Author Topic: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?  (Read 11018 times)

anic

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How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« on: March 16, 2018, 06:23:00 AM »
Hello everyone, I’m writing from Ireland. I’m delighted to find this forum and hope I can get some inspiration from you all. I’m 42, I have two young children (6) and (4), I’m separated and I have very little financial security. 

The good: I like my life! I have two great, healthy kids. I live in a place I love. I enjoy my work, which is really interesting to me and meaningful (I work two part-time jobs in connected fields). I’m happy. I don’t have any debt. I have good qualifications. I relocated from the capital back to where I’m originally from in 2009. That means that the jobs at my level of qualifications etc are thin on the ground here. But the upside of living where I do, for my children and myself, is so good that I don’t want to move from here. Lower expenses is part of that upside but as well as that, this is where I want to raise my kids – it’s a beautiful area with gorgeous natural resources, a strong culture and sense of community, relatives and good friends. I couldn’t ask for a better place to live. My work is also connected to this community, which is important to me.

The bad: I’m as far from financial independence as I could be. I might be losing one of my part-time jobs – the higher earning one – this year. I work on a contract that is renewed from year to year (so far, I’m in that job for 9 years). The funding for that job may or may not be withdrawn this year which might mean that I’ll only have one job from October 2018. I’m in a position where I’m dependent on decisions made by people elsewhere and over which I have no control. I have hardly any savings. I spent my life not thinking enough about money, savings, pensions etc. And here I am at this sorry pass. Completely my fault, I know.

The facts: Job 1 brings me around €2000 a month net. Job 2 brings me around €800 a month net. I get €280 in child benefit per month from the government (all families do regardless of their circumstances). I get €274 maintenance from the children’s father a month. So in total, I earn around €3355 a month. If I lose Job 1, I’ll be in trouble, obviously. I have a fair amount of monthly expenses between car, childcare, health insurance, phone and so on. I estimate an average of €2500 expenses monthly not including clothes or holidays and possibly other things I’ve forgotten. I’m never overdrawn at the end of the month (except at Christmas). I find that as a single parent, it’s hard to save a significant amount every month. Right now, in my savings account, I have €11,000.
One major plus for me is that I rent my house from my parents who give it to me for the tiny sum of €400. I want to buy the house from them but my precarious financial situation means I can’t get a mortgage. Psychologically, as a 42 year old, I hate this situation.

I need to think outside the box i.e. is it possible to invest when you have savings as small as I do? Could I take over my relative’s rental apartments and do Airbnb for her and have that be financially viable for both her and me?  She’s retiring and has lost interest in the business. I wish I had more imagination or drive or business acumen or energy to think differently about all of this and to get myself out of this situation. My mental reserves go towards raising my kids and working but I need to apply myself to this problem. I’m bad at thinking mathematically.

So there you go. Am I beyond redemption?

Many thanks in advance

aoedae

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2018, 06:54:25 AM »
No-one is beyond redemption! :)

So, some quick summaries and my initial thoughts:

Income
Job 1 brings me around €2000 a month net.
Job 2 brings me around €800 a month net.
€280 in child benefit per month from the government
€274 maintenance from the children’s father a month
=> €3355 a month. May drop to:
=> €1355 a month.
You have a €2000 gap to cover, which you can cover through two mechanisms only: cutting expenditure or increasing income.

Expenses
"I estimate an average of €2500 expenses monthly."
  • Make a detailed budget of your annual expenses, and post it under this case study, so other users from Ireland might be able to give you a hand with ideas on individual items
  • Include line items for 'lumpy' costs such as clothes, laptop renewal, kids toys, kids activities, Christmas
  • Ensure you are periodically checking and switching any service you can get cheaper (phone, internet, energy, health insurance, car insurance) and never auto-renewing (I'm UK based, so googling things for you, but this website might be a helpful comparison https://switcher.ie/)
  • If you lose job #1, is there any money going out of the door that you would also no longer have to spend? e.g. travel, food, childcare etc.

Housing
At the moment at least your housing cost is low at €400. I know it's psychologically uncomfortable, but this is possibly a better deal than buying in at this stage - it all depends on what the mortgage would cost.

It is likely to be worth waiting for the job situation to resolve one way or another before committing to such a large expense (which is often hardest on the monthly budget in the first few years.)

Do you know what the deposit/mortgage requirements are going to be when you buy?

Investing
It's definitely possible to invest with €11,000 capital, but the question is what to put it in.

If you put it into Stocks & Shares, you should be prepared to leave the money in for 10 years (roughly, risk adjustable with bond/equities ratio) - but it looks like you may be needing those savings sooner for a house deposit.

Either way, these are not going to grow into a money tree any time soon, even with compound interest.

In my opinion, this is a lower priority at the moment, and you need to focus on increasing (or maintaining!) income and reducing expenditure, before focusing on where to put any excess.

Outside the box

"Could I take over my relative’s rental apartments and do Airbnb for her and have that be financially viable for both her and me?  She’s retiring and has lost interest in the business."

  • Definitely worth asking if you can take a cut in exchange for running this - that could boost your income if you lose the first part time job. Make sure you'll have a) time, b) thought of any hidden costs - e.g. travel, purchases.
  • Secondly, I assume you'll be looking for other part time work to pick up. That's the most 'normal'/easy source of additional income.
  • There are many 'side hustle' and 'boost your income' posts out there - e.g. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/make-money and https://www.sidehustlenation.com/ideas/ - worth a look to see if any work for you in your local area.

Also, finally, to address "I’m bad at thinking mathematically."
There is very little math involved in this.
The key calculation is 'Am I spending as little as possible? Am I earning as much as possible?'
« Last Edit: March 16, 2018, 07:04:08 AM by aoedae »

ysette9

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2018, 09:11:11 AM »
You need to get a better handle on your spending so you know how much and on what. Start tracking that immediately. I would recommend operating in a pre-emergency mode, because if you do lose your higher-paying job, you are in a very bad situation. Your €11,000 should be set aside somewhere safe like a bank account to be your emergency fund. Do not invest it because you are at risk of soon not having enough income to cover your expenses. If you are in that spot, you start dipping into your emergency fund to make up the difference.

Ultimately you have to bring in more income. Your budget doesn’t have enough wiggle room to bridge a €2000/month gap. Start looking now. Consider everything you are remotely qualified for. I realize you love what you do, but you need to consider sacrificing your stable part-time job in favor of a more stable full-time job. Your number one goal needs to be providing a financially stable environment for raising your children. That may mean making sacrifices and accepting better-paying, more stable work in something that isn’t as fulfilling for you.


anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2018, 09:11:50 AM »
Thanks aoedae for the considered response. I appreciate it. This is a breakdown of monthly expenses:

Monthly costs:
Yearly costs divided by month: €290 (Yearly costs include car tax €330, car insurance €850, car maintenance €500, refuse collection €365, oil €1000, subscription €65, birthdays €300 = €3410 divided by 12 months)
Rent €400
Electricity €76
Phone and Internet €86
Netflix €10
Petrol €90
Health insurance €79
Life insurance €35
Amnesty International €14
Childcare: €500
Food / Groceries: €500
Miscellaneous: €300

Total monthly expenses = €2380

I'm sure I'm forgetting certain things.

