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I was recently invited to present to the commercial department of a large telecoms company about managing your money better when both the cost of living and inflation is increasing.

As I was preparing for the presentation a number of things struck me about managing your money on both a monthly and long-term basis.

So, it’s about planning, it’s about allocating money to different places in terms of managing your day-to-day, having some sort of comfortable lifestyle, and then looking for the future as well.

It’s about habits, it’s about creating those good habits so that when you’ve allocated money towards something you can ensure that the money goes to that and it covers it.

Finally, it’s about consistency in terms of checking in over the course of the month to say that I’ve allocated money towards this and just to ensure that it’s enough and it all goes where it should go.

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about how to protect your finances, feel free to connect and start a conversation or contact me directly at +353 (87) 778 5325☎️

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐓𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 HERE

#FinancialAdvice  #FinancialPlanning #Investment

On Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers, myself included will look for discounts and additional value on the products that they buy.

Now it’s always worth doing your homework to make sure that you’re getting the value that you think you’re getting but it occurred to me that maybe we’re at a point of adding value or discount in the stock markets at the moment and that’s very much from a long term point of view.

The S&P 500 which is one of the main US markets has dropped as much as 24% this year and has recovered to about -16%.

Now over the next couple of years could things get worse?

We have a lot to be dealing with in terms of inflation, recessions, and geopolitical conflicts and the answer to that is, yes.

But I think again the emphasis is on the long term if you look into the long term, 5 or 10 years time, will this have been a time that there was a discount or value to be had in the market?

We don’t know what’s going to happen and when in terms of the stock market movements.

All we know is that the long-term trend is upwards.

In the below graph of the S&P 500 over 100 years, you can see that the over-all trend is upwards.

*Source – Macrotrends

Now, you do get periods such as now or by there’s been a drop and the emphasis on the long term is for 2 reasons, and that’s to be able to get through those drops and also that’s where the value tends to be had over the long term and availing of compound interest.

If this doesn’t constitute your investment advice please talk to a financial advisor before making an investment decision.

Feel free to connect and start a conversation or contact me directly at +353 (87) 778 5325☎️

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐓𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 HERE

I came across an article earlier in the week that I shared on Tuesday and it was about deposits in Ireland – How much is a deposit and their views on investing.

There is €147 billion on deposit in Ireland which is a very substantial amount.

There was a survey done by Aviva and they found that a small proportion of people would be too nervous to invest.

Approximately 25% of people didn’t really know what investing would entail and the majority of people wanted to build up a “rainy day fund” before they started to invest.

I completely agree with that, if you have a lump sum or if you have a surplus income you take out your rainy day fund, you take out anything that you’re saving up for.

You might want to buy in the next 5 years and then anything over and above that is money that could be considered for investment.

When you’re investing money you’re putting it in with an investment company, which creates an investment fund.

As a rule of thumb the higher the amount in shares and property the higher the level of risk within the fund.

Now from my own experience individuals in Ireland when investing in a pension will take some risk but when it’s outside of the pension and it might be money coming from a deposit they tend to be much more cautious.

So, from that point of view there are funds available with a partial capital guarantee or a full capital guarantee and what that means is that you get most or all of your money back depending on the investment that you choose at the end of the investment term.

And so when you’re making the investment you buy units within that fund.

When you are investing you need to factor in current market conditions such as now, we’ve seen a big drop in the markets this year and a lot of volatility so you’ve got to factor that into your investment decision as opposed to the sort of returns that you’re looking for.

The two are a balance really. You’ve got to factor in if you’re taking more risk when the markets do drop, that you’re going to take more off the downside.

So, you’ve got to factor all that into your overall investment decision.

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about how to protect your finances, feel free to connect and start a conversation or contact me directly at +353 (87) 778 5325☎️

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐓𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 HERE

I’ve posted a number of times recently about pensions as they’re topical this time of year coming up to the income tax deadline.

I recently came across an Irish Independent article that I thought layed it out very well about pensions.

To summarize, it said, if you qualify for the full state pension you get €14,000 a year.

Whatever it is that you want to do in retirement €14,000 a year, likely isn’t going to pay for it – it will cover your basics – even with inflation as it is that could be a stretch.

So, whatever it is in terms of bucket list or comforts or lifestyle or whatever you like to call it in retirement, you pay for that yourself.

You pay for that through private means, a private pension is one of the ways that you can do it and pension funding is over a long period of time – You’ve got to prioritize that it’s something that you do.

As somebody like many who has been paying into a pension for a number of years more often than not, I could do with the money that’s going into the pension but as working in the industry and as part of financial planning I know that I need to put the money in.

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about how to protect your finances, feel free to start a conversation or contact me directly at +353 (87) 778 5325☎️

As we begin Q4, in this morning’s article I want to share my thoughts on Q3 and what we can expect going forward💡

At the beginning of Q3, the Stock Markets were recovering from a low point in June, which continued until the end of Q3 and this deteriorated again by mid-September📈

It’s been a difficult year for stock market investors due to high levels of inflation and Central Banks increasing interest rates📊

Investors have been worried about the global economy in the Western world with high levels of consumer business and government debt.

Increasing interest rates will make it more difficult to service.

It will also dampen economic activity as we can see locally in the mortgage market, mortgage transactions have dropped by about 3% to 4% on the basis that mortgage approval amounts are lower due to higher interest rates.

