How to manage your finances

2020 has been a hit or miss for many. Financially, there have been many downs and not so many ups. Understanding that we’re comprised a shortlist of things you can do help lessen your financial dependencies.

1: Save on idle spending

Whether this is saving on superfoods, and opting for water instead of those goji berries and chia seeds, or curbing the amount of alcohol you’re purchasing. There are always ways to curb the amount you’re spending at the store. Choosing to buy the products on sale and not the thing you “have” to have. In addition to that, not stocking up due to the pandemic and making sure to shop sensibly. Look at your savings and create an audit of how much you spend weekly and see where you can potentially save a bit.

2: Energy

You can also save big on energy. If you haven’t changed energy providers in the last couple of years, you’re most likely being overcharged. Around 60% of Ireland’s consumers are predicted to never even consider changing their electricity or gas provider. In addition …

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The nasty cycle of high-interest rate loans

Many of us had started from the bottom, working day and nights, and depending on government assistance to pull them through. Many individuals and families are stuck in a vicious cycle unable to break free of their chains. If you are stuck in this situation right now, it is crucial to learn the mistakes other low-income individuals have made and try to avoid them. Not only avoid them but to also improve your money mistakes.

You may be wondering what is causing these people to be stuck in the low-income bracket? The main culprit is your community Payday Loans centres and pawnbrokers. Although there may not be many payday loans in Ireland, they have grown to have a bad reputation in the UK already.

Debt never sounds good, but there are the good and bad. Of course, if an individual is investing in a new restaurant or new company there will start off with debt. With time they can potentially pay it off and earn more from the situation.  But in this case, hearing high interest is one of the …

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Banks in Ireland Expecting to Slow in Recovery

According to a new study done by stockbroking firm Davy, Ireland’s banks can expect to see a slowing in recovery and business activity within the first quarter as the government extends the current lockdown that is Level 5 until foreseeable, March 5th. Even though recently, large banks such as AIB and the Bank of Ireland has reported that in the last quarter of 2020, the lending and other business activities have recovered more than projected from the slump at the start of the quarantine. Still, Davy’s analysts report that they do not expect lenders to book material additional to loan-loss provisions after last year as many of the consumers are looking at these on a case-by-case basis.

The extension of the lockdown and corresponding restrictions are likely to impact the recovery seen in Q3 and Q4 of 20-20, and will likely hit Q1 of 2021, which is seasonally the weakest quarter for new lending in Ireland. House buying will probably require a conservative approach from businesses to limit risk in the new market of loosening restrictions. Individual buyers and businesses …

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Vaccination Debates at the World Economic Forum

During day two of the World Economic Forum at Davos this past Tuesday, European Commission president Ursula con der Leyen announced the agenda and push towards social media and Tech Giants to publicly release their business models and their algorithms. She wishes for more visibility into these large corporations and their platforms due to the fact that certain decisions and trends on social media need explaining.

Leyen’s uses the incident of former President Trump’s account to be removed from Twitter as an example of how companies are free to act at; will and this incident was a serious violation of an individual’s freedom of expression. She wishes for companies to release their framework of laws for such decisions.

In the World Economic Forum, South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa also urges richer countries to prohibit hoarding vaccines, due to the risks of prolonging the pandemic in other poorer countries. Many African countries are being left behind in the international race of producing and purchasing COVID vaccines. There is deep concern in my third-world countries that richer countries will abuse their economic …

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Morgan Stanley Borrowing on the Bond Market

The stock market and Trading has been the hot topic of the past decade. Many young individuals look towards buying and trading stocks as the next fast way to make money. But the market is much harder to understand than it seems on the surface.

Morgan Stanley, one of the largest American based investment banks, has recently invested just over 400 million Euros on the bond market to secure against a group of buy-to-let mortgages and owner-occupiers located in Ireland. And of these, some vulture funds were bought not from the banks themselves, but rather from third-party locations such as Lone Star and Cerberus.

Generally, a vulture fund is a type of hedge fund, which is privately owned and operated. They are invested in debt considered to be weak or at default, which is also known as distressed securities. These vulture funds are looking to manage and overturn these debts to draw in a profit. Yet despite the large number of home loans in Ireland that were price-reduced following the most recent crash, vulture funds are seeing a hard time …

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Crack Down on Money Laundering

Everyone has heard of the term “Money Laundering”, but most fail to understand what exactly it is and how it affects not only our daily lives but also a county’s economy. Money Laundering is an illegal process that individuals can take advantage of to hide the origins of where money was obtained illegally. This is most often done by passing the money through a complex number of bank transfers to eventually erase and hide where the money originated. In the end, the money launderer receives the “clean” money.

