Should you retire with the market at an all-time high? In Ireland, the record level feels dangerous, but it is not the risk that decides your outcome.

In this episode, Paddy asks whether retiring at an all-time high is really the risk Irish savers fear, or whether the thing that decides your outcome is something else entirely.

What you'll learn:

• Why all-time highs are common, not a warning: global equities sit at or near record highs on roughly a third of trading days

• What Japan's lost decades really warn against: concentration in one market, not equities themselves

• A sequence-of-returns case study: how two retirees with the same €1.2m and the same average return finished €1.25m apart

• The Irish nuance: why Revenue's imputed distribution makes the buffer inside your ARF matter more than any market call

If you're within a couple of years of drawing down, and the timing has you worried, this episode is for you.

🎙️ Full podcast episode and 📖 Blog: www.informeddecisions.ie/post/should-i-retire-at-all-time-highs-ireland

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 10-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 Find out how we work: https://www.informeddecisions.ie

DISCLAIMER This content is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. Everyone's situation is different. Always speak to a qualified, independent advisor before making pension or investment decisions. Tax rules and pension regulations change; figures quoted are accurate at time of recording.

#PensionIreland #RetirementPlanningIreland #SequenceOfReturnsRisk
#StockMarketAllTimeHigh #ARFIreland

Your Irish pension plan probably runs to age 95, but you'll likely live to around 83, and the gap changes your pot far less than you'd expect.

In this episode, Paddy digs into the retirement life expactancy in Ireland. He checks on the one age assumption buried in almost every Irish retirement plan, where the default of 95 comes from and what the most recent CSO life tables actually say about how long a 65-year-old really lives.

It's for you if you're approaching or already in retirement with a meaningful pension or ARF, and you've never been asked (or never questioned) the age your own plan is built to.

Using a fictional €1.2m ARF, this piece shows how Revenue's imputed distribution means the closing pot is almost identical whether you plan to 83 or 95 (around €1.25m versus €1.21m). The end age was never really the lever.

What is covered in this Episode:

• Where the default planning age of 95 comes from and the US research (Barron's, TIAA, Stanford) behind "oversaving and underliving"
• What the most recent Irish CSO life tables really say and why they're a floor, not a forecast
• How Revenue's imputed distribution (4%, 5%, 6%) shapes drawdown from an ARF
• Why a €1.2m ARF lands at almost the same value at 83 or 95 and what that means for your estate
• The real lever: what you do with the income you're forced to draw, including a scenario that leaves roughly €283,000 less to Revenue

📖 Blog: www.informeddecisions.ie/post/how-long-should-retirement-plan-last-ireland

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 5-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 Find out how we work: https://www.informeddecisions.ie

DISCLAIMER This content is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. Everyone's situation is different. Always speak to a qualified, independent advisor before making pension or investment decisions. Tax rules and pension regulations change; figures quoted are accurate at time of recording.

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 to the one you bought a decade ago. For anyone drawing an income from an ARF, that second fact matters a great deal more than most people realise.

In this episode, Paddy walks through what has actually happened inside these funds while we have been getting on with things: why a cap-weighted index concentrates all on its own, what the published weightings look like right now, and why the very same allocation means something completely different depending on whether you are still contributing or already drawing an income. He uses a worked Irish example (Seamus, 65, with €900,000 in an ARF held in a single global fund) to show what concentration actually looks like under the bonnet, and where Revenue's imputed distribution quietly turns a concentrated investor into a forced seller.

What you'll learn:

• Why a cap-weighted index quietly concentrates over time, and why nobody writes to tell you
• What a global equity fund actually holds today: 72.45% United States, 26.6% in ten companies, 30.27% in one sector
• Why concentration is a volatility question at 52 and a sequencing question at 65
• What Revenue's imputed distribution does to an investor who is already concentrated
• Why over-correcting, like running to cash, is usually the more expensive mistake of the two
• The one variable in this whole picture you actually control

None of this is an argument against index investing, and it is not a forecast. It is an argument for being able to describe what you own before you decide how you feel about it. Never mind before you decide what to do about it. If you hold an ARF invested in a single global fund and you haven't seen a factsheet in years, this episode is for you.

🎙️ Full podcast episode and 📖 Blog: www.informeddecisions.ie/post/market-concentration-irish-pensions

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 5-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 Find out how we work: https://www.informeddecisions.ie

DISCLAIMER This content is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. Everyone's situation is different. Always speak to a qualified, independent advisor before making pension or investment decisions. Tax rules and pension regulations change; figures quoted are accurate at time of recording.