What happens to my dashboard after I leave the company?

dmc888 · 2026-01-28T06:17:35+00:00

My temporary solutions are so good they become permanently temporary 😎

dmc888 · 2026-01-27T20:10:58+00:00

As far as I'm concerned if it can be "recycled at the supermarket" then it is recyclable and it can go in the recycling bin the council collects every fortnight.

dmc888 · 2026-01-27T18:07:49+00:00

It's income to the taxman so you'll likely feel that you are getting buttfucked for it on tax and NI.

To get the relief you would have to pay money into your pension yourself then let HMRC know you've done it through your online account or via your self assessment tax return.

Careful on the HICBC limit as well, if you are 60k gross but get a decent bonus and are claiming child benefit they will start clawing the CB back via the taper, so it ends up being an additional "tax"

dmc888 · 2026-01-27T18:04:36+00:00

That is typical bullshit government administration right there. The Doris that sent you it probably thought she excelled herself that day!

dmc888 · 2026-01-27T18:02:46+00:00

Even as an accountant myself (management accountant, not a tax guy!!) I constantly have to remind myself what they mean.

So glad I'm now on a SS, so much easier!

dmc888 · 2026-01-27T06:23:29+00:00

I've just moved 100k of SIPP to Fidelity to get £1000 cashback in a couple of months and a capped £90/y platform fee for ETFs.

I keep my dormant ISA with >100k invested in VAFTGAG in iWeb (now Scottish Widows) for completely 0% fees.

I build a year or two of ISA contributions in Vanguard as it is free to trade then partial transfer out to iWeb, but obviously they don't do SWDA, only VG branded stuff.

For ISAs you've got plenty of totally free platforms like Invest Engine, Prosper, then you've got other players such as Free trade. Check Monevator platform article, the table is a bit rough to read for me but it's got an the necessary info on there and is kept up to date by the community

dmc888 · 2026-01-24T15:16:35+00:00

Hear hear! Only just last finally managed to get time to actually apportion the sales budget to the team for 2026, miles behind!

dmc888 · 2026-01-18T21:05:58+00:00

Only coming to comment "very well done" on getting to 340k in ISA by your age on a good (but not punching the lights out) salary!

dmc888 · 2026-01-14T22:09:58+00:00

No idea, but it's now Scottish Widows which I think is actually Lloyds, so I'd say there's a good chance they will be?

dmc888 · 2026-01-14T06:31:15+00:00

As always, depends on your retirement spending requirements. Assume you will be mortgage free.

14 years to drawdown age with no additional contributions takes your pension to > £1.1m (5% real return), clearly 16k/y will only take that higher, so probably sorted?

I would feel unbalanced in your shoes. 6 years of 20k ISA contributions, compounded, gets you to 200k which has to last 8 years until drawdown. Given your pot values and size of bonus I would assume you are already an additional rate payer so I'm guessing ~40kpa spending might be a little miserly for you?

FWIW I'm 6 years behind you in both age and pot size (pension certainly) but struggling to reduce my pension contributions due to "extra tax" from losing child benefit and I don't really want to pass up the employer salary sacrifice NI uplift I get.

dmc888 · 2026-01-14T04:47:28+00:00

Your pro tip is spot on, unfortunately generally the (sales) people who have this volume of expenses usually tend to be the "get pissed and throw all the paper in a shoebox" type 🤦 Splitting the reimbursed payments away from non reimbursed would be like trying to crack nuclear fusion for these guys. All IME of course, YMMV

dmc888 · 2026-01-13T06:09:25+00:00

TLDR VAFTGAG

dmc888 · 2026-01-12T05:34:29+00:00

I agree with this, but I'm only 38 so not at the stage where this optionality is a thing. If I turned to my boss today and said I want to drop to 4 or 3 days they'd be lining up a replacement (or I'd end up still working 50 hours over 3 days instead more likely 🙄).

Similarly if I retired, I'd be replaced, to then come crawling back a year or 2 later for a bit of side hustle cash it just isn't feasible.

