Why this book exists
Financial education isn't on the curriculum, isn't in most workplaces, and isn't anywhere you'd think to look for it. So people learn it late, expensively, and usually from someone selling something.
About Nigel Ferry
I'm a primary school principal in Co. Donegal. I'm not a financial adviser, I don't sell financial products, and nobody pays me a commission on anything.
This started because I wanted to know whether my own household was going to be alright. Not rich — alright. Finding information turned out to be easy: Revenue publishes the rules, every pension provider has an explainer, and there is no shortage of American videos about accounts that don't exist here. What I couldn't find anywhere was the order. Clear the credit card or start the pension? Overpay the mortgage or invest? Everyone had an answer for their own piece. Nobody had the sequence.
So I worked one out, for Ireland, and wrote it down. That turned into a much longer book than I intended — six stages, in order, with the actual Irish rules and the date each figure was checked. Explaining complicated things in plain language to people who need to act on them is more or less my day job. It turns out pensions are not that different from anything else.
What I am not: regulated, qualified to tell you what to do with your money, or interested in pretending otherwise. I explain how the Irish system works so you can make your own decisions — or walk into a regulated adviser's office knowing which questions to ask. Everything here is general information, not financial advice, and I'm not authorised or regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.
Bring it to your workplace, branch or members' evening
A practical hour on Irish money, pitched at people who've never been taught any of it. No products, no sales pitch, no advisor waiting at the back of the room.
Money 101 for staff
Payslip, pension, protection and tax back. The four things nearly everyone in the room has wrong, and how to fix each one this month.
Your pension, decoded
Single Scheme vs. pre-2013, ASC, notional service and AVCs — for teachers, nurses, gardaí and civil and local authority staff.
First payslip, first budget
For students and young workers: reading a payslip, a first budget that survives, and why starting a pension at 24 beats starting at 34.
Interested?
Tell us the group, the size and roughly when. We'll come back with a fee and a date.
Happy to talk
Available for radio, podcast and print on Irish personal finance — pensions, first-time buying, financial literacy in schools, and why so many people freeze at investing.
Press kit
- High-resolution cover image
- Author photo and short bio
- Publication details and ISBN
- Sample chapter on request