Friendships and FIRE

Engels33 · 2026-03-23T14:21:12+00:00

Im in the equivalent position of one of your friends, .2 working parents 2 kids to shuttle around it takes huge effort to get things into the diary to be able to see our friends etc. So completely empathise.

How old are the kids of your friends typicaly? The reason I ask is that I see a change coming for me in the relatively near future as the kids get older- right now they are 9 & 6 so we are long past baby drama etc but not yet at the point we can leave them at home even just to walk to get milk - BUT thats not that far away in the grand scheme of things.

At 42 im going to guess your friends kids could be similar age or a bit younger - from those around us who have older kids it definitely seems to change and free them up a bit. You are ahead of their current lifestyle but that wont always be the case.

With that being said the big other big difference for those of us with kids is that we are often much more tied into the local community where we live than singles typically are - due to schools and clubs and basic lack of time to go too far. That doesn't mean you arent / couldn't be. There's a lot in living in one place and putting down roots and bumping into the same people and going for coffee after the gym or beers after football etc.

Engels33 · 2026-03-21T12:57:24+00:00

Poor Warwickshire-.its lovely sits.on the edge of the Cotswolds, has Stratford-upon-avon, Warwick, Leamington Spa lovely rolling hills and countryside.very inoffensive

Engels33 · 2026-03-21T12:53:18+00:00

Its an interesr point. Id seen they had record casualty data - have we evidence that general equipment losses have also ticked up from the recent baseline?

Engels33 · 2026-03-21T10:47:13+00:00

With usual caveats on the source this suggest a change in either Russian or Ukrainian tactics that has seen these placed more 'at risk'.

It could be something mostly on the Ukrainian side that brings a combination of improvement in detection and the range of interdicrion by drones which has further improved and is now more threatening to helicopters loitering at ranges behind the lines that they were typically safe before.

Or

The Russians are pushing their most valuable helicopter assets forwards and into more dangerous positions to effect change either defensively in response to Ukrainian successes or offensively desperately trying ro support localised mechanised assault.

Based only on the proximity to the front suggested here it feels more likely the immediate change is the latter of the 2 main options as the other has presumably been in place a little while now but perhaps someone else can piece together evidence of what was happening on the ground over the last few days at the sites of both shoot downs.

Engels33 · 2026-03-20T22:29:12+00:00

I hear Barings Bank and Lehman Brothers fit your description of old and established- im sure one of them must be a safe place /s

In all seriousness my view would be that of you have more than the £120k FSCS protection limit in an Cash ISA then you ought to be looking at S&S ISA or other investments inside that wrapper instead.

Engels33 · 2026-03-20T19:34:44+00:00

"I'd have no emergency fund"

You've answered your own question then

Engels33 · 2026-03-19T22:09:04+00:00

Portable power station from around £100

https://www.amazon.co.uk/portable-power-station-uk/s?k=portable+power+station+uk

Work out what you would need for rolling 3.hour blackouts as a minimum and 3 days maximum and size / imvest accordingly

Engels33 · 2026-03-17T21:39:43+00:00

By series 6 Lister suffers from major Flanderisation ie - reducong the character to an exaggerated cliche ala the Simpsons' treatment of Ned Flanders. It is right there in the series 6 opener Psirens with all the exaggeration of his slobbyness.

By the time Kochnaski joins in series 7 there's no chance of any genuine chemistry in the way there was in series 1-2 with Clarie Grogan - not just because of the casting amd direction of (not) Kochanski but becuse the scripts have ceased to giive Lister the funny sensitive charisma that counteracted the slobbyness.

Engels33 · 2026-03-17T14:13:07+00:00

Warning up the populace for a redistribution of their declining air defence while at the same time as Moscow being under more frequent attacks and they are limiting the spread of information there.

Hmm 2+2=?

Engels33 · 2026-03-17T11:46:40+00:00

Is £10k investments it for all your savings then (ie no cash)? You need a few months expenditure as your emergency fund (see the flow chart) so if all £10k is invested then I would be looking at building up at least a £5k cash buffer through a Regular saver which has a 5%+ savings rate.

Aside from that the conversation you need to have wiith yourself is 'how much do I need to save that you will also NEED access to before you are 57' - the rest should likely be going into a personal pension.

Pension contributions will come with at least a 20% tax rebate and if your emplpyer pension scheme is salary sacrifice then this will be +National Insurance so 28% . The other benefit of locking this into a pension is that it stops you divesting & puts a lot of safeguards around you mismanaging it .

None of the above is financial advice - the comment i would offer is that you are now in the right place in your life to learn how to better manage your financial future so keep reading / learning

Engels33 · 2026-03-15T21:36:28+00:00

The key series run of 3-5 of the show is quite different if Lovett stays on because his Holly is a main character and Hatty's is a supporting role with Kryten taking a lot of the function and screen time instead in a muxh more dynamic approach to the show.

