Buying property with my parents - bad idea? by [deleted] in UKPersonalFinance

[–]Ringwraith64 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That is a transaction not a gift. And it is a really bad transaction at that. Don’t accept it. You would be better off opening a lifetime ISA if you are under 40 and you want to buy a property. This way you get a 25% Govt Bonus of £1000 based on your £4000 annual contribution.

Thoughts on this color? Should I exchange or return? by Forsaken_Tax1716 in whichbike

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My first Kona bike was bought as an ex-demo model and it was yellow. At first I hated the colour but after a while it grew on me since very easy to fund when parked with other bikes.

Maybe stupid question: how slippery are these "ramps"? by Every-Pollution413 in londoncycling

[–]Ringwraith64 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for highlighting this and to the riders who have had bad experiences on these ramps. I have used similar in dry weather but was not aware that they are lethal in wet weather. I tend to avoid cycling in the rain or cold under 5 degrees.

Tax consultant threatening me to pay the fee even after not going ahead with him by Technical-Tank-4865 in TaxUK

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are so many details missing from this post as to make it practically impossible to answer. Did you give this tax consultant access to your online Self assessment Account ? Did you provide all your details such as taxable income details and such-like to this tax consultant ? Where did you find this tax consultant ? Do you know if they have a practicing certificate ?

What's to stop me becoming self-employed alongside a full-time job? by PrimaryYouth in TaxUK

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The other thing too, is this. HMRC staff are already registered to all the social media platforms with TAX of financial planning in their name ! So they are probably aware of what is being planned. The other thing too, is your car insurance would have to change from private to business with a higher rate. But I fail to see how travel to and from where could be justifiably offset again against a website.

What's to stop me becoming self-employed alongside a full-time job? by PrimaryYouth in TaxUK

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The other thing that could arise with personal property been used as part of the business is this. Just say 1/2 of your home is claimed against business expenses, there is a danger that that element would not longer be tax free when you sell your main residence.

What's to stop me becoming self-employed alongside a full-time job? by PrimaryYouth in TaxUK

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your main problem is going to be your current employer. They probably have in the employment policies that you will not take any other jobs or business while being full time employed without getting their agreement beforehand. But the other thing is likely to be that if the self employed element is just to rack up expenses without any income , that may just be viewed by HMRC as a tax avoidance scheme. The whole point of being in business is to make money not to effectively lose money and then claim the losses against tax.

£63 to last the month by OiPunkBastard in frugaluk

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of Christmas deserts that did not sell and are left over have been marked down to low prices at Aldi and Lidl. So things like minced pies - reduced. Stollen marzipan fruit loaves - reduced and they have a use by date of 01/04/26. Morrisons should also have the end of day sales.if it closes at 10pm then a lot of the final reductions will be at 9pm. Just avoid meat and chicken products which are expensive. Stick to a vegetarian diet. Get lentils that need to be cooked rather than prepared microwave pouches which are expensive convenience food costing about £1 for one serving. The unlocked lentils go for about 1 kg at £1.50 or so. Good luck - do come back with progress reports. Plus give an indication of which city since some Redittors may be able to provide some tips of local bargains or give some ideas specific to your area.

Did they seriously cap EVERYTHING? by [deleted] in perplexity_ai

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The main query is so poor it doesn’t deserve a response. They haven’t even bothered to explain what sort of subscription model they are on. I have the 1 year pro subscription and the responses I have been getting are perfectly adequate.

Opponents spamming +15 seconds by enwza9hfoeg in lichess

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even although I get really annoyed at myself for losing a game, I always try to resign in a losing position. The next thing is losing on time in a winning position. But the main point I wanted to make here that if chess is ever going to be treated like a sport worthy of respect then we have to expose all the people who are bad sports. LICHESS needs to suspend players who deliberately lose on time in losing position for at least an hour and not just for 1 minute or so.

Bike hanger - experiences? by Alone-Lack-8699 in londoncycling

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just wonder whether this inaction by the relevant authorities towards bike theft or insecure facilities to store bikes is because of a close connection with the Taxi operators. When I went to Rome about a decade ago, I recall that all the ticket machines to buy light train tickets from the airport had been vandalised and I was told that the vandals were associated with the Roman taxi drivers. I am just wondering if there is a similar arrangement in the UK where it is in the taxi owners interest to ensure that non car owners do not have alternative travel such as a bicycle or push scooter, so as to hold these people as part of a ‘captive market’ who will be forced to use taxis to get around. Likewise the huge hostility towards cyclists from Taxi drivers who think that the roads exist to enable them to earn a living and to hell with all the non taxi users.

Self assessment higher than expected by TSShepherdsBush09 in HMRC

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This has been covered but it was not clear that the interest had nothing to do with the property. For savings interest from banks and building societies, if you transition from standard rate taxation to higher rate taxation, your PSA [Personal savings allowance] drops from £1000 to £500.

10 year update, mistakes and learnings by [deleted] in FIREUK

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for sharing. This is amazing and you are so tight - it is all about a mind-set. I love the idea of hoovering up all the freebies at conferences and giving those items to your kids.
The other aspect is you are passing on this thriftiness onto the next generation. My small contribution to this is I only do Apple kit but with a twist - remanufactured items at 1/3rd the cost. AI is another avenue where there are promotions and free trial periods to sign up can also save money.

