Making your money work for you

Self-employed Certified Financial Planning Professional Kevin Bouchier is available for all of your financial queries, no matter what stage of life you are at.

With over five years of experience under his belt working in financial services with Irish Life in Dublin, Kevin moved home to Arva in 2023 and started out on his own, in partnership with Irish Life.

“Often times it’s just a conversation with people but it’s really about understanding earnings and your income,” he said.

“Your gross on the left side doesn’t match up the net that you take home and it’s having conversations with people and saying what’s the best way to utilise the money that you are earning, reduce your tax liability and then grow that in a very tax efficient manner.”

The financial services and advice he provides help businesses and individuals to “plan for a better future” and “make the most of their money”.

“Some of the local companies will have auto enrolment [pensions] coming down the tracks soon and they’re unsure of what they need to do or what they should do. There could be a mix of both, they could have a personal pension scheme facilitated through payroll for your managers and your senior staff, while others may just automatically be enrolled come September.

“It’s giving people more control and flexibility over their retirement plan by making their own decisions and not just leaving it up to the State to fund the State pension.”

Free consultation

An initial consultation with Kevin is free. Having noticed that Irish people “in general seem to be kind of financially illiterate”, he says you can “bounce ideas” off financial planning professionals like him.

“It often comes down to, what do you like to do? What’s valuable to you? What’s important to you? Often times money will come down to it and will allow people to do certain activities.

“You’re making sure that when you stop working, you’re going to have some form of income on top of the State pension.”

Kevin said “the earlier you start” putting plans in place, the more comfortable you will be in retirement.

“Sometimes not taking as much now will help you in the future when you’re saving it, if you do stop working there’s not a significant drop in your income in retirement.”

He believes paying into a pension fund and making investments “go hand in hand”.

“It’s [a pension] a no brainer if the employer is making a contribution,” he said.

“The short-term savings, if it goes into deposit accounts or something that’s not going to generate a return over the long term, that money is actually losing value,” he pointed out.

“I feel that younger people who are no longer buying assets and getting on to the property ladder and are saving their money in cash and in deposits, they’re the ones really missing out because inflation is just eating away into the value of their savings plans.

“Investing short term is volatile. It’s very hard if you want to buy a house in three years time realistically the investment markets are volatile and there’s no guarantee that that’s going to be worth more than if you invested versus if you saved it in deposits.

“But if you’re taking a 20-year term or 15-year term and you have money sitting aside, well then you should be investing in some way while saving in the long term.”

Contact

For financial advice, you can contact Kevin on 087-3492889 or by email at kevin.bouchier@fcd.irishlife.ie.

“Anybody can give me a call or send me an email or a WhatsApp and I’ll point them in the right direction,” he advised.