Author: Mark Coan

Worries about money are the single biggest cause of anxiety for people today. A third of all Irish adults say they have no savings, almost a half of us have no retirement savings. [1,2,3]

It doesn’t have to be this way. Our team of financial experts at moneysherpa, the Irish money guide, have developed a straightforward system to help you get money worry free. The sherpa’s 6 steps.

Step 1 – Pick your goals

Step 2 – Get money fit

Step 3 – Become debt free

Step 4 – Reach your ‘rainy day’ goal

Step 5 – Reach your ‘play day’ goal

Step 6 – Reaching your ‘sunny day’ goal & money zen

With the sherpa’s 6 steps we will get you on the right path to money zen. This means being able to afford what you need, having rainy day fund for emergencies and enough stashed away for retirement.

Which = no money worries.

Step 1 – The Irish money guide to picking your goals

Think about what might lie in your future that you need to set money aside for.

It might be a trip to the Bahamas, university for your kids, a dream wedding or a ‘forever’ home. Whatever these things are, list them out. Put them in order and put a money number on each, don’t over think it, a rough idea is fine.

This is your ‘sunny day’ goal, if you’re paying attention you may have already have guessed what’s coming next.

To banish those money worries you also need a ‘rainy day’ goal. This is a cash stash to help you deal with any unexpected financial downpours.

Finally you need to set your ‘play day’ goal. That’s how much you need to have a retirement that’s no work and all play.

These three goals are what achieving money zen means for you. Your personal money Everest.

You can make it to the top, with your own Irish money guide helping you at every step.

Step 2 – The Irish money guide to getting money fit

Congratulations, you’ve already done what the majority never do. You have picked your ‘mountain’. Let’s crack on helping you climb it.

Before we start climbing we need to get money fit.

This means getting more money in and letting less money out.

Getting more money in

There are more moves here than you might think.

As well as your main gig, have you thought about a side hustle? This can be doubly smart, as well as increasing your earning power, you can learn new skills and open up new career opportunities. There are a lot of online platforms such as upwork that make earning on the side easier than ever.

Finally, don’t forget to make sure you get all the tax reliefs you are entitled to. The average cash back on an Irish tax return is just under €1K. [4]

Letting less money out

There are just two ways to spend less, buy less and buy for less. To buy less, you simply have to reduce what you use. To buy for less, you need to shop around.

Check our Irish money guide 10 top money saving expert tips, which tells you how to save over €12,000 a year, even if you are on an average wage.

Step 3 – The Irish money guide to becoming debt free

Now we are money fit we should have more coming in than going out. Great, but before we start climbing our savings mountain, we need to get to our basecamp where we’re not ‘underwater’ with debt.

If you have no high interest debt, congratulations you are already there. Progress to step 4 of our programme, but if you have any personal loans, pay day loans or leave anything on your credit card at the end of the month, read on.

Saving whilst still having high interest debt is like climbing a mountain with a dead sheep on your back. Exhausting, uncomfortable and irritating, although hopefully a little less smelly. The first thing we need to do is ditch the debt and get that weight off your shoulders.

By taking the monthly surplus from step 2, we can start to pay down the debt. Start with the highest interest first, usually your credit cards. Starting with the highest interest debt first, creates a ‘snowball effect’ where you can use the interest rate payments saved to pay off the next highest rate of debt and so on.

Step 4 – The Irish money guide to ‘rainy day’ saving

So your fit, at basecamp and ready to climb, let’s go get our rainy day goal.

The sherpa recommends having at least three months of your net income tucked away for a rainy day. That way you can pay the rent and bills for a few months even if your income if cut short. Depending on how secure and zen like you want to feel, you might even make it six months.

Put this money away in a separate savings account that’s covered under the deposit guarantee scheme. It will get a lousy rate of return, but this is your emergency fund so we want to take no risks with it. The Irish scheme guarantees deposits up to €100K for each bank or credit union you have, EU banks have similar schemes, but you will have to check the rules for each state. [5]

Set up an automated transfer to move your savings each month from your current account to your rainy day fund. Keep saving this way until you have reached your goal and then move onto step 5.

Step 5 – The Irish money guide to ‘play day’ saving

Next up is having enough set aside for an active retirement, your ‘play day goal’.

This maybe surprising, but this is where the tax man helps you ‘level up’. Giving you back the tax you would have paid on your salary for every euro you save for your retirement.

If you are under 30, up to 15% of your income can be saved tax free. This gradually increases as you age, until you can save up to 40% of your income tax free at 60 or over. [6]

So if your income is taxed at 40%, every €1 of take home pay put into retirement savings is boosted to €1.67. This tax free boost makes savings via a pension a no brainer. Even if you just held cash in your pension, the tax benefit alone makes it a smart move.

