Tommy Bowe has joined forces with Mattress Mick to ‘confiscate all the mattresses’ in Ireland after learning of the huge sum of money sitting in current accounts across the island.
The duo took to the Dublin Mountains for a campaign alongside IG Investment to highlight the missed opportunities associated with leaving money in the bank.
Research carried out by the online trading platform revealed that Irish households were missing out on a potential windfall of €485,000 by forgoing investing in the stock market.
Tommy Bowe, Mattress Mick, and investing platform IG have teamed up to highlight the potential €485,000 windfall that Irish households are missing out on by leaving their money in the bank, with a total of €175bn kept in cash deposits earning little or no returns. Pic: Damien Eagers / Julien Behal Photography
Former rugby star turned Ireland AM presenter Tommy told Extra.ie that his work on the breakfast show highlighted how people were struggling with the cost of living.
‘When you look at a lot of the figures coming out of the papers… a lot of money that is in current accounts right around the country is just phenomenal,’ he explained.
‘Money sitting under the mattress, while it might feel safe, with inflation it just is cutting and eating away at it.’
Tommy Bowe and Mattress Mick to the Dublin Mountains for a campaign alongside IG Investment to highlight the missed opportunities associated with leaving money in the bank. Pic: IG Investment
Tommy urged people to look into investing, noting that he was ‘very much a rookie’ but was very passionate about ‘diversifying’ his own money.
‘I think the dividends are there for anyone that gives it a go,’ the TV presenter encouraged. ‘An app like IG just makes it so much more accessible to people out there. I think that’s the biggest message we’re trying to get out.
‘You can do this very much yourself and you shouldn’t be scared of it.’
Tommy Bowe and Mattress Mick. Pic: Damien Eagers / Julien Behal Photography
Tommy detailed that some of his own investment avenues were putting €50 into an account for his children every month.
‘It’s €50 every month and I invest in them,’ he told Extra.ie. ‘By the age of 18 they’ll have a nice little nest egg there and it will continue to grow.
‘When you start off €50 each, then you go up to €100, it looks like very, very little, but over time… My daughter’s 9 now and it’s starting to grow nicely.
‘I hope the money will work for them because you work your butt off to try and make this money, it’s important to try and make that money work for you.’
The former international rugby star added that while it was nice to see the money in a current account, inflation was slowly eating away the hard-earned money.
‘Like anything, these things come with risks,’ he admitted. ‘But if you look over the last 10/20 years the markets have all gone up in an upwards trajectory, so it’s just about trying to diversify your portfolio.’
Tommy Bowe has joined forces with Mattress Mick to ‘confiscate all the mattresses’ in Ireland after learning of the huge sum of money sitting in current accounts across the island. Pic: IG Investment
Touching on the Dublin Mountain campaign, where Tommy and the iconic Mattress Mick, alongside IG Investment, spelled out €175bn in mattresses, Tommy said it was ‘great craic.’
The Monaghan man detailed that the idea came from the saying ‘money under the mattress’ which immediately led them to Mattress Mick — a man synonymous with mattresses in Ireland.
‘Listen, the message is really serious,’ Tommy said. ‘I think it’s something that Simon Harris and the Government are really trying to push, and it’s the perfect timing for that.
Tommy Bowe. Pic: Fran Veale
‘To be able to do it in a fun way with someone like Mattress Mick — it’s going to put a smile on people’s faces.’
Tommy detailed his own interest in investing, adding that he wanted to try and take the ‘fear factor’ away from people.
‘Certainly in Ireland, they don’t make it easy to do stuff like this,’ the father-of-two conceded. ‘With apps like IG, that are really simple to just set up at your finger tips… people spend so much time on their phones that just to give it a go with a small amount of money, I think there’s huge opportunity out there.
‘Particularly, in the world where we are, where there isn’t value of money in anything really anymore.’