Books

Your Money or Your Life – a transformational book to get you to look at money differently. Even after thousands of hours or reading about FIRE, I still learned something about finances from this book. It is inspirational and has a nice mix of the psychology of money, how to align spending to bring you the most happiness and a step by step process to getting in control of your finances. I also like that it mixes in concepts of minimalism, environmentalism and social responsibility. I wrote a more detailed review/summary here if you’re interested.

Financial Freedom – The story of Grant Sabatier who went from 0$ to 1 million in 5 years. This book gives great tips on how to get the most out of your working years, how to ask for a raise and ideas for side hustles to speed up your time to financial independence. It is US-focused but still a nice read with some key takeaways applicable to anywhere.

Quit Like a Millionaire – The story of Kristy Chen of Millennial Revolution and her guide to getting to financial independence. It is a very easy read with a human story to follow throughout. I particularly liked the chapter on the psychology of money and what actually happens in our brains when we spend money. Some great tips on how to create a sustainable budget without feeling deprived. Also US/Canada focused but a lot of generic advice as well.

Blogs

Millennial Revolution – This is the blog that introduced me to FIRE so has to get a mention here. It’s one of the only blogs I’ve subscribed to and almost always read every post. They have a nice mix of travel (pre-COVID), philosophical, economics, how-tos and reader cases where they review reader’s situations and analyse the best approach for them to get to financial independence. The husband can be a bit abrasive and comes across as cocky at times but if you can look past that, the content is solid.

Jillian Johnsrud – If anyone says they can’t become financially dependent for one reason or another, Jillian is the woman to inspire them. She has 2 biological kids and 4 adopted kids. One of whom tragically died at 20. Jillian shares her journey, her successes and her failures, she is raw and inspirational. She has a free email course on intentional living and how to design your best life – well worth signing up for if you’re into the more philosophical side of FIRE.

Podcasts

Financial Freedom – Grant Sabatier interviews other well-known finance bloggers/podcasters/writers. He also shares his own reflections on life after early retirement, what he would have done differently and how he is adjusting to life without needing to work for money.

Irish Content

• The Irish FIRE Podcast
• FIRE Dave
• Financial Independence Ireland
• An Irish Investors Guide
• Ignite my FIRE
• Informed Decisions Podcast
• Frugal Personal Finance
• Firehub.eu – not exactly Irish but a good source of European blogs on FIRE. They used to have a newsletter which was really great at highlighting popular posts but that seems to have stopped of late.

Some, but not all, of the below tools include affiliate links where I will get a small commission if you sign up. I only include tools I use and love so if you sign up, it will be a great support for me and the content on this blog.

Investing

Degiro – The online trading platform I use for non-pension self-directed investing (ie: my ETF portfolio). As usual do not invest money you can’t live without. Investing involves risk of loss.

Banking

Bonkers.ie – Depending on your banking habits (minimum through-put, minimum balance, number of contactless payments, number of ATM withdrawals etc), different bank accounts may suit you better. This comparison tool is handy to figure out which works out best for you.

Revolut – This is an online bank account. They are great for avoiding non-euro transaction fees (which I use for Amazon and other UK purchases) and other online purchases.

I considered using it as my main account but ruled against it for a few reasons. The biggest consideration is that I don’t think they are regulated in the same way as brick and mortar banks so if the company goes bankrupt, any money you have in the account is not protected. Smaller consideration is that there is no facility to lodge cheques (we still get the odd one, like from older relatives for wedding and baby gifts). I suppose you could use a friends bank to lodge them and have them transfer but the deposit protection thing is still an issue.

Utilities

Electricity/Gas/Broadband/Mobile/Insurance

Bonkers.ie – I use this tool to compare gas and electricity every year. It’s best if you look up your annual usage to put into the tool, an easy way to do this is to look at the “actual” readings on your first bill of the year and then look at the final bill of the year that has “actual” readings (rather than estimates). I have found the online reporting tools by various providers aren’t accurate and then retention teams quote off different figures to try and convince you into staying. I have a spreadsheet which includes standing order charges and VAT rates etc so that I can compare the full picture when being quoted various deals from retention.

