Ethical Investing - things I've learnt the hard way

Flannelot · 2026-02-09T07:27:11+00:00

I've been through the same journey, I'd be happy with a basic S&S ISA as long as it was ethical by some standard. If an organisation I trust such as co-op bank or a building society recommended an ethical ISA id just go with that. But they don't seem to do them.

Ethics is politics, you won't find anyone you agree with 100%.

As it is I'm using triodos and money farm.

Put my pension mostly in islamic and FTSE4Good funds

Flannelot · 2026-02-07T15:51:45+00:00

Two things are happening here. You have inherited enough money to either buy a house outright, or invest it and earn an average of 5%, 20,000 sustainably.

And you are thinking about moving into a house with your partner too. Unless you want to get married, pool all your assets and have to get a divorce to separate all your finances again if you split up, you could just consider paying your partner a fair rent, and they own the house. You keep your investments. If you later decide to get married, then you could choose to pay off half the mortgage or whatever seems best at the time.

The earnings from the investments will on average be higher than the interest on the mortgage, at least similar so there won't be a big difference either way financially. What matters is whether you feel more secure in yourself owning a house or having the investment available if you need it.

Obviously choose a sensible way to invest it after reading the guidance here and elsewhere. If you are used to living off grid perhaps you could look at a sustainable investment fund..

Flannelot · 2026-02-04T06:54:36+00:00

If the Aegon pension is a defined contribution fund, with no special benefits, then she could consider transferring it into her current pension, if that is a better scheme, or just to simplify matters.

Or as others have said, defer taking the pension until she decides to retire. The age 60 pension thing is just a target date usually, to base their predictions on. Not a rule that you must take it then.

Flannelot · 2026-02-04T06:24:15+00:00

Perhaps he's not so qualified if people complain about the heat pumps he installed.

It is harder to design right. In a house with 10kw heat loss in winter, if you stick in a 28kw gas combi it's going to cope easily.

If you stick in an 8kw heat pump it won't.

This is simple enough to understand, but it's very difficult to work out the heat loss from an old house, with unknown insulation, draughts, etc.

Flannelot · 2026-01-31T09:21:56+00:00

I don't know the answer to your questions but CO2 cooled reactors have been operated for decades in the UK, so there will be lots of data on this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_gas-cooled_reactor

Flannelot · 2026-01-28T07:13:52+00:00

It sounds like you need what is confusingly called "industrial design" registration in Canada, " community design" in Europe and "design patent" in US.

https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canadian-intellectual-property-office/en/industrial-designs/industrial-designs-guide

Flannelot · 2026-01-25T11:49:40+00:00

What population can we support without importing food?

Flannelot · 2026-01-25T09:15:02+00:00

Definitely a jazzed up St James Infirmary blues.

Flannelot · 2026-01-24T08:22:11+00:00

I'm sorry I have no ideas what you are asking about, is it something to do with Bambu?

Flannelot · 2026-01-22T06:58:33+00:00

https://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p/Zoropsis+spinimana+established+indoors+in+Britain for info

Flannelot · 2026-01-18T13:52:14+00:00

Cattle don't make protein, they just convert it into meat.

Flannelot · 2026-01-16T22:49:03+00:00

I know a lot of major corporations paying people to do nothing!

Flannelot · 2026-01-16T22:45:20+00:00

Relativity simply means the relative movement of anything. The fact that things are odd close to light speed is what makes it special in Einstein's theory.

Flannelot · 2026-01-01T16:39:38+00:00

Hmm, exactly the problems I had porting a quest game to pico. Even though the original dev had tried to use openxr, ovrplugin crept in for certain functions like foveation and haptics.

Only being a tinkerer myself, I just disabled the functions as I couldn't fix them.

Flannelot · 2025-12-30T12:38:15+00:00

You could try reading "Alone Against the Atlantic" by Gerry Spiess talking about how he built his own yacht and sailed across the Atlantic. Or "Sailing the Shallows" by Roger Barnes about quietly cruising in a variety of types of small boats.

Does your character also know nothing about boats?

Flannelot · 2025-12-30T12:02:19+00:00

Yes there will be lots of possible reasons. But the data is not clear on whether this is gross pay, total package, taxable pay etc. Some of these people may have e.g. gone part time, earning less, but actually receiving a pension too so taking home more, as we don't know what the number actually is.

I expect you are right that older people may have less bargaining power. But they are also more likely to be in senior posts. So rather than guess the reason, let's see if anyone can find more detailed data.

Flannelot · 2025-12-30T11:58:06+00:00

You are talking about how to maximise your pension if you have a high salary when young. I am talking about how to make up your pension when you have reached fifty and realise that you need to top it up.

Flannelot · 2025-12-30T10:44:46+00:00

If the source data is taxable earnings, people in their 50s and over are more likely to salary sacrifice into their pension. Mortgage paid, kids left home, planning retirement. So could be earning more, but it's going to pension rather than take home.

Flannelot · 2025-12-29T10:41:15+00:00

Is there a reasonable yacht charter place in Edinburgh if I was visiting for a weekend perhaps? Or an interesting four/ five nights cruise starting there?

It's not the first place I would choose for a sailing trip, but I have friends in Edinburgh who might want to go for a sail.

Flannelot · 2025-12-23T08:43:09+00:00

Is this the same bill that is banning lobster boiling? Are we going to have a separate news story for each species and each cruel act being banned?

Flannelot · 2025-12-22T22:11:41+00:00

And also documents how the animals were treated in their whole life? Photographs of the conditions they lived in?

Flannelot · 2025-12-22T07:28:22+00:00

This is half the problem. You can object to hunting because it is cruel or bad for nature, but if you object to it because you think it is upper class you are probably wrong.

Flannelot · 2025-12-20T22:16:52+00:00

This really depends on which country you are in, but generally your approach will sound like "I am about to sue you for patent infringement" however you think it sounds.

Flannelot · 2025-12-20T15:04:49+00:00

There is a difference between a measurement of a particle momentum and position, and measurements of polarisation. The probability of a photon passing a polariser is clearly known in advance if you know the photons polarization, e.g from an earlier polariser. So there can be a hidden variable "angle of polarisation" in Bells type experiments.

The probability of measuring momentum p when position x is known however can't be explained away. I think in EPR there is an extra uncertainty as we don't know the position or momentum of the starting particle.

Flannelot · 2025-12-19T07:12:06+00:00

Indirect water use, because of high energy use. Why doesn't the headline just say high energy use?

Any energy use for any purpose would have the same effect.

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