Better With Money

Even if you wouldn't agree with investing in weapons, fossil fuel or tobacco companies you might be surprised by what's hiding in your pension or exchange traded fund. Ciarán Hughes, a certified financial planner and founder of Ethico.ie, explains how ethical and sustainable investing works and why it's worth doing over traditional investing. That could involve investing in a diversified fund of healthcare, renewable energy or social housing firms. His simple message is "exclude the bad, add in the good and push the rest to improve." This episode looks at how ordinary Irish investors can dig in to their holdings to see what they may inadvertently be exposed to, how some funds may use imagery "like a wind farm" to appear more sustainable than they really are, and whether investing in an ESG fund can provide the same returns over time to a traditional one. The information is for education purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.

This episode is brought to you in association with Standard Life.
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Carlotta Aringhieri (@OnTheMoneyWithMe) is a financial content creator who - just days after payday - only has €100 left in her current account. But not for the reasons you might think. She’s a huge advocate of having a payday routine where she allocates her salary, as soon as its paid, into various accounts aligned with her savings, investments, loan repayments, bills or fluctuating expenses like grocery bills.

With the advent of digital-only banking and the ease of moving money from one pot to another, the budgeting habit has exploded in popularity on social media as a way of helping people stay in control of their finances.

After tracking her numbers, Carlotta has found that sticking to the payday routine she designed for herself has resulted in her net worth increasing by €60,000 since the beginning of the year. “Seeing it grow is really motivating.” While it’s taken her years to get to this point, she shares her story and explains how you can come up with your own payday routine to “feel more confident with your money, because if you know that your future self is taken care of, your pension, your investment, your savings is taken care of, you can spend more guilt-free”

This episode is brought to you in association with Standard Life.

This episode is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Government’s planned personal investment account for ordinary savers was finally revealed on budget day, but it wasn’t long until the questions began arriving by email to The Irish Times business desk.

Questions like “Do you get to choose where your money's invested, or does the government supply guidance via a reliable broker?", “Will I still have to pay income tax on dividends?” and “ what is the interest rate in the new investment scheme?"

It prompted Your Money columnist Cliff Taylor to ask if never-before-investors know they’ll largely be left to their own devices in figuring out the new scheme, what their risk is and assessing if it represents a good deal for them.

He joins Better with Money host Aideen Finnegan to discuss the knowledge gaps and financial landmines for investors and Government alike. Taylor also explains the finer details of the scheme that were revealed yesterday with the publishing of the Finance Bill.

This episode is brought to you in association with Standard Life.

Better with Money is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Parents around the country were left confused last week when the Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said he was reducing the “maximum childcare fees paid by parents from €735 to €550 per month” for children up to senior infants from September of next year. It led to a slew of emails to The Irish Times with parents wondering why they are currently paying well above that figure - from €959 up to €1,400. Irish Times deputy business editor Dominic Coyle explains that "not for the first time, there appears to be a substantial “reality gap” between the Government’s understanding of the “maximum” cost of care and the real maximum under its own core funding rules." In this episode of Better with Money, Coyle and host Aideen Finnegan explain the fee system under the Core Funding scheme, what subsidies are available to parents and how lower-income households can avail of extra supports to help with the cost (such as the income assessed subsidy which will rise €73,000 next year). The episode also examines what's driving costs for the sector and why childcare providers feel they're being under-compensated.

This episode is brought to you in association with Standard Life

Understanding the fee caps and subsidies for parents under the National Childcare Scheme
Dominic Coyle on the gender pension gap
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Aideen Finnegan is joined by Dan Malone of Honest.ie for a debrief on the new personal investment account scheme unveiled by Finance Minister Simon Harris in Budget 2027. Dan explains it's a tax-advantaged “home” for investing in assets like stocks, funds, bonds and ETFs, with a €12,000 annual contribution cap and a €50,000 tax-free threshold. Once you go above that, a flat 1% tax rate kicks in on the portion above €50k. The bad news is that will happen even in years when markets fall and you lose money, with Dan warning that could meaningfully "drag on long-term returns." They discuss uncertainty around provider fees, whether accounts will be self-directed or offer pre-packaged options, and if it will be easy to move existing investments into the new account. Dan urges people not to wait until the planned July 1st 2027 launch to start investing, citing how long it took to get pension auto-enrolment off the ground.

This episode is brought to you in association with Standard Life
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.