Welcome to the fifth in the series of “We Ask Our Experts”. In this series of posts, we focus on our customers and our friends in the business community. The concept is to pose a series of quick questions to known experts in the various industry verticals.

Today’s post is all about financial advice as we speak with Pascal Curran from Advice First Financial Services.

What would be your top 5 saving tips for a 2021 ‘sunny day fund’?

• Get to grips with your spending. Your day-to-day and all your utility bills.
• Record all spending for 3 weeks. Get a notebook and write all down, this will identify your unconscious spending, and we all do it.
• Once you know where your money is going you can take control.
• Set a budget.
• Save before spending. A lot of people spend first and then save, switch these.

Although this is a time of disruption, would you agree that it is also a time of opportunity?

So much so. Opportunities don’t just disappear, someone else takes them.

What would be your top tips for people planning home improvements or buying property in 2021?

• Do your research. If mortgaging, get a mortgage broker to help with the research.
• Get approval in place then go shopping for your house. This helps with the bargaining on your offer.
• Home improvement, get your costs worked out.
• Set up a budget and stick to it.

Have you noticed a significant impact on mortgages and the housing market?

Yes. For those on Covid payments, they can’t drawdown. In some case, even if the employer is getting a Covid payment then mortgage drawdown is an issue.

What is the number one thing you wished people knew about your company?

How helpful we are.

How can the financial services market best rise to the challenge?

Which ones there are lots…..

How has your business changed in the last year?

Moving to digital meetings and appointments, integrating things like Zoom, Teams, as well as the likes of DocuSign. These have changed how we think forever…

What is the most positive thing to have happened for Advice First Financial in the last year?

I think moving everything to digital. It allowed us to continue working with very little interruption. In fact, it has allowed us to grow our team.

Any additional advice for navigating through these uncertain times?

From a business perspective, the best advice I can give is; pivot, retrain, be open to new ways of doing what you do. Say yes, and then figure it out.

If you have any specific questions regarding Advice First Financial and how they can help you please let us know and we’ll pose these questions on your behalf. Alternatively,  please visit https://advicefirst.ie.