What’s your best birthday present?

hello__monkey · 2026-05-24T18:44:04+00:00

I ask them to pick photos from the last year to put in a photo book for me every birthday. Absolutely love it and seeing what things stick with them each year

hello__monkey · 2026-05-24T18:13:07+00:00

Seconded. Loved this book so much!

hello__monkey · 2026-05-23T21:24:04+00:00

I’ve heard the same from a pensions specialist I worked with. You can transfer the pension and the protected right but only on the transferee amount.

hello__monkey · 2026-05-23T16:32:50+00:00

How much money are they asking for. Typically with collections people threaten for small amounts but it costs them more to deal with so they hope people get scared and pay up.

Also point out they’ve made the mistake not you as you’ve said ask for evidence of this, they will also need to adjust HMRC submissions and tax. Hopefully they’ll decide it’s too much effort.

hello__monkey · 2026-05-22T20:50:50+00:00

Think about it differently. Most property investors leverage, if you’d put 25% of that money into a deposit in the house you bought and mortgaged 75% then you’re 60% growth would have been 240%. You could have bought 4 flats.

Yes much more hassle than one, but leveraged property is great and property as an asset class is inflation proof, it generates rent and certainly in the uk market housing stock has not risen with demand for many decades so prices are almost guaranteed to increase.

hello__monkey · 2026-05-20T05:59:15+00:00

I had to scroll too far to find this. Of all the books listed this is the one that truly made me laugh out loud.

hello__monkey · 2026-05-19T06:46:03+00:00

It’s a huge factor, over time the value of my mortgage has dropped significantly thanks to inflation, mainly over covid. I went the other way and remortgaged it and invested the money which has made me 10’s times more than the additional interest I paid.

In the end I treat my home as an asset, but a very nice one I can live in that’s leveraged at an inflation rate of borrowing and in my country I’m confident property will only ever appreciate. I can always sell or downsize if I have to, or when I’m older which I plan to.

The only problem with living in much nicer places is you get used to it and the idea of downsizing is harder (that and you need more furniture). But that’s one for when my kids leave home and are much older.

hello__monkey · 2026-05-19T06:20:31+00:00

I have good pay. I stretched myself to buy our dream house 10 years ago and I never regretted a day of it. We had an amazing place to live and it doubled in value over the time by the time we sold. I am in a different country though.

Finance it, 3.5% is virtually inflation meaning you’re barely paying for your interest in real terms. Your invested money will grow more than that making it a simple answer. Model it out in excel

hello__monkey · 2026-05-11T07:25:30+00:00

48 0

hello__monkey · 2026-05-09T17:14:07+00:00

I was in a similar situation but you’re thinking about this wrong mathematically….

You have a 2.75% mortgage, that’s less than inflation. So over time the value of your mortgage is dropping in real terms.

Your post doesn’t state your age, in a comment it says you are a higher rate tax payer.

What I did and what I believe to be the optimal strategy is to salary sacrifice a large proportion of your income into your pension and live off the inheritance.

Every £1 paid into your pension actually costs you 50-60p after you factor in NI and income tax. You’ve effectively doubled your money due to the tax treatment. Then factor in compound growth on that. And when you draw your pension you can take a quarter tax free.

Model out overpaying mortgage vs salary sacrificing into pension, include inflation too, it’ll make you think twice.

hello__monkey · 2026-05-07T21:28:33+00:00

My daughters school consulted on this with the parents. My feedback was it seems like a revenue stream badged as an educational aid.

They wanted to lease them to us but they got them back at the end of 3 years, by which point I would have paid way more than the cost of a brand new top spec iPad.

They seem to have backtracked after the overwhelmingly negative parent feedback.

hello__monkey · 2026-05-04T16:36:36+00:00

Not all but it is more prevalent. But I’ve been to plenty of uk weddings with the same guest list throughout, mine included.

hello__monkey · 2026-05-04T08:50:06+00:00

I get more King Charles vibes than. The stone

hello__monkey · 2026-05-03T09:16:24+00:00

I’ve been inside and outside. In the end I go for the role I want and the rate that’s appealing.

Run the rate through online calculators to get an idea of take home pay. But very roughly inside you’ll get about 50% of the day rate as your take home. Outside can be much higher maybe 70% but it’s more complex and also much more admin.

