Informed Decisions Independent Financial Planning & Money Podcast

Most people approaching retirement believe their job is to reduce risk. Get out of equities. Move into something safe. Ben Carlson disagrees — and he has the research to back it up.
Ben is Director at Ritholtz Wealth Management in the US, author of Risk and Reward (Harriman House, May 2026), and one of the most widely read financial writers working today. He's spent his career studying every major market crash in modern history: the Great Depression, Japan's lost decades, the dot-com bust, 2008 and what they actually mean for long-term investors.
In this episode, Paddy and Ben talk about Ben's new Book:
They cover the yin and yang of Risk and Reward
Why globally diversified investors still came out ahead from financial crises
The three dimensions of risk tolerance (willingness, need, and ability)
How to think about drawdown and bucketing, inflation psychology, and the only benchmark that actually matters for someone approaching retirement.
Ben's new book Risk and Reward is available now in Kindle, paperback, and audiobook (read by Ben himself) from Harriman House.
There's a full written article about this Interview with Ben on the blog at http://www.informeddecisions.ie/post/retirement-risk-and-reward-ireland 
If this episode raised questions about where you sit on the age-related table or whether your current contribution strategy is going to get you where you want to go, that's exactly what we work through with clients. Find out more at https://www.informeddecisions.ie 
DISCLAIMER: This content is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. Always speak to a qualified, independent advisor about your own situation.

Most Irish high earners are claiming roughly half the pension tax relief available to them. Not because the rules are complicated, but because the contribution percentage set years ago has simply never been revised.
In this episode, Paddy walks through
the age-related contribution limits (15% to 40%)
the €115,000 earnings cap and what it actually means in practice
and a real worked example of a director, age 56, on €180k — who could be claiming €16,100 in tax relief every year but isn't.
He also covers the year-end October timing window (you can still reduce last year's tax bill with one decision), five common mistakes that quietly cost high earners thousands, and why the personal contribution question and the structural question, PRSA versus company pension, really need to be looked at together.
There's a full written article with the age-related table, the worked example, and year-end timing details on the blog at www.informeddecisions.ie/post/pension-tax-relief-ireland-explained
Free Webinar: Should You Sell Your RSUs? - A Practical Guide for Tech Employees in Ireland, 20th May 2026: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/webinar/webinar-should-you-sell-your-rsus
If this episode raised questions about where you sit on the age-related table or whether your current contribution strategy is going to get you where you want to go, that's exactly what we work through with clients. Find out more at https://www.informeddecisions.ie 
DISCLAIMER: This content is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. Always speak to a qualified, independent advisor about your own situation.

Most ARF holders know their fund value. Most know Revenue requires a minimum annual drawdown. Very few have stopped to ask whether meeting that minimum is actually a strategy, or simply the path of least resistance.
In this episode, Paddy explores safe withdrawal rates in an Irish context: the research on real retiree behaviour, why the 4% rule is both useful and misunderstood, and why the sequence of returns in the first five years of retirement carries disproportionate weight on long-term outcomes.
He walks through a concrete sequence-of-return scenario: same starting fund, same average annual return, same withdrawal rate, completely different outcomes and shares a real-life case study of a retired solicitor whose conservative ARF mandate was quietly eroding her fund at a 7% real rate of depletion annually.
Covered in this episode:
The US Health and Retirement Study findings on actual retiree withdrawals
Bill Bengen's 4% rule and its Irish limitations
Sequence of return risk and how a cash buffer changes the equation
Three common ARF drawdown mistakes and three concrete takeaways.
The imputed distribution sets the floor. It doesn't set the strategy.
Read the full blog post at www.informeddecisions.ie/post/safe-withdrawal-strategy-arf-ireland
DISCLAIMER: This content is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. Always speak to a qualified, independent advisor about your own situation.

You've built a €2 million pension. Now here's the question nobody asked you: how much of it will you actually keep?
In this episode, Paddy runs the real numbers on what a €2 million ARF looks like in Ireland in 2026: mandatory drawdowns, income tax, USC, PRSI, and the phased strategy that could save you tens of thousands every year in the early stages of retirement.
What this Episode covers:
Why a €2M ARF triggers a mandatory €120,000 income. Whether you need it or not
The real net income after tax: €72,614 at a 39.5% effective rate
How phasing your drawdown across two crystallisation events drops your annual tax bill from €47,386 to €8,088
What happens to the deferred pot if it grows at 6% for 8 years, and how that interacts with the Standard Fund Threshold
The couple scenario: why joint assessment changes everything
SFT mechanics at each Benefit Crystallisation Event and where the margin gets tight
The numbers are stark. The structure matters. And getting this wrong (or not thinking about it at all) is one of the most expensive planning gaps we see.
Discover the full blog post and show notes on informeddecisions.ie

In this week's episode, Paddy tackles the question he gets asked more than any other: how much do I actually need to retire in Ireland?
Well, for an answer to that question, one should make a proper calculation beforehand, and Paddy is here to help you out by covering the key benchmarks from the Pensions Council report, what they mean in practice, and where they fall short.
Some of the specific points covered in this episode:
Why the state pension — currently €299.30 per week in 2026 — changes the calculation significantly, and what it means for couples where both partners qualify
The simple framework for working out your own number: current spending, minus what disappears, plus what increases, minus state pension, divided by 0.04
Why many couples targeting a comfortable retirement need a private pension pot closer to €300,000–€400,000 than the €1 million figure people often assume
The healthcare wildcard — private health insurance costs that the benchmarks don't fully capture
Why the question changes completely for those with €1 million or more in pension assets: it's no longer "do I have enough?" but "how do I structure what I have?"
The imputed distribution rules every ARF holder needs to understand before drawing down
If you're in your 50s or 60s and haven't yet put a real number on what retirement will cost you, this episode is a practical and reassuring place to start. Enjoy listening!