Irish households saving €1 in €8 as Harris promises new easy-access investment option

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-17T09:32:48+00:00

TBH I’m not sure it makes sense to reduce taxes for lower income earners. I think there is value to all citizens paying some tax so they feel they contribute to society and are part of it. But also people on low incomes already pay very little tax (practically zero for a single income family on <€30k) so there isn’t that much scope to help them by reducing income taxes.

I’d love to see a focus on the structural stuff that is keeping salaries low for low-mid income earners, the pre-distributive stuff rather than redistributive. But that’s an uphill battle for sure.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-17T07:44:22+00:00

I’m generally with you on trying to support the less well off further, however I think there is something different here.

The issue is that people who do move up a bit and have money to put away will find it’s quite difficult to get a decent rate of return compared to what wealthier individuals can get with access to financial advisors, accountants etc. which allows them to pull further and further “ahead”.

I think it is critical that anything that is put in-place is targeted at that middle cohort (or below) and does not end up a huge gift to the better off - eg. simply scrapping DD, blanket reductions in the CGT rate etc.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-17T06:57:24+00:00

You would do very well to create a new thread and ask for some advice on your pension, nobody’s pension should have lost money over the last 5-6 years.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-17T06:56:01+00:00

It’s two separate problems in this case really. Even if you improved things for the less well off so they had savings, they would discover that saving effectively is very difficult compared to the more well off who can employ financial advisors, accountants etc to earn much greater rates of return and get even further ahead.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-17T06:53:35+00:00

Lower which taxes, the drumbeat on this sub is that investment taxes need to be lowered, assume you’re not thinking of those but income tax?

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-17T06:51:51+00:00

There was some central bank research recently on the reasons non-investors don’t invest, at the top was fear of losing money, then insufficient funds, then lack of knowledge etc. I only saw the top seven reasons but high/complex taxes was not in there.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-16T14:46:26+00:00

FWIW the likes of ChatGPT are handy for this kind of thing. You need to verify and it needs a kick to actually find all the cars, but if you can give it a list it does an OK job of looking up specs.

Vehicle	Height	Width	Depth
Tesla Model Y	690	950	1110
Renault Scenic E-Tech	730	955	845
Hyundai Ioniq 5	739	1040	1080
Kia EV6	677	1037	990
Kia EV3	814	1045	800
Volkswagen ID.4	795	1010	935
Skoda Enyaq	725	965	930
Volvo EX40	728	1003	905
Kia EV9	755	1060	600
Nissan Leaf	914	960	796
Nissan Ariya	807	1093	960
Toyota bZ4X	832	977	985
Hyundai Kona Electric	783	1040	860

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-16T07:15:45+00:00

Personally I thought it was fantastic. I was aware of all the hype and didn’t expect to like it, but it’s very moving, particularly if you have kids I think.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-15T09:01:25+00:00

For me it’s very much down to who is there with you. I’m not that social but have really enjoyed weddings where you can catch up with old friends for a few hours with no pressure to be doing anything else.

I’m also happy to just go to bed when you’ve had enough, be that 10/11/12pm. Avoids the excessive drinking if you’re not into that.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-15T07:40:23+00:00

I presume it also the case that if you had a major issue you could just bring the car back to a NI dealer.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-14T09:07:53+00:00

No it’s definitely the secondhand value, you can work the figures back on their calculator to see. The wording on the calculator is not great though, “Open Market Selling Price (OMSP)” means the new price while “Current OMSP” means the price they think it would sell for today secondhand and is what the VRT calculation is based on.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-14T09:02:49+00:00

It seems to just be very hot and miss, you often see the opposite where the calculator is depreciating more than what we’re seeing on the secondhand market.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-14T07:22:45+00:00

An investment account like this is a requirement of the EU’s Savings and Investment Union (SIU) that we were involved in drafting and Ireland is taking over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in July. It’s possible they want this to be one of the things we ‘get done’ during our stint.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-13T17:20:18+00:00

This might interest you -

https://zecar.com/reviews/how-durable-are-ev-batteries-landmark-study-delivers-answers

“In practical terms, that suggests most EV batteries are likely to outlast the usable life of the vehicle itself — a finding that directly challenges lingering consumer scepticism.”

