Living Life: how to be good with money

Have you ever dreamt of owning a house, a car? Have you ever paid the rent and thought: “How am I ever going to manage this?” Well, Eoin McGee is here to help with his new book How to be Good with Money. The straight-talking financial planner first came to prominence on RTÉ’s hit show, This Crowded House. He has helped hundreds of people recognise that no matter what you earn, being good with your money is easier than you think.

“I have always loved maths. The thing is that it’s very black and white – when you get it wrong, it’s wrong and when you get it right, you know it’s right and that’s what I used to love. You knew that there was a method to it and I just enjoyed that, I suppose.”

Eoin progressed through college, studying business before joining Irish Life. In recent years, he has completed a post-graduate in financial planning at University College Dublin (UCD) and is just three modules shy of completing a master’s degree. For Eoin, that might be put on the back burner for the moment, as he is a busy father of four, as well as the owner of a successful company in Kildare, Prosperous Financial Services. He has also just released his first book. “I probably will get it done, I just need a little bit of a break first before I get into it.”

Eoin set up Financial Planning Services in Naas in 2008, where he still works today, alongside five others. “We have a great team and the company is expanding every day,” he said.

Chatting to Eoin, it is easy to understand how he became known in Ireland as “that fella who’s good with his money”, as he comes across as humble and relatable. He shies away from the suggestion that he’s an expert in all things finance and speaks with calmness and clarity that brings accounting “jargon” down to earth, with quick and easy explanations.

“I started out being asked to do a bit for radio and I did bits and pieces for the papers. Then Brendan Courtney had a show where I would come in for about 10 minutes and set people on of the right path financially, so they could afford to buy or rent their own house.” This made Eoin a favourite with producers and he landed his own show, How to be Good with Money.

“On the back of that show, I was approached by a publisher and I had always thought about writing a book on the topic, so it seemed the right thing to do,” he said.

The book is loosely based on a number of three-hour seminars that Eoin has given through his

“They (the seminars and book) include four main areas; how to manage day-to-day spending, getting into and out of debt, investing, saving and pensions and finally, how to protect it all.”

Eoin enjoys the recognition he gets when he is out in public and said that people are very respectful when he is with his children. That’s not the case when he is out alone. “People will approach me on the street and say, ‘Look, this is where I’m at’ and tell me something that they’ve told nobody else. I absolutely love it at the moment. In time, I probably won’t, but if nothing else, it encourages people to talk. Anything that encourages people to talk about their money is a good thing.”

Eoin tells Irish Country Living that most of the book was written at night. “I went out to Portugal and had a little work to do, a few meetings but that was all. So that was my break in the middle of filming and the book needed to get done, so I found myself inside this tiny little 6ft x 6ft internal office suite in the hotel that I was staying in and writing the book all week.

“It’s quite different from doing the show, where I had a superb team around me guiding me. With the book, you’re on your own and it’s a huge task, even though I have been saying this stuff for 20 years. It’s a massive task and you just have to let it flow out of you and go for it.”

I think people learn better through stories

The book was written for people from all walks of life in all situations and Eoin has included a lot of personal stories in it.

“I think people learn better through stories. Now, it’s not littered with stories, but there are lots of stories and stuff about my dad and friends. I felt the reader would be more engaged if they could get the stories and remember them. There’s a bit of me in there too, to be honest.”

Eoin has been bitten by the writing bug and has already pitched an idea for a second book.