Beating the Rising Cost of Living: Strategies to Navigate Inflation and Protect Your Finances

The cost of living has been on the rise, affecting consumers worldwide, including Ireland. Factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and supply chain disruptions have contributed to the inflationary pressure, resulting in higher prices for essential and non-essential goods and services. In this article, we will explore the impact of inflation on personal finances and provide practical tips to help you manage the increased cost of living.

Understanding Inflation 

Inflation is the term used to describe the rise in prices over time, which diminishes the value of money. This means that you can purchase fewer goods and services for the same amount of money than before. With inflation reaching 9.5% in Ireland as of October 2022, it is crucial to be aware of its implications on your finances.

Strategies to Manage the Increased Cost of Living

Make a budget: Creating a monthly budget allows you to track your expenses and identify areas where you can reduce costs. The 50/30/20 rule is a helpful budgeting guideline that suggests allocating 50% of your income to essential items, 30% to wants, and …

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Understanding the Impact: How Interest Rate Hikes Affect Irish Mortgages

In this blog, we journey through the intricate world of interest rates and their profound influence on our mortgages. With recent rumblings of potential interest rate hikes, it’s essential to understand how these changes can impact our financial lives. We’ll explore the key aspects of interest rate hikes, their implications for Irish mortgages, and provide real-life examples to help you grasp their significance. So, let’s dive in and gain a deeper understanding of this critical subject.

 

The Basics: Interest Rates and Mortgages

Before we delve into the impact of interest rate hikes, let’s refresh our understanding of the fundamentals. Interest rates are the cost of borrowing money, and they directly affect the amount you pay on your mortgage. When interest rates rise, the cost of borrowing increases, leading to adjustments in mortgage payments. Conversely, when rates decrease, mortgage payments may become more affordable.

The Ripple Effect: Monthly Mortgage Payments

Interest rate hikes have a direct impact on your monthly mortgage payments. As rates rise, your mortgage interest charges also increase, resulting in higher monthly payments. For example, let’s consider …

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Comparing the 2008 Financial Crisis to Recent Interest Rate Hikes in Ireland

In this blog, we look at insightful parallels between the infamous 2008 financial crisis and the recent interest rate hikes in Ireland. While each event has its unique characteristics, examining their similarities can provide valuable lessons for navigating the current financial landscape. We’ll explore the key resemblances between these two periods, highlighting real-life examples to deepen our understanding. So, let’s dive in and uncover the lessons history has to offer.

 

The Domino Effect: Fragile Housing Markets

Both the 2008 financial crisis and recent interest rate hikes have exposed the vulnerability of housing markets. In 2008, a burst in the housing bubble triggered a wave of foreclosures and plummeting property values. Similarly, interest rate hikes can impact affordability, leading to a potential slowdown in demand and a correction in housing prices. These dynamics remind us of the importance of balanced and sustainable growth in the housing sector.

Financial Strain: Increasing Debt Burden

During the 2008 crisis, many homeowners found themselves burdened with high levels of debt. Adjustable-rate mortgages with low …

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5 tips to improve your credit rating

Your credit rating is crucial when applying for a mortgage or any type of loan. The better your credit rating, the higher the chance you will qualify for a good rate from your lender. Having an average or below average rating can greatly reduce your choice of lender and have an adverse affect on your rate. Here are some tips to make sure your credit rating is as high as possible.

1. Use Credit cards wisely

Using credit cards responsibly on a regular basis is key to boosting your score. Banks may ask you for 12 months of credit card statements, and being behind on your credit payments will decrease your chances of getting a loan. Instead, use your credit card for small amounts, and keep up with your monthly repayments. This shows that you can reliably pay back the money you borrow.

2. Don’t miss loan repayments

Making all your payments on time is the factor that impacts your credit score the most. When you pay your credit cards or other loans on time, it goes on your file …

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Irish Households’ savings at record levels

Irish households saved more than 4 times the average amount during the first quarter of 2021, according to a recent study by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The CSO reports that Irish households saved more than €10 billion during the first three months of 2021.

This massive increase in savings was undoubtedly related to Covid-19 and it’s corresponding economic restrictions. Due to businesses being closed because of lockdowns, government unemployment benefits, or some combination of the two, incomes either held steady or increased, while spending was dramatically decreased. The CSO also reported that uncertainty about the pandemic and how long the lockdowns would last may have forced many Irish citizens to build up an increased amount of precautionary savings, in case money became tight in the future.

