On a debt-free journey, I earn a good salary but my income is devoured by debt. I want to earn a bit extra to chip away at it

What are ways to earn cash on the side?

Why do these things exist in the first place and why in the hell are they still here? Why wouldn’t they just make everything CGT?

Removing it and just treating everything as CGT would make investing simpler and as such they’d probably actually bring in more tax revenue as more people would actually invest and would be far easier to catch people not paying too as rules would be far more streamlined.

Is there actually any good reason why we have them?

Hi everyone, ​Long-time lurker(38y old) looking for some advice on putting my savings to work. I have €15k sitting in an AIB account losing value and can save minimum of 300 per month, and I'm feeling a bit stuck on how to start. ​My situation: ​Emergency fund & mortgage: Fully sorted (BOI fixed rate).

​Pension: Auto-enrolled at the 1.5% minimum rate (I think it's unable to adjust until 2029).

​Broker accounts: I have opened accounts on Trade Republic, Trading 212, and IBKR, but haven't bought anything yet.

​I'm feeling quite overwhelmed by the tax rules (DIRT, 33% CGT, and the 38% Exit Tax / Deemed Disposal on ETFs) and want to avoid making a costly mistake with Revenue.

​As a beginner looking for a straightforward, low-stress way to beat losing value and achive financial independence as others in this thread, which broker and approach would you recommend for me? ​Thanks so much for your time and guidance

Hi everyone, I’m currently in the process of clearing a huge chunk of debt, and would be done clearing it by end of summer 2027.

I currently contribute 3% to my pension, and my employer matches 4%. I’m thinking of halting my pension payments for a few months, in order to throw the cash at my debt, and the restarting pension once the debt is cleared.
Is this a reasonable approach? I’m aware that I’ll be losing out on not just my contributions but also my employees match for about 10 months which is quite significant. But my thought process is that I’m young (26), and will benefit more from having my debt cleared in the next few months.

Please let me know your thoughts, I know this sub is all for pension contributions but just need to sort this out for peace of mind.

Hi all, I am a 27yo with 26K in savings and no debt. I have been slow to invest it but now have 4K in instant savings Revolut account and an emergency fund of 11K set up with Bunq until at least the new year.

Any tips or recommendations on what I should do with the remaining 11K? I was thinking about making a DEGIRO account for 5K (Medium Term) and the remaining 6K into a currently non-existent pension.

Any tips/recommendations welcome, very new to it all. I also plan on saving 150 euro per month into each account (except for the emergency fund account). TIA

I am 23 years old, just finished college. I have a good paying job living at home so currently I'm putting away €1500 per month into a high yield savings account. I am also putting away 5% for my pension to max my employer's match.

I have a €16,000 lump sum in a generic savings account losing to interest. I expect to use this for a house in the future but right now it's just sitting there. On a 3-7 year timeline, what are my best options?

What's the difference financially and practically between (1) making a lump sum payment and (2) increasing your monthly interest repayments?

I was looking at the CCPC mortgage repayment calculator and it refers to both options.

Let's say by way of example the current balance on the mortgage is €400,000 at 4% over 35 years (with 32 years left). And let's say you have €40,000 which you can either apply towards a lump sum or use to increase your monthly repayments.

Generally speaking what is the best option and why?

I inherited a farmhouse and some agricultural land in Ireland. I have not dealt with the tax or tenancy obligations correctly and want to regularise everything voluntarily before I apply for a mortgage. I am 30 years old and I inherited the land and the house 10 years ago and was poorly advised then. I have had a pit in my stomach knowing that this would come to cause me problems in the future.

The current position is:

• The farmhouse has been rented since 2021 and produces gross rent of €880 per month.
• The farmland produces €6,000 per year.
• The same farmer has rented the land throughout my ownership and was already farming it before I inherited it.
• There is no signed farmland lease currently available, although there was a genuine arrangement with the same farmer and the payments and messages can be evidenced.
• I have never declared either source of income to Revenue or filed Form 11 returns covering them.
• The farmhouse tenancy has not been registered with the RTB.
• I have lived abroad for portions of the relevant period, in Canada and the U.K..
• I have not received an audit notice or any contact from Revenue about this.
• I made benefit of the long term agricultural leasing relief to reduce the CAT tax at the time (through solicitor and tax accountant) and was of the belief that the income that I was received was below the €14,000 threshold to pay tax. I am not looking for ways to get out of paying it and I know I should have addressed it earlier.