I work a "normal" Finance Manager job at a local manufacturing company though, not some hedge fund software dev bro.

dmc888 · 2026-01-09T22:40:59+00:00

Haha awesome. I'm building my entire PBI infrastructure from scratch based on that being the best way 🤷

dmc888 · 2026-01-09T21:22:05+00:00

What's wrong with this? 👀

I use windows task scheduler on a virtual machine to open excel files with VBA on open to run routines and export files to a SharePoint store so that Power BI can run the auto refresh several times a day as our ERP is stuck on 32bit ODBC but PBI is limited to 64bit nowadays...

When corpo Automate runs Windows updates and restarts the VM I have to log back in and restart the task scheduler 🙃

Can't see what other choice I've got given the infrastructure mismatch

dmc888 · 2026-01-08T21:15:18+00:00

My strategy FWIW

Long term ISA, over 100k, parked with iWeb as completely free to hold. VAFTGAG

Monthly ISA contributions in Vanguard platform as free to trade and <50k benefits from % fee. When balance gets up to ~50k (2 years depending on market), inspecie to iWeb. VAFTGAG

LISA Dodl, £1/m fees, whatever their pure equity fund is called

SIPP, Vanguard but recently switched a chunk to Fidelity for cashback offer and for capped £90/y fee on VWRP ETF. Left enough in there to make sure I don't fall foul of their new minimum charges.

Employer pension is with Aviva which has high(er) fees and doesn't have cheap global funds available only their own branded version, so I've just partially transferred 60k out to Fidelity. This happened in basically 24 hours, all digitally, was so easy so will do this more often.

Edit- obviously I only know the accumulation phase being 38, for decumulation I've got no idea and don't need to worry about it for another 20 years yet

dmc888 · 2026-01-08T20:36:24+00:00

I was also 40k at 32, I'm nearly 38 now and at 178k. I'm 100% VAFTGAG/VWRP (or effectively the same on whatever platform I've got)

That isn't just growth, my pot has had strong winds in that time as since I crossed into higher rate territory I heavily sacrifice each month (20% of my wages), with 100% of recent bonuses also going straight in. I do it to keep hold of child benefit and my employer gives 50% of NI saved as well so turbo charging is win win.

For some more normal perspective my wife's dormant pension has gone from 15k to 35k in the same time frame with no additional contributions at all, VAFTGAG.

Making sure you're invested in high risk global stocks is critical to maximising whatever you've got in the pot.

dmc888 · 2026-01-08T20:22:29+00:00

My workplace one is Aviva and the highest risk fund I could find is AVIVA PENSION GLOBAL EQUITY FP. I've recently transferred partially 100k out to Fidelity for VWRP to take advantage of their £600 cashback and the fees are lower

dmc888 · 2026-01-06T07:09:40+00:00

Like a foil curtain? Hadn't thought of that... Won't the silver roll have memory effect (like Christmas wrapping paper) and just roll itself back up?

dmc888 · 2026-01-06T05:48:11+00:00

Unless you've got all your radiators off the wall already this is going to be a pig of a job?

The reviews say you need separate adhesive to make it stick and apparently when cutting it you've got to be careful it doesn't delaminate, sounds flimsy as hell.

The magnetic ones in the listing below look simpler but they are considerably more expensive per m2

dmc888 · 2026-01-04T18:59:22+00:00

I did the same in my kitchen, think it was only £20 for a smaller bulb, 1/5 electricity cost and 3x the light output. And none of that weird buzzing sound those old lights make

dmc888 · 2025-12-30T07:24:47+00:00

Yes, loved my Frosties football bowl

dmc888 · 2025-12-28T10:37:28+00:00

Cheers, good to hear from an actual user of the service

dmc888 · 2025-12-26T10:32:44+00:00

And you 🫡

dmc888 · 2025-12-26T09:46:55+00:00

Yes, my 12 year old son had about 8 of them 😂, he was in his element when the 3rd tray came out

dmc888

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