When looking at the numbers, it is no surprise that savings grew dramatically when compared to the first quarter of 2020. Compared to the first three months of last year, Government subsidies increased by €1.1 billion, and social protection payments rose by an even larger margin of €2.7 billion.

While the Pandemic Unemployment …

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Lockdowns cause surge on home improvement spending in Ireland

The coronavirus pandemic created many unforseen circumstances in people’s daily lives. Perhaps the biggest among these was the effects of the lockdown. People had to stay in their homes for much longer than they normally would, and many people were stuck working at home. It is no surprise, then, that a record number of home improvement projects have been carried out over the last year and a half.

Research by Aviva Insurance Ireland shows that 1.5 million homeowners have carried out work on their homes over the past year, with the total cost of these projects coming in at more than €11 billion. In addition to these numbers, another 861,000 people have plans to undertake home improvement projects, the survey says. The survey captured almost every type of home improvement imaginable, from minor fixes like painting a room or replacing windows, to large projects like building extensions onto homes or adding a home office, the latter of which was definitely popular as the country and the world transitioned to a remote work environment.

Aviva Insurance added that this surge in …

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How do mortgages work?

If you’re looking to buy a home, you’ve probably already realized that this is not like most transactions. The average house price in Dublin is €396,000, and unless you’re very wealthy, you probably don’t have anywhere that much in savings. Because you likely can’t afford an expense of this magnitude out of your own pocket, you will need to finance the purchase through a mortgage, and if you’re new to the home-buying process, you may be a little confused as to how exactly these loans work.

A mortgage is a huge loan secured against the value of your house. A “secured” loan means that the borrower promises collateral to the lender in the event that they are unable to make payments, and in this case, the collateral is your home. In other words, the bank will kick you out and take possession of your house if you can’t make payments. In order to prevent this from happening, the lender will typically conduct a detailed review of the borrower’s finances in order to determine how much they can reasonably afford to …

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COVID-19’s biggest effect on the Irish financial world

There is no doubt that the covid-19 pandemic has changed the financial landscape as we know it.

The pandemic has increased online shopping by great amounts, has changed the way individuals invest in the stock market, and has lead to many central banks around the world printing large sums of money in order to pay unemployment benefits and provide essential aid to businesses both small and large. Investors have began to hedge against growing inflation of currencies around the world by investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, sending them to sky-high prices.

But perhaps covid-19’s biggest – and surely its most noticeable –  effect has been a massive increase in contactless payments. Use of cash was already on the decline, but business closures and other covid restrictions, as well as new development in the fintech sector, have seen card and mobile payments soar to record highs.

Contactless payments such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as the new chip and tap-to-pay features included on most debit cards, are fast, easy and sanitary. And let’s face it, it’s much more …

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Why are investment funds buying up Irish Property?

Large-scale private rented sector (PRS) investors, sometimes called vulture or cuckoo funds, have rapidly become a major force in the Irish property market over the last few years.

As recently as 2017, these funds were a minor and insignificant part of the housing market. However, these firms have spent more than €6 billion buying Irish homes, apartment buildings, and commercial properties over the last three and a half years.

The cuckoo funds show no sign of slowing down in 2021, as they have spent €1.5 billion so far this year, according to recent figures from estate agents and property adviser JLL. Most of these funds are backed by international investors, and have quickly become big players in the market, particularly investing in deals for new apartments in Dublin.

But what is driving this relatively new and rapidly growing force in the market?

Analysts say that an influx of cash in European markets, lack of yields in traditional assets including bonds, and the huge surge in housing demand and high rent prices in Ireland have combined to create a very lucrative …

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Central Bank accused of unjust regulations on credit unions

Credit union chief executives have recently criticized the Central Bank’s regulations on the sector, calling them “excessive and unjustified”. After conducting research, a group of CEOs from credit unions across Ireland, chaired by Queen’s University Belfast professor Donal McKillop, have claimed that under the Central Bank’s current regulations, Irish credit unions are forced to set aside unjustifiably high levels of their capital into reserves, much higher than that of Irish and European banks.

Under the Central Bank’s current rules, credit unions must set aside a minimum of 10 percent of their total assets in reserves. This means that when a credit union member saves €100 with a credit union, the credit union must then put €10 in its reserves, if a member saves €1000, the credit union must put €100 in reserves, and so on. In its research paper, the Credit Union CEO Forum deemed these rates “excessive” and many credit unions have put limits on amount of savings they will accept from members, with some capping savings at just €10,000.

The CEO Forum’s paper states that these reserve capital …

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