With improved wellness and life expectancy, 65 is the new 45. Assuming you want to kick up your heels a little and do more than watch day time television, you need to put by around 15% of your income each year into a pension.

What you need to put by will depend on exactly how much working and how much playing you intend to do. If your plan is to retire to a mansion in Mayo and take up fly fishing, then you might need to up the 15%. If you want to keep your hand in at work past 65, you might need less.

For your play day goal you are saving over a long period, so there are lots of investment options from low risk to higher risk that should offer attractive growth. To set up a pension and work out what approach would best work for you, it usually makes sense talk to a qualified financial advisor. You can check out our recommended pension financial advisors near you here.

Step 6 – The Irish money guide to the final ascent

Congratulations! You are money fit, debt free and with emergencies and retirement sorted, money worry free.

Time to push for the summit, total money zen.

With your rainy day fund and play day fund already in place, you can use any remaining surplus for the final ascent.

How you use that surplus will depending on the size and timing of your Sunny day goal. If it’s a short term or small goal then popping it into a savings account might make perfect sense even though you will earn very little interest.

However, if it is a longer term goal like saving for your kids financial security it probably makes sense to invest to grow your money. You need to do this to combat inflation, the rate of reduction of how much you can actually purchase per euro.

You probably need to get a return of over 3% a year if you don’t want to lose money in real terms. As with a pension, the return will vary depending on the risk you are willing to take.

At this point you will need to consider investing to get returns. This usually means buying things that usually appreciate in value, known as ‘assets’. Investment assets include gold, bonds, shares and even rare collectables. Who knew a mountain of Grateful Dead t-shirts would end up being part of your financial strategy.

You probably need to buy a basket of different things to spread the risk, known as a ‘diversified investment portfolio’. There are lots of new digital platforms that now let you do this yourself. These platforms are attractive, because they don’t eat up much of your return in fees.

You may however simply want set your goals and appetite for risk, agree a plan with a financial advisor and let them manage the buying and selling of assets for you. The advisor usually charges around 1% of your fund per year, which if you are getting a return north of 5% or so might make sense due to the lower hassle factor. You can check out our recommended investment financial advisors near you here.

The Irish money guide to what’s next?

So you are at the summit of your own personal money Everest. You have achieved money zen. The feeling of having no money worries, with a huge sense of personal achievement and with the world at your feet.

To help you follow the sherpa’s 6 steps and reach money zen we have created a range of Irish money guide resources and tools.

You can check out our savings calculator here.

You can check out our money saving tips and tricks here.

You can check out our comparison of the best mortgage products here.

and you can check out our recommended financial advisors for pensions and investments near you here.

Good luck on your journey to money zen!

Moneysherpa – the Irish money guide.

Based on months scouring the Irish market for savings and our inside knowledge of the Irish finance world we’ve narrowed down this list to the top money saving tips that will deliver bang for your buck in 2024. We’ve used all these tips ourselves and they made a huge difference to our own bank accounts. 

The really great news is it’s not as hard as you think to save money in Ireland in 2024. With many businesses moving online and comparison sites that will do the heavy lifting for you, big savings are often only a click away.

Most of what you read online is focussed on pouring over spreadsheets and logging your spend daily. 

With these money saving tips, you will be able to take control and get saving with no spreadsheets required. 

Here’s each money saving tip and how much you will save on average.

Get all the tax relief you’re owed (save €1,880)

Switch your mortgage (save €3,250)

Switch your electricity or gas (save €723)

Switch your Broadband and TV provider (save €456)

Don’t blow it, avoid the urge to splurge (Save €1,270)

Ditch the branded groceries and go German (save €660)

Become a DIY barista & chef (save €1,521)

Cutting out cigarettes & alcohol (save €3,232)

Becoming debt free (save €900)

Keep reading to find out how to save over €13,000 a year.

Tip 1. Money saving Ireland – Get All You’re Owed (save €1,880)

How do I know how much tax back I’m owed?

There’s a smorgasbord of different tax reliefs you are entitled to as an Irish citizen or resident. The citizen’s information board is always a good place to start  (link at the end of this article), but cutting to the chase the big ones are,

• Home carer tax credit – €1,800
• Medical or dental tax relief – 20% on expenses incurred
• Working for home relief – up to 30% of your broadband and heating costs
• And, for 2023 the Rent (€750) or Mortgage credit (€1,250)

Example average tax relief saving Ireland 2024 = €1,880

The good news is there are lots of online services out there, with the biggest being taxback.com, that will file the tax paperwork for you in return for a cut of the refund. The average money saving refund received by Irish consumers in 2024 was €1,880. Due to budget 2024 that’s likely to be even bigger this year.

This doesn’t include any benefits you might be entitled to, such as energy credits, working family payment or the fuel allowance.

