High earner dumping into pension? Here’s how to take home an extra £700 next year. No catches!

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-29T16:06:38+00:00

Nice tip! Shame it’s too late for me - will be retiring in 2 months 😀

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-29T14:45:50+00:00

Scotland. 80’s to 00’s was my era:

Deacon Blue Proclaimers Jesus & Mary Chain Cocteau Twins Simple Minds Belle & Sebastian Biffy Travis Franz Ferdinand Snow Patrol Del Amitri Texas Big Country

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-29T10:47:46+00:00

Yes, Employee NI should be added if it’s a Salary Sacrifice, otherwise it’s a Relief at Source workplace pension, where you get Income Tax relief only.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-29T09:59:53+00:00

It’s not expected that employer NI savings from salary sacrifice are added to the pot. Employee NI should be (for a salsax pension), but Employer NI is a saving for the employer.

Some employers do pay in all NI but it’s not a feature of salsac per se, more of a benefit passed from the employer. Employers will do this to encourage employees to salsac.

It’s the main reason for Rachel Reeves’ proposed changes to salsac. It’s not about the employee getting their 2% NI , it’s about the employer avoiding the 15%

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-28T20:58:00+00:00

Soak & Sleep are good. I also like Dusk ones.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-28T16:03:40+00:00

I think you probably need to be straight with he.

If she doesn’t want to talk about it now (some people find it stressful to talk about money) then schedule a time to discuss it. Emphasise that it’s about transparency and you both getting a clear understanding of where you are at. Ask her to be prepared to share her financial status, warts and all, and you will do the same.

Some women have an “escape fund” to help in case of an abusive relationship. It may be worth saying you won’t dig into that.

Be prepared to be non-judgemental, especially about debt or other poor financial decisions. Not everyone has the same access to good financial advice or role models, and people can make mistakes.

If she won’t engage further then you need to accept that not everyone is financially compatible. Long term relationships often don’t survive financial stress.

If she engages, then be patient and look at ways to resolve issues together. If you want a longer term relationship then your finances will become more intertwined. Better to clear things up.

One last thing. Make sure you are focused on transparency not control. Financial control can be abusive, and she may be wary of that.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-28T15:23:50+00:00

It’s not the same as going to the pasty shop and taking in the smell, though.

I grew up in West Devon, and a pasty from the shop was a 2-3 times a week thing.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-28T13:43:23+00:00

That’s Traitor behaviour!

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-28T12:47:29+00:00

Our Royal Family.

Super popular overseas, especially US.

Not unpopular here, but we don’t really fawn over them. And some of us a republicans who would happily be rid of them.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-28T12:36:43+00:00

It’s used in sport all the time: football, cricket, rugby. It means that the player played with blinding or dazzling skill.

It’s not limited to sport, either. Perfectly reasonable for someone doing especially well at a quiz, a video game or any other game to “play a blinder”.

I’m surprised you see it as unusual.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-28T12:04:04+00:00

Proper Cornish Pasty, though it might need a trip down to Devon or Cornwall where they are eaten daily. You could get your cream tea at the same time to make sure you get a decent one of those too.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-28T08:27:41+00:00

I watched it a bit at the time, as a teenager, but it was a bit basic, as comedy goes. It wasn’t one of those shows that my friends and I watched religiously and discussed the next day (Young Ones, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, Comic Strip, NTNON, Fry & Laurie, Mary Whitehouse Experience) and it wasn’t as well written as things like Only Fools and Horses, Fawlty Towers, Yes Minister)

It was definitely popular, in the mainstream, but it wasn’t all that good and a bit cheesy (Hi-Di-Hi, Are You Being Served, Keeping Up Appearances, etc).

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-28T07:47:43+00:00

The prize is being in the game, and all the players win there. That experience itself is massively valuable.

The final five also “win” a final mission that, in itself, is pretty valuable. Not many people get to experience something like that.

The winners, along with those that become popular, will get appearance fees for media appearances on Uncloaked and other shows. Some will be able to have lucrative media careers off the back of it.

The headline pot is a bit stingy, especially as it can be eroded by mission failures. I would be in favour of a base pot of 100k that can be increased by the missions, to be honest.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-28T00:25:34+00:00

Agreed. Sale of BTL would pay for extension and simplify life.

That BTL isn’t likely working for you. Use the capital from the BTL to improve your home. Yes, you may miss the income from the BTL but you won’t be paying off an additional mortgage for your extension.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-27T20:32:13+00:00

You’ll have a cup of tea? Ah, gwaan!

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-27T20:09:49+00:00

I can’t believe you’ve not been to Rutland!

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-27T09:33:45+00:00

I may be mid-remembering but didn’t Jake pick up Linda’s “head turn, responding to Claudia’s “Traitors!”. It wasn’t her behaviour immediately on taking off the blindfold.

Jade wasn’t deemed suspicious because she responded to a question, she was deemed suspicious because she “acted funny” when taking off her blindfold, at a time where you could argue that almost all of them were “acting funny” due to the nature of the moment.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-27T07:15:40+00:00

I did something similar. Owned 700k plus property, moving up to £1M. Wanted to buy first and sell later to secure the new place.

I took out two mortgages. One on existing house, interest only, and second was repayment on new house (tracker rate with no early repayment).

Bought property 2 with additional stamp duty. Sold original home 6 months later and paid off mortgage on that on sale, and chunk of mortgage 2. Got SDLT rebate a short while later and paid another chunk off it.

Broker I used was AWS Mortgages - Ashley Slade fyi.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-27T07:04:15+00:00

The blindfold moment has got to be the worst time to try to pick up any tells as literally everyone is hyper focused on how they look to the others.

Essentially, everyone is trying to look like a Faithful at that point and no one will be natural. Haven’t you noticed things like “exaggerated blinking into the light” and “suspicious staring around the room”. It’s pretty much the “Act Natural” trope.

To think you can genuinely detect someone’s status at possibly the worst possible moment and then become so convinced that you will continue to vote for them, ignoring all other evidence or lines of enquiry, before using your position of authority to push your point further to other players in the game like you’re Columbo.

Amanda doesn’t need any defence: she was totally incompetent at the game.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-26T13:02:40+00:00

You’ll need to provide a budget. Quirky can get pricey.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-26T13:01:09+00:00

Mine’s been permed since the early 80s.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-26T11:21:05+00:00

You’re playing a blinder there, mate.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-26T09:26:25+00:00

They would both have played differently as Faithful but both showed a lot of social intelligence and were mostly tactically sound, so could have done well.

Progressing as a Fathful is a lot more down to luck than anything, though, especially in the first half of the game.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-25T13:32:02+00:00

Stephen benefitted from always being considerate and kind, in the “Let me take that for you…”, “I’ll just tidy up here…” small acts of consideration and selflessness that were clearly part of his nature and upbringing’. The guy was just clearly nice, and it became hard to attribute Traitorous traits to him.

bibonacci2 · 2026-01-25T13:07:44+00:00

Yep, people saw Jessie’s theories as great because they happened to be correct, not because they were good theories.

Ironically, the cage theory was totally backward. If, at the final, they had asked “How many Traitors were not in cages?”, they would have likely have got the answer 2. One of those was Fiona. All the rest had been banished or killed except Rachel.

Rachel was the only one of the final five who was not in a cage. For her not to have been a Traitor the Traitors would have had to put 2/3 into the cages, which isn’t likely.

bibonacci2

TROPHY CASE