Daft Property - Irish Property News

Nanny state's pension plan is bitter pill for most of us... NANNY Hanafin, assisted by the two Bossy Brians, was in full swing yesterday. Work for longer, get less tax relief and, by the way, if you are not in a pension we are going to sign you up for one whether you like it or not. Yes, the 'Nanny State' knows what is good for us and was not shy about telling us yesterday. Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin, have decided many of us have been naughty, not nice. So they have prescribed a full dose of pension punishment for all. Naughty workers who failed to take out a pension when the boom was in full flow will now be automatically signed up for one. This measure will not impact on those who are already in an occupational pension scheme and those in the public sector. All workers under the age of 62 will have to work for longer. Those under the age of 49 will end up having to wait until they are 68 be...

Learning from the credit crunch. NEXT MONTH marks the second anniversary of the “credit crunch”, the global financial crisis which has led to the worst economic downturn Ireland has experienced in a century... However, these experiences can be put to good use by informing future investment decisions. While the most obvious lesson to be learnt from the crisis is that nothing is certain and anything is possible – who could have predicted that Anglo would be nationalised – there are basic investment fundamentals that got lost during the boom years that should be borne in mind. 1 Diversify, diversify, diversify: Diversification, whereby you spread your investments across asset types, industries and economies, is a fundamental investment technique aimed at reducing risk and increasing long-term returns. During the celtic tiger, when Irish property prices soared and bank stocks led the Iseq to boom, investors were loath to spread their investments away from the Irish economy. That has resul...