A Personal Story...

The following is a story of a couple with three children and how they came to review their finances.

“My husband and I had put off any sort of review for numerous reasons. To be honest we didn’t really understand what was involved in a financial review, we had limited funds at the end of each month and didn’t really think about how we would fare financially if something insidious happened to either of us.

We had a life assurance plan that will clear our mortgage if one of us dies and a small life assurance policy with some serious illness cover. We had discussed the importance of starting a pension (for both of us) but had just never gotten around to it. So before proceeding, we decided to get a financial review. For the review we filled out a budgeting form outlining our day to day expenses and including any other relevant information (like our mortgage and any savings or insurance plans we had).

While our initial intentions were to focus primarily on what should go into the pension pots, during the review we got a clear idea of areas we hadn’t considered. The budget showed us how much money we had each month after all our bills had been paid. We were also able to see a visual graph of our income/savings should myself or my partner die or were unable to work long term…which took us by surprise.

We decided on the amounts to put towards our pensions and then asked our broker to work on our other requirements to keep within a budget of €100 per month. We discussed multiple options to try cover our salary and assurance needs within that budget and he was then able to show how this solution would cover us on the same graph shown to us initially.

After the meeting we felt the following queries (relevant to our situation) were addressed;

-       The length of time we would get a wage from our employer before they stop paying us should we be unable to work for a prolonged period.

-       The cost to protect our income.

-       The figure we could afford per month and the best way to utilise it.

I certainly feel that we now have a better understanding of our finances. We have started to put the correct provisions in place for retirement while addressing additional protection needs. This has been like a medical check-up on our financial health.”