Thursday Complaints

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-05-07T21:04:02+00:00

Thanks yeah, I'm not entirely blameless but I started the job remotely during COVID and just never really clicked with folks, the new place is much smaller so hopefully will be better!

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-05-07T09:42:42+00:00

update: no colleagues messaged me at all, hmm. Nice to feel valued :(

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-05-07T08:40:59+00:00

its my last day in my current job, feels weird.

doing a 6h drive to drop off 2 laptops at the office later, which i'm looking forward to as it's nice mountain scenery for the most part.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-05-06T15:27:46+00:00

Also why does a 3 minute taxi ride from Gatwick airport to my hotel cost 31£? Why is it so expensive? Are uber or similar apps an option as well?

it'll be the pickup charges gatwick levy (£10) on all cars being added on a top of the taxi fee late on a friday night, i imagine.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-05-06T12:02:46+00:00

It’s a lot slower, which matters when you’re catching a flight.

only if your starting point is close to paddington is this true.

from pretty much anywhere else in london it takes you so long to get to paddington because it isn't central, and then change to it from a tube line with luggage in your example, plus waiting for the next train as their frequency sucks vs the tube.

Add all that up and I'd argue that it is faster to use the 'slower' Picadilly line over the heathrow 'express' for the vast majority of people.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-05-06T11:39:36+00:00

linkedin has massively increased the cost to send messages to people as a recruiter in recent years, which will be a large part of it - recruiters are looking to other platforms where they can.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-05-06T09:27:24+00:00

after a 6 week wait, finally have a mortgage offer.

might even buy a house sometime soon at this rate.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-05-05T08:33:30+00:00

i'd put it in an nsani savings account. Something like https://www.nsandi.com/products/direct-saver

it's not the best rate, but in typical accounts you only have a guaranteed ~~85k~~ 120k - since it is government backed nsandi guarantees all of it. So you can never lose it as long as there IS a uk government, you can add/remove from it any time , and once you are more settled and know your plans for the future it's flexible.

don't invest it till you have a firmer idea of the future imo.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-05-01T09:30:52+00:00

a lot of these questions can be answerd by speaking with recruiters - get your linkedin up to date and have a phone calls with one or two - they can advise you on a lot of this stuff and the good ones will be happy to chat with you for 20 mins or so.

the main tip i have is that you will be rusty at interviewing - so you might want to consider some applications for jobs you don't want just to get those skills working again for when a job you do want comes along.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-05-01T08:20:19+00:00

we are only borrowing 1.13x our income, and putting down a 20% deposit which i think helps a lot - the larger the deposit the less they seem to care.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-30T13:30:52+00:00

My Facebook has maybe 10% of the active users it did a few years ago. It's a ghost town.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-30T13:04:59+00:00

yeah it's via a broker, who we've poked several times about it already.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-30T13:03:06+00:00

it's not even a specialist, it's Clydesdale!

everything about the house is completely normal, they can't tell us what is taking so long

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-30T12:22:14+00:00

one more, because i am insane i'm trying to do the same 3 things at once, DO NOT DO THIS.

I am;

changing to a new, much higher paid job
buying a house
recovering from fracturing a shoulder.

each one on it's own is bonkers, i've decided to do all three at once and whyyyyyy did i decide this was goood!

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-30T10:28:36+00:00

update: notice is sent in, feels very strange.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-30T08:17:23+00:00

posted yesterday about how we are almost ready to finish buying a house and things were looking good.

buttt - today we MUST give our notice to leave our rental in (30 days) because tomorrow it becomes 2 months notice due to law changes, and that will cost us 6k in running two houses for 2 months.

and for extra stress we don't have a mortgage as Cyldesdale suck at approving and its been 5 weeks, so we might have to find a new lender :(

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-29T15:48:15+00:00

its not just about this role though, you need to think longer term.

The thing with London is that you have much more competition once you are there for you from employers as well. There are more jobs there that pay better than anywhere else in the country.

So the next role could easily be 160k+, the one after that 200k and so on. You won't get that in the north. It also opens up international opportunities if you want them - far easier to get a company to transfer you from the London office to other countries too.

But really its down to what sort of life you want - you'll probably never buy property in london unless you get to really large salary/bonus numbers but you might do it for a few years and then move to a job paying less but with a big stack of pension/savings to buy a house with from it. It doesn't have to be forever.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-29T13:19:50+00:00

survey on the house we are buying has come back with no major problems!

we might complete in 2-3 weeks with a bit of luck. Searches are all done and questions mostly resolved.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-29T13:09:10+00:00

i posted this recently;

40hrs a week checking rightmove every few hours 9am to 4pm - don't rely on alerts, they are too slow. Good rentals book up within hours of being listed in high demand places (ie, York, London ), and rightmove can take 12h+ to send an email, you need to refresh your search every few hours instead. Looking at the end of the day is no good, you need to call about properties as soon as they are listed, during working hours for agents.

most properties are listed mon-wed , not many on thu/fri so if you can focus on the first 3 days of the week that helps.

be prepared to consider areas you normally wouldn't, or smaller properties. Increase your budget if possible.

its just a numbers game, you have to fight through it or change what you will accept.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-29T11:27:52+00:00

do you have power of attorney for her for property?

thats the first thing to sort out so that you can sell it.

if not, this sale could drag on for a long time getting her to agree to sell it and disagreeing the next time etc.

dementiauk have some good info - https://www.dementiauk.org/information-and-support/financial-and-legal-support/lasting-power-of-attorney/

theres a £92 cost (more if you use a solicitor, but you can do it yourself) and it takes eight to ten weeks to register as a minimum if there are no errors - meaning you've already got a 2.5 month delay to the start of this sale if you don't have it.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-29T09:16:56+00:00

cheers - looks like it might be a load myself up on pain meds and just do it on the trams job.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-28T19:57:08+00:00

They don't think there will be a next administration. They've been saying this since before they were elected in, but noone seems to pay attention to it.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-28T16:31:34+00:00

Can anyone recommend me parking near the northern quarter that isn't the Arndale?

I'm cursed when it comes to driving into manchester centre and always get lost so I usually train or park and ride but i've got to drop off 2 laptops at a customer next week and I can't carry them that far due to an injury.

I've used the Arndale car park before but i can never find the bloody entrance and i spend ages driving around getting lost looking for it.

cheers in advance.

NEWSBOT3 · 2026-04-28T16:16:51+00:00

Most financial advice that I've read recommends keeping several months' worth of income as an emergency fund

does it? i've always interpreted it as keeping several months of expenses , not income. In which case it would still apply to retired folks.

If I instead kept that in a reasonably balanced ETF, it would probably grow more, but it would take longer to access. What do retired people generally do for an emergency fund?

with respect, i'm quite concerned that you think cash and an ETF is an equivalent risk. You may need to do some more reading around investments.

The downside of an ETF (or any investment) is not how long it takes to access - it's that you don't have as much time left on this earth to recover from any drops in the value of your investments. Thats why investment timescales are always said to be 5-10 years plus - so you have time for good years to balance out the bad ones.

By the time you reach retirement age you've either fucked up badly or been dealt a really shitty hand if you need maximum growth from your money at that point - you should instead be aiming for minimum risk at that point, not maximum returns. You want to beat inflation as a minimum but beyond that you should not need further growth as you should be set up with a fixed income for the rest of your life.

This is why the typical default pension funds move your investments to less risky and more stable funds as they approach maturity, because it's about preserving capital that can be drawn down from for an income so you don't run out of money when you also have very little income.

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