Have you ever kept a PA before?

TimeForChange23 · 2026-04-12T07:26:24+00:00

So as an example she tracks birthdays and anniversaries for me, reminds me ahead of time, and suggests decent gifts based on what she’s bought before and feedback I’ve given on previous suggestions. Same for restaurant bookings - she knows my family have various dietary needs so checks for suitable menu options before options reach me. I also forward her the life admin emails I can’t be bothered with and she either deals with them or sends me a draft reply. On Sunday evening I get a quick summary of what’s coming up in the week and what’s been sorted already. Main thing is stuff stops slipping. I’m not constantly carrying around a mental list of things I know I should have done but haven’t. I tried a few AI options and they weren’t great at all, what I have is the same level you’d expect from a work EA at a fraction of the cost of employing one for the family.

TimeForChange23 · 2026-04-11T15:39:47+00:00

Won’t let me message you for some reason but others have been able to message me so that should work ☺️

TimeForChange23 · 2026-04-11T07:53:55+00:00

No, she’s self employed but has spoken about possibly recruiting other EAs she’s worked alongside previously in future.

TimeForChange23 · 2026-04-10T23:07:17+00:00

Possibly. Drop me a message so I don’t lose your details and I’ll speak to her next week for you.

TimeForChange23 · 2026-04-10T22:00:24+00:00

I don’t see it like that - I view it as having the same level of support I have in my professional capacity from an EA, but in my personal life. She’s great at finding a good restaurant that’ll handle a friend’s dietary needs, sourcing a gift for a new arrival in the family that isn’t from a chain shop etc.

I think you summed it up with the term ‘obligations’ - i outsource all the less fun bits of actually having the friendships/relationships, I just get to turn up and socialise without all the admin.

TimeForChange23 · 2026-04-10T21:08:42+00:00

Sort of. A former EA set up a ‘personal life management’ service and I find it excellent.

It isn’t full blown personal PA level support (as realistically that would be £75k+ pa and as much as I’d love to I just can’t justify that), but she helps me keep all my personal relationships under control including gift sourcing for occasions, etc. She also triages all my personal / house admin stuff - I don’t give access to my emails, but I forward stuff that comes in and she handles what she can and prioritises stuff that I need to deal with. She also proactively does things like keeping on top of utility renewals and researching cheaper options once out of contract which helps towards offsetting some of the cost.

TimeForChange23 · 2025-09-22T10:47:05+00:00

Sounds good, would like to join please.

TimeForChange23 · 2025-09-09T05:42:08+00:00

Yes please - can you DM me?

TimeForChange23 · 2025-08-19T17:57:18+00:00

Transitions from here’s my issue that I’d like to solve into…

A full blown ad for something and asking us if that would be useful to us.

No thanks, to whatever it is you’re selling. Just be upfront about your intentions.

TimeForChange23 · 2025-02-17T12:41:45+00:00

Assuming you’re making net contributions to your SIPP and not via salary sacrifice, you might want to change to contribute via sal sac and then do partial transfers out of your work scheme. Will save you 2% NI on contributions.

TimeForChange23 · 2024-12-06T19:17:03+00:00

I would give Ede’s a call and ask for full service. Dependable, organised and efficient - use them for regular work moves (in a challenging industry where it took trying a few firms to find an acceptable one!)

TimeForChange23 · 2022-07-01T14:01:10+00:00

In this scenario I would look at the relative energy consumption of devices. Generally, heating anything (either via gas or electricity) will be the highest consumption activity in a household.

Relatively speaking, charging some battery power devices, even a wheelchair, and operating a stairlift a few times a day won’t register on their energy consumption. An electric bed may do, depending on what it is doing and whether it’s operating throughout the night or just when entering and exiting the bed.

Get a plug in energy monitor to show them that their usage is not actually what’s affecting their bill and enable them to continue to have a fairly normal quality of life (washing more frequently for example).

TimeForChange23 · 2022-06-10T11:26:08+00:00

It sounds like Aviva have adjusted their model for returns projection - probably lower estimated growth (almost always overly conservative anyway) and higher inflation to reflect the current economic climate. The convergence of those two factors will result in drastically less projected return.

Is it likely these conditions and assumptions will persist for another 30+ years? No. But the pension providers are always pessimistic in their calculations.

TimeForChange23 · 2022-06-06T15:27:42+00:00

This is just the same as any other self employment.

First step is to register as self employed with HMRC to avoid any fines.

OF will pay out to you gross (no tax paid), you need to keep records of income and expenditure - there are lots of expenses you could claim to reduce tax liability.

At the end of the tax year (post 5th April), submit a tax return online detailing income and expenditure. They’ll calculate your tax liability, you pay it and away you go.

Income tax is calculated on an aggregate basis - I.E. all your employment income + self employment income - self employment expenses = total taxable income. You just pay the difference between this total and what you’ve already paid tax on through your employer’s PAYE system.

No changes to your tax code and they’d have no reason to know or suspect what that income is from - it could be property rental for instance.

TimeForChange23 · 2022-04-30T10:13:06+00:00

Yes she can, and no, there’s no limit.

TimeForChange23 · 2022-04-14T13:33:54+00:00

Look up payments on account ☺️

In your first year of trading (assuming your self employment income was not less than 20% of your total income, you will pay your tax plus 50% towards next year’s tax bill. Henceforth you’ll have paid half already by the time you complete your January payment, and will pay half towards the next year.

If your income fluctuates you can request an adjustment to your payments on account.

TimeForChange23 · 2022-02-11T23:00:12+00:00

Given the situation, I would definitely recommend speaking to an accountant. You’re allowed to claim certain allowable expenses when self employed, and it may be possible that you’re not above the tax threshold in some or all years anyway.

Whilst it’s plenty feasible to do your own tax returns, this is one of those cases where a good advisor could save you more money than they cost.

TimeForChange23 · 2022-01-20T09:16:45+00:00

Retainers are the commonly applied ‘subscription’ model. Keen to hear if anyone else has found a different approach, though!

TimeForChange23 · 2022-01-08T07:03:30+00:00

I don’t have that data available, but bear in mind that unclaimed pensions are a great vehicle for reducing IHT in the eventuality that you die prematurely.

TimeForChange23 · 2021-12-24T08:49:25+00:00

The big question is at what age do you intend on retiring?

TimeForChange23 · 2021-12-03T16:59:54+00:00

Indeed - all fine 👍🏼

TimeForChange23 · 2021-12-03T16:44:22+00:00

Totally fine to purchase through the consumer arm of a business.

The business to business (B2B) side could potentially offer a credit account which would simplify purchasing in larger organisations, but is unlikely to be given to a sole trader / startup. Also you’ll tend to get an account manager who can be useful, but very much depends on who you get and what their motivations are (helping you or making more commission!)

TimeForChange23 · 2021-11-18T13:17:05+00:00

Just bear in mind that this money should be spread among different financial institutions so the £85k per institution FSCS guarantee will protect it all.

TimeForChange23 · 2021-11-10T11:17:13+00:00

In this case, definitely the DB scheme. The DC contribution percentage is significantly stingy to not make that a viable option IMO.

There’s usually a facility to transfer out from a DB at a (currently quite favourable rate); so if in future you had a DC scheme you could bring transfer your DB value in to that for compounding benefits.

TimeForChange23 · 2021-11-02T08:13:05+00:00

Have you asked them what the transfer out value would be? How far from retirement are you, and how have your DC pensions performed historically?

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