So, again from an economic point of view globally, we haven’t gone into recession.

There isn’t a recession from a global economy next year forecast either.

From an Irish point of view, we’re expected to have 9% economic growth in terms of GDP growth this year and a strong year next year as well.

Likely that will be pushed on by the multinational sector and I think in the domestic economy, particularly for consumers moving into the winter with energy bills increasing I think it will feel probably like a recession but from an economic forecasting point of view, it’s not expected to happen.

Some European countries are expected to go into recession but the US isn’t expected to.

From a stock market point of view, it’s difficult to see an improvement of the stock markets in the short term.

I think investors will look to see interest rates stop being increased and inflation start a trend downwards now.

The forecast for inflation is for it to start to decrease but remain on a high level so, moving from say maybe 8% to 9% towards 6% next year and then down towards 4% to 4.5% the following year depending on the region of the world, more the Western world.

A number of commentators have started to point out that from a long-term point of view there is value in the markets at the moment.

So, for investors and pension investors, it’s about remaining invested and cash in the recovery.

There is an opportunity to make investments now as commentators have pointed out.

From an economic point of view, we’re expected to skip a recession but I think certain parts of the economy particularly consumers in the Irish economy will feel a pinch with the energy bills coming into the winter.

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about how to protect your finances, feel free to connect and start a conversation or contact me directly at +353 (87) 778 5325☎️

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐓𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 HERE

#Economy #FinancialPlanning #Income #Investment

As we approach the income tax deadline, which is in November for online returns.

Individuals will begin to receive their tax bills and at this time, the best way to get a reduction on your tax bill is to make a personal pension contribution.

When you get your tax bill and you pay tax it goes to the provision of government services, so you can’t get the money back.

When you make a pension contribution you invest in yourself for retirement and the beneficiary of the pension will be you.

When you claim it at retirement age, not only does it help to reduce your tax bill, but ultimately you’re saving for yourself.

Given the investment markets at the moment I believe individuals might be concerned about investing and potentially incurring a loss.

So there are some very low-risk fund alternatives, temporary funds albeit, available but for long-term investors, I do believe there is value at the moment to be gained.

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about how to invest your money, feel free to connect and start a conversation or contact me directly at +353 (87) 778 5325

In 2013 I took voluntary #redundancy and I asked myself a number of questions to help clarify the situation.

💡How long the lump sum would cover outgoings

💡Would that period be long enough to find another job

Factors that I considered that would assist the process were…

✅ Cash Flow Modeling

This will allow you to project forward monthly outgoings to see how long the cash lump sum will cover you.

✅ Pensions

Getting advice on where I keep my pension, whether I can transfer it out and if you’re over the age of fifty you be able to access your pension depending on your scheme.

✅ Financial Policy Review

If you’re paying into policies you should know your options within the terms and conditions i.e can you take a break from paying into the policies without having any impact on them should it get that far?

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about how to protect yourself in the midst of redundancy, feel free to connect and start a conversation or contact me directly at +353 (87) 778 5325

I write a lot about financial planning and increasing assets through regular contributions and savings policies, pensions policies, and investments to make your savings work harder for us with inflation running at 8 or 9%.

💡What’s equally important is protecting what we have through insurance.

There are lots of insurances around, I’ll write about these over the next two weeks but today I’ll focus on income protection.

Our income and income potential over the course of our working career is the most important asset that we have because it pays for mortgages, pensions, lifestyle, holidays, and more, so when your income stops, all of that will come under pressure.

Income protection provides a regular monthly payment if you can’t work through illness or injury which will cover all the outgoings that I previously mentioned.

You can get up to 75% of your income, less any available state benefit or you can also go for a lower level depending on what is available to spend on it.

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about your financial planning options, please comment below, share with your network or tag a friend who might benefit from this information!

Feel free to connect and start a conversation or contact me directly at +353 (87) 778 5325☎️

How will Climate Change impact on Financial Planning?

Firstly #climatechange will impact the investments you make such as regular monthly savers, a pension or a lump sum investment.

From August your financial advisor will be required to discuss your 𝐄𝐒𝐆 (𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥, 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞) preferences with you and explain their definition plus how you can incorporate them into your #investment decision.

💡Also to note, due to the Russian invasion of #Ukraine and lack of supply, energy prices have increased substantially.

From a cash flow modelling point of view, businesses and individuals can invest to lower their energy bills. This may be something that has to be done given the high cost of energy at present.

Contact us today to learn more on hlambert@integralfinancialplanning.ie.

On Friday I shared a video briefly (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7KIR9TRnOcE_mEyIpguRDQ) chatting about the impact of #ClimateChange on financial planning and for the next 3 weeks, I’ll share a series covering this topic.

I’ve recapped these points into today’s article with the main points outlined below📚

Recently there has been a push from European regulations for a lot of #investment funds to move towards #sustainability and ESG and over time I believe this is going to become even more common.

💡𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐄𝐒𝐆?
ESG investing incorporates environment, social and governance (ESG) elements into a fund’s investment process, in addition to financial considerations.

I believe it is worth reviewing where your #pension fund is being invested and considering investing it into an #ESG or sustainable fund.

It is also a good idea to consider expenditures and if they might be required when you are retirement planning.

For more information you can check out the link – https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevevernon/2022/08/02/climate-change-is-emerging-as-a-mainstream-retirement-issue/?sh=7ebef7775d40