Is everybody broke?

Not broke but not exactly flush either. I'm on an 6 figure salary but my wife is on a career break so mortgage, loan repayment, insurances, utilities, groceries etc are all on me. I have a 5 and a 7 year old too so summer camps and other activities need to be covered. I have about 8k in a savings account but that's earmarked for landscaping that's going on at the house currently.

My car is 14 years old, hers is 8 years old, no foreign holidays this year or last but we will go to centre parks in December.

Averaging around €200 per week on groceries for the 4 of us.

Everything has gone so effin expensive and even earning the salary I earn, more often than not I'm using the credit card the week before pay day.

Genuinely don't know how people on low salaries are managing tbh.

Absolutely! We're on a fixed term at the moment (only bought last year) and ptsb won't let us over pay, but we throw a few €€ by each month so we can make a lump sum payment when the fixed is up, and will continue to over pay after that.

We only ever went variable as the idea all along was to overpay overpay overpay…

Initial rate was 4.3% (Bank of Ireland), then when the LTV was down below 60%, I got them to reduce the rate to 3.9% (their lowest published variable rate at the time), then in 2018 I called them and told them I was going to move to AIB (who were offering 2.65% variable for >50% LTV + €2k moving fee's) unless they did something for me as I knew I was a good customer (regular overpayments), so the next day they put me on an unpublished rate of 3.4% which I was happy enough to stay on with BoI…

If you don't ask, you don't get….

…so maintaining a high level of debt as you age isnt really a problem, and the health of those involved wont change with time, possibly requiring one or both to temporally leave employment in order to deal with such issues!

…pay off your mortgage asap folks, age can sometimes radically change circumstances!

That's something I fully agree with. I always here people talking about the rates published. People are very surprised when I tell them to call them and they will get a better rate. I'm on 3.5% fixed at the moment for the next 2 years and I'm happy enough with that given the market currently. I'd fully expect rates to keep dropping over the next few years too. I'd think I'll be able to get them to closer 3% next time around which would be a decent saving to spend on other things.

yeah, thats probably also true as the sound financial advice is to always keep the mortgage as it is the cheapest loan you'll ever get, however we simply didn't want to be in debt to the bank.. The house is paid off now, and in fairness it didn't really affect our quality of life (we paid €1,000 each towards the mortgage, so that covered the payment, the life insurance that was required, and everything left was overpaid…… As I mentioned, in that time, we bought a new car (EV), a boat, and a house in another country, so if anything we probably could have paid it off quicker..

However we did what we did, and we saved €49k in interest over the almost 9 years we had the mortgage out, so I see it as a win…. Could we have better spent that overpayment money? absolutely, however we wanted to own the house outright..

Absolutely.

…i know a couple in their 50's both currently dealing with cancer, you never never know…..

I'm a shoe in for cancer, so it's nice knowing that whatever happens, the house is fully paid for, and if I do die young (currently early 40's), she'll get a lump sum of about €450k, as well as 80% of my salary for the rest of her life, so I'll die knowing she and my son will be taken care of, and thats all that matters to me.

Like everything, it depends. Your house and your mortgage carries more emotional weight than other investments.

When I had a fixed rate our mortgage provide allowed about 10% overpayment a year - you might want it check if that’s a service they provide in case the adviser got it wrong

I would say yes, I am doing less work and feel like my work since the pandemic doesn't warrant a pay rise. I do a fraction of what I did pre-pandemic from home. It's the same for a lot of people I think but my company doesnt do anything about it. It probably suits them to be fair. If I went looking for a payrise, I know they would tell me to come into the office more.

Indeed. Everyone's circumstances are different I guess.. The reason we went for it so aggressively was probably because it was relatively low to start with (€165k). We had calculated we could comfortably repay it over 10 years, but we still took a 20 year term so as not to be tied to the higher repayments a 10 year term would have incurred… giving us some wiggle room.

So from day 1 it was a target. 10 years to try and pay it off.

Initial monthly repayments at 4.3% were €1,025/m then when I got the rate reduction to 3.9% (they didn't offer, it was only when I enquired) they recalculated and the payment reduced to €858/m, and when I got the last reduction to 3.4%, the payment recalculated to €714/m. About 2 years into it we both increased our contributions to €1k a month each towards it and ended up clearing it in 8 years 9 months.