Workers are in demand right now so you could also consider maximise your income by considering asking for a pay rise, changing jobs or working longer hours.

Next, once you’ve super sized what’s coming in, the next step is super shrinking what’s going out. You can do this two ways. 

1. Buy for less
2. Buy less 

Let’s start with the easiest, buy for less. Switching suppliers usually does pay off as companies know most people don’t bother to make the effort. This allows them to keep prices high for existing customers whilst offering sweet introductory deals for new customers.  

The next three tips will take you straight to where you can save the most money in Ireland by switching in 2024.

Tip 2. Money saving Ireland – Switch Your Mortgage (save €3,250)

Contrary to what many think mortgage rates in 2024 are likely to be even higher in 2024 than they were in 2023. With the latest ECB survey of forecasters expecting tracker rates to be 0.5% higher in 2024 than they were in 2023 at 4.25% on average across the year, making the average tracker mortgage rate 5.4%.

There’s even worse news for those on variable or short term fixed rates as those rates are still expected to rise by a whopping 2% to 6% in 2024 as lenders put through ‘catch up’ increases to cover their increased funding costs. Short term fixed rate customers will flip on to the higher variable rates unless they take action now.

The good news though is that you can still fix long term at 4% by switching to the best rates in the market, which would save the average tracker or variable rate customer over €3,000 a year.

Check with your current lender to see if you can now ‘break’ from your current fixed rate for free, due to recent rate increases this is very likely to be the case.

Then talk to a mortgage broker who will find you the best rate, they are usually free to use so it always makes sense to get them to run the numbers and see if it worth your while to switch.

Example average mortgage switching saving Ireland = €3,250 per year

The average tracker customer switching to 4% on the average outstanding balance and loan term will save €1,428. The average variable rate switching to 4% on the average outstanding balance and loan term will save €3,276.  

Tip 3. Money saving Ireland – Switch Your Energy Provider (save €723)

How do I save money by switching my electricity or gas in Ireland 2024?

Your electricity or gas service is the same no matter who you buy it from, the key thing then is to simply get the best price. 

Lots of new providers have entered the market tempting switching with some great money saving deals. It couldn’t be more straightforward to compare and switch using one the comparison sites like Bonkers.ie or Switcher.ie. 

Example average electricity and gas saving Ireland 2024 = €723 per year

The average home in Ireland uses 11,000 kWh of gas (at an average of 14.6c per kWh) and 4.2K kWh electricity (at an average of 46c per kWh) per year.

This means the average gas bill is now €1,606 and electricity now €1,917, or a hefty €3,523 combined.

The good news though is much cheaper rates are still available, with gas as low as 12.7c kWh and electricity as low as 36c kWh.

Switching to these lower rates would bring your gas bill down to €1,393 and your electricity bill down to €1,510, saving you over €700 on current rates.

Tip 4. Money saving Ireland – Switch Your TV Provider (save €456)

How do I save money by switching my TV in Ireland 2024?

With streaming services now offering not just box sets, but live TV as well there are big money savings to be made by ‘cutting the cord’ from old school TV providers. 

Providers like Sky or Virginmedia typically charge around €35 a month for their entry TV pack, even though there is the same content available elsewhere for free. Ditch your current provider and get your sports and live TV from a combination of free to air & streaming, you will save hundreds and still get the same shows.

Example average TV saving Ireland 2024 = €456

Replacing Sky’s entry and Sky Sports pack at €77 a month with free to air, whilst getting your Sky Sports straight from the NowTV streaming service for €39 will save you over €456 a year. [5]

Next up, there are whole industries and armies of people whose job it is to get you to part with your hard earned cash everyday. The next three top money saving tips will help you avoid the traps and buy less in Ireland in 2024.    

Tip 5. Money saving Ireland – Don’t blow it, Avoid the Urge to Splurge (Save €1,270) 

How do I save money by avoiding non essential spend in Ireland 2024?

The best way to avoid temptation? Don’t put yourself in the way of it in the first place. Why do companies spend millions to push their ads, email lists, get your data, offer you easy credit and offer ‘one click’ payment options? 

Yep, so you will spend more. Dun & Bradstreet found We are 12-18% more likely to purchase using credit over cash. [6]

As a savvy money saving consumer cut this off at source, don’t sign up to marketing or to one click purchases. Delete your cards from your phone and move your money by standing order every month to a separate savings account where you can’t get at it easily.  

Example average saving by hiding the credit card Ireland 2024 = €1,270

Around €11,000 per household per year is spent on credit cards in Ireland according to the Irish central bank [7]. So according to the Dun & Bradstreet study switching this spend to cash would reduce this by 12% at least, saving €1,270 a year. 

