What does Ireland truly stand economically compared to other European powers? (pt. 3)

Another form of measurement used when accessing the healthiness and prosperity of a country is the state of its citizens. In this case, a national indicator of household welfare is known as “actual individual consumption” or AIC. This measurement is also a part of the GDP, where it takes into account the consumption of households on services such as healthcare, education, and housing. What AIC does not take into account is the collective government spending such as defence, policing, debt services etc…

Internationally, AIC includes about 2/3 of all GDP. AIC seems to be the best fit measurement of current living standards of households, which can also e adjusted for price differentials across different countries. Ireland currently ranks less high on this measure than compared to others. Ireland’s AIC rank in the European Union has jumped around quite a bit. At 11th place in the 1990’s up to 6th in 20078. But then afterwards it fell to 14th place in 2009 and returned up to 12th place by 2019. Using this measurement, Ireland actually falls behind all six of the …

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Who is buying houses in Ireland for cash? A look at cash buyers in 2021

With fewer homes entering the housing market, and a large amount of demand that is being unmet due to that, the Irish government incentives like “Help to Buy” have only just started to affect rising forecasted housing prices in 2021. But even so, there has been little effect in the market by people that are known as “cash buyers”.

Cash Buyers may not be the people that first come to mind. They’re not exactly the people that pay upfront the entire mortgage, because let’s be realistic, who has ever done that? Cash buyers are investors, and their acquisitions are mostly funded by debt in terms of purchasing power. This is where they get the name “cash buyers” from. Despite the pandemic in 2020, these cash buyers were still highly active in the market. Statistics show that over 1.75 billion euro were invested by investors from European property firms like the LRC. While, it was still down from 2019 when it was pre-pandemic times, where the overall investment was 2.5 billion euro, there was still a significant amount of money being …

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How the Irish Government is handling its finances

During the secondary shutdown across Europe last December, the imposition of Level 5 restrictions has led to the fall of vax receipts seen this past January. Total tax revenue for the month of January 2021 was down nearly 9% compared to previous months, coming up to be around €520 million €5.4 billion.

Of the tax receipts, the VAT receipts have been hit the hardest. This largely is due to the impact of the decrease in consumed goods over the traditionally hectic Christmas period. In addition, there has been a continuous drop in excise duty, stamp duty, and corporation tax. The one exemption to all this would be the Stat’s income tax, which is their largest tax channel. This channel has performed better thane expected, which has become a common occurrence. The income taxes generated over €2.3 billion in January alone, which is up around 4% compared to the same month in 2020.

In forecasting how the economy will move in the future, the department states the suspension of its normal monthly tax profiles will soon be implemented. This is largely …

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AIB conforms to Industry Standards in drawing a mortgage

The AIB has implemented regulations that have started to severely lower the time that it allows potential home buyers to look from a new home. This time frame went from 12 months to half of that. The reasoning the AIB has given for this is that it increases the approval in principle.

Two weeks ago, on January 15th, AIB made up of around 33% of the mortgage market. The bank announced that it will no longer allow the individuals who received mortgage approval 12 months ago to draw down their loans. These individuals will instead have to do so within 6 months, which is the normal time frame for most other banks within the market. The change is said to only apply to new applicants and that if you were an individual that applied in the 12-month period before January 15th of this year, the 12-month period will still apply to you.

AIB has previously one of the only banks to offer an extended amount of time for consumers to draw down a mortgage, which was one of its largest …

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Red flag Financial words you should know

Your knowledge is the best defence when it comes to your money.  Therefore, you need to learn tactics and these words to best defend your finances from those who want to trick you. You know best about how you spend, save, and invest your money from the moment you laid on your first euro. These are some words that are completely RED FLAGS.

Deferred Interest

This situation pops up everywhere you go on ads like, “Buy this twenty-five thousand euro car at zero per cent interest rates for twenty-four months!”. But you need to know what type of interest they are offering customers during these situations. There are two main types, waived and deferred. Waived means zero per cent interest rates free and clear, meaning you will not need to pay any insurance on that car. While deferred means customers will still need to pay the interest. If customers do not pay off the amount by the end of twenty-four months or miss a payment …

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Comparing is making us poor.

