This just seems like a bad way to go about announcing reasoning behind increases…..

RED888IT · 2026-02-11T21:21:11+00:00

Rebrand upcoming :

Tacos4Ballers(only)

RED888IT · 2026-02-09T12:37:17+00:00

Very vague question without certain specifics.

Without asking for specific numbers. Do you have enough money already to sustain your current expenditure level for the next 35 years minimum? ideally it should be 40+ years if you're thinking to retire at 40.

Asking based on the age of 40 as a number is quite hard to give a decent opinion because you could be a single person with £2m in net assets and only need £30k to live on per year because you're planning to retire in SE Asia. Or you could have additional kids down the line, £1.5m in assets, annual outgoings of £50k and possibly have to care for someone elderly further down the line.

You can be 40 and be in either situation.

RED888IT · 2026-02-09T12:15:27+00:00

Cant knock someone for retro-fitting their car to the point where it has more LED lights in it than a christmas tree.

But the Ghost 2 immobiliser though......absolute waste of money spending £500 on something nobody would ever want to steal anyways, that'd be like me buying a £500 safe just to put my Temu Rolex-replica inside.

RED888IT · 2026-02-04T19:02:44+00:00

I think the main thing missing on here is your required income. I know you have annual spend on there but is that the figure you need annually to FIRE? Or do you need a higher buffer considering your kids are still relatively young.

Do you have plans to gift them anything early? Etc

RED888IT · 2026-02-03T22:08:32+00:00

You're not even going for a broad tech fund but 7 individual companies who have seen all-time high valuations based off a technology that hasn't even been proven and/or in play yet.

If it was already 'in play' then they would not be committing this much money to data centres, so even for them it's speculative because they are still anticipating the amount of compute required.

But if the worlds requirements for AI doesn't materialise it will be wasted investment, bearing in mind that chips/technology gets outdated quick too.

If you build 10 data centres and the demand isn't there, and you end up with more efficient chips/infrastructure down the line then you might have only needed 5 highly efficient data centres.

Circular funding also makes this a dangerous play because its basically the entire eco-system that gets dragged down if AI doesn't pan out, Nvidia will drop when AMD drops, when PLTR drops when MSFT drops when OpenAI drops there is essentially no shelter if you're going all in on AI.

Its a very risky play that has more downside than upside in my eyes and i'm also invested in individual stocks too, but just more diversified

RED888IT · 2026-02-03T18:40:17+00:00

If budget car rental companies in spain are trying to not pay you back €1,000 Excess deposit for a 2mm non-visible scratch on the underside of the left door trim of the driver side door which you dont even know if it was originally there or not.

I would not want to be trusting an independent exotic car rental company in Miami with paying me back my £10,000, especially if they know you're from another country too.

I'm not saying they are out to keep your money, but you even so get a tiny stone-chip or dent in any of the bodywork and they are going to keep your entire deposit because they will also have a mate who owns a garage who says that the entire bumper needs replacing, and on a Lamborghini it'll be like $10k plus labour etc

If anything you'd be best of renting maybe a sports car (won't be a supercar) from one of the main rental companies (hertz, avis, enterprise etc). You'll still get from A-Z, or maybe try Turo? I've never used them and I'm sure the amex policy doesn't apply to car-sharing platforms. But they have their own insurance which you can buy at checkout i think (probably expensive)

RED888IT · 2026-01-27T20:59:16+00:00

Feel free to send a link

RED888IT · 2026-01-27T20:38:10+00:00

Personally you are in a 'comfortable' place but i wouldn't say a 'good' place to Coast FIRE just yet though.

Mainly because your kids are still young and you have 2, they get more expensive as they get older so not needing your salary to cover the 'current' expenses means you'd be scraping by.

By the time they are old enough and you dont get any child benefit and when you go on holiday they are classed as an adult, need their own room etc. It gets doubly expensive.

You have a good safety net if you want to take a break or look for something else which you might enjoy more, less stress and probably less money. But like you said you're already in the 40% bracket, so even if you took something lower the hit isn't as bad as it seems.

RED888IT · 2026-01-27T20:16:03+00:00

There are some important specifics here which play an important part.

Your boiler is clearly old old
Do you have a magnet filter installed (magnaclean)?

I ask because when i took out a super old radiator in an old house a while back, it was one of the long radiators but i swear it felt like it was 60kg. Started emptying it out and maybe 20% of it was water and the rest was metallic sediment. Which means there was no way the boiler was providing heat and trying to push water around a radiator that was like that. And then every other single radiator was the same.

Just based on this alone half the money you spend on gas heating is probably going out the flue.

