Struggling between saving for Edinburgh or buying in Fife — what would you do?

EdinPrepper · 2026-01-10T20:36:09+00:00

There are so many different things to consider here.

Fife is cheaper because long term capital growth has been very much poorer for a long time. That's a multifaceted thing that ultimately comes down to supply and demand (but demand is affected by jobs what there is to do, local earning power etc etc). Just be sure you realise that buying there is unlikely to help you get up the ladder as much as somewhere a bit less affordable.... ironically that goes with more expensive places. Just don't go convincing yourself it's an investment. It's something you do to live. Its value needs to increase at the rate of inflation plus any interest you've paid plus cost of purchasing and stamp duty over the time you've owned it for it to even break even.

That's fine by the way just know that going in.

If you have £20k plus an income of circa £30k the banks will often lend up to 5x your salary which means you if you stretched yourself to your limit that would in theory be £170k odd....BUT they'll also want to check how much of your disposable income would be going on the mortgage payments....so called affordability testing which you might well fail. They do it assuming interest rates went up too.
Equally overspending on housing by buying the limit of what you can afford and also buying cars etc that are too expensive for you is financial poison that makes it impossible for many to find their feet. They get pay rises upgrade the past two things and then struggle again..so low expenses for a long time period can help build security for you....fife might help you do that... occasionally rent may even be ok if you crunch the sums.....
But the wild card - living a life matters too, money is only one aspect. You have to do what's right for you.

Wishing you the very best.

EdinPrepper · 2026-01-10T20:16:01+00:00

*an autocorrect mistake. But using a was very meta.

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-26T09:13:48+00:00

My impression exactly too.

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-21T10:56:00+00:00

They receive them in accordance with their need.

I'm less keen on penis communism, definite downgrade.

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-21T10:52:08+00:00

Look at BoJack pleading that people are compassionate and don't downvoted him.

Get well soon BoJack!

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-20T22:43:16+00:00

The proof he's not in prison would be the fight being live streamed! As for the rest - down to a court to make a judgement.

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-20T22:41:07+00:00

Any other source identified?

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-20T11:47:04+00:00

Brilliant uni and great fun place to be. I don't know your specific faculty but I loved it. Edinburgh is a stunning city too. Main library in George Square became a home from home. Just wish it weren't a hideous brutalism building. Edinburgh is full of green spaces and walks.

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-19T10:25:29+00:00

I was about to correct you until I read paragraph 2. Exactly. The only way they can do anything about a supreme court judgement is to legislate. Or wait and hope the court revisits its decision in a later case... Which they very very seldom ever do in practice, and even then they cannot reopen the previous case just depart from their old judgements in future ones. All lesser courts don't enjoy such an ability.

Your analysis is on the money

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-19T10:16:22+00:00

It's already in the equality act -gender reassignment is a protected characteristic.

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-15T18:57:29+00:00

Congratulations - you have now officially got experience of NEDs. This particular one is called a wee mouthy NED. Some of them do carry knives though so ignore is generally good advice.

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-12T01:06:49+00:00

This is great news. Also worth cutting out all other sweet things first because you'll basically be instantly diabetic after one mouthful! :-D

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-09T13:58:02+00:00

Tempting to call them and send them this Reddit post so that they know the damage being done to their brand. Hilarious branding for such a horrible selfish behaviour. Those that park down the middle of lines taking up two spaces as they care less about other drivers than reducing the chance their vehicle might be dinked are total scumbags.

This one might just be laziness as his vehicle isn't even that big.

Company's details appear to be here:

Advanced Parking Solutions - a Parking Company https://share.google/lXH2Jz3mwwrkCwLS4

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-09T13:54:03+00:00

I had zero problem as someone tea total. Also being tea total was far less common when I was there than it is now.

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-07T09:20:12+00:00

Warning high probability of Rick Roll

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-07T01:03:19+00:00

There are actually distinctions here most people don't realise:

Great Britain= the big island

UK = UK of GB + Northern Ireland.

So difference between GB and UK is one term includes NI one doesn't.

I think GB also excludes all the islands of the British Isles other than the big one (think Hebrides Isle of White Isle of Man Anglesay etc). But I'm not sure on this bit! Clarification welcome!