I would particularly appreciate advice from anyone who has dealt with something similar:

1. Should I approach a Chartered Tax Adviser, an accountant specialising in Revenue disclosures or a tax solicitor?
2. Could the farmland potentially qualify for long-term leasing relief where the genuine arrangement can be evidenced but I do not currently have a signed lease?
3. What records should I gather before meeting an adviser?
4. What kind of professional fees should I expect for correcting several years of returns?
5. Has anyone successfully agreed a Phased Payment Arrangement with Revenue following an unprompted disclosure?
6. Did an outstanding but fully disclosed Revenue payment arrangement affect a subsequent mortgage application?
7. What is the correct way to deal with the late RTB registration?
8. Does having lived abroad during parts of the period create additional issues for the Irish rental income?

I am trying to resolve the situation and I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation involving Irish rental and/or agricultural income.

GRMA.

I regularly see people recommending that people see financial advisors here, particularly for people with large amounts to invest.

What good independent advisors are there? I mean the type that won't try steer you into a high fee Zurich/Irish Life etc where they get commission when you'd be just as good doing it yourself through a similar fund with Degiro/IBKR etc.

It seems a lot of these financial advisors like Askpaul are just funnels into high fee accounts or does anyone have recommendations?

Thanks

BES Management is a company jointly owned by Davy and BDO, and it is the manager of the Davy EIIS funds.

What I don't understand is how do they keep attracting investors if they don't report the results of their funds?

Is there anyone here who has invested with them and can give us some insight?

https://www.bdo.ie/en-gb/insights/2023/how-high-risk-is-eii-investing

Working with a broker since April on switching to a new provider because my fixed term was up. Got all the paperwork in order, contacted the solicitor to let them know docs were coming from the bank 10 weeks ago. Got in there to sign over a month ago and the solicitor have just been dragging the whole process out to no end.

The docs are finally with the new bank, after a month of hounding (no actual admin to be actually done as far as I can tell) but the bank don't have the drawdown - presumably this means they're waiting for the remaining loan amount to move over to them from my solicitor? At this stage I'm on the variable rate and about to needlessly hand over hundreds more in interest this month.

Anything I can do in this situation. The solicitor is just chronically understaffed and difficult to get anything out of - no response to emails, calls, I've shown up to their door and surprise surprise they work from home and there's only a receptionist there.

The solicitor is charging me 2.5k and frankly they're costing me money now by not getting this done. Definitely won't be going near them again, but just wanted to know if there's anything I can do here.

I am investing 1000 euros every month on 8-10 individual stocks but instead of investing it all on salary day, I am putting in 250 euros every Tuesday - just to diversify given recent volatility in markets. I started this last August and the whole complexity around deemed disposal is bothering me. I know this doesn’t apply to individual stocks but is there anything that I should keep in mind while doing this?

I am in my mid twenties in my first proper job that pays enough to save. I started a few months ago and have been working on saving for yearly expenses (car insurance, NCT, car upkeep, christmas...) and now I am starting to be able to save. I am looking for tips on how to make the most of those savings: savings account? Regular current account? Separate accounts or keep it all together?

Current split:

Current account n1: I get paid in here and currently have 3k saved in it for yearly expenses. My plan is to always keep it between 2.5k and 3k.

Current account n2: I have nearly 5k saved here to fall back on. I currently use this account to save for fun stuff too (like trips or big things I want). I'm unsure if this is the wisest? I'm quite good at keeping a minimum here too so as to always have something if all goes south. I will keep adding a little bit here every month, but less than I have been so far.

Revolut account: I use this for daily expenses.

