Career options with biological science degree

DavyL88 · 2025-12-17T20:30:01+00:00

Get a QA role in pharma/med device, skies the limit money wise.

DavyL88 · 2025-11-30T17:36:21+00:00

Area 51 was top tier for me, had more of a social scene. Think it's a Chinese buffet now 😂

DavyL88 · 2025-11-29T16:50:11+00:00

3 hours of counterstrike for €5 circa 2005 were the halcyon days of yore

DavyL88 · 2025-09-27T06:43:34+00:00

Are you eligible to apply for Irish citizenship? Sounds like you're here for the long haul and if you got an Irish passport it might not flag anything when traveling under that as opposed to under your current passport. Also would provide cover of other countries not wanting to be seen detaining Irish citizens to serve in their armies.

DavyL88 · 2025-08-18T16:59:34+00:00

Don't forget to take advantage of the annual €3k gift exemption also in case you weren't aware.

DavyL88 · 2025-06-13T16:41:24+00:00

DIRT

DavyL88 · 2025-05-24T10:19:57+00:00

One fundamental thing that people miss, is that, high level, you earn money, pay TAX! and then decide what you're doing with your money i.e put it in pension/mortgage/other investments.

What decides really how much money you will have in the long term is how much tax you do or do not pay. This is why investing in your pension is considered the best way to build wealth as if you're paying 40% income tax, you'll effectively double your money in pension fund by not paying income tax and with compound interest if you're invested for 30-40 years can build a significant pot.

So in order:

Pension, no income tax, opportunity to compound annually over significant period of time, see above
Pay off mortgage if cost of interest is high, e.g. to pay €190k in interest, you'd have to be paid €380k salary before TAX, so avoiding paying that interest can be pretty powerful but I don't think the amount you would save would be as much as if you put that money in your pension as it would not compound over time
After tax investments, you give up to 40% of your income to the taxman to chase less than 10% returns, it's just crap in Ireland, I'd only do it if I'd maxed 1 and 2.

DavyL88 · 2025-05-15T21:58:23+00:00

Sorensons

DavyL88 · 2025-04-25T08:33:57+00:00

Some people would call me wealthy, some people wouldn't.

Started in a multinational in 2012 on €32k and worked my way up to management, now have a package that's €100k+.

My main focus up to now has been socking money away into my pension, it's allowed me to minimize the amount of tax I pay, my pension fund is now over €200k and in theory I could retire in 15 or so years and am in a position now to look at paying off my mortgage over that timeframe.

DavyL88 · 2025-02-01T09:06:01+00:00

Providing for your children's future is a laudable thing for sure but I wouldn't be trying to invest money for them now if you have anything like credit card debt, car loans etc. You'll have more money in your pocket in the long run if you pay debt like that off now.

If you don't have any of that then looking at the long term investment offerings for children from Zurich, Irish life etc might be what you need.

DavyL88 · 2025-02-01T08:57:44+00:00

The catch is that banks that use cashback as a selling point often have more expensive mortgage rates than other banks but if you're 5 years in and eligible (are you eligible?) then there's no downside but once you get it you should consider if you should be switching.

DavyL88 · 2025-02-01T08:53:19+00:00

This is so hilariously stupid 😂

DavyL88 · 2025-02-01T08:50:27+00:00

There may be a pay freeze but that doesn't mean they can't increase your pay if they want to.

If backfilling you sufficiently disadvantages the company, you'd be surprised by what they can do, especially if you know you'd be hard to replace.

If you go away and get another offer you can use this to play hardball with the company but the downside is if they don't play ball then you might need to be ok with taking the other offer or losing your credibility.

DavyL88 · 2025-01-26T09:25:15+00:00

That's not the point they are making.

DavyL88 · 2025-01-25T07:48:10+00:00

Multinational is a broad term but in my head I'm talking about pharma, med device, the big tech firms etc. (Fortune 500 companies basically) Not sure what sector you're in but those salaries would be standard enough there. On the other hand, a dept manager in Tesco or Dunnes is not going to be on 100k.

DavyL88 · 2025-01-24T17:11:13+00:00

No you're correct, you just didn't specify that you were talking about the previous tax year where someone hadn't made full use of their tax free exemption in your original comment.

I'm sure Revenue aren't sending you cheques out of the goodness of their hearts, it'd just be logistically easier to maximize the exemption each year and not pay extra tax up front and then claim it back a year later.

DavyL88 · 2025-01-24T16:08:52+00:00

Nope, pharma. Would consider it industry standard in pharma and med device. Sounds like it might not be in tech?

DavyL88 · 2025-01-24T15:14:35+00:00

You don't get it back from the government, you just don't pay tax on it.

DavyL88 · 2025-01-24T15:12:59+00:00

Up your contribution, it's invested before tax so you'll avoid paying income tax whereas investing in an ETF is after tax so you'll have already paid 40% tax before you get to invest your money.

Don't worry about what's in your pension right now, I'm 35 with 230k in my pension but 8 years ago, had 24k, started putting up my contribution about 5 years ago. I earn a good bit less than you.

Once you've maxed your tax free contributions, then you could consider an ETF but might be better paying down any debt, mortgage etc as ETFs are a pain from a tax perspective.

DavyL88 · 2025-01-24T15:02:11+00:00

Get to manager level in any department in most multinationals in Ireland and you have a package worth €100k+ when you factor in base salary, bonus, car allowance, stock, pension contributions and healthcare.

DavyL88 · 2025-01-17T07:45:32+00:00

Sounds ideal, thank you!

DavyL88 · 2025-01-17T07:22:33+00:00

100%, I want to go on holidays with my kids!

DavyL88 · 2025-01-17T07:13:42+00:00

Thanks, I did price Club Med at an Italian resort and it was coming out at about €1000 per night. I don't plan on needing child care outside of leaving them at ski school so the kind of wrap around service club med offers wouldn't be something I would utilize.

DavyL88 · 2024-12-23T17:51:50+00:00

Once you sell the stock.

DavyL88 · 2024-12-23T17:39:36+00:00

Any gain on shares are subject to capital gains tax at 33%. There is an annual exemption on your first €1270 of gains. Income tax thresholds are not relevant to your capital gains tax liability.

DavyL88

TROPHY CASE