25 y/o living in Dublin looking for savings or investing advice on 35k

[matheushorta]

Hey folks,

As the title says I’m looking for a bit of savings or investing advice as there seems to be a lot of conflicting stuff between what I hear from friends, TikTok, etc.

To give a bit of background I’m 25 living in Dublin and currently renting with my girlfriend. We’re splitting a room so thankfully rent is quite low. I’m currently on 35k but am hoping to go on to 45k in the coming months (no guarantees of course but I believe I’ve got a good chance for this promotion). Currently my take home pay of around 2,350 gets split between 800 for saving, 550 for rent + bills, and 1,000 for spending money over the month.

At the moment I’ve about 9 grand saved in a demand deposit account with my bank. However starting this year I’m hoping to be a bit more prudent with my savings but not quite sure where to start. At the moment I’m thinking of throwing 5 grand of the savings into a lump sum savings account and starting to put away 500 a month directly into another savings account so I can start earning interest on that money. On the investing side of things I was thinking of taking 2 grand from the demand deposit and putting that into a trading 212 account and putting an additional 200 into that monthly, mostly likely investing all of it into the S&P 500. The remaining 100 that I’d usually put into savings would then go either directly into bitcoin or other crypto. This would then leave me with 2 grand in my demand deposit account which could be used as an emergency fund.

So, any advice or recommendations? I’m not really saving up for anything in particular but am just conscious these days with inflation so high that my savings are losing real term value sitting in my demand deposit account. Also not really sure what the craic is with investing from the trading apps in Ireland as I know our tax code doesn’t really incentivise it so am I better off going with one of the institutional funds like Davy/ Zurich or putting my money to use another way.

Any help be appreciated, thanks lads!

 

[boagz57]

@matheushorta you are 25 years old so you have the most important aspect to building wealth on your side, and that is time. if you invest consistently over the next 30 years, you could put together a massive pot of gold.

the most efficient way to invest in this country is through your pension as it attracts good tax relief. overtime as your earnings increase you will pay more and more tax at the marginal rate. this allows you to get 40% tax relief on your pension contributions which is unrivalled.

if you can manage putting just 10% of your gross away into a pension at 25 and continues it for 30 years, you will be wealthy in years to come.

 

[shadowst0rm]

@boagz57

get 40% tax relief on your pension contributions which is unrivalled

Earning 35k he will get 20% tax relief which is still great though

 

[crystal51032]

@matheushorta What sticks out to me is that you're putting €1000 as spending money each month. What is that going towards? It seems high to me, and I wonder if you could save some of that and put into a pension.

 

[slave4jesus]

@matheushorta I am in a very similar financial situation as yourself. 25y/o male renting for 350e a month, with 40k per year and 10k in my demand deposit account, but as you said - it is losing value sitting there.

I am in the posiiton to put most of this money away, but also unsure as to where to put it and how to divide it. I've seen briefly that AIB offer 3% on up to 10k savings but did not go into details, but most likely considering putting my money there seeing i will be seeking a mortgage with them sooner than later (most likely).

It would be great to see how others in our age band (in Ireland) are diversifying their portfolios to maximise profits.

 

[wavesuponthesea]

@matheushorta If I were you I’d start a pension, and a savings account where you plan to have the deposit for a house in 5 years. I’d skip the crypto and small time investing, these are just a gamble because you don’t have enough leverage. Instead bring your girlfriend on a date night once a week. This plan won’t make you a millionaire but you’ll probably be happily married with a house by the time you’re 30.