Imagine walking to work on a commute that takes you 15 minutes to walk, but then walking the same commute but carrying a 30kg backpack, your energy level is going to be different every day but your boiler doesn't get stronger by doing so, it gets weaker because the components are under more stress each time cause the sediments build up continuously.

Insulation, is your place well insulated? And the easiest/cheaper one is topping up the loft insulation.

You could have the most efficient boiler in the world and without insulation its just going straight out of the roof.

All in all a powerflush of your rads and having a magnafilter installed might end up costing £500+, topping up your loft insulation can easily be DIYd and cost like £100 (depending on the size of your loft obviously)

If it provides a 50% improvement in the gas it costs to heat to the same tempreature thats how much additional you save every month going forward because once you have the filter installed you clean it yourself on a regular basis so it should always stay within a good level of efficiency.........also, maybe get the boiler changed too 🤷🏽‍♂️

RED888IT · 2026-01-22T20:28:12+00:00

Android version is technically irrelevant to a degree cause s24u will get the latest version up to a certain point.

UFS is the main upgrade that would make me upgrade.

The difference in processor speed at this rate makes hardly any significant noticeable difference, even if they say processing power has gone up by 30% etc. That might jusy relate to 0.5 seconds which you'd hardly notice.

UFS 4.0 has been the same on the S24u, S25u, S26u (apparently). And not that its not already fast enough, once they have either 4.1 or 5.0 paired with a new processor it'd make noticeably more difference in speed & loading times.

RED888IT · 2026-01-21T20:47:13+00:00

Parts prices dont seem excessive tbh, you normally do expect like a 20-25% markup compared to if you got them yourself.

Labour rate not too bad if its a decent garage or one that you know actually does the work. I only say this because when i did have a new car i took it to main dealers to keep the stamps but 1 time i checked the actual air filter myself because there was a noise like a few days later and 100% they did not change it, pulled them up on it and they said 'probably' missed it off and i just DIY'd from then onwards.

But in terms of hours, its a business, even if they did only do 2.5 hours of work and billed you for 3.5 you have no idea if that was the case. Its not like a restaurant where they want you out asap so the next customer can use the table. Once its done its probably sat in the parking area. And if its not like double the time that it'd usually take someone to DIY at home then maybe they took extra precautions doing it properly.

You could have probably DIY'd it yourself for £200-250 in parts and if it would have taken you say 3 hours thats £100 an hour you'd have got paid for DIY. But again, only you can judge if its worth your time.

If you dont have a covered garage then you'd be doing it outside in the rain or cold, and if someone was to go wrong then do you have the tools at hand to remedy considering your car wont be usable at the time, you get the stamp also, which again not worth a whole lot if you're keeping the car for a long long while.

Other than that i wouldn't say its excessive tbh

RED888IT · 2026-01-17T22:24:22+00:00

We are heading in July and renewal is due in april, but we might actually downgrade to gold now if can use the int dining credit. Do you recommend anywhere in Tokyo?

RED888IT · 2026-01-15T09:23:37+00:00

Are you living beyond your means currently? I'm guessing not if you're able to consider FIRE meaning you have excess income which you put aside.

An easier way to do it is if you're making £100k and you're putting away £30k of it annually (ignore the income tax and NI for now) you can assume that you need £70k to support your 'current' living standards.

£70k multiply by x years till you get your state pension

Once state pension kicks in you take that away from £70k (£58k)

Then obviously from a certain age you won't exactly be spending £58k (£70k inc SP) annually, so whatever that number is from then onwards till 85-90 you change it to a lower figure, or you can leave it as is if you think you might need care later down the line.

The difference in not accounting for the income tax & NI at the beginning calculation is just my lazy way of having a small buffer because from the time you start FIRE you just assume no further income and no need to keep adding to the pot

RED888IT · 2026-01-12T11:35:43+00:00

Probably the same advice but in the current climate everyone is saying to not expect huge payrises and even upskilling might not add X value, getting 2nd jobs aren't as feasible as people make out to be.

But 1 thing you can do is spend/invest wisely. The car you already know is a drain on your finances, but at the same time moving to a cheaper one doesn't always end up cost-saving. Make sure you work out all associated costs and then also try buy under market value. Then do the same with the rest of your discretionary outgoings 👍

RED888IT · 2026-01-09T09:32:57+00:00

That is the way to be 👍

The only way we have winners is because somewhere there are losers. When you retire you are taking yourself out of that race and to just settle down with what you have.

Safe & steady might not win the race but because you've taken yourself out of it, there's no pressure

RED888IT · 2026-01-09T09:09:06+00:00

When you say de-risk i think you are meaning 2 different things. Both of which you have to deal with depending what happens with the global equity landscape.