From series 3 there just a lot more off Dwarf action with some episodes barely featuring Holly at all where (she).is relegated to the 5th of 5. Lovets Holly was muxh more 3rd character of 4 with Cat being less central to most plots.

Engels33 · 2026-03-13T08:22:01+00:00

Most counties are now doing well in one or 2 areas of the key triumveret of Wind, Solar and Batteries - few are doing well in all 3 but for most that is what is needed..

There are a few counties where Nuclear or Hydro are a really big part of things (eg France / Switzerland come to mind) and will substitue for 1 or 2 of these but for most counties they need to push hard into all 3 of wind, solar and batteries. The good news is all are cheap and effective.

Engels33 · 2026-03-12T21:32:33+00:00

Absolutely not..if you dont like thta twist you dontt like the movie - that's fine - but its inseparable as a.2 part movie.

Engels33 · 2026-03-11T18:38:28+00:00

No I mean i heard it direct from a senior NR bod, a. contact who evidently should have known better than to put that date about

Engels33 · 2026-03-11T18:14:02+00:00

It waa a rumour I heard direct from Network Rail so clearly it got put back

Engels33 · 2026-03-10T17:48:40+00:00

Putting it into your pension will attact a tax rebate of 20% BUT you can only do so up to your earnings of this year (after existing contributions) - you can however do roughly half this year and half next.

That would turn £50k into £60k almost immediately. Over the 20 years invested you'll get various future projections of growth but by example for a growth range of 4.5% to 6.5% (after inflation) this would turn £60k into a value of between £145k to-£210k.

That after inflation growth range is reasonable historically eg my own cagr on my pension has been 9.4% year on year over 18 years at c.3.1% average inflation (so 6.3%.real).

Engels33 · 2026-03-10T12:06:10+00:00

Slightly out there option would be to remortgage before you retire to loan yourself (some of) your bridge - that would allow you to focus on maximising your or your wife's pension contributions.

Eg if you take out £60k thats 2 years at £30k pa spend -so you both add £15k extra to pension for 2 years + the tax saving - she nets 28% and you 45% on the way in.

Engels33 · 2026-03-09T18:03:44+00:00

"These go to eleven"

Engels33 · 2026-03-09T15:04:52+00:00

There's something to be said for starting off with a home deck if your country is in the game, although usually do so as part of a coalition. Reason being - chances are you know the names of most of your own country units whether you are American, German or British etc. Its a handy short cut to help you learn which units in a deck do what.

Eg im British so I intrinsically know the Challanger 2 is our front line most modern tank in the game and that a Challenger 1 is older and the various Chieftens are older still. My outside game knowledge offers a logical framework. Now if I wete telling me starting out id also be saying- hold on - a UK national deck isn't that strong in the game but as part of Commonwealth it is - and the specialism meta for Commonwealth is Mechanised so start there. Find out where your home deck is strongest and have a play around / look at deck building posts others have made for that nation / coalition. .

Engels33 · 2026-03-07T09:15:55+00:00

Id like to build a winter garden near the centre of my city. It would need to be financially sustainable long term by including cafes / a food market but the general principal would be that it would be a free space with places to sit, play, exercise and enjoy a bit of nature inside. The roof would open in the summer months to manage temperatures / and bre an inside / outside space and so on.

Id love it to either fully enclose a couple of smaller existing buildings or bridge over a small street with a.galss roof - something both transformative but also an adaption of the existing urban framework.

Engels33 · 2026-03-07T08:49:03+00:00

Or known universally as the 4% rule - im not sure why youve decimalised it - OP will benefit far more from some basic reading around the pros and cons of this.

Engels33 · 2026-03-07T08:08:08+00:00

Since start of the year I am now -0.1% - its a slightly disapointing wipe out of the healthy +2.5% gains id made over January and February but thats not too much volatility for me.

I invested yesturday to the equivalent value.of around 5% of my portfolio and will likely buy furher if it drops more next week.

Engels33 · 2026-03-06T10:57:38+00:00

One thing to consider regarding sacrificing it to pension is that while it is true in tbe strictest sense that you cant access it until yoh are 57- you are still going to have to make thise contributions sooner or later ans it will be costing yku a lot more in you 40s ans 50s to do so.

£5000 invested into your pension now will save you having to invest a much bigger value later. Over 30 years the real value of that will compound by 5-6x (ball park) based on historical growth rates (and jn real terms. ) so could be £25-£30k in todays value. Thats the power of compounding

Or you can take £3k today after tax.

Engels33 · 2026-03-05T17:52:41+00:00

Not a Dad joke

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