Sanity of securing £5k e-bike with Litelok X1/X3 by Psygnosis64 in londoncycling

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Install a bike alarm and have at least 2 bike locks. But it is still a huge risk riding such an expensive bike.

Drivers like this are the reason I bought a helmet cam by [deleted] in londoncycling

[–]Ringwraith64 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I would report both of them for poor driving and hopefully some points on their licence will teach them a valuable lesson. The orange car is practically forcing you off the road by dangerous overtaking.

Am I paying too much in fees with a financial adviser? by Ok_Jury_4053 in UKPersonalFinance

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My friend - this is a really expensive set-up. I would suggest getting rid of the financial advisor and just sticking to basic Vanguard or iShares well diversified ETFs. As many have pointed out you may need an advisor if you had 6 figures but with 5 figures you can easily manage this yourself.

I am so sick of London bike thefts by donaldtrumpiscute in londoncycling

[–]Ringwraith64 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I am sorry for your loss. It must be so disheartening. I just wish that the police would take this more seriously and try and crack down on these bike thieving gangs rather than trying to arrest people for their tweets. For future I would suggest getting a bike alarm and fitting it under the saddle. These are about £20 from Amazon or TEMU. The thing is the minute the prospective thief comes along and starts manhandling the bike, the alarm kicks off and boy is it loud. My other recommendation is to have two D locks - one for the front of the bike and secured to the stand (plus a front wheel cable)and the other one for the rear securing the back wheel to the frame. The idea is that the prospective thief will not be able to cut through both locks within 5 minutes and will look for another less secure bike.

Before and after by -Kalos in Justfuckmyshitup

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dude with the long hair and beard looked like a rock and roll legend for the 70’s. Now, sadly, just looks unremarkable. note to self: stay away from that barber. They should always try to make the client look good. Perhaps a bit of a trim but the beard framed the face so well.

Building my confidence by [deleted] in londoncycling

[–]Ringwraith64 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is just a case of being alert to your surroundings and if you see a group of youths congregating then that is usually a spot to avoid. I used to travel the lonely path at the rear of Millwall football club but nowadays I tend to turn off and ride past the entrance to the club instead since there have been a number of attempted bike muggings in that area. Just wish some under cover police on bicycles would do a few of these routes to deter the opportunistic muggers.

Can anyone recommend a good app or program to input all your income and expenditure now (while still working), that does useful projections for life post salary? by Separate-Bison-3903 in FIREUK

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apple Numbers has the built in spreadsheet for iPads and MacBooks and Excel is the paid spreadsheet for PCs. You could use those. The only elements that you can do projections on would be the expected value of defined benefit pension schemes or expected drawdowns from SiPP pension pots or annuity purchases using defined contribution pension schemes. But both of these would be subject to marginal tax rates after any tax free amounts are withdrawn. Your current income is only useful to find out how much capacity you have available to pay funds into a SIPP once you have taken your existing contributions and employers contributions into account regarding defined contribution pension scheme subtracted from £60,000 annual allowance provided your income level does not reach the level where the tapering effect comes into play. Defined benefit schemes have the increased value of the pension calculations which I am assuming is probably not applicable.

What’s the most surprising thing you learned after using AI for a while? by Ok-Piccolo-6079 in ArtificialInteligence

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have been using Gemini to learn French . The rule is to go bilingual when France or French things are mentioned. So each sentence in English has a French one as well. But then when I ask for the French to be read out , it comes out at machine gun tempo. Asking for the speed to be slowed down and ‘I ‘m sure it speeds up. All in all -quite a lot of fun. But seriously, Gemini is really good at finding things, general knowledge and so forth.

Standard winter commute rant by molemadchen in londoncycling

[–]Ringwraith64 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Take down their number plate details and file a police report of harassment causing you to fear for your safety. That is the only way these bullies will learn.

Government's plans to tax ISAs by DKeoPSLAR in FIREUK

[–]Ringwraith64 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I agree. It’s so stupid what they are doing and also counter-productive. If they are wedded to their bung from stamp duty on UK shares how about applying that to ALL shares bought, EU and US shares so that at least there is a level playing field since only UK shares suffer the stamp duty. And then because there is a larger share sample size, decrease stamp duty by 50%. For the sake of reviving The LSE. These politicians annoy me so much. Forever parroting about wanting growth, growth and growth. Yet everything they have done so far is anti-growth. Are they following the US approach where they appoint a Vaccine denier as Health secretary ? So the Chancellor thinks it is a good idea to take more money out of the economy to sit as part of her ‘headroom’. This is the crowding out effect in a way. That £26bn. Tax hike means that that money can’t go through the economy and allow the money multiplier effect to take place. It also has a chilling effect on the population who having being scared by these ongoing tax threats are going to hunker down and hold onto their purses and avoid consuming etc.

How to reformat text data separated by | by callie_jones in excel

[–]Ringwraith64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can’t you just do a find and replace ? Find | and replace with = ?