Informed Decisions Independent Financial Planning & Money Podcast

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 ye...

'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, sa...

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 f...

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, an...

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 peopl...

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...

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 o...

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 bi...

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...

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...

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 ach...

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 th...

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' Confe...

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. Ultim...

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 a...

Welcome, and thanks for checking out Informed Decisions Blog. Over the past couple of weeks we have focused on managing finances in later life. Last week we explored the 2 options many of us have when we get to draw our retirement funds, Annuity or ARF . Seeing as it currently accounts for the majority of retirement income strategies it will form a large part of coming weeks. We will be exploring...

Should I buy an Annuity or Approved Retirement Fund (ARF)? Unless we are retiring from a defined benefit (DB) pension scheme we will have this decision to make in regards how to access our pension benefits. Once we take out tax free lump sum we will have this decision to make with the balance. It is a big decision with multiple complexities involved, both financial and emotional. Do I want the pre...

Welcome back to Informed Decisions with me, Paddy Delaney! A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the coming 'season' would be focused on how to prepare for and importantly, navigate our incomes in retirement. It's not that I am breaking a promise but this week I want to take a very slight diversion from that, for two very valid reasons a) an article I wrote was published int he Sunday Times this...

Financial Planning in Ireland is on the up. Based on my experience at least, Planning is what people really really want . They may NEED a product to help them achieve their plan, maybe. But they want a plan first and foremost. They want to know that they will be OK financially, that they can afford to do xyz, that they can graduate from full-time employ at x age, and any number of other personal m...

Inheritance tax planning is most certainly a balancing act, is fraught with concerns and challenges, and is one that I see individuals struggling with quite often. When you die you may want your estate to pass to your children or other loved-ones but them having to potentially pay a significant % of the estate in Inheritance Tax may reduce greatly the amount that goes to those you intended, and in...

ARFs, AMRFs, AVCs, Annuities all form part of retirement planning, but as usual there's far more to it than products! Welcome back to Informed Decisions Finance Blog. As part of my own motive to share information and to help others with their financial education I am a volunteer representative of the CCPC (State body that aims to help consumers, check out their website - tons of useful resources)....

you can enjoy in years to come......so buckle in! Intro: It's been mentioned to me a handful of times that the topics of the Blog tend to be focused on the 'upper end' of things, and that for most 'ordinary people' the figures I talk about here are out of reach. To be fair the figures I sometimes talk about are aspirational, I get that. At the same time I fell that irrespective of the level you ar...

Welcome back! Many of us have heard of FIRE (Financial Independence - Retire Early) but not many of us have met many that are actually doing it! In this episode we chat with Michael to hear his story, how he is working on his own financial independence, and the vehicles he is using to maximise his own financial future. Michael stresses that his approach works for him, and that everyone should find...

Hi, and welcome to Ireland's #1 Finance Blog & Podcast. This is a first for Informed Decisions, and this week you get to hear it! We recently got to know Rob O'Donoghue of the Rob Of The Green Podcast . Rob interviews all kinds of really interesting guests, and has over 100 episodes at this stage, he is dedicated to it for sure! Rob invited me to be a guest on his podcast, and I was happy to oblig...

This week I share a short (but hopefully valuable) piece to raise awareness of something that impacts us all and how we make decisions, and often without us even being aware of it! What Are Biases? If you were shown a photo of 2 different people, based on their appearance, dress, facial expression, ethnicity, and any number of other visuals, we would have our own 'impression' of that person. In es...