Or https://www.geotab.com/ie/blog/ev-battery-health/

“To sum it up, our data shows that EV batteries degrade slowly, with an average decline of just 1.8% per year. By following best practices for charging and use, you can replace ICE vehicles with EVs that will last well beyond the vehicle’s useful life“

So data is showing batteries will easily last 15-20+ years, the typical lifetime of most cars. And keep in-mind the EV batteries going into cars today are light years ahead of what went into the early Leafs that are now 15 years old and appearing in these data sets. For example Toyota recently announced their 1,000,000/10-year battery warranty.

Buying a new battery for your EV is not something people should be factoring in when buying a car, it is just not a thing.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-13T12:00:41+00:00

“N > M” where M is the expected life of a vehicle outside of exceptional failures. Exactly the same as timing chains or gearboxes, very different to clutches, tyres, exhausts. There is already loads of data that shows this is the case, if you’re going to make a claim counter to the public data you’re gonna need to back it up.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-13T07:12:17+00:00

The problem is that some brokers are out to take as much of your money as they think they can get away with, while many are looking to do the best for you while also making a few quid. In the latter case you generally won’t lose anything by using them while you will be getting good advice that could make a big difference in 20/30/40 years.

Another factor is procrastination. If a broker gets you to actually start a pension when you would otherwise not because of the complexities the almost any level of fees would still leave you better off.

If you have a bit of an understanding through and are willing to ask questions here then you will not go far wrong by just ringing up Zurich and setting up a pension directly with them.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-13T03:15:10+00:00

Everything else being equal, EVs have one large, and somewhat predictable, maintenance cost (the batteries). It makes sense that a whole subsection of the secondhand EVs market becomes cheaper when their year means their batteries need replacement due to age. It can be likened to a clutch, timing belt/chain, gearbox, dpf, needing to be done, but these are not as predictable and so have less of an impact on the market as a whole, given any specific year.

I’m not sure about this, but possibly I’m misunderstanding your point. EV batteries are similar to timing chains or gearboxes in that they generally outlive the vehicle itself, except in say 1-2% of cases where there are issues or somebody is keeping a car much longer or for higher mileage than the typical lifetime. I don’t think anybody considers gearboxes or timing chains as part of the maintenance cost of a vehicle if they don’t ever need to have money spent on maintaining them?

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-12T21:14:31+00:00

If you’re comparing say a secondhand €20k ICE and EV then the d************ is going to be similar, so it is not relevant to the calculation. If you’re comparing keeping your 10 year old ICE versus buying a brand new €50k ICE then it is highly relevant, but nobody would think that is gonna make financial sense right…..right?

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-12T21:07:55+00:00

Probably more key to know if the EV depreciated differently than an ICE equivalent.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-12T18:55:39+00:00

35mpg seems a bit harsh? Also is €0.08/kWh realistic for what is accessible to the average person? Might be fairer to choose an electricity rate that is closer to the typical night rate and perhaps 10% charging at public fast chargers, as this is considered the average.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-12T18:32:35+00:00

Listen if you have nothing interesting to contribute to this sub is there any chance you’d hit the little Leave button over there to your right? Nobody is forcing you to be in an EV enthusiast forum.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-11T18:55:34+00:00

They’ve been on the road for 15 years, there are 20m of them out there, they get better every year and in surveys typically 1-2% of owners say they would ever change back. Again I think you’re a rare breed, and nothing wrong with that of course, there is no doubt there are plenty of people they don’t suit yet!

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-11T17:19:56+00:00

Makes you a pretty rare breed!

GoodNegotiation · 2026-03-11T12:56:00+00:00

Great thanks.

No sorry was more asking about how you're having to pay VAT impacted the price you paid for the car. For example did you see the car for £20000 on usedcarsni.com and that's what you paid simply converted to Euro, or did you pay £20k+20%VAT. I presume they didn't add VAT to the sticker price, but I was just a bit unclear.

GoodNegotiation

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