There’s a scene in the 2007 sitcom Gavin and Stacey where uncle Bryn, played by Rob Brydon, has a brief exchange with Nessa, played by Ruth Jones, about the stock market.
“Hiya Ness, how’s the Dow Jones?” he asks.
Deadpan, she delivers a swift summing-up of the morning’s financial woes including her stockbroker’s concerns there may be another “Black Monday” on the horizon.
“But even a dead cat bounces,” she assures a confused Bryn, using the esoteric vernacular of financial traders.
It was a motif often deployed in the show where an absurd aside would reveal Ness’s secret double life, and it was one of the devices that made the sitcom so hilarious.
The idea that this unassuming, no-nonsense, working-class, Welsh stoic would trade on the stock market.
In 2026 it almost feels like life imitating art. If you start asking around, you might be surprised by the people in your life who tell you “yes, I invest, and you should too.”
[ How to invest: What are the risks of leaving your money on deposit?Opens in new window ]
The ease of downloading and tracking an online trading platform, the ability to google complicated financial jargon and the minuscule amounts of money needed to start investing have all significantly lowered the barrier to entry.
And yet the complicated tax implications often inhibit Irish people from getting involved.
In this episode of Better with Money, we speak to The Irish Times’s Fiona Reddan and CEO of the Trinity Student Managed Fund, Senan Delargy, about how to get started.
Earlier episodes have looked at the basics of investing; what it is and what it involves, why you should max out your pension contributions and how a diversified, long-term strategy offers the best chance of accumulating wealth at the lowest risk.
You can also check out Fiona’s series beginning today, which explains all the different asset classes.
But today we’re specifically looking at ways of generating that much vaunted “passive income” from investing in stocks and shares
Reddan explains the basics while Delargy recounts his baptism of fire working with the TSMF, and how it has led him to invest personally.
He outlines the basic rules of thumb he used when he began his experimentation.
“I think the best place to start if you’re going to invest in a single company is if you’re on the Luas or the bus, look around you. Look at what products people are using. Like, if you use Head & Shoulders shampoo every single day, if everyone in your house uses it and you go to your friend’s house and they’re also using it, the chances are Head & Shoulders – the company that owns it – are probably, you know, making a lot of money.”
Delargy also explains how the TSMF manages a fund worth more than €750,000, and how they’ve managed to outperform huge investment firms such as Blackrock and Vanguard.
If you’d like to get into investing but find the task daunting and overwhelming, be sure to listen to this episode on the player above.
Or you can search for Better with Money wherever you get your podcasts.
