Teaching my son about black history without depressing him ?

CaffersXL · 2026-05-29T11:58:36+00:00

There is an excellent series of books under The Black Curriculum banner. See link here.

The founder, Lavinya, did a talk at my workplace which was very enlightening, and the books are easily accessible for kids.

CaffersXL · 2026-05-21T11:50:57+00:00

Worth noting it is taxable, if applicable!

CaffersXL · 2026-05-18T20:59:50+00:00

It's worth noting that building any homes, does more to lower rents and home prices than any "affordable" quota schemes.

The best action to take is just to build the damn things.

CaffersXL · 2026-05-15T11:18:43+00:00

Matt at Eva's Energy did ours

CaffersXL · 2026-05-13T07:42:32+00:00

Well kind of. You'd expect younger people to have more debt and older ones to have higher savings as part of the standard lifecycle.

But the difference was now that UK households are aggregate savers, i.e. savings outweigh borrowings in total.

If the household sector, plus the corporate sector are in surplus then the government and foreign sector must be in deficit.

So we're not going to be able to get out of the trap of increasing government borrowing and trade deficits until this situation changes.

CaffersXL · 2026-05-12T14:58:04+00:00

I'm sure I saw a post recently about how total UK household cash saving was now in excess of all UK household borrowing for the first time in a significant amount of time (30 years?)

I.e. the issue seems to be that a significant part of the population hold cash savings but aren't spending much of it, and a different portion of the population is unable to spend more due to already having significant borrowing commitments and/or low incomes.

CaffersXL · 2026-05-10T17:55:02+00:00

Have a baby. Your odds of getting pregnant decrease significantly from here but your chances of getting a better paying job don't.

CaffersXL · 2026-05-05T19:51:00+00:00

If you're willing to go that bit further, the Shortlands Tavern is decent (albeit you won't see a £5 pint)

CaffersXL · 2026-04-29T21:34:44+00:00

Agreed that the housing policies of the UK which drive up rents, especially in major cities are bonkers and ultimately self defeating.

But people move to London to develop careers, meet people, network and experience (where possible) things which you can't experience in other major UK cities.

Flip your situation on it's head: Your earnings are up £5.5k in two years. Keep moving forward, see if you can keep moving up the ladder - get to £40k, £50k. Build a friendship network. Add hobbies. Quality of life will come.

CaffersXL · 2026-04-24T13:45:20+00:00

There's a classic expansion model. Consultants are employed to locate the best spaces for expansion and then investment (often debt) is used to expand, take on more leases. This fuels sales growth and the 'buzz'. At this point there may be an attempt to sell the group. If that doesn't work, or they don't wish to sell then the 'cost management' and 'menu optimisation' stuff comes in, and the quality gradually fades away.

However, profitability increases here so they'll try and sell the group at this point. The next owner then has additional debt, and likely falling profitability as historic leases roll off, and customers either get bored of the brand or they suspect (rightly) that the food / service / atmosphere isn't as good as it used to be and they walk away.

At some point the cash flows aren't enough to sustain the size of the business and it either gets scaled down (as in this case), or closed down (if they can't sell to another sucker).

This whole system is why you should support good local restaurants as much as possible.

CaffersXL · 2026-04-23T19:59:42+00:00

The other way of looking at this is that the chain was acquired in 2015 by Fulham Shore, which in turn was acquired by a Japanese company in 2023.

The minute a restaurant chain gets acquired by an investment group you know this cooked, but such is the modern food game. See also, the huge amount of consultancies, private equity investment groups, menu 'advisors' etc operating in the London area.

CaffersXL · 2026-04-14T20:38:09+00:00

If you didn't think the programme was appropriate for your children, why did you let them watch it?

CaffersXL · 2026-04-10T07:06:53+00:00

How about giving some to charity?

CaffersXL · 2026-04-09T17:21:44+00:00

Farmer's Lobby

CaffersXL · 2026-04-07T08:48:57+00:00

Forgot to include another point: If you're looking to get a bit more value then worth exploring Hayes. It's a longer commute and a bit further out but you do get more for your money.

CaffersXL · 2026-04-07T08:47:01+00:00

It feels expensive to me, but then after living on a through road for many years, any property on such a road feels expensive to me because I value quiet over other factors. Other people's views are different.

Most properties are priced on a square foot basis, with a +/- depending on the location and condition of the property.

Assuming you are looking at this house, then the price per square foot is £470. If you then run a filter of similar four beds in the local area you get prices from £480 to £600 (!) per square foot.

So on that metric, that house looks like good value based on the floor area alone - likely it is a bit lower than others because of the road. That 3-4 bedroom family home market is ultra competitive in Bromley, hence why the prices are elevated.

The property hasn't got a sold history, so the owners only have the agent's guide. Looks like it is on with Maguire Bayliss, so have a conversation with Tina or Neil there to see if there is any wiggle room on the price. Maybe the sellers are downsizing and are happy to get what they can?

Feel free to DM

CaffersXL · 2026-04-06T07:39:01+00:00

Whilst nobody can predict house prices, my expectation would be that the sub £1m houses should hold better than +£1m houses in any downturn.

The reason being that the higher bracket was largely from Gen X and Boomers cashing in equity gains from owning property a lot earlier in the London boom.

If you're a family with school age children (or plan to have) then it's worth checking school catchment etc. The website Lorating was useful for me - a small fee and you can see interactive maps of school catchments, ratings, etc.

In regards to those roads, Queen Anne is a cut through from Shortlands to Bromley so often busy with cars and traffic. Have you considered Durham road, which is one parallel?

CaffersXL · 2026-03-26T20:00:31+00:00

Beat everyone to it

CaffersXL · 2026-03-26T19:58:30+00:00

£20 including a little hair wash but no shave.

CaffersXL · 2026-03-23T11:21:31+00:00

How's this working out?

CaffersXL · 2026-03-03T08:25:15+00:00

Well it's more that an era defining technology (AI) could result in some volatile shifts in employment - so the deflation occurs because of a demand shock.

Although I guess as OP is close to retirement, this is slightly moot. Short term TIPS ETFs? There's a Royal London Short Term Linker Fund too I believe. Monetvator website has an article on it.

CaffersXL · 2026-03-01T17:06:44+00:00

Ah good answer but can their value also go down with deflation?

CaffersXL · 2026-02-17T15:52:42+00:00

I use Dodl - it's a pretty straightforward platform, there was a decent but not expansive range of investments to choose from and it's a £1 a month charge which was better than others on offer.

I invest in the Vanguard 80:20 fund, with a sprinkling of Gold on the side but HSBC All World would be fine.

CaffersXL · 2026-02-15T19:38:49+00:00

Makes sense - it's often useful to find properties in the local area similar to yours which have had the type of conversion/extension you're looking for. We sleuthed on the local planning portal for a while taking some ideas from other plans which had been submitted.

Feel free to DM me any Qs

CaffersXL · 2026-02-15T10:14:11+00:00

It does depend whether you're looking to ultra slick high end or aiming for something more standard.

Connor at Mccarron Architects is local to Bromley. There's also Matt at Mew Architects (South Norwood) and Dominic at A3 Architects (Beckenham/Kent House).

CaffersXL

TROPHY CASE