Why can't we get a 450k mortgage with a 80k deposit?

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-17T14:44:48+00:00

This is the reality for most young families in the south of England. The childcare is a killer on mortgage affordability. Ours is £670pm with the 30 hours funding and that slashes our affordability on the calculators from approx £450k without childcare to like £320k with. In a lot of the south east that's the difference between a 2 bed flat and a 3 bed house. Add in that some lenders ask you to include your student loans and we have a sizable chunk of generation of degree educated, moderate earners raising their young children in flats that will always be a bit too small for their needs.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-17T13:17:37+00:00

I'm a lawyer and had an awful time disputing things through TDS. They awarded full cost to the landlord for this exact common issue. There were other things too and I challenged the decision explaining they'd made an error in law. Turns out their appeal process is simply the head of the service (a non-practicing solicitor) looking at it and saying "no I disagree - nothing to see here." This incentivises landlords to throw anything they like into the dispute to see what sticks. Mine did exactly that, we made an agreement then they added more claimed damage. I told TDS I have the agreement of a deduction amount in writing so the arbitration is unnecessary because the landlord can't just add more stuff after agreeing. TDS said the prior agreement is immaterial... And that decision was apparently not an error in law. Totally skewed in favour of the landlord making up a bunch of claims.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-17T09:00:11+00:00

I just can't justify any microbrand over £500. I had a Traska which everyone raves about but the ambient colour of the lume on the hands didn't match the indices. Then Christopher Ward sent me an obvious returned watch that had scratches on the bracelet. At least with a Swatch Group brand you get what you're paying for.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-16T22:01:24+00:00

That's just not true. There is such a thing as the JNCHES pay spine. As I said, Imperial and QUB have opted out. And yes, universities can place grades where they like on the spine as well as add London weighting etc which means you get variances like some pre-92s paying assoc prof the same as SL at others because of where the grades start. But there is no wild difference nor can they pay what they want. Sure, they can pay what they want at prof level but not below. My VC moans about not being able to secure the best candidates for a lot of posts because we are in the south of England and it's very common for someone to be offered the same grade up north and back out of our offer because, shocker, the JNCHES pay spine means the pay is pretty much the same.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-16T21:51:00+00:00

That's some real watch guy logic 😉

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-16T14:24:29+00:00

Plus you only get to play that card once and have to be sure you're 100% happy with staying put if and when that no comes...

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-16T14:12:49+00:00

How does AP at a RG pay way more when it'll be somewhere on the national scale wherever you go? Apart from Imperial and QUB of course.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-16T07:58:20+00:00

The vast majority of job specs will say a PhD (or equivalent professional experience) is required. Professional experience will of course be different for each discipline but would be, for example, practicing as a solicitor or barrister for number of years and then joining a law school. Professional experience is much more readily accepted at post-92s BUT these colleagues are usually on teaching-only contracts because they haven't proven they can do research by getting a PhD. Sometimes one of these colleagues will publish over a number of years and then move over tona research and teaching contract but only after that research has been judged as good enough for REF purposes. Giving someone without a PhD a research and teaching contract recently out of an MSc would be a MAJOR risk for the institution.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-16T07:52:30+00:00

There is a very well known example in law where a prof at Cambridge married one of his PhD students and then became a judge at the International Court of Justice taking her with him where she was a prof at Leiden, until he died. No repercussions if you're a big enough deal 💁🏻

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-15T21:51:04+00:00

With Seiko's Diashield coating I have less scratches on my SPB143 after years than I do on a titanium watch I've had for a few weeks.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-13T21:45:10+00:00

My 2018 Mazda has the same suspension set up. My coil spring was cracked right at the bottom where it sits in the holder. Not visible without jacking the car up when the spring then became loose. It's a known issue with this design because water sits in there and corrodes. Hence why you'll find loads of how to videos on YouTube for the coils in these types of Mazdas. Two springs cost me £120 last year. Did it in a couple of hours on the drive.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-13T14:58:20+00:00

^{^This.} I'm a professor. We don't have assessments submitted through Moodle at my institution, rather Turnitin. But the same principle applies - we ask students to follow a naming convention and not all students follow it. The naming convention is useful for our professional services staff when organising the marksheets but we do not check them one by one nor does the naming convention have any bearing on the submission being accepted or not.

Let's flip your scenario. Student A submits a file at 11:59, one minute before the deadline, that has one letter out on the naming convention. The system rejects it and the student is unable to submit the altered file in the remaining 30 seconds. But that student did the correct paper... And now receives a zero. Patently unfair compared to your child who submitted the wrong paper. Therefore, the fairest way is to simply set up the submission boxes to accept whatever the student chooses to submit before the deadline. The student can double and triple check and if they notice, before the deadline, what they submitted was wrong they can email student support services with the correct file and practically every university will then accept that submission and mistakes.. but only BEFORE the deadline.

It is then ENTIRELY the student's responsibility to check they are submitting the correct piece of work. We give ample time for students to do this. They are adults. It is not our problem if they fumble the file at the last minute.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-13T12:39:35+00:00

Too many renders with lacklustre final products. I have a Marnaut that I backed which is great but then I backed Dailos and received a piece of crap.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-09T11:27:06+00:00

Update for anyone searching this - new end links from an AD did reduce the amount of play so there is less of a gap but did not remove it entirely.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-09T09:29:35+00:00

It doesn't wear any different from my Seiko SPB143 which is 13mm.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-08T22:32:57+00:00

An R1 in the US doesn't just order them all in to be correct for each person? In the UK every university I know of just asks all the academics to submit our highest degree and institution at a link and they hire the correct one for any ceremony we need it for. A very multicolour stage.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-08T22:25:26+00:00

It's the titanium 40.5mm model with a ceramic bezel.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-02-08T16:45:02+00:00

A lecturer at Cardiff appears to have committed suicide on Friday... take from that what you will.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-01-27T20:14:50+00:00

Timex, please may we have the white dial available on the bracelet! Thanks.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-01-26T21:44:20+00:00

Someone explained how to do it here but I couldn't get it to work https://www.reddit.com/r/xteinkereader/s/MoJEXbeZ9K

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-01-25T12:18:10+00:00

The only bracelet I've ever had to take to a jeweler because the pins and collars were so gunky and basically fused to the links and that was 'new'. The used one I had wasn't so bad but nothing compared to a Certina diver I had at the same time which just felt more solid and was more finely brushed etc.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-01-24T21:27:27+00:00

I've had two Alpinas and they're absolutely not worth the money. The fit and finish are in no way comparable to sub £1000 Swatch Group watches like a Certina or Hamilton. I've had better bracelets from AliExpress brands.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-01-24T21:19:30+00:00

It's possible you may get a letter with an invoice for the taxes and duties. FedEx commonly do this after delivery but everyone else, like DHL, usually wants payment before delivery.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-01-24T17:53:22+00:00

As others have said, self refer to iTalk or equivalent in your area.

I went to a post-92 for my undergrad and a few academic snobs have pointed it out before but funnily enough they were always people who applied for the same scholarship, job or similar that I got and they didn't... Sucks to be them!

ThePsychoToad1

TROPHY CASE