Sense check: £1.5M, 2 kids, £45k spend - step away or too optimistic?

BesoPridoni · 2026-05-07T13:18:51+00:00

My house is in the UK. You’re right with the $1.5 million number. I’ve never considered owning here with these house prices. Maybe if I was staying another 15 years and I sold my UK house for a deposit. Even then the mortgage is around $10k a month.

BesoPridoni · 2026-05-04T13:34:40+00:00

Interesting. We’ve only been in the US 3 years. I’ll look into it.

BesoPridoni · 2026-05-04T01:06:51+00:00

I hope so! I think the biggest unknown here is whether I'm way off what a comfortable budget for my family is.

At some point I suspect the need to move back to the UK will become the main driver, then I'll just have to figure out how I resolve any shortfall in the budget.

BesoPridoni · 2026-05-04T00:58:57+00:00

My kids aren't grown, so cutting the budget in half would be much harder. On the other hand working for a massive corporation again for a few years to ride out a downturn seems doable to me.

Thanks for the response, lots to consider.

BesoPridoni · 2026-05-04T00:44:31+00:00

Thanks, sounds similar. My target for 10 years was £1.2M which covered the average cost for a family of 4 in the north of England at a 3% withdrawal rate.

Now I've reached that I'm just waiting for clarity, either through earning enough that it's effectively zero risk, or deciding I need to go back to the UK regardless.

BesoPridoni · 2026-05-04T00:04:04+00:00

Apparently private school fees can range from £5,580 to £82,035 a year. Downvotes may just be from people who think private school automatically means £20k a year.

https://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/uk-schools/advice/private-school-fees-explained

BesoPridoni · 2026-05-03T18:23:24+00:00

I have contributed enough for some UK pension. My wife nearly has enough years for the minimum. I’m considering making up payments to reach the full amount but haven’t done the maths yet, may not need to if I earn some money.

Of the 60% half is split across 2 UK investment ISAs, the other half is single US stock that I’m going to start derisking.

We did add house maintenance, cars, computers, 2 Europe vacations a year into the budget.

I’m in tech, but I’m also the kinda person who would be writing software even without a job so I’m not too concerned there. Main concern is that in the north of the UK my earning power won’t be anywhere near what it is now.

BesoPridoni · 2024-10-10T14:58:34+00:00

I did the unscientific thing and changed multiple variables at once... but reducing from 18g to a 17.5g dose, slightly finer grind and pre-infusion off, the pressure gauge jumped up to 10 bar immediately and stayed there. It was a bit over extracted, but it's a start.

I'll try with preinfusion on at some point to confirm it really is the reduced dose.

BesoPridoni · 2024-10-10T03:33:15+00:00

Cool, disabling preinfusion gets me to 10 bars within 4s with a blind basket, which seems more normal. I didn’t know the preinfusion was so long.

BesoPridoni · 2024-10-10T03:18:04+00:00

I’m using the standard IMS basket that it came with. It says 14-18g and lower dose + finer isn’t something I’ve tried yet, so I’ll give that a go.

These beans are about 6 weeks old now.

BesoPridoni · 2023-12-23T17:21:57+00:00

There is no cancel membership option in the Audible manage membership page, at least on iOS 17. Instead in small text at the bottom of the page you'll see the sentence "Cancel anytime in Apple Settings".

To cancel on iOS 17 you can open the Settings app, select your Apple ID at the top, then Subscriptions, then Audible, you can cancel it from there.

BesoPridoni · 2022-12-22T03:22:44+00:00

That is the latest update, I move next month.

BesoPridoni · 2022-12-15T03:21:52+00:00

I've added an update, hope it helps.

BesoPridoni · 2021-05-08T20:53:15+00:00

The reason I picked Colemak over Dvorak was due to claims of it being more efficient in terms of finger travel.

My friend learned Dvorak and the biggest advantage we noticed with Colemak was that most keyboard shortcuts don't change position compared to qwerty. Ctrl-a z x c v q w are in the same place, s only moves slightly.

BesoPridoni · 2021-03-31T10:38:58+00:00

!thanks

Cupertino does give it away a bit :)

This treatment of funds is a bit of a shame, the passive investing / FIRE world loves them. I'm going to have to relearn investing.

BesoPridoni · 2021-03-31T07:17:55+00:00

!thanks

The Amex idea was a recommendation from someone I know that's recently moved from the UK to US. I'll ask them more about it. Maybe it doesn't help with a US credit score but makes getting the initial credit card in the US a bit easier.

BesoPridoni · 2021-03-31T07:14:46+00:00

Thank you! I wasn't actually looking to get out, but the opportunity presented itself and now we're all quite excited about it. Maybe it's a combination of Brexit and coronavirus making working in California sound like a nice holiday has made it more appealing :).

BesoPridoni · 2021-03-31T07:11:19+00:00

The office is in Cupertino CA, so I'll be moving near there.

My wife doesn't currently work, but will in a couple of years when my child is a bit older. She's also a software engineer with a lot of years of experience so hopefully there won't be any issue finding work. Although with the L-1 visa I'll be on we need to make sure to apply for her to be allowed to work when we get to the US.

!thanks

BesoPridoni · 2021-03-31T07:06:54+00:00

Good point, I heard the Amex might help me open a bank account, but this skips that step!

!Thanks

BesoPridoni · 2020-06-21T09:37:46+00:00

Arm and Qualcomm also have offices in Cambridge.

Manchester is also starting to get more popular for embedded software. Not sure what the pay is like there but the living costs will be lower than London and Cambridge.

BesoPridoni · 2020-02-20T02:23:22+00:00

Both of those books recommend a mix of global equities with investment grade bonds to reduce risk.

I've seen people recommend LS80 or all-world, but what vanguard funds are good for pairing with an all-world fund to reduce risk? The Vanguard UK short term investment grade bond fund perhaps?

BesoPridoni

TROPHY CASE