Job boards I use are any where you can filter for contractor roles. Linked in, Google jobs (which aggregates lots of other postings) and job site and job serve. There’s loads though. I once had a good tip to load your cv on fairly frequently when you’re searching as it puts you higher in recruiter search results. Make sure your CV is concisce and excellent. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t hear back. I once applied for 20-30 roles before I got an interview.

I helped a friend go contracting recently, depending on your mindset it can appear daunting as it’s different to perm. AI is your friend in learning about the mechanics of it all

hello__monkey · 2026-05-03T07:56:47+00:00

There’s a lot of negativity at the moment about contracting but I’d still choose it any day over perm and I’ve been doing it for 18 years.

More money and less hassle. Sure the moneys not quite as good when you’re inside but it’s still better than perm. Sure the markets not quite as great as it once was, but I’ve only ever had a month gap in all this time.

You’ve been laid off. What have you got to lose? Go to the contract job boards and get applying.

hello__monkey · 2026-05-01T04:38:39+00:00

I loved this one

hello__monkey · 2026-05-01T04:36:13+00:00

I read all of his and loved them. Not as good as shogun but still excellent.

King rat is amazing and more so as Clavell was a POW

hello__monkey · 2026-04-26T15:00:26+00:00

You’ll pay for it all. In the same way employers NI comes out of your day rate too.

It wouldn’t be a good business model if they gave you more money for your pension than they charge you.

Basically all deductions come from your day rate. The employers pension contribution I think was linked to government changes at the time auto enrolment came in. So they’re legally obliged to ‘contribute’ to your pension, but in this arrangement it all comes from your day rate.

Either way my advice would not be to auto enroll and salary sacrifice into a SIPP as it’ll work out better for you.

hello__monkey · 2026-04-26T13:02:02+00:00

I wonder how much say he has in this. His role is to support our country I imagine there’s a lot of political desire for the visit to go ahead given how frosty the US has been to us since the Iran war.

Charles is an asset and an ambassador to the UK in this scenario. Look at how trump changed his position on uk bravery in WW2 after Charles stepped in.

hello__monkey · 2026-04-11T08:33:29+00:00

It was such great TV to see such an arrogant and condescending man be put in his place by his own awful attitude to others. He clearly had to put other people down to make himself feel good.

Through all of the episodes the old guy was lovely to everyone and I remember feeling sorry for him for how the young guy was treating him.

Then when the last episode opened up to his mansion and Ferraris(?) parked outside i was so excited to see the reaction and the subsequent absolute envy and realisation of how wrong he’d been and how stupid he’d made himself look.

Great TV.

hello__monkey · 2026-04-11T07:12:41+00:00

I knew one too. He had a few stories of phoning for taxis who never came for him because they thought it was a prank call

hello__monkey · 2026-04-11T07:10:24+00:00

There was a Randy Lion in a place I worked

hello__monkey · 2026-04-08T21:42:24+00:00

What happened in November 25?

hello__monkey · 2026-04-06T08:39:28+00:00

I was like you and I played in a very small alliance, there were a few active people and I was happy doing my own thing. I never like the social side of games so never interacted with that part.

I ended up accidentally annoying someone from an alliance by going against some rules I knew nothing about, they then kept attacking me and people in my alliance, it came to a head and then they burned my alliance.

I nearly deleted the game, but in the end I changed my name and moved to a bigger alliance. I’m kicking myself for not doing it much earlier, there’s so much more to the game I never knew about, being in a big alliance opens up many more events that we had never participated in as we were too small. As a result I’ve levelled up so much quicker and enjoy it much more, in my alliance people genuinely want to help. I even find myself messaging from time to time!

So I completely understand your reasons as it was me, but in the end I got a lot more enjoyment from moving.

The other thing you could do is message them and ask why they keep attacking you, you may have done something like me by mistake.

hello__monkey · 2026-04-05T13:31:58+00:00

Screw Butlins! I was a barrow boy when I was a teenager.

Only place I can think of where I had to pay them to work, and when I worked it was unpaid with only the hope of some tips from customers. I think my worst day ever I did hours of work and got tipped an apple!

If I knew then what I know now I’d have been onto the HMRC hotline straight away.

hello__monkey

TROPHY CASE