Irish Financial Independence & Personal Finance Podcast

Thursday 5th February 2026

Has Ireland really gotten that much more expensive in the last eight years?

We arrived back in Ireland on the 18th of January - I think my youngest child summed it up best, as he arrived back into Dublin in his shorts, t-shirt and bucket hat “is it still winter here?”, he says, with a very disappointed look on his face.

It has been tough settling back into an Irish winter, dealing with Jetlag and heading back to the school routine and work again after four weeks off.

We had a wonderful time in New Zealand. We saw old friends, spent quality time with family and got to experience New Zealand in a way that we hadn’t before. We had saved up a lot for the trip, and as a result, went in with a big budget. It was lovely to stay at quality accommodation, hire nicer cars and take part in fun paid activities that in the past we might have tried to avoid.

We ended up spending approximately €14,000 on the trip. This included €7,000 on the flights to New Zealand and another €850 on domestic flights between the islands. The actual day to day living there surprised us. When we were last in New Zealand, it was very expensive. At the time, I recall saying to friends it was twice as expensive as Ireland. This time around, it was strangely different.

The Euro had strengthened since we were last there, which helped alright, but I don’t think this was why it felt cheaper. We were just more prepared and by this, I mean financially prepared. We went in assuming that it would be expensive, so we had budgeted for it. When we were last in New Zealand, it was just before we started our FIRE journey. We were clueless. We hadn’t yet mastered the power of saving, and hadn’t planned for the trip like we did this time.

This time, we were prepared. Too prepared. We saved more than we could spend, even with us trying. We brought friends out for meals, ate out loads, went to theme parks, and all sorts of amazing attractions. We stayed at 5 bedroom accommodation on AirBnB with big American fridges with ocean views. We lived like we were rich for three weeks - and do you know what we discovered? Even with a big daily budget, and more than enough money to spend, we still didn’t have the energy or desire to spend it all. After a certain point, the extra money is meaningless. At some point in the day, we just wanted to sit around at our accommodation and relax, or go to the beach instead of another trip to a bakery, or spend time with friends that cost nothing. An unlimited budget isn’t the solution - it just makes life easier.

Don’t get me wrong, it was certainly fun being a little fearless at a restaurant ordering what we wanted to, and encouraging friends to do the same. Eating out in New Zealand was at least 20% cheaper than in Ireland, and boy did we enjoy it. But even then, there is only so much food one can buy.

I have been thinking a lot about financial freedom recently and what that could look like. But for the first time, living a life of complete abundance for three weeks on a big budget, there got to a stage where the novelty wore off.

So what’s the point of all this?

For me, the takeaway wasn’t “we need more money” or even “New Zealand is cheaper than I thought.” It was realising that there’s a ceiling to what money can meaningfully add to your life. Once your needs are met and your wants are affordable, the marginal benefit of more just drops away.

That’s the version of financial freedom that feels most compelling to me now. Not excess, but rather the ability to say yes without stress. The freedom to be generous. The option to slow down instead of optimise. FIRE isn’t about living like you’re rich; it’s about living like money isn’t the main focus of your day. After three weeks of living with abundance, what stood out most wasn’t what we bought - it was how little we actually needed to feel content.

Setting back into Ireland

Back in Ireland, I have settled well back into my day to day routine. I am working differently this year. Last year I worked on an odd freelancing project when an opportunity presented itself. I have recently adopted the slogan “it’s OK to say no”, and have just started pushing back on work I don’t want to do.

In fact, because money is no longer the main motivator, I actually don’t really have a choice in the matter. I really enjoy my main work contract, and am excited about the day to day challenges that that job brings - but outside of that work I have found myself completely unmotivated. I don’t need to chase the money anymore, so without that, unless the work is fun, I just don’t see the point.

This has been an interesting place to get to, and in a way, it has taken me a year longer than it should have. Perhaps in 2025, we were saving for our NZ trip, so I had a reason to want to take on the odd extra bit of work - but with no clear savings goals for 2026, and with our lifestyle pretty much covered without too much effort, my goals have changed.

I now worry more about things like my own health, fitness and relationship with my wife, kids and friends, that I would give thought to money. I guess this is a great place to get to - and perhaps what FIRE is really about.