If I lose my main job, then I won't have childcare expenses which would save me 500 a month.

I can always get part-time work here and there. There's plenty of that around, it's just that (i) it wouldn't cover my expenses (ii) it would be very haphazard and only available from time to time (iii) it would be a very stressful way to live. Of course I'll do it... but it's exactly that type of life I want to avoid. There's probably no answer really to this.

Thanks for your thoughts on the housing and investments questions.

I'll keep going anyway...

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2018, 09:27:47 AM »
Thanks Ysette9. Yes it's a serious situation that is stressing me out a fair bit. I replied above with a breakdown of my expenses so I know where it's going.
As for the job, I would love a secure full-time job. As it stands, the two part-time jobs are the only option for me and I'm lucky that I like the work. I'd rather have financial security than job satisfaction, since I have two young kids. I have my eyes and ears peeled for a new opportunity. I should have prioritised a higher paying career and been more strategic 20 years ago (I do have postgraduate degrees, just in case you think I was slacking!) but then ... my life would be different in other ways too. I'll teach my kids to be better planners than I was.

chickinyow

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2018, 09:29:36 AM »
Hello from Ottawa, Canada!

My first thought: most of your expenses seem reasonable (I know many will say too much for groceries, etc, but being Canadian I realize that groceries and car insurance cost more here and where you live than what people in the USA can get). I would try to lock down the "miscellaneous" category and figure out where that money is going.

Even at your current spending, it looks like you should be able to add another 8K or so by the time your main job might potentially end. I would do everything in my power to save as much as possible before then.

If the worst happens, you can stop the childcare expense until you find a new job. The miscellaneous could be cut (I'm going to assume here that you have forgotten some things like haircuts, clothing - that are falling into this category). Lets assume 200 of this 300 could be cut. That is a 700 savings.

That could take you to about a 400 monthly deficit in the worst case scenario (loss of job, no other work found). In that situation, would your parents temporarily let you stop paying rent? Even if not, you could draw 400 from your savings monthly until such time as suitable employment was found.

If I were you, I would already be looking for a stable job that will provide the security you are needing. One year contracts are never going to give you that safe feeling. Even if the new job pays a little less than you currently make (you are netting 2800 per month from the two part time jobs), you will likely be better off with the security.

PS - My husband's family is from Mullingar. We are going to visit them in May!

aoedae

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2018, 11:44:35 AM »
Quote
I can always get part-time work here and there. There's plenty of that around, it's just that (i) it wouldn't cover my expenses (ii) it would be very haphazard and only available from time to time (iii) it would be a very stressful way to live. Of course I'll do it... but it's exactly that type of life I want to avoid. There's probably no answer really to this.

I'm going to focus on the income section and hope someone from rural Ireland shows up to help you on costs (although for what it's worth, you can probably trim life insurance, amnesty, Netflix, some of the food cost, some of the miscellaneous cost and *maybe* there's a way to bring the car down a little - I suggest this based on you being near to an emergency situation.)

It doesn't sound like you think full time work is a realistic possibility where you are, and that part time work is likely to be patchy.

It might help to know your educational background and skills to make better suggestions, but my first thoughts are:
- Look after other people's kids alongside your own for money (i.e. nanny/daycare)
- find a 'work from home' role that advertises nationally
- pick up a new skill that you can do from anywhere and work on that. I am not a digital economy / home-based jobs expert, but I work in a field where the opportunities are broad (proofreading, editing, medical writing, SAS programming, statistical analysis, software engineering).

If you want to get out of this situation in the long term without moving, you are going to have to move towards jobs that can be done where you are.

That means either a) adapt your skills to the local economy, or b) get skills that are location independent.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2018, 11:48:39 AM by aoedae »

Moomintroll

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2018, 01:16:24 PM »
Hi there, we live in the west of Ireland too! So excited to see someone else from Ireland on this forum. Fáilte go Tír na Mustache! :)

Will come back & look in more detail once the kids are in bed, but just wondering if you would be eligible for this scheme:

https://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Working-Family-Payment.aspx

Basically if you work 38 hours per fortnight, you qualify for some income support, and Child Benefit doesn't count (although I think child support does), so if job 2 can stretch to the right number of hours this could be good.

I would say €400 per month rent is super cheap and you should definitely stick with this. But, not for now, but in future if you do look to buy the house, you might qualify for a mortgage from the council:

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/new-council-mortgage-scheme-to-offer-lower-rates-than-most-banks-36515091.html

For food shopping, we find it hard to beat the Dunnes €10 per €50 deal, especially with additional vouchers from the loyalty card scheme. It's even cheaper than Aldi/Lidl over the year, although depends what is within reach of where you live.

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2018, 01:37:27 PM »
To answer a few questions about what's included in miscellaneous costs, it's guesswork actually but I'm thinking of haircuts, clothes for me and the kids (I get a lot from my sister who has older children), presents for other kids, occasional lunches out, any school related cost, the kids gymnastics lessons (the only lessons they do for the moment), short trips which I do every two months or so. I hardly ever go out, I socialise at home, mostly, but obviously there are times where I do go out. That seems like an awful lot.

I'm going to focus on the income section and hope someone from rural Ireland shows up to help you on costs (although for what it's worth, you can probably trim life insurance, amnesty, Netflix, some of the food cost, some of the miscellaneous cost and *maybe* there's a way to bring the car down a little - I suggest this based on you being near to an emergency situation.)

It doesn't sound like you think full time work is a realistic possibility where you are, and that part time work is likely to be patchy.

It might help to know your educational background and skills to make better suggestions, but my first thoughts are:
- Look after other people's kids alongside your own for money (i.e. nanny/daycare)
- find a 'work from home' role that advertises nationally
- pick up a new skill that you can do from anywhere and work on that. I am not a digital economy / home-based jobs expert, but I work in a field where the opportunities are broad (proofreading, editing, medical writing, SAS programming, statistical analysis, software engineering).

If you want to get out of this situation in the long term without moving, you are going to have to move towards jobs that can be done where you are.

That means either a) adapt your skills to the local economy, or b) get skills that are location independent.


So work-wise, my background is in linguistics and language planning and I have postgraduate qualifications in those areas. I work for two different types of educational institutions. Before I relocated home, I worked a lot freelance, designing learning materials and so forth. Before I had children I took the opportunity to work on a project while travelling abroad, so flexibility was important to me then. Now my work has a different focus and is very location specific at the moment. I always valued being independent at work. I have a personality defect where I need a lot of autonomy and in both my jobs I get to set the agenda - within certain parameters, obviously. Another issue that's important for me since having children is a question of time. At the moment I work 20 hours in Job 1 and 11 hours in Job 2 so I'm lucky that I'm not a full 9-5 because I have more time to spend with the girls. That's particularly important since it's just me at home. Your questions are helping me focus my mind on the need to start approaching organisations and letting them know that I'm looking for work.

