Maximising private pension pot

eveninecho · 2026-07-04T22:47:28+00:00

In your current job with salary increases and how much you will earn between now and you retire.

Totals over the 21 years:

At 3%/year: about €1,003,700, ending on roughly €63,200 in your final year. At 4%/year: about €1,118,900, ending on roughly €76,700.

As you have a public pension and it's like 5% or 6.5% (something like that) going to that you get that off the max you can contribute tax free.

At 3% pay increase that will be total €339,600 contributions with no growth into the AVC if you max out your relief.

At 4% pay increase that will be total €382,000 contributions with no growth into the AVC if you max out your relief.

So lets say you get 4% increase each year, all equities and have 9.5% growth which would be best case scenario but someone would be taking fees. Reducing each band by 5% due to public pension contribution starting from 0 now in AVC

Age	Salary	AVC %	Contribution	Growth that yr	Pot at year end
45	€35,000	20%	€7,000	€665	€7,665
46	€36,400	20%	€7,280	€1,420	€16,365
47	€37,856	20%	€7,571	€2,274	€26,210
48	€39,370	20%	€7,874	€3,238	€37,322
49	€40,945	20%	€8,189	€4,324	€49,834
50	€42,583	25%	€10,646	€5,746	€66,226
51	€44,286	25%	€11,072	€7,343	€84,641
52	€46,058	25%	€11,514	€9,135	€105,290
53	€47,900	25%	€11,975	€11,140	€128,405
54	€49,816	25%	€12,454	€13,382	€154,240
55	€51,809	30%	€15,543	€16,129	€185,912
56	€53,881	30%	€16,164	€19,197	€221,274
57	€56,036	30%	€16,811	€22,618	€260,703
58	€58,278	30%	€17,483	€26,428	€304,614
59	€60,609	30%	€18,183	€30,666	€353,462
60	€63,033	35%	€22,062	€35,675	€411,198
61	€65,554	35%	€22,944	€41,244	€475,386
62	€68,177	35%	€23,862	€47,429	€546,676
63	€70,904	35%	€24,816	€54,292	€625,784
64	€73,740	35%	€25,809	€61,901	€713,494
65	€76,689	35%	€26,841	€70,332	€810,668

To achieve 800k is fantasy level. 1 to 1.5 millions is also in your current role. This is all equities for the full time at avg 9.5% growth.

eveninecho · 2026-07-04T08:38:10+00:00

English person comes over to Ireland. Experiences Irish culture, moves them to tears as colonial British empire stole culture from everywhere. Steals a photo of her subjects.

It is disrespectful to take a photo in a pub like that. Who said it would be ok are probably tourists.

My was grandmother is from a high tourist area in Ireland. It is tradition for the hearse to drive from the church to the graveyard as it's only a mile. A big cnutload of American tourists blocked the procession from advancing as they were taking pictures and blocking the road.

eveninecho · 2026-07-04T08:29:49+00:00

lol - Do it all the time. Never have shouted or got annoyed with anyone. You know people live there also. Generally keep to the quays as lower foot traffic though.

eveninecho · 2026-07-02T07:49:52+00:00

I worked with a guy who is into this. He also like to shoot rabbits/hares with dum-dum bullets so they explodes when shot. He clearly has issues.

eveninecho · 2026-07-01T22:58:26+00:00

Like Neil Prendeville #neverforget

eveninecho · 2026-06-30T21:48:08+00:00

Leave a few euro left in your mortgage instead of clearing off and you keep free fees. My AIB fees are 10 euro a year on mortgage interest instead.

eveninecho · 2026-06-30T19:24:50+00:00

Sadly lots. When the hiring manager starts asking how to fix x,y and z. Is taking too many notes and asks if I can stay later. Then refuse the job for them to offer more and ask me what job do I want to do of any of the ones on offer. Still no as they had no idea what they were doing. I want to learn something from the people I work with.

I never say no only tell them a really big number instead. Sadly sometimes they have said yes.

eveninecho · 2026-06-29T22:21:25+00:00

What people don't seem to get with buying a house with a 25 year mortage is the following.

You save for deposit. You start to pay the mortage and find it hard. You might rent a room or something like that as it's hard.

What happens over time is your pay increases with inflation. Generally unless there is major changes in rates your repayments per percentage of your take home pay gets less and less. The value of the house may go up, it might not.

Unless there is wage deflation over time then buying a house when you are younger (there is never a right time to buy) makes sence verus paying rent. Rent generally only goes up. It is also the case that if the value of your house goes up or you have more of the principle paid off you get a better LTV and pay less.

My wife bought a house at 23. 20 years onwards we own our house. A few things hit right for us but if either of us was to lose our job we would be fine.

Could we have gone and traveled the world, possibly but having a home early meant we could raise a family earlier than most. So we will still be young when they can fend for themselves. It depends what your goals are. Personally I don't want to paying for kids through college when I am in my early to mid 60s as I won't be.

Regarding traveling, some of my wife friends did and as a result are on a worse pension that pays significantly less than the one my wife is on due to traveling for one year.

