Ireland AM<\/a> presenter Tommy told Extra.ie that his work on the breakfast show highlighted how people were struggling with the cost of living.<\/p>\n\u2018When you look at a lot of the figures coming out of the papers\u2026 a lot of money that is in current accounts right around the country is just phenomenal,\u2019 he explained.<\/p>\n
\u2018Money sitting under the mattress, while it might feel safe, with inflation it just is cutting and eating away at it.\u2019<\/p>\n
![\"NO](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/NO-FEE-Dont-Sleep-On-It_-8.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n
Tommy urged people to look into investing, noting that he was \u2018very much a rookie\u2019 but was very passionate about \u2018diversifying\u2019 his own money.<\/p>\n
\u2018I think the dividends are there for anyone that gives it a go,\u2019 the TV presenter encouraged. \u2018An app like IG just makes it so much more accessible to people out there. I think that\u2019s the biggest message we\u2019re trying to get out.<\/p>\n
\u2018You can do this very much yourself and you shouldn\u2019t be scared of it.\u2019<\/p>\n
![\"NO](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/NO-FEE-Dont-Sleep-On-It_-2.jpg\")
Tommy Bowe and Mattress Mick. Pic: Damien Eagers \/ Julien Behal Photography<\/p>\n
Tommy detailed that some of his own investment avenues were putting \u20ac50 into an account for his children every month.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s \u20ac50 every month and I invest in them,\u2019 he told Extra.ie. \u2018By the age of 18 they\u2019ll have a nice little nest egg there and it will continue to grow.<\/p>\n
\u2018When you start off \u20ac50 each, then you go up to \u20ac100, it looks like very, very little, but over time\u2026 My daughter\u2019s 9 now and it\u2019s starting to grow nicely.<\/p>\n
\u2018I hope the money will work for them because you work your butt off to try and make this money, it\u2019s important to try and make that money work for you.\u2019 <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u2018Like anything, these things come with risks,\u2019 he admitted. \u2018But if you look over the last 10\/20 years the markets have all gone up in an upwards trajectory, so it\u2019s just about trying to diversify your portfolio.\u2019 <\/p>\n
![\"pressphotodrone\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/pressphotodrone.jpg\")
Tommy Bowe has joined forces with Mattress Mick to \u2018confiscate all the mattresses\u2019 in Ireland after learning of the huge sum of money sitting in current accounts across the island. Pic: IG Investment<\/p>\n
Touching on the Dublin Mountain campaign, where Tommy and the iconic Mattress Mick, alongside IG Investment, spelled out \u20ac175bn in mattresses, Tommy said it was \u2018great craic.\u2019 <\/p>\n
The Monaghan man detailed that the idea came from the saying \u2018money under the mattress\u2019 which immediately led them to Mattress Mick \u2014 a man synonymous with mattresses in Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u2018Listen, the message is really serious,\u2019 Tommy said. \u2018I think it\u2019s something that Simon Harris and the Government are really trying to push, and it\u2019s the perfect timing for that.<\/p>\n
![\"Tommy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Tommy-Bowe_a6f3ef.jpg\")
Tommy Bowe. Pic: Fran Veale<\/p>\n
\u2018To be able to do it in a fun way with someone like Mattress Mick \u2014 it\u2019s going to put a smile on people\u2019s faces.\u2019<\/p>\n
Tommy detailed his own interest in investing, adding that he wanted to try and take the \u2018fear factor\u2019 away from people. <\/p>\n
\u2018Certainly in Ireland, they don\u2019t make it easy to do stuff like this,\u2019 the father-of-two conceded. \u2018With apps like IG, that are really simple to just set up at your finger tips\u2026 people spend so much time on their phones that just to give it a go with a small amount of money, I think there\u2019s huge opportunity out there. <\/p>\n
\u2018Particularly, in the world where we are, where there isn\u2019t value of money in anything really anymore.\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tommy Bowe has joined forces with Mattress Mick to \u2018confiscate all the mattresses\u2019 in Ireland after learning of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-605179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"tommy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/NO-FEE-Dont-Sleep-On-It_-4.jpg\")
Tommy Bowe, Mattress Mick, and investing platform IG have teamed up to highlight the potential \u20ac485,000 windfall that Irish households are missing out on by leaving their money in the bank, with a total of \u20ac175bn kept in cash deposits earning little or no returns. Pic: Damien Eagers \/ Julien Behal Photography<\/p>\n