There is a chance that the funding for Job 1 will come through but I'll probably find myself in the same position the following year.


If the worst happens, you can stop the childcare expense until you find a new job. The miscellaneous could be cut (I'm going to assume here that you have forgotten some things like haircuts, clothing - that are falling into this category). Lets assume 200 of this 300 could be cut. That is a 700 savings.

That could take you to about a 400 monthly deficit in the worst case scenario (loss of job, no other work found). In that situation, would your parents temporarily let you stop paying rent? Even if not, you could draw 400 from your savings monthly until such time as suitable employment was found.


PS - My husband's family is from Mullingar. We are going to visit them in May!

Yes, they absolutely would, but I would hate that more than penury. Just as a matter of pride!
Also, I hope you have a great time in Mullingar and that the weather will be kind. And thanks for your feedback - greatly appreciated.

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2018, 01:47:01 PM »
Hi there, we live in the west of Ireland too! So excited to see someone else from Ireland on this forum. Fáilte go Tír na Mustache! :)


Go raibh maith agat!

Will come back & look in more detail once the kids are in bed, but just wondering if you would be eligible for this scheme:

https://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Working-Family-Payment.aspx

Basically if you work 38 hours per fortnight, you qualify for some income support, and Child Benefit doesn't count (although I think child support does), so if job 2 can stretch to the right number of hours this could be good.

I would say €400 per month rent is super cheap and you should definitely stick with this. But, not for now, but in future if you do look to buy the house, you might qualify for a mortgage from the council:

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/new-council-mortgage-scheme-to-offer-lower-rates-than-most-banks-36515091.html

For food shopping, we find it hard to beat the Dunnes €10 per €50 deal, especially with additional vouchers from the loyalty card scheme. It's even cheaper than Aldi/Lidl over the year, although depends what is within reach of where you live.

Great leads there and thank you. Job 2 is 11 hours per week so I wouldn't qualify. I don't have a Dunnes locally but I do a lot of shopping in Lidl.  As for the mortgage, my parents would sell me the house cheaply but unless I get a job with at least a 3 year contract, the bank won't give me a mortgage even for 100,000 euro. Job 2 is a contract of indefinite duration which is good but since it's only 11 hours a week, it's nothing to write home about.

So, it's time to get the job seeking project started in earnest.

aoedae

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2018, 03:54:00 PM »
So work-wise, my background is in linguistics and language planning and I have postgraduate qualifications in those areas. I work for two different types of educational institutions. Before I relocated home, I worked a lot freelance, designing learning materials and so forth. Before I had children I took the opportunity to work on a project while travelling abroad, so flexibility was important to me then. Now my work has a different focus and is very location specific at the moment. I always valued being independent at work. I have a personality defect where I need a lot of autonomy and in both my jobs I get to set the agenda - within certain parameters, obviously. Another issue that's important for me since having children is a question of time. At the moment I work 20 hours in Job 1 and 11 hours in Job 2 so I'm lucky that I'm not a full 9-5 because I have more time to spend with the girls. That's particularly important since it's just me at home. Your questions are helping me focus my mind on the need to start approaching organisations and letting them know that I'm looking for work.

There is a chance that the funding for Job 1 will come through but I'll probably find myself in the same position the following year.

Great, we can definitely work with this! You even have freelance experience, and existing contacts. You are in a much better position than I thought you might be.

I think focusing on the long term solution of more secure employment (or at least a base level of annual freelance income) is important. Given what you've said about your parents, you always have the ultimate fallback of job 2 + no rent to keep the wolves absolutely from the door and yourself and your children fed and happy - and whilst it might be psychologically 'worse than penury', I'm confident you'd bear it for the kids. This lowers the stakes for you considerably.

But we don't want that for you. We want to get you out of this situation, permanently.
I assume your long term goals are roughly:
- Own house
- Save for children's educational needs
- Have enough work-life balance to spend time with the girls
- Ensure you have a comfortable retirement yourself, when the time comes

I think it's worth thinking about the overall numbers you may need for that, to give yourself something to aim for.

The way to all of those goals lies through income, and increasing the percentage you save over time. Your security is not going to be found in your investments or assets for a good few years yet - at the moment you're very reliant on your own human capital.
 
I see a lot of your posts are in some ways down on yourself for not foreseeing this, or saving earlier. This is not uncommon on these boards. There's a saying that goes roughly along the lines of, 'The best time to start saving was 20 years ago. The second best time to start saving is now.'

You, right now, are only really responsible for the choices that lie ahead of you and your children, which you will make with the best of your ability. It's not your fault your job situation is precarious, or that you don't have more resources from the past (and hey - for what it's worth, you're NOT carrying a load of debt, which is better than some people manage!) - but it is your problem to solve.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2018, 03:56:26 PM by aoedae »

former player

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2018, 05:21:58 PM »
There's a saying in engineering that of the three variables of quality, speed and lower cost you can only ever have two.  Out of the three controllable variables in life: income, location and children you are rich in location and children.

And actually an income of 40k isn't bad: your earnings are exactly at the Irish median and adding in the child benefit and child support brings you up to the average.   https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/super-rich-or-super-angry-where-are-you-on-ireland-s-income-pyramid-1.2104861

Financially you have two problems.  The first is that your income is uncertain: I think you've had good advice about taking charge on this front and being proactive rather than fatalistic.

The second financial problem is that you have no capital behind you: no house ownership, no investments. little savings.  That is going to be harder to solve. But once your income is more secure you might think about asking your parents whether you can convert your rent into "rent to own": increasing what you pay them in return for a commensurate share over time in the ownership of your home.

It would be a good idea to check that you are up to date on social security payments and will be entitled to a full state pension in due course.  Make extra payments to ensure this if it is allowed.

Are there tax free investments available to you?  If so, putting even a very small amount into them would build up to something worthwhile by the time you are looking to retire.

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #12 on: March 17, 2018, 03:56:30 AM »
I think focusing on the long term solution of more secure employment (or at least a base level of annual freelance income) is important. Given what you've said about your parents, you always have the ultimate fallback of job 2 + no rent to keep the wolves absolutely from the door and yourself and your children fed and happy - and whilst it might be psychologically 'worse than penury', I'm confident you'd bear it for the kids. This lowers the stakes for you considerably.

But we don't want that for you. We want to get you out of this situation, permanently.
I assume your long term goals are roughly:
- Own house
- Save for children's educational needs
- Have enough work-life balance to spend time with the girls
- Ensure you have a comfortable retirement yourself, when the time comes

I think it's worth thinking about the overall numbers you may need for that, to give yourself something to aim for.