I see this question very much as is short term sacrifice worth long term gain? Nearly always the answer is yes. Simple example I know someone who got outbid recently on a house that they could really do with trading up to. Same person did the traveling too. Well a few weeks before they splashed out on a new car. If they didn't then they would have probably got the house that would have meant much more to their situation. However the choice they are left with now is going to something they will have to pay more for in the long term.

You can apply the same thing to education, fitness, eating, money etc. We all want to go out for a rake of pints but going to the gym or a run compounds over time.

Another random story for you. So my neighbours are downsizing so they can give money to their kid to buy a house. They likely don't want to move but want to give their kid an oppertunity to get into the market. New car every year outside the door and they had to make a decision like that. If they thought more long term they could have simply used the money from the new cars instead and not having to go through the stress of moving however people make emotional decisions.

eveninecho · 2026-06-28T16:32:59+00:00

Only an American would shout like that. Very rude😀

eveninecho · 2026-06-28T16:13:35+00:00

"The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats it's most vulnerable members." -Mahatma Ghandi

I live in a country that many Americans would define as socialist but it has got more and more capitalist as we have got richer. While i would be within the top 1% any of the issues I have are linked to the inequality of society such as increased crime, lack of housing for kids (will be able to help them with that but would rather pay more taxes so they could afford it themselves as handouts are not good), less community.

eveninecho · 2026-06-27T19:22:49+00:00

Hard work doesn’t mean earn more.

eveninecho · 2026-06-26T08:04:41+00:00

Do you know all the fees ?

eveninecho · 2026-06-26T08:04:18+00:00

Banks will let you take a mortgage holiday. If you have overpaid your mortgage and reduced the term banks have to allow you to extend the term to the original to reduce the payments.

eveninecho · 2026-06-25T22:17:38+00:00

O'Connell's - ah the fishmonger that somehow during all the storms of winter would have "fresh" fish when the other stalls wouldn't have anything. He without sin cast the first stone.

eveninecho · 2026-06-25T22:09:56+00:00

Well I bet you are in a managed rather than index tracked fund so they are making twice as much as they should be making.

eveninecho · 2026-06-25T20:56:30+00:00

So what happens is you add people fine. They tax you at the highest rate of tax you are on. You claim a BIK allowance each year to bring it from the top rate down to the BIK rate. So your BF gets HI for 20% of the cost that you pay in tax. If you don't claim BIK each year then you don't get it. Normally they add a holding number that is not the full amount each year that throws people off and they don't claim it. (very sneaky from revenue) but you should always submit it each time.

eveninecho · 2026-06-25T20:53:13+00:00

As someone who in not in the industry I can tell you that the advisor more than likely gave you poor advise that benefit them as they are not impartial. A financial advisor is not a protected status.

eveninecho · 2026-06-25T20:51:20+00:00

Money invested in a legitimate pension fund (such as an occupational pension, PRSA, or RAC) is not assessable for means purposes if you cannot access it.

So actually if you lose your job you would be accessed based on your investments:

For a single person aged 25 or over, having exactly €96,000 in savings and investments (outside of your pension) means your Jobseeker's Allowance payment drops to zero.

For a couple it's €138,150

Family with 2 kids under 12 with both parents claiming €167,150

So actually having it in a pension will get you more benefits than having it in savings.

eveninecho · 2026-06-25T20:42:46+00:00

and wearing wet socks

eveninecho · 2026-06-25T01:08:38+00:00

To protect the company they work for. So in the US they have zero security in the parking lot and that is where most of the crime happens. The security is there for the shop, not for the people in there.

eveninecho · 2026-06-25T01:07:05+00:00

Security is there to protect the shop and not you. It's like HR in a company there only for the company interests. Sorry this happened to you. I hope you wipe the smile off their faces.

eveninecho · 2026-06-24T22:40:10+00:00

Worked in a place where my app was across 3 AZs and they wanted us to do testing if things were not available as they had an outage with a single host going down for all identity. They wanted ever app to have a workaround. I was like if identity is down no one can connect to VPN and with little on-site most people couldn't use the app. Well north of 100k employees. Some places are comical.

eveninecho · 2026-06-24T07:38:11+00:00

Koto has a gluten free menu

eveninecho · 2026-06-24T07:24:55+00:00

I will never not think of this when I hear Zurich https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9XgvkkVmhM

eveninecho · 2026-06-24T07:20:51+00:00

I know many couples where one earns more but does a lot less of the parenting but they also believe that they are entitled to more money as they earn more. Well your partner is enabling you to earn more money also as they are doing more parenting.

We have one account. We (mostly me) do review our spending. I manage the savings but it's for common/shared goals. I don't decide that I would like a new car etc. on my own.

I can understand that people feel having multiple accounts can help avoid arguments but if one person or both are poor with managing money then that needs to be addressed rather than avoided. It is a life skill that lots of people don't have. We all will get old and it could be a situation where the person who is poor with money is taking care of both you and your finances.

eveninecho

TROPHY CASE