us to explore please do send me an email here. As an aside, this week I got to meet a bit of a hero of mine. I travelled over to Penzance in Cornwall and spent a good few hours trying to learn as much as I could from the o