This is exactly it. I couldn't put it better myself. So I'll start thinking about the overall numbers, like you say. The rest of your post is wise and thoughtful and thanks a million. I have some leeway with the children's educational needs because their Dad put some of his inheritance into an account for them (20,000) to be used when / if they want to go to third level or follow any other educational path. It was supposed to have been a joint account but it's not so I'm just taking it on good faith that that money is still there.

You say that the answer is in income, which of course it is but that is exactly what's stressing me out because I have a very good grasp of the field in which I work and so I know that it'll be really hard to get a job that pays me more than I'm earning now. Many people in this area are dependent on funding being available ... Unless I went for a job with those who decide the funding!! In that case, I'd have to move and it'd be a totally different quality of work. That's why I was thinking that I should do something completely different like Airbnb or suddenly develop a business genius!

But this conversation is helping me to refocus and think more seriously about going after a higher paying role, whatever that may be.

@formerplayer
There's a saying in engineering that of the three variables of quality, speed and lower cost you can only ever have two.  Out of the three controllable variables in life: income, location and children you are rich in location and children.
Now engineering - that's the career path I should've followed! But seriously, yes, you're right, you can't always have it all. Also, you're right when you say that my income isn't bad. I have very good holidays in both my jobs which is worth much more to me than a higher income.
Financially you have two problems.  The first is that your income is uncertain: I think you've had good advice about taking charge on this front and being proactive rather than fatalistic.

The second financial problem is that you have no capital behind you: no house ownership, no investments. little savings.  That is going to be harder to solve. But once your income is more secure you might think about asking your parents whether you can convert your rent into "rent to own": increasing what you pay them in return for a commensurate share over time in the ownership of your home.

It would be a good idea to check that you are up to date on social security payments and will be entitled to a full state pension in due course.  Make extra payments to ensure this if it is allowed.

Are there tax free investments available to you?  If so, putting even a very small amount into them would build up to something worthwhile by the time you are looking to retire.


I like your clear analysis of my financial situation. As for the house ownership, my parents would be happy to give the house to me but that's not something I want. My parents feel that they have three assets and three daughters and so that this house is mine if I want it. But this house is more valuable than both other assets so that's another reason to buy the house from them, if at a cheaper rate than market value. I don't believe that my parents owe me an inheritance and I want to have it to say that I'm perfectly capable of buying my own house (as we can see, I'm not capable of that - so depressing). So to answer your question, yes, they would be happy to do a rent to buy arrangement. I've been living here and paying rent for almost nine years now. Another option someone outlined to me would be to take out credit union loans of say 25,000 every 5 years and buy the house that way. But that doesn't seem fair because my Dad is 71 already!

As for your question on tax free investments, I have absolutely no idea. That's something I'll look into.
@ former player @aoedae it's great that people are willing to take the time to look at my financial situation and offer great advice and insight. Thanks

Kwill

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #13 on: March 17, 2018, 04:30:07 AM »
If you lost job 1, it looks like your monthly budget could go down to 1526 if you cut out the subscription, birthday spending, Netflix, Amnesty International, childcare (due to job 1), and miscellaneous. That would mean you'd need to stick tightly to the budget and also earn 171 more per month to avoid a crisis. In terms of finding way to earn 43 more per week, maybe it would be worthwhile to think about the AirBnB ideas or asking about a few additional hours with job 2 or coming up with a small scale side hustle.

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #14 on: March 17, 2018, 10:40:15 AM »
If you lost job 1, it looks like your monthly budget could go down to 1526 if you cut out the subscription, birthday spending, Netflix, Amnesty International, childcare (due to job 1), and miscellaneous. That would mean you'd need to stick tightly to the budget and also earn 171 more per month to avoid a crisis. In terms of finding way to earn 43 more per week, maybe it would be worthwhile to think about the AirBnB ideas or asking about a few additional hours with job 2 or coming up with a small scale side hustle.

Hi Kwill. The subscription is obligatory for my job so it has to stay. I'd hate to not spend any money on the kids' birthdays... I could scale it back... Amnesty could go, of course. No childcare would be a significant saving. But I could only get rid of childcare if I didn't plan on taking on any extra work which doesn't make sense either. I don't have a TV so the kids watch cartoons on Netflix. That tenner a month is valuable in many ways to me and to them!! I'm reasonably confident that I'll find some project that I can work on in the summer months, in the evenings or something. There is a local organisation which might need editing or proofing or something to be done. That might save the cartoons!

Also - my God, I totally forgot - I don't have any childcare expense in July and August because I'm off then. So that's great.

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #15 on: March 17, 2018, 10:42:03 AM »
Do you want to come play with us here? https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/journals/low-income-group-journal/

Thanks! I just had a little read of the forum and it looks good.


MrThatsDifferent

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #16 on: March 17, 2018, 02:55:21 PM »
Hi, here’s what I don’t understand, how come the other parent gets to contribute so little for the raising of their kids? It’s not fair that you have to shoulder the bulk of costs. Are there any options of gong back and asking for more money from the other parent?

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #17 on: March 17, 2018, 04:51:39 PM »
Hi, here’s what I don’t understand, how come the other parent gets to contribute so little for the raising of their kids? It’s not fair that you have to shoulder the bulk of costs. Are there any options of gong back and asking for more money from the other parent?

Well, there's a couple of things. He's on a lower income than me, so paying me more a month would probably be unaffordable for him. He earns around 25,000 euro a year. Because of an inheritance, he put money aside for the children's future - 20,000 euro (I bargained for that in mediation). I could never have put that kind of money aside simply because I didn't have it. Other reasons are emotive... we have a fairly harmonious relationship where neither of us tries to make life more difficult for the other, we have good flexibility with one another. I care about him. I ended the marriage and I feel like I messed up his life enough without also pushing him into financial misery. Also, he doesn't want 50/50 custody - the kids live with me full-time and ... this probably doesn't follow...but I feel like I have more autonomy or something - I'm not sure what - by paying more than the 'fair' share, whatever that is. The reasonably good vibes between us around the kids is worth its weight in gold.

That's probably way more information than you needed!

MrThatsDifferent

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #18 on: March 17, 2018, 04:59:47 PM »
Hi, here’s what I don’t understand, how come the other parent gets to contribute so little for the raising of their kids? It’s not fair that you have to shoulder the bulk of costs. Are there any options of gong back and asking for more money from the other parent?

Well, there's a couple of things. He's on a lower income than me, so paying me more a month would probably be unaffordable for him. He earns around 25,000 euro a year. Because of an inheritance, he put money aside for the children's future - 20,000 euro (I bargained for that in mediation). I could never have put that kind of money aside simply because I didn't have it. Other reasons are emotive... we have a fairly harmonious relationship where neither of us tries to make life more difficult for the other, we have good flexibility with one another. I care about him. I ended the marriage and I feel like I messed up his life enough without also pushing him into financial misery. Also, he doesn't want 50/50 custody - the kids live with me full-time and ... this probably doesn't follow...but I feel like I have more autonomy or something - I'm not sure what - by paying more than the 'fair' share, whatever that is. The reasonably good vibes between us around the kids is worth its weight in gold.

