Irish happy to live now... and pay the price later

WE want the good life now and rate living for the moment more highly than paying off debts, saving for their twilight years or leaving an inheritance for the children.

A new Europe-wide poll into attitudes to money also found the Irish have the highest levels of trust in Europe in their financial institutions despite a series of banking scandals.

Consumer think-tank the Future Foundation polled 16,319 people across Europe about their attitudes to saving, debt and taking on financial obligations.

The survey, for which 502 respondents were from Ireland, showed 50% of Irish consumers ranked enjoying a good life as important when it came to juggling finances.

Just 25% rated paying off debts as most important with 20% citing saving for retirement and 10% saying leaving an inheritance.

In keeping with the dash for SSIA savings accounts over the last five years, the Irish are now among Europe’s best savers regularly putting away 11% of our disposable income.

One-in-three Irish savers is just putting money away for a rainy day while one-in-four do so for holidays or travelling while one-in-10 save for a big expense like a wedding or buying a house.

While their European counterparts tend to borrow chiefly for home improvements or to buy a car, 38% of Irish respondents said they borrowed “to buy the things they want”. One-in-eight cited buying a car as the chief reason for a loan, while just 8% borrowed to improve their homes.

The pollsters also found Irish consumers were the third most likely in Europe to do their homework before opening bank accounts, taking out loans or investing their money.

Despite the preference for living in the here and now, Irish consumers were way ahead of the European average in their belief that planning for retirement was important.

Of those asked about the importance of making sure they had more than one income in retirement, 94% of Irish consumers said it was important compared to a European average of 69%.