Category: Financial plan

Despite Ireland’s housing shortage, it’s hard to make the numbers add up when it comes to investing in buy-to-let property. The individual landlord faces increasing regulation, professional competition, and a big bet on Ireland’s volatile property market. Moneycube describes what’s going on, and some investment alternatives if you’re considering a property investment. Update 17 May … Continued

For most of us, the days of a guaranteed pension for life from our employer are gone. If you’re reading this, your pension options at retirement are probably more complicated. These days, you have several choices to make use of your defined contribution pension pot. Most people have built up a ‘defined contribution’ pension fund … Continued

At Moneycube we believe more people should think about investing their savings. One big reason for that is that it is almost impossible now to make any money by leaving it on deposit in the bank. Deposit rates continue at near-zero levels. But inflation has continued to erode the value of our money, as data from … Continued

Companies issue shares – sometimes called stocks – to raise money.   Buyers of shares (also known as shareholders) own a piece of the company.   Shareholders bear the rewards and the risks of the ups and downs in the share price.  They also own the right to any dividends, which is the income paid … Continued

An Approved Retirement Fund, or ARF, is a pot for your pension money after you retire. When you retire, the pension fund(s) you have paid into (perhaps an executive pension, a personal pension, or a PRSA), are available to you.  You can then take decisions on what to do with this money. One of your … Continued

At Moneycube we want to help people take control of their savings.  But that doesn’t mean you should pay much attention to the ups and downs of the stock market, or bother checking your investments every day. Here’s why – and what you should do instead. Investing is a long term game Most news is … Continued

Research by UK investment experts Hargreaves Lansdown earlier this year found that investments by their female customers had outperformed those by men by 0.81% over a three-year period. If that trend continued over thirty years, Hargreaves calculated, the women’s savings pot would be 25% larger than the men’s! Hargreaves found several reasons for women investors’ … Continued

At around €27 billion, Ireland’s largest listed company, CRH, represents around 0.03% of the market value of global listed businesses. Clearly, if you limit yourself to investing in Irish market, you are accessing only a tiny proportion of what’s out there. Only a few industries What’s more, if your money is focused on Irish businesses, … Continued

An Approved Minimum Retirement Fund, or AMRF, is a pot for your pension money after you retire. Update Jan 2022: ARMFs were effectively abolished by the government from 1 January 2022. In practice, it’s very similar to an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF). If you were less than 75 years old, and don’t have a guaranteed pension … Continued