They say the early bird gets the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese, and judging by the trend emerging so far, this truism now applies to certain SSIA savers.
It turns out that those eager, organised individuals first in line for equity-based SSIAs back in 2001 are ending up with a smaller nest egg than their proscrastinating counterparts.
The maturity value of equity-based SSIAs tends to be closely linked to the state of health of the Irish Stock Exchange at the end of the five-year savings period, as financial institutions are generally weighted in favour of the domestic stock market.
Therefore the first tranche of equity SSIAs that began maturing last May were affected by the fact the Iseq was undergoing a correction at the time. Data gathered from financial institutions by personal finance advisors, Becketts, show the highest gross maturity value produced in May was €28,732.
However, the Iseq soon returned to form and in fact soared to new heights, exceeding the 9,000 level for the first time by the end of the year. And as the Iseq marched steadily upwards each month, so too did the value of maturing equity SSIAs.
By November, several equity funds broke the €30,000 mark, and by December, some savers in Quinn Life's Celtic Freeway unitised fund found themselves with a windfall of €33,372.
"It's a typical equity story really," says Mark O'Sullivan, a director at Becketts. "If you happened to have money in the market, and you happened to get out at the right time, brilliant," he said. Savers exiting the market at the wrong time were generally worse off.
