How To Invest Your Pension at 50 (Make €1m extra in 10 years!?)
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
Release Date: 10/20/2025
72% One Country: Is Your Irish Pension Actually Diversified?
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
If you hold an Irish pension or an ARF invested in a global equity index fund, you have almost certainly been told you are diversified: Thousands of companies, dozens of countries, one fund, job done. And it is true: your global index fund really does hold well over a thousand companies across more than twenty developed markets. But there is a second truth sitting right beside it. As at the end of June 2026, roughly 72.45% of that same "global" fund is allocated to a single country: The United States. Same fund, same name, same low-cost passive approach and yet quietly a very different animal...
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Should You Take Your Pension Lump Sum at 60? A Worked Irish Case Study
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
Turning 60 with a significant pension pot and nothing forcing your hand? This episode is a worked case study on the pension lump sum decision at 60 in Ireland: Take the tax-free lump sum now, or leave the fund invested and revisit it at 65. Paddy goes through a study-case: Larry is 60, a senior private-sector executive, with €1.4 million in a defined contribution scheme. He doesn't exist. The numbers do. What you'll learn in this Episode: How the retirement lump sum is actually taxed in Ireland: the first €200,000 tax-free as a lifetime limit across all schemes, the 20% band to...
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Private Credit in Ireland: Can You Actually Get Your Money Out?
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
There is a pitch doing the rounds in Irish advice circles at the moment: private markets have finally been democratised, and private credit and private equity are now open to anyone with a decent pension pot. But is it really like that? In this episode, Paddy looks at what is actually being sold, and at the one feature that matters more than anything else in the brochure, because liquidity here is offered, not guaranteed. Have a listen, if you’d like to get an idea of what these ‘zombie funds’ in the private markets sector are all about, what your ARF has to do with them, and what...
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Bucket vs. Total Return - Retirement Withdrawal Strategies for Investors in Ireland
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
If you’ve built a pension pot of €1m or more, you’ve almost certainly thought about how you’ll invest it in retirement. What a bunch of people haven’t thought through properly is how they’ll actually take the money out: that decision, not the fund selection, is often what determines whether your ARF supports you comfortably for thirty years, or gives you a fright in year eight. After his well deserved holiday, in this episode Paddy talks about retirement withdrawal strategies for an Irish ARF: the bucket strategy versus the total return strategy, and why the choice works...
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Strategic Giving - Philanthropy in Ireland: A Conversation With Community Foundation CEO, Denise Charlton
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
Most people spend decades building wealth and never quite get to the second question: not how do I protect this, but what do I actually want it to do? On this episode, Paddy Delaney talks to Denise Charlton, CEO of Community Foundation Ireland, about strategic philanthropy in Ireland. How it actually works, and where to start. What you'll learn: How a Donor Advised Fund works in Ireland, and why the entry point is lower than most assume (€25,000–€50,000) The difference between ad-hoc giving and strategic philanthropy How tax relief and Capital Acquisitions Tax exemptions apply to...
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Simplicity Is The Ultimate Sophistication (Replay)
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
This one was recorded a while back (in 2024), but the argument hasn't dated a day, if anything, it holds up better now than when we first put it out. A of complexity in Irish pension and investment advice isn't there to help you. It's there to help the person selling it. In this episode, Paddy explains why simplicity almost always beats sophistication when it comes to your pension and investment planning, and what a genuinely simple structure actually looks like. What you'll learn: ● Why financial firms are often incentivised to make your pension and investments more complicated than...
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Sequence of Returns Risk: Same ARF. Same Return. Totally Different Outcome
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
Two people can retire with the same ARF, the same average return, and the same withdrawal rate and still end up in completely different places. One leaves over €1m to his family. The other runs out of money before he turns 88. The only difference is the order in which the returns arrived. In this episode, Paddy breaks down sequence of returns risk in Ireland. The risk that gets far less attention than fund performance or pot size, but can matter more than either. What you'll learn: • Why sequence of returns doesn't matter at all while you're still accumulating • Why the first ten years...
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Enduring Power of Attorney in Ireland With Áine Flynn: Who Can Act If You Can’t?
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
An Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) is the planning step most Irish adults never get to. Only around 8% have one, against roughly a third who’ve made a will. Yet if you lost capacity tomorrow, it’s the document that decides whether the people you trust can actually act for you, or whether your family ends up in front of the Circuit Court. Paddy Delaney is joined by Áine Flynn, Director of Ireland’s Decision Support Service, for a clear, practical conversation about planning ahead. If you’re approaching retirement with assets to protect, this one matters. For more information about...
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Should You Reduce Investment Risk Before Retirement?
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
As you get closer to retirement, move your money to safer investments. It sounds reasonable. But what if that one piece of conventional wisdom could cost you €80,000 or more? In this episode, Paddy unpacks one of the most consequential (and most overlooked) investment decisions you’ll make: whether to reduce investment risk before you retire. For a lot of Irish pension holders, this decision has already been made for them automatically, through something called lifestyling often without their knowledge or consent. Paddy works through the two opposing risks at the heart of the decision:...
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Pension Drawdown Above €2M: The €243,000 Timing Decision (SFT Ireland)
Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast
If your pension is approaching or has passed €2 million, the question is no longer just how to grow it, it's how to generate income without handing a significant portion to Revenue unnecessarily. The Standard Fund Threshold in Ireland rose to €2.2 million in January 2026, and the decisions you make in the next few years will determine how much of that headroom you actually use. In this episode, Paddy covers the income strategies that matter most at the SFT level. If your pension is approaching €1.5 million or more, this episode is for you. • Why timing your Benefit Crystallisation...
info_outlineIn this week's podcast, I talk about investing your pension at 50.
Turning 50 is a wake-up call for your pension.
It’s not about panic - it’s about planning smart.
Here’s what matters most:
Key Points:
• At 50, your goals shift — you’re closer to retirement, but growth still counts.
• Review your pension funds now: what’s in equities, bonds, or cash?
• Rebalance gradually.
• Diversify — global funds, low costs, and no guesswork.
• Check old company pensions. Consolidate only if it saves on fees or boosts control.
• Understand your tax position — up to 25% tax-free lump sum (max €200k).
• Know your retirement routes: ARF for flexibility, annuity for certainty.
• Independent financial planning helps avoid big mistakes — and stress!
I hope it helps.