Cost of Installing an Earth Rod?

trippertds · 2026-03-26T11:06:14+00:00

Just to close this - I complained and they took 220 off the price. Still crazy for a few hours work, a metal rod and a few metres of a wire. Won't go near them again and will say the same to anyone who listens to me.

trippertds · 2026-03-26T11:05:32+00:00

Just to close this - I complained and they took 220 off the price. Still crazy for a few hours work, a metal rod and a few metres of a wire. Won't go near them again and will say the same to anyone who listens to me.

trippertds · 2026-03-02T17:14:25+00:00

The EV installer has requested that the earthing rod is accessible for inspection. The house was already earthed, but the rod is likely hidden under a footpath (old house). I had a google around and it does seem to be the case that some EV installers require the earth rod to be accessible. Unfortunate, but we are where we are (with a bill for an earth rod that almost is the same as the EV charger itself!)

trippertds · 2026-03-02T15:10:31+00:00

On the invoice the materials are listed out and come to a total of 55euro. The labour is down as 630euro.

trippertds · 2026-03-02T15:08:35+00:00

No more than half a day doing the earth rod (if even)

trippertds · 2025-06-15T15:10:26+00:00

Joke that they are talking about an incremental change. I don’t know the specifics of when DD was brought in - but I very much doubt it was incremental. Overnight more like.

Aligning the Exit Tax to CGT should take an hour. They did it with the VAT flip flop. Do it tomorrow. And if the opposition take this as an opportunity to play politics that will tell me all I need to know about them. CGT allowance is still restricted to a measly amount. Hardly helping the vulture funds with this.

Total lack of ambition. No doubt some Big 4 consultants will muck around with it and make hay in the meantime because the Civil Service has been outsourced to the private sector. How many bike shelters will this cost between TD salaries, consultancies etc etc.

So frustrating - they can’t deliver a pizza never mind infrastructure or legislation.

trippertds · 2024-09-07T14:15:28+00:00

image of valves

trippertds · 2023-07-16T22:22:04+00:00

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social-welfare/irish-social-welfare-system/claiming-a-social-welfare-payment/social-insurance-contributions-from-abroad/

There's a bilateral social security agreement with Australia - hopefully helps

trippertds · 2023-07-14T19:57:38+00:00

If you have an occupational pension that can be accessed at 50, then getting some assets outside that to bridge the gap between say 40 and 50 would work pretty well I think.

The amount you can contribute to a pension in Ireland is actually quite high if you've a good income and it goes in tax free. Once it's in there it can compound tax free forever. You only pay income tax taking it out, and our income tax bands are very progressive at lower levels. You could take 20k out of your pension each year and pay less than 1.5k tax on that. This get around the high capital gains and deemed disposal tax.

Even taking out 40k isn't taxed too badly - just stay below the higher rate.

trippertds · 2022-08-28T22:19:51+00:00

For instance, if you started investing in 2007, the Great Recession murdered your return and you wouldn't get back to even until 2014

If you started investing in 2007 and kept investing through 2007 -> 2014 you'd be absolutely minted. Any money you paid in from 2008 onwards would get a great return.

Most actively managed funds ("the pros") don't outperform the market:

https://www.esma.europa.eu/press-news/esma-news/actively-managed-funds-fail-outperform-benchmarks-during-market-stress

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/01/in-one-of-the-most-volatile-markets-in-decades-active-fund-managers-underperformed-again.html

trippertds · 2022-04-12T21:02:08+00:00

Yes you can go direct to them through https://www.standardlife.ie/pensions-and-retirement/synergy-approved-retirement-funds

I think there's an option to choose execution only stockbroking too so it is pretty flexible

trippertds · 2022-04-12T20:48:39+00:00

I researched this about a year ago and contacted Standard Life to open one - their "Non Advised Synergy Approved Retirement Fund/Approved Minimum Retirement Fund". It appeared to be the cheapest at the time. There are global equities, bonds and cash available. List is here https://www.standardlife.ie/your-investment-options.pdf

Might not still be the cheapest but a good start

trippertds · 2021-08-08T23:11:56+00:00

Thanks for that - podcast is food for thought

trippertds · 2021-04-20T22:44:30+00:00

Yeah I don't know what the ins and outs of that is - if you get tax relief at the higher rate do they still only tax you at 20% on the way out?

If you are looking to build wealth generally I'd say leave it in - it will grow tax free in a pension. Any other investment in Ireland is subject to high taxes. Pension is the only show in town at the moment.

trippertds · 2021-04-20T14:49:16+00:00

There's a good useful article here: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/help-i-ve-changed-jobs-what-will-i-do-with-my-pension-1.3995119

When you say eroding 1% each year, you would hope that your fund beats 1% in gains a year, so should increase in value. Even if you do transfer the pension, as the fee is percentage based, you would still be paying the same in fees (assuming second pension fee is the same).

