If you’re on this here blog, I can assume a couple of things:

you’ve bought or are buying a house and
you’ve either bought or are buying Mortgage Protection or Life Insurance because you have to.

I can also probably assume you’re a responsible adult – or at the very least, you’re very good at pretending, which as we all know: all the best people are.

Now, there is one thing you need to know. This one thing is either coming to you too late or just in the nick of time, depending on whether or not you now own a house.

The banks are great for mortgages, but they’re a rip off when it comes to Mortgage Protection...

A question I'm often asked is: Can I get more life insurance in the future if I need it?

My answer is: Yes, but you'll have to answer medical questions....unless you can use the guaranteed insurability option.

The response to which is invariably: What the hell is a guaranteed insurability option???

While financial planning sounds like something only the rich do, there’s a lot to be said for it.

And I know it all sounds desperately dull.

Still, proper financial planning = being able to spend your money without freaking out about whether you can afford to.

We have a handy calculator here to help you plan.

Money management is stressful. It’s even more stressful if you’re living with a chronic illness. The truth is that everything is a bit more difficult with a chronic illness: all the doctor’s appointments and treatments; flare-ups; time off work; and stress.

So today I’m skipping all the ‘ditch takeaways’ budgeting advice and filling you in on what you need to know about managing your money if you’ve got a long-term illness.

You already know this if your other half has a chronic illness.

You’re not really supposed to admit it but it can be hard being with someone who is chronically ill. The flare-ups and the symptoms and the missed-things. Cancelling plans and going to doctor’s appointments and having to take time off work.

Sure, you’re not the one with the chronic illness, but it can feel like a third presence in any relationship.

Ultimately, all you want to do is help, but ‘chronic’ usually means ‘not curable’, so your partner’s illness becomes the new normal.

If the diagnosis is new, it can feel like a lot – and all you want to do is help out, but where do you start?

There comes a point in adulthood where the recurring nightmares of your youth (your teeth falling out; having to re-sit your Leaving and failing terribly; asking a young one out and being shot down with a look that still haunts you) fade away for something a bit more grown up.

It’ll happen all of a sudden. You’ll be having a class sleep (a rare thing in and of itself, between kids and work and all the rest) only to wake up in a pool of sweat, heart hammering, because you dreamed that you...

Sometimes finding information on government websites can feel a bit like a hero’s journey straight out of your favourite fantasy novel.

Start on one website, end up on six different sites, pick up a stray Hobbit, pass through Mordor, defeat Sauron, and land on a page that’s meant to help – and yet you’ve still no idea what counts as a qualified adult and what all the numbers in front of you means.

All you want to do is figure out how to protect yourself if you got sick. And yet…what’s all this gobbledegook and either/or logic around PRSI and relevant tax years?

Our friends at Irish Life have announced their Family Mile Challenge.

Because running isn’t just for us boring grown-ups, it’s for the kiddie winks too. In an effort to not only encourage us to get active but rope in the rest of the family too, Irish Life is asking you lovely lot to strap on those runners and give it a go on the 26th and 27th of June.

Plus, if you register, you have the chance to win some awesome prizes (their words not mine)

a stick
some twine
lollipops
FitBits

In fairness, they sent that stick to the office and we all loved it.