Tip 6. Money Saving Ireland – Go German (save €660)  

How do I save money by going own label or to Aldi & Lidll in Ireland 2024?

The average Irish household spends over €5,500 per year on groceries [8]. According to research in the UK [12] the German discounters were around 12% cheaper than other suportmarkets and just as good quality if not better.

Example average own label saving Ireland 2024 = €660

Even allowing for the odd luxury in your basket, knocking a third off your grocery bill by switching to own label or the German discounters is pretty easy. This would give a saving of €660 a year for the average Irish household.

Tip 7. Money Saving Ireland – Become a DIY Barista & Chef (save €1,521)

How do I save money by paying for less everyday in Ireland?

When you buy a sandwich, coffee or get a takeaway you’re not just paying for the ingredients, but the whole cost of the seller’s business plus the profit that business is making.

According to Irish coffee house 3fe of the €3.50 you pay for your regular Americano only 50c is actually spent on coffee and milk.The rest goes on staff, rent, rates etc.. [8]

That makes it a staggering 7 times cheaper for you to make your regular latte or macchiato at home. I’m not picking on coffee, the same is pretty much true of any takeaway or eat out you can think of, it’s just a great money saving opportunity.

Example average DIY saving Ireland 2024 = €1,521

Irish households spend just over €1K per year on takeaways and eating out [9]. Add to that €7.50 every working day for you to pop out and grab a sandwich and you get just over €3K per year spent on takeaway food and coffees.

We aren’t going to deny you a weekend takeaway or lunch time pick me up, but if you cut by half you are looking at a hefty money saving of €1,521 you would be able to pop in the piggy bank. 

Tip 8. Money saving Ireland – Cut Out Cigarettes & Alcohol (save €3,232)

How do I save money by reducing smoking and drinking Ireland 2024?

Known to Irish finance ministers for decades as the ‘old dependables’, beer & fags are the first place to go to raise tax revenues. 

This has made both prohibitively expensive and also a smart go to when you want to raise your own bit of revenue by saving money. 

The average Irish smoker spends over €2200 a year on cigarettes [10] and the average Irish drinker almost €2K are year [11].

Example average ‘old reliables’ saving Ireland 2024  = €3,232

Based on the averages if you drink and smoke and halve the beer and cut out the fags you would save a whopping €3,232 a year on average. Not to mention the health benefits of cutting down on both.

Next let’s get those interest payments down, nailing money saving tips 1-9, will help you get what you’re owed, buy for less and buy less. This gives you a lot more financial firepower, blasting open the doors on the final money saving tip.

Tip 9. Money saving Ireland – Becoming Debt Free (save €900)

How do I save money by reducing my credit card and loan debts in Ireland 2024? 

Outside of your mortgage or student loans which are typically low interest, debt is a money saving blackhole to be avoided at all costs. 

Irish households owe €8k on average in credit card and loan debt, paying the 4th highest rate of interest in Europe at 10.3%. [12]

The solution is to start paying down your debt, starting with the most expensive first, almost certainly your credit cards. This is the ‘snowball ‘ effect, where the savings from the interest on one loan can help pay off the next and so on. 

Example average credit card and loan saving Ireland 2024 = €900

With the money savings from tips 1-9 coming to over €12K and the average Irish household debt at €8K, you should hopefully be able to pay off all your credit card and consumer loans. At the average interest rate of 10.3% that’s a money saving of over €900. Plus a big weight off the shoulders.

Finally, totting all the savings up from tips 1-9 gives a saving of €12,837, reaching our savings goal target of €12,500 of €7,500 for our rainy day fund and €5,000 for our trip to see Mickey.That puts you on a sound financial footing and on a plane to Florida for the trip of a lifetime.

Money Saving Ireland 2024 – In a Nutshell

So it’s been a money saving whirlwind tour alright, 

• €1,880 saved, getting what you are owed  
• €4,429 saved,  buying for less  
• €6,683 saved, buying less
• €900 saved, going debt free
• €13,892 Grand total saved

Remember, we did all this using only the average national wage of €2,500 after tax, a bit of will power and some money saving smarts.  

Money Saving Ireland 2024 – what should I do now? 

These money savings  are based on averages for Ireland, you will have to take your own case and work out what saving it means for you. You should also chat with a professional financial advisor for any big decisions or one of the state’s financial advice support services if you need help.

If you want to delve deeper into what you can save and how to do it (and why wouldn’t you?). Our other guides and money saving tools including our inflation savings buster tool how to switch your mortgage can be found here. 

Lastly, if you are struggling to make ends meet, you aren’t alone. More than half of all Irish adults say financial concerns are a threat to their mental health.  

If you are struggling with debt, making ends meet or just need some free independent advice, you should check out the state’s Money Advice & Budgeting Service (MABS) for further help.