This site also includes Insurance comparisons (Life, mortgage protection, serious illness and health), and broadband comparisons.

Switcher.ie – This is similar to bonkers.ie but doesn’t cover insurance or banking comparisons but does cover mobile, broadband (inc TV), and gas/electricity.

Mobile phone

We buy our phones outright and try to make them last as long as possible. This allows us to have SIM only packages. I currently use An Post (they use Vodafone’s network so I have found the coverage quite good) and pay 20€/month for 7GB and 250 minutes and texts. My husband uses Eir as he gets access to the Eir sports package on his phone (since we don’t have cable) and 30GB of data and unlimited calls and texts for 30€. These are 30 day contracts or pay as you go type deals.

There is a new company called GOMO (owned by Eir) who also offer unlimited calls, texts and data for 13€/month. 30 day rolling contract and port your number. Mixed reviews of customer service so holding off on switching to this for a bit.

TV

Netflix

Internet

We’ve been with Vodafone for a good few years as we always seem to get good deals with them. Though you need to call and ask. We upgraded to fibre this year and now pay an average of 37.5€ for 12 months. 30€ for 6 months, then 45€ thereafter.

Library

The library is an amazing resource that so often gets forgotten about. No longer just for books. When our son was born I bought a few board books and just assumed the library wouldn’t have any due to the slobbery nature of little ones but they have a great little selection. They also have printing facilities and events for teens, parents like book readings (all pre-lockdown). I also recently discovered that you can gain FREE access to magazines and publications on your phone using your library card. Download the press reader app, select your local library, enter your library card number and create a password. Access a wide range of popular magazines including Forbes, Men’s Health, Style at home, House beautiful, Highlights for kids and many more. If they don’t have a book you’re looking for, you can put in a request and they will order it in for you. They also have some digital content like DVD’s, music, audiobooks etc.

Online Shopping

Honey – A Chrome add-on which automatically searches for discount codes. You save money on purchases you were going to make anyway. You also gain points from certain websites (like booking.com) which you can exchange for vouchers for places like Amazon.

Parcel Motel – A great option for getting products off Amazon that don’t deliver to Ireland. Parcel Motel gives you a UK address and they deliver to a location near you (usually at petrol stations). Just be careful of orders which don’t group items together as you could end up paying for multiple parcel motel stays for 1 Amazon order. I’ve been burned by this before. Even though you select “group items together”, sometimes the items are coming from different warehouses and grouping is not possible. Anyway, parcel motel costs 3.95€/package so a great option if it’s something you really can’t get at home.

Mortgage

CPCC mortgage comparison – A great website for comparing mortgage rates come renewal time. They also have mortgage calculators which I use for a lot of my analysis when considering investment property costs or paying lumps off my mortgage etc.

If you apply the lump sum section it shows you how much your monthly payments will be reduced by, by the lump sum while keeping your mortgage term the same length. If you apply the extra monthly payments it shows you how many years your mortgage will be reduced by and how much less interest you will pay.

Expense Tracking

YNAB – This is the tool I use for expense tracking. It allows you to split expenses so I can easily track expenses between my husband and myself. It also allows multiple budgets for different currencies. The reports are handy too.

I used to use the desktop version which had a once off fee but now they’ve moved to a cloud based paid subscription of 84$/year (~75€). I struggled with this cost but I’ve also struggled to find an alternative that suits my needs. A way to make this easier to swallow is to convert the cost into your hourly wage and see if it will save at least that amount of time per year in maintenance as it has the auto syncing and our historical transactions from the desktop version.

That said, the only Irish bank that supports simpler imports is Ulster Bank. However, their current account fees are exorbitant, so updating does take a bit of file preparation. Apparently, Oath is on the way which is a secure method of auto-syncing with bank accounts so that feature may be coming in the new year.

Some other FIer’s use an app called Pocketsmith which has auto bank sync using the Salt Edge function. However, I haven’t figured out how to track expenses in it where I assign a certain portion to my husband and another portion to myself. You can split expenses but only into different categories and not between people as far as I can see, the reporting visuals were not as intuitive as YNAB so I ruled this one out.