Ireland has had a history of struggling with cracking down on money laundering, and in light of having to pay nearly 2 million Euro to the European Commission in July 2020 for failing to implement regulations, a new law has been passed in an attempt to begin intensifying legislation around anti-money laundering. The Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill 2020, was signed on May 5th, 2020.

This Bill aims to: 1: Prevent the creation of anonymous safe-deposit boxes by credit and financial institutions 2: Continuously improve on the customer …

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Help To Buy For First Time Buyers

The name provides a definition for itself. First time home buyers are people in the market buying a home for the first time. Compared to other home buyers, such as trader-up borrowers and mortgage switchers, first time buyers have different benefits and restrictions when borrowing than other borrowers. The Central Bank of Ireland requires a 10% down payment for first time buyers. Now, for first time buyers, a 45,000 euro down payment for a 450,000 euro home may be somewhat daunting. However, the Central Bank has offered assistance for their first time buyers to keep them in the market. The Central Bank offers a help to buy program. This benefit allows for first time buyers of new houses and apartments to take a 5% tax rebate off of properties less than 500,000 euros. In a recent case at Irish Mortgage Brokers, a married couple came looking for a mortgage on their first home. The couple did not have a home in mind at the time, but based on their income, the couple had roughly below 500k to spend. Both individuals …

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Tracker Mortgage Scandal

A tracker mortgage is a mortgage that has its rate tied to the European Central Bank rate. AIB and other banks looked to force people as many people as it could off of loss-making mortgages. After the market crash in 2008, it became expensive for many banks to borrow. The banks hurt themselves a lot with bad lending practices before the market crash. Once the market did crash, many of the mortgages were actually costing the banks money.

Instead of taking the financial burden, many of the banks looked to be sneaky. They looked to push people off of the mortgages in questionable ways.  The Irish Times estimate that scandal costs have surpassed 1.5 billion Euro.

What is even more crazy is that financial services knew about the banks being suspect. Many people went to court and lost. However, it is believed that many of the banks had a voice on these committees.

PTSB and Springboard Mortgages were the first two banks caught in the scandal. It is estimated that 1,400 people had their loans mismanaged by both companies. Some …

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Safety Nets for Consumers in Mortgage Arrears

According to The Central Bank of Ireland, at the end of June 2019, there were 723,280 private residential (PDH) mortgage accounts for principal dwellings held. Of this, 61,901 accounts still had outstanding payments, also referred to as being in arrears. as of June, there were a total of 61,901 total accounts in arrears. Within that, over 18,000 were within 90 days overdue, almost 5,000 were up to 180 days overdue and a staggering 27,792 accounts were over 720 days overdue. However, at the end of the quarter only 1,407 homes were repossessed. So what protections do homeowners have when they are in arrears? In Ireland there are many codes and acts that are specifically designed to protect the family home from repossession.

The main code that deals with family homes, is the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears (CCMA) which was put into place in 2013. The code is issued by the Central bank and relates to customers in arrears and pre-arrears situation. It does not however deal with investment properties. This code requires mortgage lenders to apply the Mortgage …

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Mortgage Switching is More Common than Central Bank States

Competition between mortgage providers has increased dramatically over the past couple of years. People are switching more frequently than every before trying to find the best mortgage rate for themselves. Over the last three years, the percentage of mortgage holders prepared to switch providers has doubled according to a banking sector report. Additionally, these figures are higher than what the official figures from the Central Bank are. Also, the Irish Banking & Payments Federation (IBPF) marks the rate of switching at over 15% which compares to the slightly more than 1% rate that the Central Bank has pit forward.

The federation suggests that the much lower calculations from the Central Bank could have a negative effect on how willing consumers are to search around for value. The IBPF notes the difference in numbers is caused by the Central Bank using the number of mortgages being switched as a percentage of total outstanding private dwelling house credit. IBPF stated, “This gives rise to a figure of less than 1 per cent for the current level of mortgage-switching activity” and “Crucially, this …

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