That's probably way more information than you needed!

Gotcha and it all makes sense, but I guess that means that Avenue is closed. Rough one.

Imma

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #19 on: March 17, 2018, 05:24:46 PM »
In all honesty, I think buying a house is not your biggest priority right now. You live cheaply in a home owned by your parents, who are very happy to provide your family with a roof over your head. If I understand correctly, you will one day inherit this home, and your sibings will also each inherit a home? If the home you live has a higher value than theirs, you could maybe compensate your siblings for that when the time comes. Hopefully, that's a long time from now and by then you might have the money saved up or qualify for a mortgage. It sounds like your parents are happy with this arrangement and you like living where you live. I understand the desire to want to own your own home and be independent, but I think there are other more important things right now. I don't think your parents would be happy for you to take out an expensive credit union loan to pay them for a home they're willing to give to you.

The first one is to find a higher paying job. Are there any higher paid jobs available at all where you live? I'm a bit familiar with rural Ireland, I know some areas are very beautiful but they have a terrible job market. If you're in one of those areas, you need to find work that you could do remotely. If you need some training to get into a field like that, that would probably be a good investment.

Secondly, as the sole breadwinner of this family, with an unstable job situation and an ex-partner with a lower income than you have, you need more savings. At €11.000 you're not doing too bad, but I think I'd want at least €20/€25k before I'd think of investing.

Thirdly: you don't mention any kind of unemployment benefit that you could apply for once this job ends. Does this not exist over there, or do you not qualify for it? Of course, it's always better to find a job, but there's no shame in applying for benefits if you're entitled to them.

Last one: do you have any retirement savings at all? I assume you will get some sort of state pension, do you have any pensions through work? Will these payments cover your bills in old age? If not, you need to find out how much more money you need to make ends meet in conventional retirement. After that, you can focus on earlier retirement if you want to. I know I said 'investing is not a priority right now' but there's an exception if there's an option of tax deferred retirement investing. This will lower your taxes now and provide you with an income in old age. Every little bit helps, if you can't afford to max out your contributions.

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #20 on: March 18, 2018, 03:10:14 AM »
In all honesty, I think buying a house is not your biggest priority right now. You live cheaply in a home owned by your parents, who are very happy to provide your family with a roof over your head. If I understand correctly, you will one day inherit this home, and your sibings will also each inherit a home? If the home you live has a higher value than theirs, you could maybe compensate your siblings for that when the time comes. Hopefully, that's a long time from now and by then you might have the money saved up or qualify for a mortgage. It sounds like your parents are happy with this arrangement and you like living where you live. I understand the desire to want to own your own home and be independent, but I think there are other more important things right now. I don't think your parents would be happy for you to take out an expensive credit union loan to pay them for a home they're willing to give to you.

There is my parents own home and then a field beside them which could be used as a site. So the house that I live in is more valuable than a site, of course. They are happy with the arrangement and are so supportive in every way and that's great but this is the part of my life that just makes me feel like a failure. Because I have failed in this regard. There's no two ways about it. I appreciate that I have to put the home ownership on hold for the moment. As you say, there are more important things right now.

The first one is to find a higher paying job. Are there any higher paid jobs available at all where you live? I'm a bit familiar with rural Ireland, I know some areas are very beautiful but they have a terrible job market. If you're in one of those areas, you need to find work that you could do remotely. If you need some training to get into a field like that, that would probably be a good investment.
The problem with where I live is that there is a dearth of high paying jobs. This is the crux of the problem. Ever since I started this thread, I've been pondering what I can do. I'm going to think about a role that I could create for myself and approach organisations with my ideas. If I didn't have children I could swan away to Europe and do translation work for a few years (which I don't really enjoy) and earn a decent amount of money. But the children are settled in their preschool/school, have their friends, their nice easy life. Even if they grow up with their lower-income mom here, the benefits to them in the long-run will be far greater. That's what I believe anyway.


Secondly, as the sole breadwinner of this family, with an unstable job situation and an ex-partner with a lower income than you have, you need more savings. At €11.000 you're not doing too bad, but I think I'd want at least €20/€25k before I'd think of investing.

Thirdly: you don't mention any kind of unemployment benefit that you could apply for once this job ends. Does this not exist over there, or do you not qualify for it? Of course, it's always better to find a job, but there's no shame in applying for benefits if you're entitled to them.

Last one: do you have any retirement savings at all? I assume you will get some sort of state pension, do you have any pensions through work? Will these payments cover your bills in old age? If not, you need to find out how much more money you need to make ends meet in conventional retirement. After that, you can focus on earlier retirement if you want to. I know I said 'investing is not a priority right now' but there's an exception if there's an option of tax deferred retirement investing. This will lower your taxes now and provide you with an income in old age. Every little bit helps, if you can't afford to max out your contributions.

Imma, thanks for these questions. I am embarrassed about how clueless I am about money. Let's see.. unemployment benefit is available to those without work. As far as I understand, I would have to give up Job 2 as well to be eligible for benefit, but to be honest, I'm not sure. I've thought about this option. I probably wouldn't be able to save any money if I was on unemployment benefit.

Retirement: I will get a State Pension, but that's very small. I went to a financial advisor a few years ago in my local bank after I separated and when he looked at my figures he said that I couldn't afford to pay into a pension at the time and advised me to take out life insurance instead which is what I did. At the time, I only had Job 1, so maybe now I could afford to do that. I don't get any pension with Job 1. No benefits whatsoever in that job. I think I'm paying something in Job 2 automatically. Thinking about retirement funds brings me out in a cold sweat. This forum is all about people retiring early whereas I'm facing a situation of never being able to retire. You talk about 'tax deferred retirement investing' and I understand the individual words but that's the extent of it. Do you think I should visit a financial planner who could guide me down a sensible path? I also have a brother in law who is very financially savvy. I'll have to call him...
Thank you VERY, VERY much for your post!

Kwill

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #21 on: March 18, 2018, 03:16:07 AM »
Imma, thanks for these questions. I am embarrassed about how clueless I am about money. Let's see.. unemployment benefit is available to those without work. As far as I understand, I would have to give up Job 2 as well to be eligible for benefit, but to be honest, I'm not sure. I've thought about this option. I probably wouldn't be able to save any money if I was on unemployment benefit.

