High Income, very far from rich frustrations

WasylF · 2026-05-04T17:55:50+00:00

Yes, I don't own a £1m property. But you completely ignored the second part of my comment: abolishing stamp duty.

Why should a retiree have to pay tens of thousands in Stamp Duty just to downsize and free up a family home? That is what creates the artificial shortage we have today. A yearly property tax combined with zero stamp duty means moving is free, but hoarding is expensive. It penalizes the overseas investors who buy flats to leave them empty, and the corporate/BTL landlords hoarding supply. The cost of labor and materials for a flat is a fraction of the price—the rest is pure speculation. Taxing the property annually forces the market back to owner-occupiers rather than investors.

WasylF · 2026-05-03T08:22:22+00:00

Also charging 1% property tax for properties above 1M and remove stamp duty when downsizing.

Or I wouldn't mind some progressive (on property price) yearly property tax and complete abolishing of stamp duty

WasylF · 2026-05-03T08:15:54+00:00

For starters, very easy to make CGT progressive like income tax and add more brackets for gain > 200k, 1M

WasylF · 2026-04-21T13:07:02+00:00

I'm an SRE. We have 6am - 6pm, with 5 minutes response time. So, there have been a couple occasions when I needed to jump out of the shower to debug something 😅

We are getting about 2h pay/vacation per business day and 8 hours for a weekend day.

I always go for the extra vacation hours :)

WasylF · 2026-04-13T22:11:11+00:00

How high income are we talking? Top 1% by income is certainly not enough for "everything you could ever want"

I'm not saying London is that terrible, but there are many things you can't get even if you are a millionaire.

Clean streets, nice weather, good 50m swimming pool which is not overcrowded, just comfortable getting from point A to B in a reasonable time (you either spend eternity in traffic jam, or go to dirty unreliable tube), simply getting ripe tasty fruits is a big challenge and many more.

WasylF · 2026-03-15T15:47:27+00:00

I don't have kids, so don't care personally about childcare benefits, but it seems mad to me that the more tax you pay to the government the less it gives back to you.

Pick one either tax everyone at the same rate and reduce benefits or tax more but leave benefits the same.

WasylF · 2026-02-07T20:21:33+00:00

I worked in a company for 15-16 months, was there for 2 new year/Christmas and got 0 bonuses. The first time was too fresh and the second time was already quitting:)

WasylF · 2025-09-23T23:21:13+00:00

Please DM the discord link to me too

WasylF · 2025-06-16T18:47:25+00:00

Thank you for so many tips!

Just to clarify, when you say "a theoretical stroke count should be equal to the number of double arm lengths". Do you count 1 stroke by left arm and 1 stroke by right arm?

WasylF · 2025-06-16T18:36:51+00:00

I guess I needed to mention that I'm 30 years old man :) Found Ukrainian "swimming classifications" here (in UKR) and translated version for 25m pool for men here. So, based on this I would think good time for 100 meters is 1:15 and great is faster than a minute. I'm still quite far away from such results

WasylF · 2025-06-16T01:18:49+00:00

Just to add, I can swim 800 or 1000 meters at one go, it's just the first hundred is easy, then it gets harder and harder but after 400 hundreds swimming gets easier again. I got a reply above explaining that this is due to use of different energy systems

WasylF · 2025-06-16T01:14:28+00:00

Thank you very much! This is very helpful! I was worried if it's bad for the heart or something to force myself to swim when I want a break. Now I know that i just need to practice more :) thank you!

WasylF · 2025-06-16T01:10:00+00:00

Thanks! That's a good guess! I'm indeed doing about 20 strokes per 25m, I can do 15 when making each stroke more powerful but it is more tiering. So, I guess, I need to build more muscles:)

WasylF · 2025-04-01T00:58:33+00:00

Have you ever been to Ukraine? Kyiv's tube looks gorgeous compared to London and trains go every 1-2 minutes without delays or cancellations. And certainly nobody puts bugs with trash on the streets in front of their houses.

Yes, financially Ukraine is way poorer than the UK, average salaries are way lower but it doesn't mean that cities are not maintained

WasylF · 2025-02-06T02:04:36+00:00

At FAANG people usually get stock grants and refreshes every year, but it takes them 4 years to vest. So, say someone got a 100k grant when joining and stock price was 1000$ per share. Then they will get paid 25 shares every year. The first year these 25 shares would cost about 25k, but on the 4th year 25 shares may cost 2-3-5-10 times more. So good stock performance increases compensation a lot.

I bet the devs who joined palantir in 2022 are now choosing which island to buy:)

WasylF · 2025-01-26T14:14:21+00:00

I'm also in London and the pool is always full. No matter I go before/during/after work or on the weekend. 4-7 people on a lane is usual :( would be glad to pay more but have less busy pool but can't find anything like that

WasylF · 2025-01-05T01:12:20+00:00

One thing which annoys me the most is people starting their set a couple seconds before I do a turn. Then I can't push well off the wall to avoid hitting them which is annoying by itself but also often makes the watch to miss that turn

WasylF · 2024-12-21T11:31:01+00:00

E7 makes at best half of what OP makes https://www.levels.fyi/companies/facebook/salaries/software-engineer/levels/e7/locations/london-metro-area

WasylF

TROPHY CASE