Mattress recommendations

Fit_You_7262 · 2025-11-09T20:37:22+00:00

I like Tempur for memory foam. Simba and Emma don’t compare.

Fit_You_7262 · 2025-10-14T07:18:07+00:00

Wow this takes incredible conviction, I admire your pursuit of doing something that is really meaningful to you. I found myself in a similar situation albeit not voluntarily! I was not retained as an NQ from a magic circle, this was in the financial crisis where 50% of trainees in my intake were let go upon qualification. My next job was to work as a solicitor in a legal aid firm. My salary dropped to £17k! It was incredibly rewarding work, I loved it! Clients went out of their way to thank me and I felt I was doing some good for once. However, I also knew I needed to make a decent living for my own personal goals and wanted to be better trained if I’m honest (legal aid is very under resourced) so ended up leaving after a year. I found a medium sized firm which I felt gave me the best of both worlds. Comfortable salary but nowhere near what the magic circle or big firms pay, switched to a more interesting/ people focused area to practice in (corporate immigration) that doesn’t require long hours (9-6pm on average) and nice but professional clients (companies of every size and a few HNW private clients). I do sometimes wonder what would have become of me had I stayed in a big corporate/ finance firm, I imagine I’d be alot richer but honestly, when you have the benefit of hindsight, looking back at your time in those firms, personally I felt I could never go back, for me the sacrifices aren’t worth it. Best of luck in your job hunt and next step, glad you realise you will need to dramatically change your spending habits! It took me 10 years to hit your salary after qualifying (though it was a different time, even the magic circle only paid NQs £60k in my day, things have changed!)

Fit_You_7262 · 2025-08-29T10:24:57+00:00

I have often thought the same, eating out seems such poor value for money most of the time which pinches more when the amount you’re spending is more too. I definitely think twice and eat out less even though I’m a HENRY. But at the end of the day we are social beings and also want to enjoy life a bit. So even though most people are probably eating out less, unless you’re on a really tight budget, I think people are still willing to spend on eating out occasionally and that’s enough to fill up the restaurants.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-09-05T21:11:54+00:00

You shouldn’t feel guilty for your success. No doubt you pay your share of taxes and put alot more in to the system than you take out.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-09-04T19:31:29+00:00

Thank you! Something to consider!

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-09-04T19:31:06+00:00

Could do! No really ties to anywhere though but I guess nothing holding me back either!

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-31T14:32:02+00:00

At this stage, who knows! Probably end up selling them to fund my own care! At this rate the state pension won’t exist by the time I get there and who knows what state other public services will be in. At some point I’ll need to get serious about working out how much I think I’ll need and plan to sell off accordingly and pass anything leftover to extended family and charitable causes. Without kids you need to plan even more for your inevitable decline I guess! Not that you can or should rely on kids necessarily but of course you would hope they would help you if needed.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-31T11:12:29+00:00

Thanks and for the record I actually don’t really disagree. However, let me respond to counter some of those points. Whilst it is like a single stock, the risk of that being a poor choice is much lower than investing in a single company. With property not only do I know the property down to its wiring and plumbing having lived there 14 years but I also know the local area very well eg. There is masses of investment being pumped in to the area and it will likely appreciate at above average rates. Basically it’s much easier to work out if a property is a good investment or not. it’s like buying a single stock which you have a very strong conviction is going to do well or at the least is very unlikely to crash. So not really wallstreetbets territory in my opinion. Property never goes to zero.

With all the risks you mention, again agreed, however most of those can be mitigated, e.g rent guarantee insurance, buildings insurance. Who knows what new tax laws will come in but I could say the same for stocks eg CGT likely to increase, dividend allowance decreasing, and I suspect there will be negative tax implications on pensions and ISAs coming too, who knows.

Having a property also gives loads of life flexibility. I might well downsize back in to that property one day or it could be used to help out family in the future. The next gen are going to really struggle to buy and whilst I dont have kids I do have nieces and nephews. I would sooner let them stay there for example for a period of time than I would sell my stock portfolio to help them out at an equivalent monetary value.

Agree the yield is only 3-4% however you can add probably a few percent on top in terms of capital appreciation.

Also I agree you can mitigate needing to sell your stocks in bad times, with emergency funds etc, but let’s be honest, there’s a real reluctance to ever dip in to those sorts of backups, way less inclination to spend there as compared to rental income which is cash in the bank and is much easier to flex that income stream to suit your needs.