Our ‘Cost Neutral’ Holiday Home

I mentioned a good few months back now about our desire to purchase a holiday home. I haven’t written about it much, and I likely won’t talk about it too much in the future, as it is about the least FIRE thing we can do, but I want to share a little bit about the financial side and our logic for why buying a holiday home will actually save us money in the long run.

We ended up purchasing a property in West Clare. In many ways, it was a typical purchase for us - a house no one else was really interested in, but we saw the potential. We ended up being the only serious bidders and went ‘sale agreed’ on the property back in November last year. We closed a week or so ago.

When looking at the overall costs, we obviously have had to put down some money in terms of deposit and purchasing costs. This was money that we had saved outside of our FI portfolio - which is likely worth clarifying that our holiday home, like the equity in our own property in Limerick, doesn't show on our FI portfolio. Outside of the costs to purchase the property, I am estimating that the annual costs to cover the mortgage, bills and maintenance of the property will cost around €18,000 per year, or €1,500 per month.

So how can this cost be justified? When I took a bigger view, I started to look at our overall holiday spending. We would typically spend €1,500 per year minimum hiring a holiday home in Ireland, which would give us a random week in July. We might take an overseas trip, which between flights, accommodation and transfers would set us back €3,000 before we even went out to a restaurant. In a typical year, we would spend €4,500 on just flights, accommodation and transfers alone - likely more when accounting for other costs, such as airport parking, insurance etc.

I also figured, we could rent the holiday home to friends and family when we aren’t using it - I have even considered the likes of AirBnB, though current legislation is all a bit up in the air at the moment. But let’s assume I can rent it out to people I know, we might get another €5,000 a year from renting it short term here and there.

I also considered renting our own home in Limerick during July and August, while we spent time in our holiday home. My wife has given me a hard no on this idea, but you never know! There is another potential income stream if push came to shove!

But there is also the fact that during the winter months, at least five months a year, the house is largely idle. For years, places like Kilkee didn’t have much of a rental market, but this seems to have changed since COVID largely due to remote work etc. I like the idea of renting the property during the winter months, to ensure the property is occupied and kept while we aren’t there. Assuming we could rent it for €1,000 a month for five months, there is another €5,000 worth of income.

Obviously there is tax to pay, but even having some income will ensure we can legally deduct some of the expenses of the property against it - expenses such as the mortgage interest for the days the property is rented, depreciation of goods, etc.

But give or take, the costs of €18,000 a year suddenly start to look like costs of only €3,500 a year when accounting for our usual sunk holiday costs and rental income.

And finally, what about the €3,500 short fall. Our idea to buy a holiday home actually came about after a friend mentioned that they were looking to lease a mobile home. They were looking to put down €60,000 for a 20 year lease. At the end of the 20 years, the lease would end, and they would need to put down another €60,000 to buy another 20 year lease. I couldn’t get my head around it - it felt like PCP car finance all over again!

It is hard to lose too much sleep on something when you buy an appreciating asset. It is the same reason we drive a 13 year old car - I’m not a big fan of depreciating assets! I suspect that our holiday home will increase by more than €3,500 per year, even accounting for the capital gains tax we will have to pay. In the long run, this purchase will save us money, not cost us money.

Obviously the decision for us to purchase a coastal property is more than just financial, and an element of this was to reward ourselves for years of hard work. But given these monthly updates are all about our families financial journey, I wanted to share this one - that this is something a little out of left field, but something which I think will have a positive impact on our finances long term, while having a massive upside on our overall lifestyle.

From the outside, it might look like an indulgence. From the inside, it feels like a decision that rewards the journey so far, without materially compromising where we’re trying to get to. And that, I think, is a trade-off we’re comfortable making.

January 2026 Portfolio Update

2026 is our ninth FI year - madness! We started in the black, which was good. No major issues on our rental properties and a small gain on equities, the portfolio hit €850,000 for the first time. We did have annual insurance due on one property, and some minor repair work done on another property, so rental income was down slightly. Let’s break down the numbers:

Monthly Portfolio Growth Report

Portfolio Breakdown

The table below shows the breakdown of my portfolio into the various asset classes:

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