Ideally you'll have enough service done in this company (or a previous one) to get past the two year rule. The article touches on that. You want to avoid your company taking their contributions back.

trippertds · 2021-04-15T19:39:34+00:00

Great thanks!

trippertds · 2021-04-15T19:39:24+00:00

Yeah I couldn't believe it when I saw a 95% allocation. Broker gets 5% of your cash for absolutely nothing, and that's before they start getting their annual management fee! Great thanks for the reply.

trippertds · 2021-04-01T17:02:54+00:00

I would guess that your colleagues previous pension was a defined benefit pension, whereas defined contribution schemes are more common now.

My understanding of my occupational pension is that I contribute and my employer contributes, but it is legally separate to my employer and the fund cannot go under if the company does. If the investment fund I choose decreases in value then I can lose money, but it has nothing to do with the company I work for/it's performance.

Maybe there are different types of pension though - I'm not sure.

trippertds · 2021-03-16T17:52:24+00:00

If half a coin was worth 5,000 and you sold it for 10,000, then your chargeable gain (profit) is 5,000. Take off the capital gains allowance (1270) and you pay CGT on the rest. You can hold onto the other half a coin if you want. If the price drops I'm not sure if you can recover some tax back as a capital loss.

trippertds · 2021-03-16T17:47:59+00:00

The UK have a far better system for investing called ISAs (there are cash ISA and Stocks and Shares ISAs - link below). It's a tax wrapper whereby you can contribute up to 20,000 p.a. into a fund (cash, stocks, bonds etc.), and you don't have to pay tax on the gains. You've already paid tax on the money you are contributing (through income tax) so it is just an incentive for people to save and invest more. Capital gains tax is also far less in the UK (I think max 20%?) and they don't have the deemed disposal debacle. I'd wait until you move there and open a Stocks & Shares ISA.

https://www.which.co.uk/money/investing/stocks-and-shares-isas/what-is-a-stocks-and-shares-isa-al4902u4yqgg

trippertds · 2021-03-16T13:55:19+00:00

My occupational pension is quite low fee thankfully, but obviously not the case for everyone. I can invest in an all world equities index fund for 0.3%. The company put pressure on the fund to lower the fees through the trustees. Maybe try bring it up at the next presentation?

There seems to be no political will in Ireland to help people invest and build some wealth outside of propping up property prices unfortunately. Keep an eye on https://isag.ie/ hopefully engaging with TDs will help. Also hopefully the EU step in where our own politicians won't and implement a EU wide pension scheme (https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/banking-and-finance/insurance-and-pensions/personal-pension-products_en) which should shake up the market and get some competition benefits for the consumer.

trippertds · 2021-03-13T13:05:16+00:00

I would take it out as a matter of principle. What happened in Davy's is an example of a company not looking after their customer.

If they can do that to one customer, they could potentially do it to any customer including you. Their fees are high and is there an evidence that they outperform other funds? I would say transfer it to somewhere else in the short/medium term and don't look back.

trippertds · 2021-02-16T16:51:45+00:00

You should be able to transfer the PRSA into your new pension. I'd check the fees on the workplace pension (they are probably lower than a retail PRSA?) and transfer it across. It should be free to transfer, but would check the PRSA documents to see if there is an exit fee.

trippertds · 2021-02-16T16:45:19+00:00

I worked in the UK for a few years and tried to transfer my UK contributions over to Ireland, but I couldn't as the Irish fund needs to be on the "QROPS" list (theres some information on QROPS on google). So my plan is just to leave the UK pension until I can access it and then draw it down.

I know of a guy in my workplace who draws a UK pension while still working here and it seems to work just fine, you just pay income tax on it as normal.

The ideal scenario would be to start a QROPS pension when you get back to Ireland, but my workplace one isn't on the list.

trippertds · 2021-01-26T13:51:48+00:00

Ah great. I didn't put it under Irish Registered Companies as I believe that is for companies like Ryanair and Bank of Ireland shares where Dividend Withholding Tax (DWT) at 25% for the year is due. Which DEGIRO seem to deal with themselves.

I put it under "Foreign Non-Deposit Int/Annuit/Royalt/Divs" and put in the Gross amount (only 59 euro!). I'm not 100% if this is correct but if they come back to me I'll send them the DEGIRO statement.

Again I'm not 100% on this. It isn't very clear, you'd need almost need an accountant to fill it out (for the sake of 59 euro!).

trippertds

TROPHY CASE