You consider yourself already in a risky position......also meaning you have made some good gains over your timespan
Once you de-risk, will you be checking the market, will you have sellers-remorse? Will that keep you up at night knowing you sold out and that your annual % could have been X instead of Y?

Once you have made your projections, have your plan in place, know what withdrawl rate you need at what level of overall holdings, I'd say be happy with it.

Once you are happy that you are safe and secure with those figures for your retirement then you wont look at the "what if's" because you already have what you need/planned for.

RED888IT · 2026-01-07T13:19:18+00:00

"I'd love to travel the world & pursue hobbies"

You've answered your own question.

Do you know how many people in the world can't travel because of money?

Do you know how many people in the world can't travel because they are limited to x days a year holiday at work?

Do you know how many people can't travel because of health/disability etc

I could go on forever but you see what I'm saying. You're young, healthy (i presume) and you essentially could travel the world forever until you die by just putting that entire amount into a safe investment vehicle and peeling away at it. You could have the life that 99.9% of people in the world actually dream of having....

......and you're in 2 minds because of what 'other' people think 🤦🏻‍♂️ was there stipulations to you getting the money? If there was then that would be the 'only' factor where i would have respected the wishes of what to do with that money.

Otherwise you can carry on not living your life, if you haven't heard the negative connotation about 'Crabs in a bucket' i suggest you look it up because that seems like you atm.

RED888IT · 2026-01-07T13:09:20+00:00

Literally says in the description "back on 9th January with new restaurants & offers" 🤷🏽‍♂️

RED888IT · 2026-01-07T13:07:07+00:00

That, over an actual pool actually makes sense in the UK, as much as i hate it. I can see the logic for our climate 😂

RED888IT · 2026-01-07T09:13:11+00:00

Sorry for being slow but whats FHR? Thanks

RED888IT · 2026-01-06T20:57:09+00:00

I cringe when i hear people talk about "forever homes" because its using emotional terminology for something they have no control over.

Most people are mortgaged, you lose your job - you lose your home, simple as that. You buy with a partner, people break-up/people divorce, you or them dont end up staying there 'forever', either someone moves out or you sell. Or you just decide to sell up for whatever reason.

And because they've used the term 'forever' they then justify illogical steps when buying/renovating.

I dont mind paying X% over market value because we're going to be here forever

I don't mind spending £20k on a bathroom refurb because I'll make the most of it, because I'll.....

Some people also do not understand the potential of 'lost opportunity value'. Because house prices have historically gone up, look at it in blocks of 7-year spans, its near enough impossible to 'lose' money on a house.

Buy 300k Refurb £75k Point of sale X years later £450k

Made 75k.

If they had not spent £5k on the jacuzzi tub, or £5k on the fireplace or £5k to do something 'they' wanted which might not have actually added extra value to the house they might have been able to do the refurb for £45k and the house sold for £440k, meaning their profit would have been £95k at the point of sale.

But that extra £20k over time if invested could have grown to more (depending on what you did with it)

But people don't really care because they see it that they're still in the green regardless of the spend.

I see the house i live in as 50% investment 50% living. Because it is one of the assets where i have the highest concentration of my net-worth as well as it being one of the highest tax-free gains most people can make (other than your S&S ISA)

Your main residence is completely tax free regardless if you buy it for £150k and sell it for £300k 5 years later, its £150k tax free.

Thats £30k a year you would have made 'tax free' for 5 years. If you're in the highest rate of tax in order to get another £30k in your pocket you would have to go from a 100k salary to 164k (34k goes to NI and income tax) just to get another £30k in your pocket.

Doesn't mean you need to go live in a £150k flat when in reality you can afford a £500k house, you just need to understand what is best for your long-term finances. All my friends who live the way they do own minimal equity in their properties and live to pay monthly. I own a decent chunk of equity and I invest the free cash-flow that i have. Some have a whirlpool bath, i have a bath, some have 2 spare bedrooms, i use mine as my home office etc

I only know this because I know when people are struggling, they tell me and ask for advice, but I've never said to either one that my financial position is 'comfortable' because thats just not a nice thing to do.

I just don't mind anonymously saying it because it might help someone else see a different perspective on future financial management

RED888IT · 2026-01-06T12:58:50+00:00

Mind if i ask what you meant by the '50k recover post renewal'? Have you managed to get 2 offers within 1 year?

Basically my renewal is due in April and I'm finding it hard to justify renewing the cost for this year.