Look at his new Rolex watch! Look at her new handbag! Everyone compares one another on things they own, wear, eat, and much more. Especially with the times right now with everyone connected through the internet, it is hard to avoid. We are constantly on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube looking at our peers to evaluate how well we are doing in life. We decide our value based on attractiveness, wellbeing, and success as if it measures up against others.

Most of our decision making is influenced by what our friends and family spend and what you think of how they perceive us. Are your expenses really motivated by your actual needs or wants or are they trying to keep up with your peers? Many people spend money they have not earned to buy things they don’t really want just to impress the people they do not like. Do you really want it? Buying things that are not useful or have purpose collects dust and makes our money fly out the window just as well as our value. We know if …

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GameStop stock and what’s happening with it

What happened this past week with GameStop’s stock was unprecedented. And markets show that the three largest shareholders in GameStop’s stock have made nearly 2 billion dollars (1.65 billion euro) from the company’s stock rising this past week. The stock hit its high this past Wednesday at $354.83 and rose again on Thursday.

As the largest stockholder of GameStop, Mr Cohen’s now worth a staggering 1.4 billion dollars. In the last two weeks, with the rising of the stock, we calculated his net worth to increase an aver of around 90 million dollars a day. The GameStop Stock has increased more than 1,550% this year.

This sudden increase in the stock has never been seen before. Sure, we saw Tesla grow a hundred times over in the past year, but never has a stock increased so fast continuously in the timespan of a matter of days. On the social media platform Reddit, many small investors have started boasting about their gains from beating Wall Street and the amount of revenue they were able to generate if they caught wind of …

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How will the Government deal with the national debt

According to a recent study done, the Ireland government will be estimated to be able to absorb around 17% of the spike in the State’s level of debt predicted to occur with the pandemic. There is estimated to be a growth of €239 billion within the next two years as the economy continues to battle with COVID’s repercussions. This will not only affect government actions and reach into markets and industries but may mean that there will be uncertainties with regulations regarding COVID restrictions.

Overall, this means that there will be nearly €47,000 being owned by the government to international creditors for every citizen within the state by the end of 2020. This accumulates to billions of debt inherited by the government. This is not just Ireland, but many countries across Europe, driven mostly by the European Central Bank in its bond-buying programs.

Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, the Irish government has responded to its economic and social environment quickly in relation to countries globally and have set aside large series of supports to lessen its impacts on …

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Tax Relief methods that you may be looking for

Taxes have and always will be the stress of most people’s adult life. And there are two sides of the same coin in terms of feelings you may receive when getting your Revenue yearly about your taxes. And last weeks, there are many people who are either ecstatic and relieved and then there are others who are scrambling around to find some way in order to lessen their tax liability.

Either way, you have most likely in one way or another been affected by the wage subsidies that the pandemic has caused. But there are still some things you can do to lessen that tax bill just a little. Of the following hints, if you have not claimed any of them since 2017, you can still be eligible for that period of time.

1: Tuition Fees

With children in third-level education, tuition can cost a fortune. But you can also benefit from tax relief on fees paid for undergraduate programs, postgraduate, IT, and foreign language courses. The relief starts at 20%, meaning that 20% will be returned to your pockets.

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Financial steps you can take in quarantine

As quarantine drags on into 2021, and there is no certainty when restrictions will start to lift as the COVID vaccines roll out, there are still many actions you can take just to less your bills and spending a little. With how volatile the market and economy is currently, as countries scramble to create and distribute the vaccine. You can create just a little bit of order in your everyday lives by seeing if any of these tips will help your financial situation.

1: Check up on your insurances

If you are one of nearly two million citizens in Ireland that are about to enter your renewal period for your private health insurance, this tip is just for you. Of that two million people, around 75% just allow their policies to be renewed without looking over the fine print or asking their provider any questions. And if you have been doing exactly that for over the last three years, you can almost certainly save some money by looking at alternative options currently. It will require a bit of research and …

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