On the 10th of August we looked at the ‘financial milestones’ you should have reached by the time you are in your 30’s.
As with many things, these are not ‘set in stone’ but in general, they are good indicators of how you are doing on your road to financial health.
This week on RTE’s ‘Talking Money’ we looked at the cost of raising a child. Everybody who ever had kids knows it’s expensive, but did they realise it can cost about €105,000 per child? That’s a real eye opener and that so many parents cut back on vital financial needs like life insurance to allow for general consumption is a concern. As always, you’re bound to be entertained as Karl Deeter and Jill Kerby ‘talk money’.
Back in June (sorry for the delay, we had the recording but didn’t post it!) we did a piece on life insurance and both how and why it matters.
As usual, Jill and Karl didn’t always agree on everything but the need to insure against your greatest risk was universally accepted and how to do it sensibly is really straight forward.
You can catch us again ‘Talking Money’ every Monday on RTE Drivetime at about 18:15.
This week on RTE Drivetime’s ‘Talking Money’ segment we looked at the issue some parents have with ‘Kidults’ who are grown up children living at home. There are many reasons behind the increased occurrence of people remaining at home, and there are both advantages and disadvantages, we tried our best to give some tips that might help!
This was our first time to do ‘Talking Money’ on RTE’s Drivetime Show, we looked at financial resolutions, how to make them simple, and most importantly, how to set them up so you actually implement them, the key is to take small steps and form habits rather than trying to do it all at once. Listen in to the clip to find out more!
Last week on ‘Talking Money’ Mary Wilson spoke to Karl and Jill about ways to ‘beat the bank’. In an era of low returns and higher costs on credit and use of the financial system beating the banks becomes an important aspect of finances because of the amount of interaction most of us have with banks.
Last night’s Primetime had a well thought out piece on variable interest rates.
The general thesis was that variable rates are ‘too high’ and that banks should not be allowed to charge them, the figure of 1% of a ‘cost of funds’ was mentioned several times and various suggestions were made as to making the banks stop the practice of setting their own prices.
To begin with, the ‘cost of funds’ at 1% may be what a bank buys their raw materials at, but then you have to make more on top of it to allow for operational costs, to provide for losses, regulatory burdens, margin and the like. It is worth noting that in AIB’s interim statement which was only made yesterday that they noted that “Net Interest Margin (NIM), excluding ELG, expanded to c.1.64% year to date (YTD) September 2014”.
This means the idea of 4.5% minus the 1% ‘cost’ equating to a 3.5% ‘profit’ doesn’t stack up. If it did the net interest margin …
On Monday the 27th of October we had the first of two parts about pensions, the focus this week was that people are passing up money that is on the table for the taking. The other issues were about the kind of advice you get, and the best ways to structure your pension as well as to demonstrate the available funds if you save for retirement.
This week on Drivetime’s ‘Talking Money’ we looked at ways to take the maximum money saving ideas and put them to use in your own day to day life. Some are well known, others are not, but we are hopeful that there was something for everybody!
This week on Drivetime’s ‘Talking Money’ we discussed the idea of long term leases and how to negotiate them. There is an issue in Ireland that many people don’t consider long leases because deep down they are a latent buyer who hasn’t gotten out yet. Equally landlords may feel they miss out on price moves that may benefit them, or that there is some kind of legal commitment that outstrips the Part IV tenancy which exists after 6 months (it doesn’t).
Longer leases equate to more sustainable cashflows and better predictability of the income streams from the asset, they are an example of a ‘win-win’ situation for all parties.