It looks like you could be eligible for an unemployment benefit if you lost job 1 even if you had job 2 for up to 3 days per week:
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/unemployed_people/jobseekers_benefit.html

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #22 on: March 18, 2018, 04:55:44 AM »

It looks like you could be eligible for an unemployment benefit if you lost job 1 even if you had job 2 for up to 3 days per week:
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/unemployed_people/jobseekers_benefit.html


You're right. I see that there's also a payment for dependent children. It's good to know that I could have that as an emergency fall-back. In that case, I wouldn't have to pay for childcare either.

former player

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #23 on: March 18, 2018, 05:56:54 AM »
Retirement: I will get a State Pension, but that's very small. I went to a financial advisor a few years ago in my local bank after I separated and when he looked at my figures he said that I couldn't afford to pay into a pension at the time and advised me to take out life insurance instead which is what I did. At the time, I only had Job 1, so maybe now I could afford to do that. I don't get any pension with Job 1. No benefits whatsoever in that job. I think I'm paying something in Job 2 automatically. Thinking about retirement funds brings me out in a cold sweat. This forum is all about people retiring early whereas I'm facing a situation of never being able to retire. You talk about 'tax deferred retirement investing' and I understand the individual words but that's the extent of it. Do you think I should visit a financial planner who could guide me down a sensible path? I also have a brother in law who is very financially savvy. I'll have to call him...

Do you pay any income tax?  If you do, then you should look at a pension, because that goes direct from your salary to the pension and you only pay tax on the remainder of your salary.  So you effectively get the amount of your contribution plus the tax on that amount as your capital, and any growth and income on that capital is also tax free.  Start by working how much you could put into a pension each year, which will be anything you can spare that you pay income tax on.  Then ask your savvy brother in law for the best low cost pension provider that will put your money into low cost index funds - it may be better for you to cut out the middle man and so a self-invested pension if that's an option in Ireland.

If you don't pay income tax or there is anything left over after putting money into pension investments a quick google tells me that you put the money into An Post bonds or certificates which return 10% tax free over 3 years or 21% tax free over 5 and a half years.

Imma

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #24 on: March 18, 2018, 06:04:26 AM »
The problem with where I live is that there is a dearth of high paying jobs. This is the crux of the problem. Ever since I started this thread, I've been pondering what I can do. I'm going to think about a role that I could create for myself and approach organisations with my ideas. If I didn't have children I could swan away to Europe and do translation work for a few years (which I don't really enjoy) and earn a decent amount of money. But the children are settled in their preschool/school, have their friends, their nice easy life. Even if they grow up with their lower-income mom here, the benefits to them in the long-run will be far greater. That's what I believe anyway.

I think you're right about that, so that's why I suggested looking into remote (work from home) jobs. It would allow you to stay where you are while earning a wage that could be higher than what you're currently earning and possibly also lower your child care expenses a bit. You have experience in freelance work and degrees that will look very good on your resume, even if you're looking to get into a different field.


Imma, thanks for these questions. I am embarrassed about how clueless I am about money. Let's see.. unemployment benefit is available to those without work. As far as I understand, I would have to give up Job 2 as well to be eligible for benefit, but to be honest, I'm not sure. I've thought about this option. I probably wouldn't be able to save any money if I was on unemployment benefit.

Retirement: I will get a State Pension, but that's very small. I went to a financial advisor a few years ago in my local bank after I separated and when he looked at my figures he said that I couldn't afford to pay into a pension at the time and advised me to take out life insurance instead which is what I did. At the time, I only had Job 1, so maybe now I could afford to do that. I don't get any pension with Job 1. No benefits whatsoever in that job. I think I'm paying something in Job 2 automatically. Thinking about retirement funds brings me out in a cold sweat. This forum is all about people retiring early whereas I'm facing a situation of never being able to retire. You talk about 'tax deferred retirement investing' and I understand the individual words but that's the extent of it. Do you think I should visit a financial planner who could guide me down a sensible path? I also have a brother in law who is very financially savvy. I'll have to call him...
Thank you VERY, VERY much for your post!

I think it's important to find out what you qualify for in state pension, from job nr 2 and possibly from pension schemes you've paid into in earlier jobs. Your BIL might be able to help you out if you don't know where you can find this information. You need to know if you have enough money to live on once you hit conventional retirement age. If you do, that will be a huge weight from your shoulders and you can start focusing on your life from now until conventional retirement. If you don't, you can calculate how much additional money you need. There are several ways to get income in retirement.

What people do on MMM is to put lots of money into tax deferred accounts and live off the proceeds (they don't touch the capital). I don't know if this exists in Ireland at all, in most European countries there are more limits on those type of accounts than in the US. The contributions to these accounts are taken from your gross wage (so you don't pay taxes over them) and they are then locked into the account until retirement. You only pay taxes when you are retired and by that time your income is usually lower, so you pay less taxes. Sometimes retirement accounts are also excluded from means-tested care and benefits. The specific details vary widely from country to country. If you want to be able to live only off the proceeds of your investments, you need a LOT of money invested. To get 40.000/year, you need a million. When you die, there will still be a million left. Obviously, if you're willing to spend down your money you need a lot less.

You talk about life insurance, do you know what kind of insurance that is? Is it a conventional life insurance where your heirs will get a certain amount if you die before a certain date? This would take care of your children if you would pass away while still young, but not help you out in retirement. There are other forms of life insurance that pay out while you're still alive, so this kind of policy would make sense as a form of retirement planning (although they're not popular on this forum because many of them have high fees)

If I were you, I would educate myself a bit more about financial matters before deciding to see an advisor again. There are very good advisors, but also very bad ones. Some advisors might not be impartial, because they have ties to insurance companies or banks. You need to understand the basics, so you can ask questions to advisors and to be able to distinguish between good and bad advice. But I  don't think you're doing badly at all, so you shouldn't beat yourself up over that. You're a single mother, you're the breadwinner of your family, you don't have any debts, you have some savings. You have a state pension and probably a small company pension as well. You're in a stable living situation. You went to university and got your degrees. The education of your children is taken care of. You can always do better, but you certainly could have done much, much worse.

snacky

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #25 on: March 18, 2018, 06:30:50 AM »
Your choices have been driven, if I am reading your posts right, by a lot of emotion. A sense of failure for not owning a home, too much pride to accept help, guilt for leaving your ex, etc. Emotions are awesome and should be taken seriously, but are also a shitty basis for financial decisions. You're boxing yourself in with these self-imposed limitations.
Pretend you are advising a friend, and look for rational rather than emotional reasons for your choices. A new perspective might be helpful.

I have a friend with an education similar to yours. She lives in rural Canada and does course development for distance education at a university. Are jobs like that out there?

The airbnb idea seems interesting. Have you explored the nuts and bolts of it?

As one low income single mom to another, I wish you so much luck.

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #26 on: March 18, 2018, 09:33:44 AM »
@snacky @Imma @former player and everyone else who's posted on here -  I've made a list of your questions/suggestions and I'm going to go away and find out the answers as they pertain to Ireland. I'm going to post again once I know more and you might cast a glance over my reasoning to see if it makes sense.
I'm also brainstorming the 'get a more secure job' part of the equation.
Thanks for the kind encouragement.

ysette9

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #27 on: March 18, 2018, 12:58:20 PM »
I applaud your great attitude and your approach to chipping away at this. I look forward to your updates.