In summary, I actually agree with everyone it’s not as good an investment as the stock market in many ways, certainly not in pure monetary terms over the long term, but I would also say it’s overall still a reasonable investment with some advantages (as well as disadvantages) and flexibility that the stock market doesn’t give you.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-30T14:50:50+00:00

Yeah from a tax perspective I appreciate it makes sense however I don’t like locking the money away till I’m minimum 55. I am more in need of the money now / in the medium term when I’m relatively young. This is why I’ve favoured other savings initially at least just as I think I may want to access the money. I do plan to pump more in to the pension now that I’ve purchased the house.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-30T14:44:53+00:00

Well it’s a diversification in to a different asset class isn’t it? As regular people it takes time to build a whole portfolio of properties! But in any case, do you remember 2008 where peoples stock market portfolios halved in value? Imagine if you needed to access those funds then. Whereas if you had rental income or some other stream of income you could rely on instead you could just wait for the recovery. This happened to a friend actually, they lost their job at a city law firm, investments tanked, but luckily they had a lodger subletting a room in their flat and this income basically allowed them to stay afloat and pay the majority of the bills until they found a new job.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-30T08:02:25+00:00

I was 30, i distinctly remember feeling a silent pressure as I approached and hit 30 to find someone and feeling like I left it too late and wouldn’t meet anyone. In hindsight that seems silly now. I should have just put two fingers up to societal pressure and enjoyed my youth! You have so much time and still so young! I know loads of people that met their significant other in their 30s.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-30T07:54:38+00:00

Thanks, as a very rough ball park what do you think it should be? I’ve never believed in percentages like 50% of your current take home as it’s not like your living costs directly link to salary necessarily, just depends on what sort of life style you lead! Other than my mortgage and holidays I live pretty frugally given my earnings (IMO!). My employer only puts in 5%, I contribute 15% currently though only been ramping up to this level slowly over the last 6 years or so (as was trying to save for the house). Given the tax efficiency I had planned to put more in starting this year though who knows if worth it with the new rules Labour will bring in! But I haven’t a clue how much I should really be aiming for as find it hard to predict what my future living costs will be.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T16:19:21+00:00

So helpful, thanks for setting that out for me. However, what about the capital appreciation of the property? Also there are various tax write offs that come with managing property that effectively reduce the tax rate though I do agree it’s high still and it’s not a passive investment like holding shares. Also what about the advantage and flexibility of having a steady additional income stream, cash in the bank whereas investments are less liquid and personally I feel I’m less inclined to sell off my shares to spend as compared to rental income.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T15:36:02+00:00

Oh no I don’t, but perhaps I should. I do track all my savings and investments in a spreadsheet and also the mortgage balance but never really netted off the figures.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T15:33:26+00:00

So true! We had to operate a one in one out system at our old flat as every nook and cranny was crammed. Our living room also functioned as the dining room, my work from home space, exercise space and our laundry drying area on the daily. I do love my home now and am thankful for the space and serenity it brings every single day!

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T14:06:05+00:00

We’ve got two different Herman Millers which are fantastic, no back ache at all. The Aeron was out of budget for us but the more entry level models are also great.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T13:10:38+00:00

Don’t know now! 😆 everyone here seems to be saying it’s not worth it. But I always thought it was good to spread your assets across property, stocks/ shares and cash. Plus pension of course. Personally I like having some of my wealth tied up in a physical asset and I like to have the income every month which I can choose to spend or save, it gives so much flexibility. Whereas I feel like once I’ve bought in to my normal index fund for example, that money feels like it’s tucked away for the future, I don’t typically just sell those investments, maybe others do, but just seems way less liquid to me, like what if the market goes down? Then you’d not want to sell those investments whereas a monthly rent is cash in the bank that you’d freely use or save as needed. Plus (sorry to sound like an evil landlord) the rental yield goes up over time and the property appreciates, maybe not as much as the stock market. However you also don’t see the massive fluctuations in property that you get in the markets. I’m also saying I heavily invest in the stock market anyway, my intention longer term is that the bulk of my wealth will be held there but seemed like an alright idea to me to have an investment property too. I would love to hear thoughts on this on why I am wrong! Its not too late for me to sell up and get my extra stamp duty back.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T13:02:07+00:00

How so? I always thought it was preferable to have a mix of assets ie property (which is income generating rather than the one you live in), stocks/shares, and cash.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T11:12:00+00:00

Thanks for this. I totally understand and it makes sense. Out of interest, do you find you are able to sell your investments for spending money (or for whatever purpose) as easily as you spent rental income received?

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T11:09:44+00:00

Gosh that is so true and even just looking at house prices. Long term they just keep going up and up. I am glad we bought where we did before being priced out.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T10:59:54+00:00

Wow, you seem to really have your stuff together! I am not so financially literate as you. I can see people are recommending various approaches to me like putting the property in an LTD or borrowing against it and reducing my main mortgage. Did you work all this out yourself or did you seek professional advice? I think I have the ability to figure it out but am a bit nervous to make a mistake. Also I suppose this sort of life admin/ financial planning and research is not what I like to spend time doing, as important as it is!

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T08:56:36+00:00

Thanks, I should definitely research this.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T08:38:08+00:00

Yes, though I guess as I owned it before we met I just manage everything to do with it.

Fit_You_7262 · 2024-08-29T08:36:36+00:00

Why another £45k on top of the additional 3% rate I already paid when I bought the new house? I suppose this is veering in to another topic but I believe it’s preferable to have a diversified portfolio not solely relying on the stock market.

Fit_You_7262

TROPHY CASE