In 2016 The Natural Environment Research Council in the UK invited the public to name their latest scientific research vessel, which was costing £200m. This vessel was going to be doing (and currently is doing) really insightful and exploratory work, making new discoveries and so on. Really important, noble and global research for the good of the natural world. In the initial stages the likely suggested winner was names such as ‘Endeavour’ and ‘Poseidon’ etc. Which made sense. However  you can imagine the consternation internally when the public unanimously got behind a viral idea of calling it something rather ridiculous, yet pretty hilarious at the same time. And so it was that the winning vote, by some margin, was ‘HSS Boaty McBoat-Face’!

In the past week we saw the 2019 Budget being released, and depending on your level of interest you may have either read every single iota of info in it, listened-out for any major bits that will impact you, or paid no heed to it at all. Each to their own. For me at least, The Budget is one of these things that happens every year (as far as I’m aware) and which the media latch onto and utilise to create a good week’s worth of material and supplements and ‘special reports’ etc. But for many of us, The Budget is something that largely happens in the background, and has little impact on our overall financial lives or indeed financial planning. For many the drama of the Finance Minister somberly walking onto the steps of the Dail with his or her brief-case looking all serious is all a bit much, it is over-dramatising a budgetary process that any prudent government in any nation attempts to do in a way that ensures it’s financial stability. Between the media and the incumbent government they try and whip us up into a state of frenzy about the Budget…..perhaps so that we’ll notice them and think more of them, I’m not clear on the motive to be honest, as it seems they use the same of hype whether it is a give-away’ or a ‘tightening’ Budget!

I’m not suggesting we change the name from ‘The Budget’ to Budgety McBudget-Face’ but I am inviting us to look at it in less of a reactive ‘Oh-my-God-look-at-what-they-are-doing-to-us’ sort of way, and in more of a pragmatic and proactive manner. So this week we are going to share a bit of a budget update, and invite you to observe how significant (or otherwise) it might be to you individually, particularly if you are in the process of either building and maintaining your wealth over the long term.

The Update Bit:

The budget didn’t carry too many shockers in fairness, while it was being reported as an ‘election-friendly’ budget you’ll see from our highlight reel here that there was nothing overly generous or prohibitive in it. Here’s our ‘Super 7’ list of Budget Updates:

• Standard rate income tax band increased by €750 from 2019 onwards
• Self Employed & Directors increased by €200 to €1,350 from 2019
• Some tweaks to the lower USC bands and rates
• DIRT tax reduced to 35% – Exit Tax remains unchanged at 41%
• €5 increase to State Pensions per week, from March 2019
• Capital Acquisitions Tax (Class A) increased by €10,000
• Mortgage Interest relief against rental income increases to 100% from 2019

Read on here.

Paddy Delaney QF| RPA | APA | Qualified Coach