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #28 on: March 18, 2018, 04:21:48 PM »
@ysette9 Thank you!

chickinyow

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #29 on: March 19, 2018, 02:18:16 PM »
From reading your posts, it seems your "pride" is getting in the way of doing what might be best for you financially/security wise. You have parents that are more than happy to gift you with the house you are living in, but you don't want to feel like a "failure". I think living with financial uncertainty and stress is much more of a failure, and is bad for your well being. If your siblings are worried about everything being equal that is one issue, but I get the feeling it is more you being worried about that. I know that I would not care if my siblings got things of higher value than I did if they needed it more than me. You are highly educated, so not a failure in that respect. You have a nice family, so not a failure in that respect either. You have a good relationship with your ex, so not a failure in that aspect. It sounds like there really aren't high paying jobs where you choose to live, so that isn't your failure - that is a fact. And, high paying jobs tend to be in high COL areas too - so you wouldn't necessarily be that much further ahead.

Would you consider your children to be failures if they accepted the help you offered them with an open heart and mind? I bet you wouldn't.

havregryn

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #30 on: March 19, 2018, 02:32:31 PM »
Anic, if you can translate from English and ideally something else into Gaelic, the EU is desperate to give you money. For a full time job it would be necessary to move to Brussels or Luxembourg, but I am sure there is tons of freelancing work.
I can send you some links and hints if this is actually the case (I'm not sure what languages you can work with, it doesn't say anywhere specifically or I missed it).
I don't really know much about freelancing gigs but I have a vague idea of how to find out.

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #31 on: March 19, 2018, 04:12:50 PM »
From reading your posts, it seems your "pride" is getting in the way of doing what might be best for you financially/security wise. You have parents that are more than happy to gift you with the house you are living in, but you don't want to feel like a "failure". I think living with financial uncertainty and stress is much more of a failure, and is bad for your well being. If your siblings are worried about everything being equal that is one issue, but I get the feeling it is more you being worried about that. I know that I would not care if my siblings got things of higher value than I did if they needed it more than me. You are highly educated, so not a failure in that respect. You have a nice family, so not a failure in that respect either. You have a good relationship with your ex, so not a failure in that aspect. It sounds like there really aren't high paying jobs where you choose to live, so that isn't your failure - that is a fact. And, high paying jobs tend to be in high COL areas too - so you wouldn't necessarily be that much further ahead.

Would you consider your children to be failures if they accepted the help you offered them with an open heart and mind? I bet you wouldn't.

i wouldn't think them failures at all Chickinyow! You're absolutely right. I do have a problem with not being able to buy my own house, it does bother me. Maybe it's a cultural thing. And as for my siblings, they wouldn't blink an eye about the house. But anyway, that's not going to happen. I won't take the house for nothing. So I'll just keep renting until such time as I can buy it! Wish me luck.
And I do recognise that other areas of my life are very good. In the last few years I felt like a tsunami had hit my life through having two kids quickly who didn't sleep until they were 2 (both of them), my marriage ending, feeling absolutely awful about that and so on. But now the wave has passed and I feel content. The kids are a joy to me and I love my work and where I am in life generally. The only goddamn problem is financial. And writing this case study is an opportunity for me to take all that worry that has been in the back of my mind out into the daylight for examination and just get to grips with it. And having these knowledgable voices out there in the internet join in with me is just amazing!

Suze456

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #32 on: March 19, 2018, 04:48:42 PM »
MABS would be able to give advice on social welfare entitlements (and budgeting but you seem to have that fairly sorted)
 Lots of cartoons (and ads :( ) on Youtube if you ever had to get rid of Netflix. Showbox is free too, I think. And RTE player.
There are translating jobs that can be done online, just not sure how you get them!

 Ádh mór

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #33 on: March 19, 2018, 05:10:14 PM »
Many, many people work as translators 100% remotely -- what languages can you translate at a professional level?  Interpretation is typically higher paying, mostly done on-site, but there might be ways to do that, too using tech.

In specialized fields like yours you need to develop a network to make your employment options more diverse/secure.  If the main contract you are working on is in jeopardy, this might be the time to start seeking out other opportunities.  Even if it means paying more to have care for your children covered, the additional contracts/income will give you more stability if the main contract goes under.

I believe @havregryn works for the EU and may have suggestions of how to develop contacts/contracts there.

It would be a huge adjustment for you and the kids but you might want to look into international teaching as an option.  Many international schools will provide housing and schooling for the kids of their teachers, plus a decent salary that you can usually save a good percentage of if you are willing to live a more local lifestyle.  If you have a teaching qualification it is easier to get into the better schools -- if not then you probably would have to start out teaching ESL.
Anic, if you can translate from English and ideally something else into Gaelic, the EU is desperate to give you money. For a full time job it would be necessary to move to Brussels or Luxembourg, but I am sure there is tons of freelancing work.
I can send you some links and hints if this is actually the case (I'm not sure what languages you can work with, it doesn't say anywhere specifically or I missed it).
I don't really know much about freelancing gigs but I have a vague idea of how to find out.


Wow. Great information there. I work with Irish (Gaelic). I speak a little French and Spanish but not enough for translation. I know people who translate legal documents for the EU. One is going to take up a high paying job in Brussels and I think the other only goes over occasionally - I'll ask him what exactly he does. As for interpretation, I could never do that. I totally admire anyone with that skill. It's beyond me.
I never seriously considered translation as a career. I've done a lot of it over the years as part of my various jobs and it's something that I do a bit of every day in both my current jobs - translating policies, press-releases, minutes, adverts etc but that's only an add-on part of my roles. I like it in small doses.
@havregryn links and hints would be good! Thank you!
@lhamo you mentioned teaching - I spent about 11 years teaching Irish to adults in Dublin but I don't have a teaching qualification for primary or secondary schools so I don't think I could teach abroad. I taught English for a few months in South America when I was around 21  - a couple of lifetimes ago! That's the sum of my experience there. During those years in Dublin, I was very interested in teaching Irish to adults and I did my MPhil in Applied Linguistics which was a nice theoretical background to have and I was freelancing for lots of different institutions and eventually settled with a company which was just starting up, designing classes, syllabuses, courses and also teaching for them. It's hard to explain what working in Irish is like - there are so few of us native speakers that I ended up involved in all sorts of side things - the occasional recordings or narrations, literacy projects - I had to translate to some extent every day. Anyway, it was great and I enjoyed it. But then I wanted to move away from learners of the language and instead move home to the community of Irish speakers here. So I did an MA in Language Planning beforehand. The community I live in is in major shift towards English and is a totally different linguistic context than when I was growing up here. And I wanted to do work that supported native speakers rather than/as well as learners. If anyone from here is reading this, they'll know exactly who I am from all the history I've posted here! So I won't go into too much detail about my jobs except to say that in both instances, they were new roles that had a brief attached but actually I had a lot of input into what direction to go. I can create projects and do new things. There's a lot of variety. I like that.
A plus for me, in my situation, is that through my jobs, I have a lot of contact with people in different organisations, so if something comes up elsewhere, I'll hear about it. There doesn't seem to be much happening these days, unfortunately so, we'll see. Something always comes up...

