How will the rising of State Pension Liabilities affect you?

Recently, state pension liabilities have been on the rise at around 10% annually, according to a recent studying involving Ireland’s pensions, it claims that pension schemes across Ireland have over €600 billion worth of liabilities. The study analyzes are many Irish households were privately owned by employers and the government, finding that the State pension accounts for almost 60% of all liabilities. Within that, the public sector pensions account for nearly a quarter while the private sector pensions are around 16%.

Overall, the pension liabilities within Ireland has increased by 7%, however, there are still differences in the positions of such schemes. The liabilities of private sector schemes has increased at just over 1%, while the public sector schemes have almost increased by 10% for state pension liabilities. One of the biggest issues is the sustainability of the current State pension scheme and whether the age requirement on the scheme will rise to 67 as previously planned, and then to 68 in 2028.

The study in 2018 shows that Ireland’s total pension liability at that time was equal to 186% …

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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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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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Three Things to do Before Taking out a Mortgage

Let’s face it mortgages are daunting; with interest rates, terms, and credit scores. Many things can make finding a mortgage a challenge but what are the most important things you need to know before taking out a mortgage? Well, you’re in luck, these are three main takeaways that you should know before taking out a mortgage.

SAVE SAVE SAVE

When preparing yourself to take out a mortgage, being financially secure is extremely important. You will want to have enough to make sure you have enough for a good down payment. This isn’t the only reason you want to be saving though. You will also want to have enough in your account for any unexpected expenses that may pop up due to things such as closing costs, and inspections. Liquidity (cash) is just as important as saving for a down payment. Banks and other financial lending institutions look at the balance of your accounts prior to approval to validate your ability to afford your desired home.

Along with saving, you will want to keep your account in order. Avoid overdrafts, late …

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Why Use a Mortgage Broker?

You may not know whether or not you want to use a mortgage broker or why people use them in the first place. How do they help and what do they do? Let’s go over why people use mortgage brokers and what they do for you.

First of all what is a mortgage broker? A mortgage broker is a person that is working with you and the lenders. He is the middleman that will be advising you (client) on the mortgage that is going to work best for you.

Unlike banks, mortgage brokers can work with you and multiple lenders. They’re the middleman when it comes to getting you the mortgage that is going to work best for you. They can shop around for you, work with multiple banks, and work with you on problems that may occur. Since you are working one on one with a mortgage broker, they can also explain things and perhaps give you advice on how to improve in certain areas.

Working with a professional mortgage broker allows you the opportunity of possibly having them …

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The Qualified Mortgage Patch

In less than a year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is letting the “Qualified Mortgage Patch” (QM Patch) expire. Why does this matter for first time buyers?

The QM Patch states that mortgage buyers must have a debt-to income ratio less than or equal to 43% in order to buy a home. This rule was created to protect borrowers from racking up too much debt. Removing the QM patch could have drastic effects for the European economy. Let me explain:

I grew up living in the United States during the Mortgage Crisis of 2007. It started with many investors looking for low risk high reward profits. They turned to the housing market to buy those loans. Banks would convert thousands of marketable securities and turn them into shares for investors to buy. They believed the investments were safe because house prices were rising dramatically during this time and credit unions gave many of these securities AAA ratings. AAA rating is the best rating a house can receive.

Investors loved these loans because they were very profitable. They started pushing the …

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Parent’s continue to pay

Mortgages can be extremely overwhelming to any buyer, but especially those new to the market. Competition in the market is at extremely high levels, especially within the major Irish cities. This is due to rising house prices, little availability, and the intensity that comes with making an offer against other prepared competitors. In order to make an offer on any property, there are many hurdles that you must be able to jump through to even begin being an eligible purchaser. 

Loans have become much harder to get approval for as a first time buyer, especially if your credit history is not as detailed or robust as another person applying for the same type of loan. With high intensity competition beginning at stage one of getting a loan, many possible home buyers feel distressed from the get go. 

With Brexit on the horizon, banks have an iron hold on most of their funding; they are being extra selective about loan recipients in the hopes that they will have no issues in the repayment process.

Under the Central Bank rules, first time …

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May 2019 mortgage approvals offer high hopes

The mortgage scene is finally beginning to see some positive growth, especially for first time buyers. Recent figures have just been released for May 2019, which have shown substantial upward traction in regards to the approval of loans. 

The statistics indicated that there has been a 10pc increase in approvals when comparing May 2018 to May 2019. During May 2019, 4926 applications for loans were approved by at least one of the banks. Additionally, there was a 19.9pc increase from April to May of this year. 

Most of the approvals from May seem to have been heavily dominated by first time buyers, who made up 51pc. This demographic  is heavily marked to via social media and other online platforms. Additionally, banks advertise to this untapped market by offering exemptions that make getting a loan more affordable. 

This seems to have been effective, give that approvals are high for this month. If approvals are high, this indicated that there were also a very large number of first time buyer applications that the bank saw during the previous months. Mover purchases also …

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Effects of ending the help-to-buy scheme

The help-to-buy scheme was designed to help first time buyers buy a home. First time buyers are encouraged to buy property through the help-to-buy scheme by refunds of income tax and deposit interest retention tax paid over the last four years. The help-to-buy scheme allows purchasers to claim a rebate  tax already paid of income up to €20,000 depending on the value of the property.

There is a move to end the help-to-buy scheme. This would be detrimental to the housing market. Figures have shown that more than 80% of all first time buyers are relying on the scheme to buy a home.

However, the scheme is scheduled to end at the end of 2019. The government has given no indication of an extension of the help-to-buy scheme.

According to theBanking and Payments Federation, 84% of new property purchases were made by first time buyers with the support of the help to buy scheme. Furthermore, chief economist, Dr Ali Ugur, claimed that the help-to-buy scheme was important for market stability. It was a key component in helping housing supply increase and …

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