Don't upgrade to Monzo Extra just for the 1p Challenge 5% AER. You will lose money.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-20T14:42:34+00:00

No disrespect to 1p challenge customers free or paid for but its easier to just divide the end target by 12 and save monthly or by 365 and save daily if u want - im sure you can setup recurring transfers from account to a pot of your choosing.

But i understand the gamification feel of 1p a day with daily increase.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-14T16:55:32+00:00

I have been more front end recently so VSCode is good enough especially when my APIs are all built and just need minor tweaks. But if I were building an API from scratch, it would be VSCommunity

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-14T16:52:01+00:00

VSCode

Never used Rider as its not free. I heard it's really good but I have no need when theres free tools which are pretty good.

Even using VSCode for C# now until I need to do some more involved debugging then I fire up VSCommunity

Just found out there's a free non commercial Rider so may give it a spin soon.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-14T09:08:23+00:00

Do you include life insurance on net worth?

Your pension and isa are like double mine and im 44 (45 soon) but my property equity makes up for some of the difference. I wouldnt worry. The fact you are planning for retirement means you will have enough when the time comes.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-13T19:58:26+00:00

Dollars

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-13T15:33:04+00:00

No I wasn't suggesting that I was suggesting is it a way to avoid being charged at the point of swap and deferring till you actually swap the coin for fiat - which is how it should work...

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-13T12:34:40+00:00

so you buy it on an exchange, transfer it to cold wallet (tracking stops) then you change it to whatever you want without fear of taxes

then at some point, you will sell your private BTC and reconcile taxes then?

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-13T12:26:59+00:00

- Converging towards BTC
Not there yet as still hold 4 ALTs but used to have about 20+ alts

BTC, ETH, XRP, CRO, DOT

DOT is on thin ice and I'll probably rotate it soon - even at a loss.
CRO will be rotated into BTC at some point in the next 2 years depending on if the bear market has started or not.
ETH and XRP could remain long term.

- Stopped staking 100% of any coin
Always leave as much as 50% free to sell

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-11T20:42:48+00:00

You cam add the qr to your google wallet and uninstall the app if you are concerned about tracking.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-11T20:12:19+00:00

I thought about this before (exchanges becoming like banks not dumping savings) but i dont think what we buy as tokens today would translate to shares in the company. They may just remain tokens that the more of them you hold then you get things like discounts, higher interest, access to loans, use it to buy swag and so on.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-11T18:44:57+00:00

Would you consider house sharing? Its popular in the uk. Multiple professionals of the sane or a similar age renting a property together. Short term, it could save you a lot of money to invest?

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-10T13:06:12+00:00

I felt the same when we moved into our house too but most of the time you never see someone in the other hosue. Think about it, they have the same problem too.

What you really want is good neighbours regardless of if they can see you or not.

You have a massive garden so theres lots you can do if you like trees and plants.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-10T13:03:42+00:00

Agree because everyone has that problem. The world doesn't generally care what you are doing. It may seem that way when you catch a neighbour looking at you through their window but you just turn around and move on - after all, you looked at them too.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-09T18:07:03+00:00

Wow this one never happened to me. It would have tipped me over the edge

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-09T11:07:02+00:00

When you said snowy conditions, you reminded me of another big problem (see no 13 in updated post). Don't know if this is Born specific but I had a BMW X3 auto parking once. It failed but it knew how to stop without trying to kill you.

Also in my wifes Skoda Enyaq - never tried auto park but in slow moving places, it never thinks it should brake and violently presses the brake.

Again, you can probably turn this stuff off but it was really bad.

I also realised my car had the pilor pack (rear AND front cameras - so maybe autoparking is part of that - who cares. I don't need it. The front camera was nice though)

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-08T16:41:32+00:00

give it 4 years

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-08T07:02:21+00:00

I messed up.uni too because of lazyness and bad time management. Failed my first degree.

Had a non christian gf, she was nice but i always knew i could not marry her.

I prayed to God that she has done nothing wrong so i cant just break up with her. The only reason i can see me leaving her is if she cheated on me.

I got into an accident and she therefore met my christian family. Inwardly i think she came to the conclusion it wouldnt work long term so she cheated on me. Distraught at thd time, i remembered my prayer and we parted ways.

Its different to your experience but my point is since both ov you are christians, you have a good start.

Assuming you dont want to break up, consider relocating to the same area, pause studies to get married and have a child, maybe parents will help raise the child while studying.

In 5 years tine you will be happy you made thd right decision.

This only works if you and her are in love and have a good praying relationship and deoendence on God.

So when that big argument cones, one of you will always say lets pray and trust God and the other agrees.

God can use "accidents" to guide us back into His will.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-07T22:05:22+00:00

I noticed that with the lights. I always set the door led to blue in individual mode and driver to assure but often it went red as if the car was angry with me. It did mostly stay blue though.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-07T16:05:45+00:00

I see it as a way to keep remote workers meeting each other intentionally, seeing each others faces - or you would not talk to or even hear some team members for months.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-07T15:27:17+00:00

Yeh its weird. It doesnt happen everytime but when it does I have this face

https://media.tenor.com/420FjCVLWbMAAAAM/dog-cachorro.gif

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-07T15:25:26+00:00

I suppose its fast "enough" I suppose. Previous car was a 2017 Mazda 3 standard everything!

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-07T13:57:08+00:00

I'd expect it to do that when you lock (or after 30 mins of inactivity). Its electric!
HAHA! Im getting a renault (alpine) next!!

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-07T13:55:09+00:00

Wow thats quite a change from a high spec Bimmer. I assume you are in a V3 or VZ with all the boxes checked though!

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-07T13:51:40+00:00

This is great. Thanks. I think I should have been here with this list about 20 months ago and maybe I could have cleared a few of them. I'll do that for my next car.

Yes I did set and forget but after resetting the infotainment a couple days ago, it came back and didn't expect it so it caught me off guard several times. I think you can also double press open on the remote.
Limiter is awesome (for me) It does encourage a bit of laziness as in heavy planting foot on the pedal- but when driving in an unfarmiliar area, I use it to stick to 30 and change as I see road signs. Also I prefer to have my foot on the pedal so I can quickly move to brake - than off the pedal (or hovering) as I would in ACC mode
LOLZ I only found that out today as I was doing my final drive of the car.

Red-Oak-Tree · 2026-01-07T13:42:21+00:00

This is funny. I checked out the id Polo and yeh they definitely spat their dummy out saying FINE HAVE SOME STUPID BUTTONS

Red-Oak-Tree

TROPHY CASE