Travel – Accommodation

Air B’n’B – Great site for finding cheaper accommodation. If you don’t already have an account – get 41€ off your first trip!

Booking.com – Another great accommodation site. I usually compare between both Air B’n’B and Booking.com. As mentioned above, if you use the Honey chrome-extension you can earn points which you can convert to Amazon vouchers. So far I’ve earned 40£ just by booking accommodation I would have booked anyway.

Travel – Fights

Google Flights – One of the quickest easiest ways to find flights with easy search filters for max duration, stop overs, price etc. Also really handy to explore destinations by putting in one or two starting airports and seeing where you can get to for little money. Great if you are just getting ideas of where you want to go, or where it’s cheap to get to from your airport. They also have price tracking notifications so you can be notified when prices increase or drop if you have a specific flight/date in mind.

Skyscanner – Similar to Google Flights, easy to search multiple airlines and sometimes has better prices than Google Flights.

Travel – Getting Around

Google Maps – Google Maps is great for showing how to get around a new place. It includes public transport, walking and even Uber prices and times. Street view is also a great way to explore an area before you get there.

Rome2Rio – Sometimes better at the public transport options than Google Maps. It even shows much longer journey price and booking options from country to country.

Ex-pat/Cross-border Tax Advice

ETSI – A great resource for cross border tax advice as well as other personal tax matters.

Income tax calculator

PWC tax calculator – I use this tool ALL the time for my analysis on take home after taxes based on various scenarios. It’s great as it takes into account various credits and pension contributions etc.

Investing

Questrade – The online trading platform I use for RRSP, TFSA and non-registered trading.

Online Shopping

Honey – A Chrome add-on which automatically searches for discount codes. You save money on purchases you were going to make anyway and also gain points from certain websites (like booking.com) which you can exchange for vouchers for places like Amazon.

Mortgage

Ratehub.ca – A great website for comparing mortgage rates come renewal time. They also compare bank accounts, GIC investments, home and life insurance and credit cards.

Expense Tracking

YNAB – This is the tool I use for expense tracking. It allows you to split expenses so I can easily track expenses between my husband and myself. They sync with your bank account as well so keeping it up to date is easy (for Canadian accounts at least). The reports are handy too. I used to use the desktop version which had a once off fee but now they’ve moved to a cloud based paid subscription of 84$/year. I struggled with this cost but I’ve also struggled to find an alternative that suits my needs. I also convert the cost into my hourly wage and figure it will save at least that amount of time per year in maintenance as it has the auto syncing and our historical transactions from the desktop version.

Travel – Accommodation

Air B’n’B – If you don’t already have an account – get 60$ off your first trip!

Booking.com – Great site for finding cheaper accommodation. I usually compare between both Air B’n’B and Booking.com. As mentioned above, if you use the Honey chrome-extension you can earn points which you can convert to Amazon vouchers. So far I’ve earned 40£ just by booking accommodation I would have booked anyway.

Travel – Fights

Google Flights – One of the quickest easiest ways to find flights with easy search filters for max duration, stop overs, price etc. Also really handy to explore destinations by putting in one or two starting airports and seeing where you can get to for little money. Great if you are just getting ideas of where you want to go, or where it’s cheap to get to from your airport. They also have price tracking notifications so you can be notified when prices increase or drop if you have a specific flight/date in mind.

Skyscanner – Similar to Google Flights, easy to search multiple airlines and sometimes has better prices than Google Flights.

Travel – Getting Around

Google Maps – Google Maps is great for showing how to get around a new place, it includes public transport, walking and even Uber prices and times. Street view is also a great way to explore an area before you get there.

Rome2Rio – Sometimes better at the public transport options than Google Maps and even shows much longer journey price and booking options from country to country.

Ex-pat/Cross-border Tax Advice

Trowbridge – When I was struggling to make heads or tails of the non-residents tax filing requirements for rental income from abroad, I received extremely helpful.