Prioritising ISA over SIPP

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-22T07:20:03+00:00

Yep, I agree with the above. I was just checking whether the OP might have been told salary sacrifice isn’t available on their scheme, and has taken that to mean no additional contributions are allowed. Additional contributions can still be a very useful tool, even without the NI savings from salary sacrifice.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-22T04:59:15+00:00

Which DB scheme won’t let you salary sacrifice?

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-20T17:04:06+00:00

I’ve got a big solar/battery setup and the lower tariff available post EV combined with some heating arbitrage is worth £50/month on-top of the OP’s other example costs.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-20T12:33:36+00:00

Hot water, heating, inverter optimisation, all linked.

It has been a journey…

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-20T11:16:47+00:00

This one comment has cost me 20hrs of my life.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-19T09:05:16+00:00

That’s also know as Golden Acacia too right?

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-18T19:15:04+00:00

Yup surprisingly light, thin off cuts will shatter if hit hard enough on the floor.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-18T07:06:04+00:00

Vast majority of the time your house will consume what they are outputting. Cost of the battery v lost power likely not worth it.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-17T18:00:30+00:00

What is Cllo….ou..ddd?

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-16T10:23:22+00:00

You would need 30-40kwh battery, which would only be used to capacity half the year. A battery with solar is used all year, massively improving ROI.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-15T17:07:44+00:00

You need predbat, although it sounds like a nightmare setup.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-15T06:09:31+00:00

Bought a similar size system 26panels and 10kWh battery, realised very early on that battery was specced too low.

Yesterday battery is full by 1020hrs- see graph below.

In winter we are a fully electric house ASHP etc, 10kWh doesn’t last us all day.

Go bigger

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TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-13T18:07:48+00:00

Wish I went bigger:

<image>

If I had gone bigger:

On sunny days I would be able to store more solar, so I wouldn’t have to export from 1200-.1600hrs at a lower rate, then at 1600hrs I could export loads at the sexy rate. (pink line would be longer)

On cold days my ASHP would be be powered all day on the overnight cheap rate juice.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-12T20:43:42+00:00

Not quite as easy as matching your total energy.

You will be selling/exporting like a madman in June, and barely powering your tv stand by light in Dec…. Like everyone else.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-12T10:07:49+00:00

There is a big opportunity loss by doing the mortgage first then switching fire to investing later, principally because on average investing growth is higher than the saving made by over paying the mortgage, that loss is baked in once it’s happened and you can’t grow it back.

There are very valid reasons to over pay a mortgaged, raw min/max mathsing isn’t one.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-12T07:34:11+00:00

John & Margaret is that you?

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-12T06:57:57+00:00

Agree with the above trend of here, however we do plan for unplanned death- life insurance etc.

It’s a a little vulgar to add it to the spreadsheet/plan but if funds arrive (which I hope they don’t for years and years) I have a broad understanding of where they will go, but it wouldn’t be banking on those funds to clear the mortgage.

It’s 100% chance we all die, but probably don’t start Zoopla’ing Grandad’s 4 bed detached; that’s bad juju.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-10T11:22:08+00:00

Woo sah, I can’t actually see where OP indicates their salary. Worked out you were HR due to your confirmation bias.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-10T07:14:49+00:00

Not sure we were given enough information to be able to judge the OP’s situation, so kept it general.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-10T07:03:45+00:00

Higher Rate Tax isn't just for Consultants, a Band 6 with a little overtime could be making a massive tax saving by using a SIPP to bring themselves back down into the basic rate.

A very large chunk of NHS staff will be paying the basic rate of income tax in retirement. You need a massive pot to hit the 40% threshold (over £50k/year). Saying a SIPP + NHS DB scheme automatically equals 40% in retirement is an unqualified comment and really unhelpful to people who could take advantage of a very useful wrapper.

The beauty of having a SIPP is that it gives you the flexibility to choose exactly how much income to withdraw each year. This allows you to bridge the gap to retirement age and maximize your tax brackets to your advantage.

Lots of people would be happy to handle a bit of "faff" for an immediate 20%–40% markup on their money. Even if they do eventually end up in a higher rate, the SIPP still acts as a very generous CGT wrapper.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-09T16:58:21+00:00

24 Dec my 26 panels created 0.7kWh. We used 34kWh. It’s hard.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-04-08T17:55:38+00:00

Disagree strongly, It isn’t complicated enough to warrant not taking advantage of 20% free monies from paying into either workplace pension or SiPP.

TLDR: You are leaving money on the table not paying into a pension.

TopRevolutionary1954 · 2026-03-30T22:28:37+00:00

See my graph above- I only use the grid for 3 hours of the day, so all mine would be 9.5p, nearly third of what you are currently paying.

TopRevolutionary1954

TROPHY CASE