The rest of my income was being split between my yearly expenses fund and my emergency fund. I am nearly where I want to be in those two fronts so I'm looking at saving for fun things or for a house deposit now. I am looking for tips about how to best manage those savings, since I still want to go on trips, etc. while saving for big expenses (like a house or a better car in the future). I am wondering if I should open another account or just use one of my existing ones? Are savings accounts worth it (considering dipping into it is not an issue for me)? I always feel like the returs are not that good. Basically any suggestions are welcome!

I will add my current budget in case people are curious:

Income: 3k per month + mileage (I drive at work and this ammount is variable depending on how much I drove that month).

Rent + utilities: 1000

Daily expenses: 1000. Rough breakdown:

• Groceries: 200€
• Transport (incl. petrol, parking, leap card and car and bike upkeep): 150€
• Hobbies/social (cinema, drinks, supplies for hobbies...): 100€ (this is the most variable one, I don't always stick to it but overall I always stick to the 1000)
• Gym: 50€
• Other needs (incl. phone plan, pharmacy...): 150€
• Certification (something I am pursuing for my profesional development, an absolute need atm): 200€
• Others: 150€ (this one also varies a lot)

Oh and my pension is already maxxed!

What broker do you use? Do you have multiple? I was thinking of setting up a second one with another broker but maybe that's stupid. Revolut any good?

I did freelance work for a TTRPG company in Ireland a few months ago. I signed a contract and the invoice template they provided for me to fill out states I’ll receive payment 30 days after their receipt.

I have confirmation of receipt but I haven’t received the payment. On this coming Wednesday, it will be 3 months overdue. I asked for an ETA twice but it seems like they are ghosting me now.

I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to burn bridges because I’m interested in this sector and don’t want to get blacklisted if I threaten legal action. But I need to be paid for my time and work. They are still posting on social media regularly so I don’t think the company has closed down or anything in the meantime.

Any advice is much appreciated, thank you.

Although we have been given nothing to work with (Exempt amount? Maximum Fund cap? Annual ISK Tax rate? Fees by providers on entry or annually? Minor details like that!!!!), it is still possible to rough out some numbers, mainly to see if it's worth looking at Neo-ISK at all.

I built spreadsheets, making assumptions about these unknowns and the expected growth rate.

I kept it simple: one investment at year 0, comparing an individual stock portfolio with Neo-ISK, where providers would charge annual fees. I think we all know that your individual stock portfolio can be fee-free.

For simplicity I assumed the Neo-ISK and individual share portfolios were identical. It should be clear that future value of an ETF with 38% DD, will perform worse than shares with CGT at 33%.

I've attached an image of my results. The actual numbers don't matter, but my takeaway is that Neo-ISK will outperform individual shares liable to CGT up to the limit of the Neo-ISK, the "CAP".

Because I'm applying simple exponential growth and assuming the same growth pa for shares and the ISK assets, the ratio of outperformance doesn't significantly change - the value of the total pot does.

The Neo ISK may beat shares and CGT by 10% (year 5), 19% (year 10) or 26% (year 15). I'm a pensioner, so anything longer than that may be academic.

This is not analysis. It's an estimate. I am not a financial advisor, you do you, make your own estimate.

I've concluded that I will look critically at the Neo-ISK when it crawls out from under the budget and Simon's ass.

It's not perfect, it may have some unique F*ck-You-Very-Much features, but it may be better than our present alternative humungous CGT and DD/ETF rates.

Food for thought?

TL;DR: Non-Irish domiciled, becoming Irish tax resident from 1 Jan 2027. Portfolio of individual dividend-paying shares sits with Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited (Irish-incorporated). Does foreign dividend income landing in that account count as being received in the State, i.e. an automatic remittance? Planning to transfer in specie to a non-Irish broker before year end. Is that necessary or am I overthinking it?

