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I’d like to talk today about pension options if you have been made redundant or taken redundancy.

If you’re 50 or over you can access the pension, you can draw down the tax free lump sum and transfer the balance to an ARF or Annuity.

If you need additional cash that’s a good option.

If you don’t I think it’s better to leave the fund available for retirement as a retirement income.

If you’re not 50 then your options are you could transfer it to a personal retirement vehicle, like a Retirement Bond or a PRSA.

That allows you to track and manage the pension as part of your retirement plan.

There is some admin to be done in terms of making the transfer.

You can leave the pension on the scheme, obviously, there’s no admin with that.

I tend not to recommend that as I’ve seen too many people lose track of pensions and they can be difficult to find and sometimes they can’t be found at all.

The last option is to transfer onto a new company pension if you have moved and found another role with a pension scheme or if you do in the future you can make that transfer and there’s no time limit in terms of doing it.

Then you keep everything amalgamated and under one roof.

Other considerations will be just in some older pension schemes you can have restrictions in terms of a transfer or availing of early retirement, and also just to double check if there’s any costs associated with making a transfer out of the pension scheme, and the fund options available to where you’re transferring the money to or the pension too.

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about how to make the most of 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 #Investing #Retirement #Pension

“You have to create the financial plans but you also have to look at the blockers for the plans as well and removing all of them”

Hugh Lambert is the Managing Director of Integral Financial Planning. Whether it’s pensions, life cover, investment, or savings, Integral Financial Planning is committed to helping clients navigate the complex world of finance with confidence. They are dedicated to advising company directors and managers on how to structure their life cover, investments & pensions in a cost and tax-efficient manner.

Hugh joined our CEO, Elaine Carroll on the latest episode of AIBF Business Talk to share his insights on:

• Tips to manage your finance,
• The idea of creating a surplus,
• Making a retirement plan,
• Financial planning for your kids,
• The future of Integral Financial Planning,
• And much more.

The AIBF is delighted to be working with Hugh and Integral Financial Planning, which is a two-in-a-row Business All-Star. Hugh is also a proud recipient of All-Star Thought Leader in Financial Services accreditation by the All-Ireland Business Foundation (AIBF).

The AIBF would like to thank Hugh for sharing his valuable insights with fellow Business All-Star accredited TRIBE members and the wider public.

The last 11 months have been difficult for stock market investors and pension investors also investing in the stock markets.

That’s because a number of markets around the world moved into Bear Market territory which is a drop of 20% from the highest valuation.

Now focusing on the S&P 500 which is the US market and probably the most influential in the world – The S&P moved into bear market territory last year.

I posted an article from Forbes it went into a bit of detail about Bear Markets since 1945.

What we can expect is that over half of the Bear Markets peaked in terms of they hit their lowest valuation 2 months after going into Bear Market territory.

So, 2 months after dropping by 20% they hit their lowest valuation. Now, it remains to be seen as to whether that’s going to be the case.

Unfortunately, Bear Markets that coincide with recessions tend to last quite a bit longer so it’s about 449 days.

Typically markets respond quite quickly and recover quite quickly.

In a lot of the cases of Bear Markets, the 6 and 12-month forward returns are quite strong.

Now in all Bear Markets, the markets have recovered sometimes it does take a little bit longer such as the eventuality of a recession which I think we will see.

A lot of analysts are forecasting for the end of the year that inflation will have subsided from an increase in interest rates.

That will then lead to interest rates decreasing and that should be a catalyst for the global economy and stock markets to grow.

While we’re working our way through it we probably have a little bit to go yet but the markets will recover.

Although it has been a tough time for investors and for pension investors, I think over the long term I think the markets will still show strong returns.

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about how to make the most of 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 #Investing #SP500

As we start into the New Year lots of us will be looking at trying to make improvements to finances, health, fitness and lifestyle through New Year’s resolutions.

The following Red X graphic it highlights the main reasons people don’t fulfill their resolutions.

Mainly the points I took from it were aiming too high, not writing the points down, and not tracking your progress.

Because of my background, I’ll suggest a process for reviewing finances from the point of view of New Year’s resolutions incorporating the Red X points and the graphic I shared last week.

Firstly, just to evaluate your current financial position and that’s from the point of view of if you’re saving every month or do you have money left over to save at the end of the month.

Are you running a deficit so you’re in negative territory? Do you need to make a cost saving? From the point of view of maybe changing your mortgage provider, shopping around for insurance, and utilities, also are you paying into a pension?

The next is to identify stressors, so if you’re sitting down to review your finances is there something on your mind, is there a reason that’s driving you to sit down to look at it?

We take setting a regular saver as something that you want to do.

Are there blockers to that? Do you need to first pay off some debt i.e personal debt?

Or maybe to shop around and make a cost-saving on your utilities to start that savings plan.

So after establishing all of that it’s about creating a plan and creating the steps within the plan and the time frame.

It’s getting those milestones that you can track your progress and then after that, it’s implementing the plan and reviewing periodically.

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about how to make the most of 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 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