You’d be surprised at how long I spent looking at this graph as it was slowing creeping to the right over the years… (also, I'm sh!t at Excel graphs)

One of the keys to not being broke is realising that mortgage borrowing is the cheapest loan you ever borrow.

I would make sure I am paying pension contributions especially where an employer is topping them up, early pension contributions build into substantial pensions

If I had excess cash first I would save so as not to have to borrow for a car, pay credit cards at the end of the month, not pay tax, insurance or other items in installments which attract substantial interest rates

Next priority is a saving fund a rainy day fund of at least a years wages is a good thing to have.

After that if you plan on having or having children start setting a small fund up to put children through college. It will cost in the region of 50-70k minimum per child.

I might pay off the mortgage after that but in reality by year 25-30+ most mortgages are the equivalent to a car loan. Remember in the case of a mortgage inflation is your friend.

As well remember an inflation rate of 2% will in real terms shrink your loan repayments by 33% in real terms in 20 years. If your wages rise 3% a year by year 20 your mortgage reoayments are about about 55% in real wage terms

Also by leaving your mortgage in place you may well avoid going to the credit union or bank to borrow for your Dermot Bannon designed sunroom 20 years on.

Another factor to consider is the house a starter home. By leaving the mortgage insitu you have much more flexibility if you have a cash fund to work with

The first priority on debt repayment is your house, however its the last one you should pay off. Its the cheapest money you will probably ever borrow.

Ireland is at the upper range of countries in terms of consumer spending AND we are whopper savers based on international stats. The retail environment is just increasingly competitive and there've been some real challenges lately in terms of costs.

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-hs/householdsavingq42023/#:~:text=Key%20Findings,2023%20households%20saved%20%E2%82%AC207m.

I stopped going to coffee shops reqularly, the price was just getting outragous, basic coffee is now €5. I'm not that old but I remember getting a pint and a shot for the same price. I go once in a blue moon and invested in a good coffee machine for myself.

I don't know where the feck you were getting your coffee??

Regular Americano in Dublin, €2.50 to 3.50

Still too expensive, but I've literally never seen one for €5.

The Avoca Café in D4, is €4. And thats the priciest I've ever seen. And not paid it, I should add.

just about surviving on social welfare and now trying to jump through the hoops for disability payment . accounts down low and have medical issues. Nearly at old age but not there yet.

Gas boiler packed up and needs to be replaced and more money. One thing in my favour is no mortgage as still living in my parents house.

Yes price hikes on this and that means no life left to enjoy and fuel tank empty.

Cars are a huge poverty trap, I gave mine up a year ago and invested in a good pushbike on the bike to work scheme and a foldable escooter (which I use to supplement public transport trips, where routes don't go exactly where I want to go). The savings I have made are INCREDIBLE. The car was eating away at my savings with every minor repair, replacement, tax, nct and insurance and I'm much healthier now because I'm forced to walk or cycle more, if I need to move bulky items I rent a go car, if I need to go somewhere short notice in a hurry, I just call a taxi. Even if you got a taxi journey twice a week every week you are still saving huge amounts compared to owning a car. The vast majority of daily commutes in Ireland are under 10km.

Also cars are a huge drain on the Irish economy, 99% of the money spent on cars is exported to countries with an oil extraction or car manufacturing industry. People need to get wise and take a proper look at the money black hole on four wheels sitting in their driveway 23 hrs a day. Car ownership is a crock for almost everyone, a complete false economy, but we've all been convinced by the motor industry to buy one.

I was exaggerating slightly, the average in Dublin is about €4.50. There are no €2.50 coffees in any café except at McDonalds.

At a couple of industrial estates in Galway, I pay €2.50 or €2.60 for a coffee most lunchtimes. (I work in different estates on different days).

Agree. You don't even have to live "down the country". Once outside Dublin, public transport falls off a cliff. In the greater Leinster area all public transport leads to Dublin.

e.g. if you lived in Navan and worked 50km away in Mullingar. You can drive it in 50mins or public transport it in 1hr 33mins (excluding transfers to stations/waiting times). Also the frequency of the public transport may not facilitate working evenings, late nights, Sundays etc.

Most of people don't live down the country or commute more than 10km which is the point