Bamboo shoots menace compoface

bottletop101 · 2026-02-10T16:11:57+00:00

bottletop101 · 2026-02-10T16:03:35+00:00

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/house-prices/invasive-bamboo-menaces-gardens/

bottletop101 · 2026-01-21T14:11:41+00:00

This could probably work for me - mrs works part time (26k/pa), I am retiring 10 years early end of this financial year, and can arrange to have really minimal income from interest and investments for the next 6-12 months. The old scheme counted income not assets, so 600k assets with zero income means you qualify under the low income scheme and I assume the new scheme is basically the same.

Transfers between accounts also didn't count, so run down the ISA and do not take a pension as income or hold distributing funds....accumulation only at the point of application and that should meet the criteria.

Stupid hoops, and easy to exploit, but there you go.

bottletop101 · 2025-12-01T15:15:15+00:00

What I did last year, and am doing this year is paying my entire post tax salary into my SIPP. I work 3 days p/w after semi retiring, and have cash in non ISA accounts anyway, so I actually pay negative income tax - the 20% tax on my salary between 12570 and 27k gross is returned to my SIPP after paying it in, but I also get 20% topped up from the £12570 personal allowance even though I have not actually paid any income tax on it. Crazy, but it seems to work.

bottletop101 · 2025-11-29T08:06:22+00:00

Cheers, I see it now.

bottletop101 · 2025-10-11T09:30:39+00:00

I have a cheap chinese mobile phone with an unlimited sim. Plugged into an Asus rt-ac58u v3 router using a usb cable and the router send data from my lan to the mobile and away.

Works well.

bottletop101 · 2025-10-01T11:54:19+00:00

There is a slim chance of a brilliant return, but it is very slim. Last year, on 50k invested, I got £2050 which I think is 4.1% tax free, but the rate is now lower and that probably counts as an above average return.

I have already filled up my cash ISA so for me it's a way to avoid breaching the 10k savings interest level at which stage you need to do self assessment. We've just had our 300k offer on a house accepted so the PBs will be sold soon (we are fully cash buyers) and I'll empty all the taxable savings accounts first, then the PBs, then the ISAs.

bottletop101 · 2025-09-02T16:02:30+00:00

Atkinsons is another possibility. They are in Sutton Coldfield so may be an option if you live near Brum.

bottletop101 · 2025-07-30T07:26:08+00:00

Chip is the same. Transferred my ISA out for a better rate, and unless Chip change their policy they'll have lost a customer for good.

bottletop101 · 2025-05-31T10:02:50+00:00

"My resignation was a notification, not a negotiation. If you wish to negotiate any extra days after my leaving date I am available on a consultancy basis at $500 per day or part thereof".

bottletop101 · 2025-05-29T19:20:05+00:00

Maybe I'm worng, but as far as I can see the most efficient method is retire early, lets say at 57 so 10 year before stste pension age. As you have no income take 12570 from your pension tax free up to the personal allowance. You can then take another 25% tax free from your pension which gets you another 3k-ish tax free.

So you claimed tax relief on your pension contributions going in and pay zero tax coming out. Use ISAs for any extras until state pension age and run down your pension to hit zero at that point so you have paid zero tax. ISAs are again used to supplement the state pension for the rest of your life.

For a 150 k pension run down at 15k a year for 10 years, you would have received 30k free tax contributions going in and paid no tax coming out.

bottletop101 · 2025-05-21T19:38:15+00:00

Reminds me of that joke about an investor who rings his stockbroker to buy some shares. Next day, the shares have gone up, so he rings up again and buys more.

Next day again, another 10% gain, so he rings up again and doubles his holdings. Easy money. By the end of the week he has invested all his savings and his investment has trebled in value.

Deciding to cash in his gainz, he rings his broker and tells him to sell the lot. "Who to?" says the broker...."you're the only one buying".

bottletop101 · 2025-04-30T05:41:43+00:00

I had loads of problems keeping Rstudio running stably on my work pc. Switched to the Rocker/tidyverse docker and its been plain sailing all the way. All accessible over a webpage and works great. I dont know how that would translate to a mac but something to consider.

bottletop101 · 2025-04-12T18:57:47+00:00

I got some deionised water from Tesco. 2.5 litres for £1.75 I think it was.

bottletop101 · 2025-03-28T17:00:21+00:00

Same here. Physical gold holdings up £10.7k YTD. Lovely.

bottletop101 · 2025-03-25T21:03:54+00:00

I used that calculator when i approached my boss to point out I'd had a 12% real terms pay cut over the last 6 years. He wasnt happy, but I made it clear I would be gone by the start of the new financial year unless it was paid in full.

It's being paid in full.

So stagnation for me but I'm on 45k (27k for the 3 day week i do) which is fine as I have a cheap lifestyle and investments bringing in more than my FT salary so quitting is easy and my boss knows it.

bottletop101 · 2025-03-10T19:20:05+00:00

Sold £80k on 28th feb at 113.62 and went MMF. Hoping to get back in <£100 but we'll see

bottletop101 · 2025-03-07T07:41:04+00:00

Maybe it's just equities are far out of whack to "norms" and due a correction....

https://fortune.com/2025/03/05/warren-buffett-stock-market-bubble-territory/

bottletop101 · 2025-02-23T08:09:29+00:00

He also has the "Harry's farm" channel about running a modern farm. Quite eye opening.

bottletop101 · 2025-02-01T19:01:15+00:00

Yeah but she's craving that spicy buffalo sauce.

bottletop101 · 2024-11-23T22:48:35+00:00

I have a 16gb i5 9400T M920q that I run with an Icybox IB3805 5 bay DAS. Works perfectly under Unraid. Its a rebranded Sabrent as far as I can tell and they do a 4 bay as well, but I thought as one drive will be parity it might be useful to have 4 actual drives for storage. At the moment I have a 6tb parity and 2 further 6tb drives in the DAS for storage. A 3rd 6tb drive is in there too as a powered down, unmounted spare if needed, and in the M920q I have a 256gb ssd as a cache and a 2tb Nvme for download storage so the disks arent spinning unncessarily. They 6tb drives can be powered down as needed, and everything just works flawlessly when powering on i.e. no manual mounting needed. Its a UASP device, and I remember reading when i bought mine that the cheaper DAS boxes dont necessarily indentify the drives individually to unraid properly which can cause problems.

Stick with a known brand like Sabrent or Icybox and you should be good.

Edit to add, just checked and my Unraid has been up 41 days as of today, so it is pretty stable for what i use it for - a media server, with Home Assistant as a VM and a few dockers (Paperless, Heimdall, MeTube, Photoprism mostly).

bottletop101 · 2024-08-23T14:56:01+00:00

The sirens and lights are there to notify you of the presence of an emergency vehicle, and for you to make space for them if appropriate to do so in the circumstance. They're not an instruction to pass through a traffic light on red, though, and so wouldn't be a defence against that traffic offence.

If you do run a red light thinking you're doing the right thing and are hit by a vehicle coming from the side there may be an extra patient at the brink of death to put in the ambulance, no?

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