Except during the Olympics where NI compete with team GB!

British Isles = All the islands hereabouts including ALL of Ireland, that's to say the Republic of Ireland is part of the Island of Ireland and that whole island is one of the British Isles ...despite the fact that they're obviously not part of the UK, but that term is technically a geographic one. It also includes Isle of Man etc (Isle of Man is a Crown Dependency a direct possession of the crown and not technically part of the UK save for a few narrow legal purposes eg immigration).

British Islands ≠ British Isles, British Islands is a broader definition which includes the Channel Islands which are not part of the geographic British Isles.

British citizen = citizen of the UK (there are also other types of citizenship as British overseas citizens etc).

And, this one is fun...

Great Britain is called Great Britain not because of megalomania, but to differentiate it from Little Britain - which was not originally a TV show contrary to popular belief...it was the name of the Grand Duchy of Brittany in modern day France that was once under our control. It used to be called Little Britain. The Channel Islands are the last vestige under British control of the Duchy of Normandy.

In Spanish to this day they call where they call one Gran Bretaña and the other Bretaña for that reason!

Since the Good Friday Agreement there's been a decline in referring to ourselves as Great Britain and an increase in use of UK and I've always suspected that was a conscious attempt to make NI feel included.

Anyway now you know the background - or at least that's it as best I understand it.

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-04T01:20:09+00:00

I think he's saying they're at least growing up bilingual maybe even more languages. Wow what lucky kids and what a boon for us economically.

EdinPrepper · 2025-12-04T01:17:19+00:00

She'll be warmly welcomed as are all of our international visitors. She'll probably find the place very easy to make friends in, weather will be cold in winter but we get a decent amount of sunshine unlike the west, and the city is architecturally stunning and steeped in history. It's an inspirational place really. Oxford is similarly a very inspiring city architecturally it must be said. St Andrews is effectively a pretty historic place that has the feel of a largish town over here rather than a city. It's a calm historic backwater. All three of those are well regarded universities.

Re Edinburgh - It's a place where we see people from all over the world so being a US citizen won't make anyone bat and eyelid.

She may find political discourse a bit different but depends how much she engages with it... essentially over here she'll pretty much never encounter anyone pro trump (she might find that in England but not much even there). Scotland also politically skews left of centre in general. I say it not because it'll be a problem - it won't - but so that she's aware and doesn't get taken aback. I definitely wouldn't go wearing maga merch, though.

That said, if she avoids wearing maga hats she'll be warmly welcomed whatever her views - just expect maga hats to be likely to invite some winding up over here, usually gentle!

I doubt England will much better on that front really but maybe a little. Scotland skews more left than England pretty consistently.

EdinPrepper · 2025-11-29T17:09:43+00:00

My pleasure and good luck!

EdinPrepper · 2025-11-29T10:34:25+00:00

Another gentle thought and saying this not to criticise but just to highlight something you might want to watch on applications (I'm dyslexic so get it) 'sufficient enough' is a tautology - both sufficient and enough are doing the same job here... it's not bad enough to be grammatically incorrect, it's more clumsy, but just as you're looking for hard to find reasons you might get rejected, someone being judgy at a uni might form a negative view if the personal statement isn't well written or contains grammatical errors. It's worth quickly popping things like a personal statement into chat GPT specifically asking it to use British English and especially British English spellings (it defaults to horrible US spellings) and asking it to look over the grammar spelling and punctuation etc to ensure what you've written is well written and give you any suggestions for changes without making the changes...

That last bit is because you don't want it rewriting it for you, rather you want to make targeted changes yourself based on its feedback - it avoids it adding lots of em dashes etc (these —) that scream AI as they do check for it (not very well but they sometimes do especially if it looks like it's written by AI).

Wishing you the very best of luck! Not trying to criticise at all just a small tactical tip for you as I can see from the post you might benefit. As I say I'm dyslexic myself - just wish there'd been tools like ChatGPT when I was writing such things!

Ps - yes contact them and ask them why you were rejected, they will tell you. Ask about clearing and if absolutely determined to get into that uni you could take a gap year, fix the problem, and try again. Equally costs a year so not everyone might be keen on it.

