How much do you need to earn?

d-gal

I cannot for the life of me figure out how 2 cars are so essential to so many people.
Some people must of never heard of public transport, a bike or their own 2 feet!

I'm living in Galway and the amount of unnecessary cars around is crazy. Majority live within 40mins walking distance to their work and yet drive everywhere. A bike ride is 15mins or get the bus (which if people use can see they are extremely reliable)

Of course there are exceptions in other areas but if you are trying to live within your means and be a lot more comfortable then ditch the car!

Pottler

OnTheCounter wrote: »

in your personal stock picks do you favour the fundamentals or technical analysis approach? What is your risk profile and portfolio strategy? All equity or have you diversified with various asset classes?

That is a very, very disingenuous post. You are comparing apples to oranges. For the average man or woman, "getting a pension" involves paying a fixed amount into a pension scheme. They have no Investment strategy, they do not stock pick or define what asset classes they wish their money to be invested into or for what terms. (You might, but you are probably bad at it, like most are, through lack of information/money, Maybe you are brilliant at it.)
The average person pays in "€x" with a promise of an income of "€y" per month when they retire. Please give me a few examples of those who have retired on basic private pensions in recent years and have received "€y" as expected? I know plenty who have discovered to their horror that their "investment" was actually worth a tiny fraction of their input "€x". Or actually worthless. So, they paid for a pension and received really nothing.
The other side is that of a wealthy individual who has a good accountant who lorries cash into sheltered asset classes that will provide a good income and liquid assets for when they retire. These are not average joes, they are protected by the state because they are rich. Simple as. Legislation and Tax law favours and benefits them. For the average person, paying into a pension is foolish and will not bring the benefits they expect. They would be better saving and investing the money in a simple asset themselves, but really, the tax laws are drafted in such a way that they will still lose their shirt to Tax when they come to realise the value of their investment one way or another. In reality, they are better off simply using the money to live in the here and now. Which, if they pay it to a Pension scheme, is what someone else will do with it anyway.

Gurgle

d-gal wrote: »

I cannot for the life of me figure out how 2 cars are so essential to so many people.

Let me explain, its quite straightforward really:
Some of us live outside Dublin, and have jobs.

delad

delad wrote: »

You don't get it, I'm not interested in investing my retirement money in the stock market which could crash the day before I retire. I am thinking about putting it in a high interest savings account, as long as I beat inflation that's all I care about. That way I know exactly what I have and can plan my future with a lot more precision, rather than having a pension fund which could be worth 250k when I retire............or it could be worth 40k.

You won't get any tax benefits from putting it into a savings account.
In addition, there are plenty of pension products which invest in much lower risk bonds/cash/mix if that's what you are looking for. It's not all equities. All you have to do is read up about it.

delad

bluewolf wrote: »

You won't get any tax benefits from putting it into a savings account.
In addition, there are plenty of pension products which invest in much lower risk bonds/cash/mix if that's what you are looking for. It's not all equities. All you have to do is read up about it.

You do realise you are taxed on your pension when you start to draw down on it? Its such a con that they make people believe that there are tax benefits to contributing to a pension.

desertcircus

desertcircus wrote: »

Two cars is really not a necessity for most people. How many people live on major bus corridors, or near Luas or rail stops, or within walking distance of work, or within cycling range? If you work less than fifteen kilometres from your house, buy a damn bike. Pretending two cars is really necessary is fooling nobody but yourself.

A lot (most?) of Ireland is extremely rural. You might not be able to wrap your head around it, but plenty of people commute way more than 15km every day. It's about 7km from my parents' house to the nearest town and probably 30km to where my mam works. My dad works in different places depending on where he's needed. We do use the car to go just a few miles, want to know why? Because the roads around where we live are treacherous. Country back roads with no footpaths and boy races coming around corners on the wrong side of the road at 70 miles an hour. No-one in their right mind would cycle around there.

I'm all for walking and using public transport as much as possible, but sometimes it just isn't possible. Public transport in most of Ireland is a joke.

eth0

7km to the nearest town 〓 extremely rural? Yer not used to much

Most of the world's land is a lot more rural than that.

dearg lady

Hailey Narrow Orate wrote: »

A lot (most?) of Ireland is extremely rural. You might not be able to wrap your head around it, but plenty of people commute way more than 15km every day. It's about 7km from my parents' house to the nearest town and probably 30km to where my mam works. My dad works in different places depending on where he's needed. We do use the car to go just a few miles, want to know why? Because the roads around where we live are treacherous. Country back roads with no footpaths and boy races coming around corners on the wrong side of the road at 70 miles an hour. No-one in their right mind would cycle around there.

I'm all for walking and using public transport as much as possible, but sometimes it just isn't possible. Public transport in most of Ireland is a joke.

Even just taking Dublin into account for this particular point, the amount of journeys that don't have to be by car is massive! I too know plenty of people who drive very short distances, and then complain about costs. Another suggestion is to switch to a cheaper car. Something cheap to run and reliable.

Japer

OnTheCounter wrote: »

A 10 day holiday is not high expectations for a family where both parents are in full time skilled work.

In 2012 in Ireland it is, in addition to the other luxuries you mention. I know lots of couples who work in the private sector who have not had a holiday in years.

eth0

dearg lady wrote: »

Even just taking Dublin into account for this particular point, the amount of journeys that don't have to be by car is massive! I too know plenty of people who drive very short distances, and then complain about costs. Another suggestion is to switch to a cheaper car. Something cheap to run and reliable.

Switch to a more expensive car with loads of horsepowers. Walk to most places but once a week go for a good tearing session that will warm the engine up good. Better than driving a painfully slow econobox like i do

RED PASSION

eth0 wrote: »

Switch to a more expensive car with loads of horsepowers. Walk to most places but once a week go for a good tearing session that will warm the engine up good. Better than driving a painfully slow econobox like i do

people like you make me not want to sell the opc

B.A._Baracus

Times are indeed tough alright
The sign in days for the social say it all... or even walk past a FAS centre around 9.30 at night as they all come out. Alot of people still hit by recession.

But apart from what the op said (ha, ten day foreign holiday? lol) A person can really change alot of outgoings. Even if its just a few quid a month (its better in your pocket, right?):

Heating:
- Use your fireplace (if you got one obviously) Buy the odd bag of coal to save on the heating bill. Burn your food packaging. Why recycle it or throw it away? Give it another use by burning it. Wont throw out any lasting heat but will take the sting out of a cold house before you use other means to heat it.
- If you've got radiators. Get into the habit of turning them on and off. On the subject, there is no reason for the bathroom rad to be on at all. How often do you be in that room?

Entertainment:
- Why pay for tv? Get Soarview and Freesat in. No more bills.
- Your son or daughter has a games console and you still want to treat them? ... mod the console. Download games. Dual layer disks only cost 2 euro each.


Ahhh, cant think of any more. Anyone else? :P

AgileMyth

OnTheCounter wrote: »

its a serious question that we all have to deal with sooner or later. It would be good to have a proper discussion to get some realastic figures.

You're a long way from needing to consider it if you're taking 10 day foreign holidays as a given.