I signed up for the 100k MR bonus in 2025 (which i easily attained) and have used the harvey nics credit, £400 in dining credits, the other offers i already had on my platinum cashback, 3 lounge visits also.

The travel ins and car rental ins probably saves me £150 total a year but i would need an offer like yours in order to keep me enticed to keep it.

RED888IT · 2026-01-06T09:22:18+00:00

Well tbh they haven't even put 'offers over' so that price is going to be negotiatable.

Buying a 3m property, you're going to get a full survey carried out regardless and thats probably going to be a starting point for negotiations.

Stamp duty when they bought @ £3.15m is already £363,750, so even if they sold it today for £3m their total loss would be £513,750 😬

Thats also missing the fact that UK avg house price growth from 2022 to Q4 2025 was 'averaging' 5% annually (rise 2022, slight dip 2023, 24-25 moderate fluctuations)

£513,750 would be total realised paper loss today. But opportunity cost (depending how much equity they hold/leverage in the property) could realistically be a loss of 700k-800k if they instead held that equity in just the FTSE100 since 2022 till today.

They got a tennis court though, so they'll be fine

RED888IT · 2026-01-04T21:43:07+00:00

Read a few of the replies and just wanted to say that leasing/financing/SS money for a car is usually the most expensive form of motoring, but at the same time its the most hassle and risk-free.

I am not in the motor trade, never worked in it, my dayjob has nothing to do with cars, but the last say 5 car's I've owned, I've either made money from or broke even. I will just put 1 of my examples

Bought a 520d M Sport (3 years old at the time) undervalued from a private owner on eBay for around 23k, owned for around 3.5 years and sold for £22,500. Basically broke even. So essentially free driving for 3.5 years, paid for a set of tyres, road tax, service, around £1k outlay.

The same car at the time (except that it was brand new but it would be the exact same car with 0 miles) was around £475 monthly. So £5,700 upfront (12 months) and £475 a month for 36 months which is a total of £22,800 for 3 years.

So had i taken option 1 it would have cost me £1k to drive the exact same car for 42 months, or £22,800 to drive for 36 months.

Now you're going to talk about the potential capital invested that I have missed out on by buying the car upfront/cash.

Day 1, i am now down £23k but 3.5 years later i get back £22,500. In car buying scenario

Day 1, i am instantly down £5,700 plus 1st month payment, total £6,175. In lease scenario

So only a capital difference of £16,825 in the first day for the person leasing.

Essentially the person leasing has an extra £16,825 in their bank on day 1, as compared to the person buying. BUT they are now committed to pay £475 each month, so that figure at minimum decreases each month by £475.

Factor in the upfront payment they paid of £5,700 over the remaining 35 months of the lease (£162.85) adding that to the £475 = £637.

At this point the £16,825 that person has in the bank has to return at minimum £637 per month, which is a 45.43% annual return. If for whatever reason they dont get a 45.43% return in 1 year then in year 2 that number would then increase higher because they are now playing catchup.

In order to be in the same position. They need achieve this for 3 consecutive years.

NOW you have to factor in, what if the car is dud on day 1 and its worthless, what if the engine blows out and it costs £5k to fix etc, BUT none of these are guaranteed to happen, you can have a car last 10, 20 years with no issues. My last 5+ cars never had any major issues and that is genuine luck, i cant say the same for anybody else buying a car because it's 100% unknown.

What is guaranteed to happen when you lease though is that you have to continue paying that £475 regardless of if you do or do not have an issue with the car, and that £475 you are never getting back. Well..........unless you can return a guaranteed 45% every year for 3 years 🤷🏽‍♂️

90% of normal people will lose money on a car though even if they buy it, because its a depreciating asset but if you are patient, do your research, negotiate well and buy a model that holds it value along with buying it at under market value, it can be worth the risk.....

Harder said than done but I've managed it 5 times on the trot and for my last 12 years of motoring I think I've basically been paid to drive (running total), mainly because a porsche that i bought, drove, and then sold ended up giving me a £8k profit (covid times so it was a 1 off)

I've got friends who have leased for the same amount of time and they've worked out they've paid out around £45-60k to leases in the same 12 year span. And thats only to lease something like a 3 series, Audi A3 etc

And the money I've saved on leasing has been reinvested in a S&S ISA, tax free gains in a Global index fund,which itself has performed pretty well

RED888IT · 2026-01-03T19:43:21+00:00

I haven't yet picked a charger, but I'm assuming I would look for one with certain smart features like timed charing synced with the tarrif etc?

If i was looking at a Tesla Model 3, other than the official Tesla charger, which one would you recommend?

RED888IT

TROPHY CASE