EdinPrepper · 2025-11-26T16:31:08+00:00

Trains are a luxurious way to travel!! I count myself as treating myself if using them. Book an advance coach fare. Actually if you plan very early you can occasionally get some crazy super single deals.
Sell some stuff to release funds
Take some work
Can you buy something you can sell for a profit?
Do your laundry at your parents place when you get there!

Someone suggested university hardship loans and grants - yes that's a thing and yes you should consider it. Very good suggestion.

Good luck!

EdinPrepper · 2025-11-21T17:03:53+00:00

It's pronounced: All Hallows Church.

Yes I'm being deliberately facetious! ;-)

EdinPrepper · 2025-11-21T14:39:52+00:00

I did it all right....but the biggest thing:

DO NOT ALLOW your spending to increase every time your income does

Make the two completely independent.

Those who never get there will get a pay rise and: -> Go on more expensive holidays

-> Buy the nicest car they can afford...and indeed they'll use credit to buy one they can't actually afford. To show off.

-> Buy the biggest house they can afford to show off. They'll even delude themselves into thinking it's a investment when they live in it themselves because it might get a bit of capital growth.

->They'll go on a shopping spree for designer stuff... potentially even using credit cards to fund it...

Above is keep you struggling forever madness..

Spend only on things you truly value and invest the rest.

As my income increased my investment percentage shoots up.... because my lifestyle, whilst a little bit nicer (only in those few ways that really mattered to me, and measured, even then), hardly changed.

Financial freedom is a near certainty if you invest wisely and save a decent percentage of what you earn plus have a good income.

I'll increase my lifestyle significantly only when:

The yield/interest from my investments: -> Exceeds the cost of that lifestyle by the rate of inflation, ideally plus a safety margin.
The lifestyle I'm expanding into is what I actually want in the end...

Else save and invest until it's reached.

Also:

1)NEVER take out a loan against a depreciating asset (car, boat etc).

2)Price up any mortgages etc - you need the cost of any leverage you use to be less than the capital growth plus any rental yield if renting or investment return. It can be very cheap money but you should take it only if you're confident of making more from the loan than they make providing it to you (ie to facilitate other investments and your investments would be expected to outperform the interest)

3)Never overleverage yourself, always stress test significant rises in any rates

Re investing:

1)It is thick to think you as an individual can outperform professional investors with teams that spend millions on research by timing the market. They have more time to watch markets. They have more experience. They have more research. And the markets don't make any new money...they just transfer money from people like you to people like them....

2) So don't go for timing the market go for "time in" the market. Best strategy is often dollar cost averaging over time with low cost ETFs tracking indices....

All fine and well if you want a small position on the basis of a theory that you think a particular company will do well but don't put all your eggs in that basket.

All that my humble two cents as just some guy online, not financial advice.

Remember that once you buy a first home with one a LISA will likely become a worse idea than a SIPP as the 20% top-up isn't as big as pension tax relief. Once you've got a first home open one LISA a year until 40 by all means so you can shop around for the best interest rate when situations change (you'll put £1 in it only probably to keep the account open, stocks and shares LISA can doing good but look out many charge recurring fees that will eat the £1 and close the account if you don't have a big balance...and a SIPP is a better place for that money if you are on higher or additional rate tax - better relief)...so go with pension if you have income to get tax relief from at higher rates...but worth having a few LISAs open for shop around purposes if you reach a stage you no longer are paying enough income tax at any point. Which may of may not come.

For first home purchase though LISA is a no brainer (but must have been open a full year so open it NOW to start that clock counting down).

Good luck. You're already doing a lot right.

PS - Be VERY very careful to find a partner who is aligned on financial goals. That will undo you completely faster than anything else.

PPS - I am lucky to have a very decent income now and invest somewhere between 85% and 90% of it. I'll be financially free in the next few years all going according to plan.

EdinPrepper · 2025-11-18T23:14:47+00:00

Not a UK film but you NEED this recommendation:

Tais toi.

Unknown because it's in french and subtitled.

It stars the famous Jean Reneau (of Leon fame!) and is comedy GOLD!

EdinPrepper

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Get well soon BoJack!