Situation

• EU national, non-Irish domiciled (domicile of origin elsewhere, no intention to remain permanently, though I may well be here 2-3 years).
• Moved to Ireland part-way through 2026 for a PAYE job. Under 183 days this year, so not automatically resident for 2026. Revenue has asked whether I want to elect to be treated as resident under s819(3) TCA. I'm declining, the election would pull a chunk of pre-arrival foreign income into charge for the whole year, and split-year relief under s822 only covers employment income, not dividends or gains.
• Automatically resident from 1 Jan 2027 onward.
• Portfolio is six-figures, individual shares (mostly US), dividend-focused. No ETFs, deliberately, I understand s747E kills the remittance basis for offshore funds and applies deemed disposal at 8 years regardless of where the broker sits.

What I think I've got right

• Everything in the account as at 31 Dec 2026 is clean capital, it arose before my first year of Irish residence, so it's outside the Irish charge entirely and remittable tax-free forever. I'm taking dated statements at year end to evidence this.
• From 2027, dividends and realised gains are foreign income/gains arising in a year of residence, so remittance basis applies, taxable only to the extent received in the State.

The bit I'm stuck on

IBIE is Irish-incorporated and Central Bank regulated. My reading is that a foreign dividend credited to a cash balance held with an Irish entity looks like receipt in the State, which would mean I'm remitting everything automatically and the remittance basis does nothing for me.

Counter-argument I've seen: IBKR holds client cash in segregated accounts at third-party banks, and my EUR deposits route to a German bank, so the debt owed to me arguably isn't Irish-situs. But that feels like an argument you'd be making to Revenue rather than a position you'd rely on.

Questions

1. Has anyone actually got a Revenue position, or an adviser's written view, on whether IBIE constitutes receipt in the State for remittance purposes?
2. Does the location of the underlying client money account (German bank) change the analysis, or is the contracting entity's incorporation what matters?
3. Is an in-specie transfer to a non-Irish EU broker (Saxo / DEGIRO / 212) the standard move here, or is this a solved problem I'm making harder than it needs to be?
4. Mixed-fund mechanics: I'm planning to segregate original capital from post-2026 income and gains into separate sub-accounts so I can trace what I remit. Is that sufficient in practice, or does Revenue want fully separate accounts?
5. Anyone dealt with a broker that reliably accepts incoming in-specie transfers from IBIE? Would rather not be forced into a sell-and-rebuy.

What I'm not asking

I know the answer is "get a non-dom specialist" and I intend to. But I'd like to walk in with the right questions rather than paying someone to explain the basics, and I'd rather know now whether the IBIE point is a real issue or folk wisdom.

Happy to report back with whatever the adviser says if there's interest.

Hi all,

​My BOI mortgage Direct Debit was due to come out of my AIB current account today. Unfortunately, my current account balance was slightly short this morning, so my smaller direct debits went through fine, but the mortgage payment bounced.

​I transferred money from my savings into my current account straight away, so there are enough funds sitting there now, but the Direct Debit hasn't re-triggered.

Am I better off calling BOI to pay manually over the phone right now, or doing a manual bank transfer? (And if I pay manually, is there a risk of being double-charged if they do an automatic retry?)

Hard to know what to say about DoF, Revenue and Government.

Hi there,

I'm looking for any Irish dentists who work as associate dentists in clinics who have opened their own limited company. Can you recommend any accountants that you trust? Thanks!

We have an excellent flowchart on this forum relating to the personal emergency fund.

Also see lots of posts about where people store said fund.

I'm interested to see how many people use their fund for emergencies.

Just starting ETF investing on T212, which I learned about on this sub.
I created a custom pie, with the following split, using advice also from this sub and other EU etf subs.

50% ALL CAPS
- 25% MSCI (SPYI)
- 25% FTSE (VGLA)

50% LARGE AND MID CAPS
- 20% MSCI (IUSQ,SPYY)
- 20% FSTE (VWCE,FWRA,ALLW,FTSS)
- 10% WEBN

Goalwise, I wanted something set and forget, that I can just put money automatically, on a schedule.

What is your opinion?

(image created with AI)
(throw away account for obvious reasons)

Can someone tell me when filling out the salary certificate for mortgage application with AIB it asks for current year, previous year, 2 years ago, and 3 years ago.. I’m presuming this is 2026 to date, 2025, 2024, 2023?