Informed Decisions Independent Financial Planning & Money Podcast

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...

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...

This week we are going to explore two concepts, 'Diversification' and 'Asset Allocation' which can have significant impact on investment success over the long term, and which are shrouded in mystery and often misunderstood. We are going to tell it like it is, share some insights which may surprise you, and give you some food for thought if this applies to you. What Is Asset Allocation? This is the...

If I come across another 'Best Investments For 2019' or 'Best place to invest €100,000' article I will lose the plot. Reason being that, just like the title of this blog, these articles really are just another form of click-bait. As we all will know, even if we didn't, click-bait is merely a hook with which to drag you into a website, and ultimately to sell you whatever they have in their warehous...

Investors are said to achieve far less in returns than the markets in which they invest. How is that possible you may ask? Typically it is down to investor behaviour. Investors get blamed for doing silly things when it comes to investing, however my take is that it is the financial professionals who must shoulder the responsibility for it. This is not to suggest that the advisors/planners that mig...

Welcome back! 'Relief' is an interesting word. If we were to tell someone that we are going to 'relieve myself' it can strike up all sorts of suggestions! Apparently it comes from the Latin 'relevare' which meant 'to alleviate'. In this instance Retirement Relief is all about 'relevare', and to 'relevare' oneself from a burdensome Capital Gains Tax bill! Retirement Relief is a nugget that is quite...

Hope all is well?! Last week we shared some ideas on the best way to accumulate €1m, and whether a deposit regular savings account or a pension route might be the most effective way of doing it. We analysed these two routes and factored in deposit rates, pension fund returns, fees and charges and various tax rates that apply to both and how they will impact on the end result. As always, it pays to...

Should I invest in a pension or save money in a bank account!? Last week I shared some ideas about the value (or potential lack thereof) in having a pension of 'average' size. The reaction to that piece was really quite interesting; it seemed to have surprised some people! There is no question that €100,000 is a lot of money, no matter what way you slice it however having that in a pension fund at...

The title of this piece may seem overly alarmist, however it is my firm belief that most pensions that people here in Ireland have are really ineffective and the investors would quite possibly be better off doing something else with their funds. Are pensions useful? Absolutely they can be hugely useful ( read here for 1 example!) however if they are entered into in a half-baked way they can be pre...

'What should I do with an inheritance' and 'How should I invest an inheritance' are questions we might never hope to need to consider but many are forced to consider these every year here in Ireland. This week in Ireland's award-winning and unbiased personal finance blog I hope share some insights which might be of value to anyone that does every find themselves faced with this question. The reaso...

Welcome back to the new home of Personal Finance in Ireland, where we share insights which we hope help you to avoid mistakes and achieve the results you seek. All we ask in return for sharing these ideas is to tell a friend, and use the ideas with the intention in which they are shared, thanks! -13.9% The title of this week's blog is a little vague or possibly might appear abstract, granted, but...

Welcome to Informed Decisions, Ireland's #1 Personal Finance Blog & Podcast! Hope you managed to catch last weeks' Podcast with Andy Agathangelou, all about developing more transparency in Financial Services, it was a decent chat! This week I am on a mission to shred some myths about that big question: Should I take my benefits out of my Defined Benefit pension scheme, or leave my benefits in my D...

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...

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...

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...

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-advis...

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-o...

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-o...

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...

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...

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 Contr...

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 g...

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 employmen...

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 B...

'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 pro...