Don’t worry, crossing a certain age threshold isn’t all bad. First of all, if you celebrate your 50th, it means you’re still alive.
So that’s good.
And secondly, this landmark age can also be positive from a financial perspective. Okay, you’re not quite in the golden years bracket yet, where you get a discount at Woodies, but being in your 50s can still bring certain advantages.
Here we take a look at what you should know.
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1. More tax relief on pension savings
Once you turn 50, you can benefit from tax relief on an additional 5 per cent of your earnings.
Yes, the older you are, the more tax relief you can benefit from on your pension savings. For example, if you are aged between 50-54, you can put away as much as 30 per cent of your income into your retirement savings, and benefit from tax relief on it. This increases to 35 per cent once you turn 55.
As a comparison, in your 40s, only 25 per cent of your earnings are eligible for tax relief, and 20 per cent in your 30s.
Of course, you have to have the spare cash to benefit from the relief, but if you do, it can quickly boost your pension.
Consider someone with earnings of €100,000. At the age of 49, they can get relief on €25,000 of their earnings – but this rises to €30,000 at the age of 50. Given higher rate tax relief at 40 per cent, a €30,000 contribution to their pension will only cost them €18,000; a year earlier, this level of contribution would have cost €20,000.
It also means that if you haven’t yet started a pension, such a level of tax relief can help you grow it faster.
“It’s never too late to start,” says Sinead McEvoy, head of retirement solutions with Standard Life. “At age 50, you’ll still probably have 15 years of saving left”.
2. Cheaper hotel breaks – or maybe just more scones
Once you pass the age of 50, you might start to be perceived as part of the “grey pound” group - used to describe the purchasing power of older people when being sold goods or services.
Consider hotel breaks.
At Kilkenny’s Ormonde, you only have to be 50 to qualify for the special treatment. For a mid-week one-night break in January 2026, which includes one lunch, dinner on one evening, plus entry to Kilkenny Castle, you will pay €198 for two people sharing. Or you could go for a three-night rate, with dinner on two evenings – plus scones – for just €118/night, or €354 in total.
By comparison, the one night B&B rate is €151.
But do check out regular prices also – after all, age-specific rates are marketing tools, so may not always prove to be of value.
And they do presume a love for scones!
At Kilronan Castle, for example, you can enjoy a two-night B&B stay this September with one afternoon tea and one five-course dinner included. For two adults, a classic room will cost €604 – but if you gave up your scones and opted for the straightforward rate, you could get the same deal for just €518.
A two-night mid-week break at the Athlone Springs Hotel in Co Westmeath this September, for example, will cost €258.40 for a classic double if you qualify for the golden years break (over 55s). And this includes tea and scones on arrival.
However, opting for the regular bed and breakfast rate would have cost just €237.50 for the break.
In terms of other discounts, some gyms offer those of a certain age a better rate. For example, at Tallaght Leisure, you’ll pay just €4.50 a session if you’re aged 55 or over for an Active Age class. Or you can benefit from a reduced annual fee at Clondalkin Leisure – single membership is €485 a year, but falls to €385 for those aged over 55.
3. Lower mortgage repayments
If you’re in your 50s, and own your own home, it’s likely that you will have paid a certain percentage off your mortgage.
Time then for a valuation (which you must typically pay for) to bring down your loan-to-value, and hopefully, help you move to a cheaper interest rate.
For example, if you bought a house worth €500,000 with a 90 per cent mortgage, your LTV at the time was 90 per cent.
Fast forward 10 years, however, and the house is now worth €750,000, and you have paid off €120,000 on the mortgage, which means that your LTV is about 51 per cent.
With AIB, you’ll be paying 3.95 per cent on a two-year fixed rate given an LTV of 90 per cent – but if you can get your LTV to 50 per cent or below, this drops to 3.7 per cent. On a €450,000 mortgage, this means monthly repayments would drop from €1,898 to €1,841 a month, for savings of almost €700 a year.
4. You might be able to start drawing down a pension
One of the advantages in turning 50 is that you may be able to start drawing down your retirement funds - even if that day of heading off into the sunset with your company clock remains some years away.
While it’s generally not advised that you do so – “don’t do it unless you really have to, it will impact your later retired years” says McEvoy, some people may need the money for financial reasons.
And for those who don’t, just having the knowledge that this money can be released if needs be, can give peace of mind.
“People say ‘I have it there just in case’ – it gives people that reassurance,” says McEvoy.
So what pensions can you access?
First of all, if you are self-employed, you can’t take retirement benefits before the age of 60, except in the case of ill-health.
If you are employed, you will be able to draw down a pension fund from an occupational scheme from a former employer, from the age of 50, provided no one is still contributing to it. According to McEvoy, you can do this either directly from the fund, or if you transfer it into a buy-out bond (BOB).
For reasons such as this, many advisers will suggest you don’t consolidate all your pension funds into the one pot, as having separate pots can give you more options.
“It just allows you flexibility to retire in the way you want to retire,” says McEvoy.
You won’t have to take out all the funds from the scheme – you can take 25 per cent out as a tax-free lump sum, while the remainder must be put into a post-retirement fund, such as an approved retirement fund (ARF) or annuity.
So, for example, if you worked with Company X and left them 10 years ago, and your fund is now worth €100,000, you could withdraw €25,000 – tax free – and put the rest into an ARF, which you can start accessing from the age of 61.
Withdrawing the full amount would give rise to a sizeable tax bill.
And remember, you have a maximum lifetime tax free lump-sum limit of €200,000. So taking €25,000 today, may reduce the amount you are entitled to when you retire.
If you have a PRSA, and are still in employment (even if the fund relates to a prior job), you will have to wait until the age of 60 to access it.
But … You’ll pay more for your health and life insurance
If you haven’t yet taken out health insurance, doing so for the first time in your 50s can be expensive. Of course, you will have saved all those years of not paying premiums – although you wouldn’t have had access to the cover either.
This is because of Lifetime Community Rating (LCR), which was introduced back in 2015 to try and get more younger people to pay for health insurance, to help subsidise the cost of older people, who have greater healthcare needs.
The loading comes to 2 per cent of the gross cost of your health insurance policy, for each year that you spent aged 35 or above without health insurance.
“So, if you join at the age of 54, you’ll have a loading of 40 per cent on the gross cost,” says Dermot Goode, director of Health Insurance Ireland.
So, a policy that costs a 34 year old €1,000 a year, will cost you €1,400.
This loading applies for a maximum of 10 years.
“After that, the slate is wiped clean,” says Goode.
However, there may be a way of mitigating against this loading before that time. According to Goode, if you were previously insured, you can use these years to bring down the loading – so dig out details of any previous cover you may have had. In some cases, he says, insurers will allow you to self certify to this effect.
In addition, if you left Ireland before May 1st, 2015 (before the legislation was introduced) and you take out cover within nine months of returning, then you won’t incur any loading.
And if you are going to take out private cover, do it now.
“Don’t leave it until your next birthday as you’ll then pay another 2 per cent,” says Goode.
When it comes to life assurance, you can get €300,000 worth of cover for just €35.66 a month, at the age of 35, which offers cover until you’re 70. However, if you wait until you’re 51 to take out a similar level of cover, it will cost you €82.1 a month, according to a quote from Irish Life.
So, the first one will cost you €14,977 for 35 years of cover, and the second €18,718 for 18 years of cover.