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #34 on: March 19, 2018, 05:11:27 PM »
Anic, if you can translate from English and ideally something else into Gaelic, the EU is desperate to give you money. For a full time job it would be necessary to move to Brussels or Luxembourg, but I am sure there is tons of freelancing work.
I can send you some links and hints if this is actually the case (I'm not sure what languages you can work with, it doesn't say anywhere specifically or I missed it).
I don't really know much about freelancing gigs but I have a vague idea of how to find out.

THANK YOU for responding to my batsignal - that is such an awesome new feature of the forums  -- and for being so generous with your knowledge and connections!  I figured you would be, but you never know.


Thank you from me too!

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #35 on: March 19, 2018, 05:14:02 PM »
MABS would be able to give advice on social welfare entitlements (and budgeting but you seem to have that fairly sorted)
 Lots of cartoons (and ads :( ) on Youtube if you ever had to get rid of Netflix. Showbox is free too, I think. And RTE player.
There are translating jobs that can be done online, just not sure how you get them!

 Ádh mór

I never heard of Showbox - great tip! You're right, I could get rid of Netflix. Go raibh maith agat!

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #36 on: March 20, 2018, 04:44:15 AM »
Really cool field to be working in -- I hope you can find a way to keep doing what you are doing and get paid for it!  I did a Ph.D. in anthropology and my research focused on the revival of mother-tongue education in Tibetan communities in China -- socio-linguistic situation there is somewhat better than in many traditional language communities, but the political and economic situation makes it very precarious.  So much pressure to abandon Tibetan in favor of Chinese.   Language is such a core aspect of culture, though, and so much is lost when young people don't master their mother tongue.  Your community is lucky to have you working to keep the language going....

Wow @Ihamo , that's fascinating! Mother-tongue education in Tibetan communities in China - I'd read your phD!

havregryn

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #37 on: March 20, 2018, 09:47:04 AM »
I actually think that one problem with getting freelance gigs for translating Irish is the fact that because it is so difficult to get that service, a lot of procedures are designed around avoiding having to get an Irish version.
Like, I see now that the Court of Justice, which I know has constantly open calls for freelancers, doesn't do Irish at all. And that is probably because they had to get a derogation because it was simply impossible to find someone to reliably do this.
You should probably try to look around and see if there are any major agencies doing work for the EU. To get a vendor contract with them yourself you will need to have substantial experience so you need to start with an agency.
Also, a good place to start is https://www.proz.com/
You can make a profile there and then you will get contacted by agencies who are preparing EU tenders. Some pay ridiculously little but you need to get your foot in the door somehow.
Ironically, you need way more verifiable experience to work as a freelancer than to work as staff, but that is because to be hired as staff you need to pass a lot of tests (the whole procedure lasts 2 years almost). They care more about the testing they do than your actual previous experience for that, but to get a direct contract as an individual providing outsourced translations you need a lot of references.
I think translation is definitely an ideal remote job. The only downside is that there is a lot of competition constantly pulling down prices (but not for Irish I'm sure!) and that within decades, computers will be doing it (maybe not literary translation but that is not where you make money now either).

anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #38 on: March 22, 2018, 09:18:02 AM »
I actually think that one problem with getting freelance gigs for translating Irish is the fact that because it is so difficult to get that service, a lot of procedures are designed around avoiding having to get an Irish version.
Like, I see now that the Court of Justice, which I know has constantly open calls for freelancers, doesn't do Irish at all. And that is probably because they had to get a derogation because it was simply impossible to find someone to reliably do this.
You should probably try to look around and see if there are any major agencies doing work for the EU. To get a vendor contract with them yourself you will need to have substantial experience so you need to start with an agency.
Also, a good place to start is https://www.proz.com/
You can make a profile there and then you will get contacted by agencies who are preparing EU tenders. Some pay ridiculously little but you need to get your foot in the door somehow.
Ironically, you need way more verifiable experience to work as a freelancer than to work as staff, but that is because to be hired as staff you need to pass a lot of tests (the whole procedure lasts 2 years almost). They care more about the testing they do than your actual previous experience for that, but to get a direct contract as an individual providing outsourced translations you need a lot of references.
I think translation is definitely an ideal remote job. The only downside is that there is a lot of competition constantly pulling down prices (but not for Irish I'm sure!) and that within decades, computers will be doing it (maybe not literary translation but that is not where you make money now either).

@havregryn  Thanks a lot for this information and being so generous with your insights. I'm hoping that I won't have to start translating professionally. Since I last posted here, I've been talking to people in work and thinking about different projects that I can do along with Job 2 and I feel that there will be enough of a flow of work to keep me covering my expenses and so on. Obviously, that's not a long term solution. But it is a short term one. I have also applied for a full-time, pensionable, higher paying job - because miracles of miracles, one came up, just like that. BUT I'm not getting excited about it yet because I'm not an exact fit for it. I'll report back...

I also found about a few more financial facts like that the state pension will be worth 11k a year to me once I'm 67. The pension payments I make in Job 2 will not be worth much since the salary is so small. There are no such things as tax deferred accounts here in Ireland, apparently. And I have found out about a possible low cost pension provider.

For the moment, I'm going to see how the rest of this year pans out. And if I get a higher paying job, I'll be back for advice on how to get the most from my money.

In the meantime, thanks to one and all. You've managed to concentrate my mind and offer great support from a distance.

reeshau

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #39 on: March 23, 2018, 10:40:32 AM »
There are no such things as tax deferred accounts here in Ireland, apparently. And I have found out about a possible low cost pension provider.

anic,
Are you talking about getting a PRSA?  If so, I think these are one-and-the-same.  While the costs will be high relative to what this board would like, it's an available mechanism.  (all investing costs seem high in Ireland, compared to the US)

https://www.ccpc.ie/consumers/money/pensions/personal-pension-plans-and-prsas/


anic

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Re: How to escape low-income life on tiny savings?
« Reply #40 on: March 25, 2018, 04:05:13 PM »
There are no such things as tax deferred accounts here in Ireland, apparently. And I have found out about a possible low cost pension provider.

anic,
Are you talking about getting a PRSA?  If so, I think these are one-and-the-same.  While the costs will be high relative to what this board would like, it's an available mechanism.  (all investing costs seem high in Ireland, compared to the US)

https://www.ccpc.ie/consumers/money/pensions/personal-pension-plans-and-prsas/

Thanks a mill for the link!