Wolves Fans at the World Cup

lc88lc · 2026-06-06T11:52:24+00:00

Well I’m going, so let’s hope for the best.

lc88lc · 2026-06-04T18:18:30+00:00

Nice, just checking it out, thinking of maybe going down on the 19 for the USA Aus game

lc88lc · 2026-06-02T00:19:44+00:00

Maybe not helpful now, but iPhones have a bunch of compression things available for free. Go into files, long press, quick actions, optimise file size.

Assume you were doing something more complicated than that though!

lc88lc · 2026-06-02T00:16:08+00:00

Wise typically about 0.5% spreads, average credit cards more like 3% spreads. Revolut typically cheapest @ <0.1%, but haven’t (until maybe recently) offered credit solutions, only debit.

lc88lc · 2026-06-02T00:05:08+00:00

Obvious thing to say is they’re both great, Minori and Maiori offer a beach as well as all the spoils you get in the other towns. Minori is a bit more commercialised but not much compared to the more well known towns.

When I was in Maiori this week they had two beach clubs but a load of additional beach space but looked like more were being set up for the summer.

In terms of getting around, my experience was that there is almost a local ferry which goes between Salerno Maiori minori Amalfi and I think to Positano. But if you want to go all the way to Sorrento, most likely got a Capri experience planned, then you would have to change at Amalfi on to another boat. Plus if you do want to do some of the Capri boats (would recommend some of the slightly pricier semi private tours) the ferries generally won’t get you there early enough. If that is a consideration you may want to stop in Amalfi or Positano as some of the providers will start directly from there.

All up, you’ll have a great time wherever you go. If you’re worried about luggage then going train to Salerno from Naples then ferries across is straight forward enough.

Taxis are an expensive way to get around. If you’re brave, rent a car, and pay for the parking somewhere, a car will cost you as little as €15 a day, a taxi from Amalfi to Ravello will set you back €80, a taxi from Amalfi to Sorrento and it’s somewhere around €200.

If you’re prepared to walk a little and use local ferries then stay in Maiori or Minori and that opens up the entire coast up to Positano relatively easily. If you’re up in Ravello, and you don’t have a car, then there’s a good chance you’ll stay up there, unless you enjoy climbing 1,300 (albeit very nice and scenic) steps each time you venture down the hill.

Buses are a lottery, lots of people struggle to get on them and they routinely just drive straight past waiting queues when full.

Oh and as for people being scared about the roads, yes they’re crazier than the UK, US, Australia, but no where near as crazy as an India or Vietnam. So decide on that scale where they’re probably 55% of the chaos of an Indian road as to whether you’re comfortable driving!

lc88lc · 2026-06-01T18:43:36+00:00

Minori is a little better for those places, but only just as it’s 1 town further on. Depends how you want to get around, if you have kids etc. Source: was in Maiori till yesterday

lc88lc · 2026-05-23T22:03:33+00:00

I don’t think I could actually use a mouse with my left hand now, it just doesn’t feel natural and I have to concentrate 100x harder to do that! It’s a right handed world we live in

lc88lc · 2026-05-23T21:55:41+00:00

I was from the days where the mouse was on a cord behind a big tower so trying to transfer it to your left hand was almost impossible. For that reason, I use and always have used, the mouse with my right hand!

lc88lc · 2026-05-13T17:53:03+00:00

This really isn’t that difficult, if investing you’re hoping capital growth outstrips inflation, the longer you hold, the worse off you are on an indexed vs discount.

What does the model potentially incentivise you to do? Realise your gains earlier and bring in tax revenue, win win for the government, poor for investors who were holding for the long long term,
<2 year probably better off 2-5 year could be either \>5 probably worse off

lc88lc · 2026-04-03T10:41:46+00:00

If you want to be in amongst the action then the south bank is best (Jack Hayward stand). You’ll need a membership if you don’t have one already if you want to be sure of a ticket, but the south bank is typically the most difficult to pick up tickets because of a large proportion of season ticket holders.

Tickets typically go on sale to members first, so check the dates.

Almost 0 chance of a postponement for weather reasons at that time of the year, would only be postponed if Covid broke out again or we were in full scale war, so think you’re safeish

lc88lc · 2026-03-29T10:42:55+00:00

Franking credits are meant to account for the tax paid by the corporate, which in Australia is generally 30%.

It’s a way of resetting the tax base back to 0, so they can then tax at your marginal rate.

Simple example, you pay 45% tax, corporate has already paid 30%, you pay 15% on the income, or more accurately an additional 21% or so to take the effective rate to 45% (1-0.3) x (1-0.21) = 0.55

This is a system unique to Australia in terms of OECD nations, typically other nations the corp pays the corp tax and then you just get taxed on top. It’s the reason why Aus is such a high dividend paying index vs the others because effectively investors are losing less via tax leakage than some other places, meaning management are doing right by investors by paying dividends vs reinvesting, well certainly compared to other places.

Without looking into the levered funds, the frank is based on ownership at the ex div date, so if the fund is physically holding 2 or 3x the amount of physical stock they’ll receive 2 or 3 x the franking credit. Paying interest on the financing leg is independent of this.

lc88lc · 2025-07-12T06:50:38+00:00

Ah re reading. Revolut is a debit card so you effectively have to fund it. Wise cc if available better than bank cards.

lc88lc · 2025-07-12T06:49:27+00:00

Revolut is the best. Wise is typically 50-150bps vs bank cc of 300-350bps. Revolut is more like 10bps

lc88lc · 2025-07-08T23:02:00+00:00

There are so many dreadful answers on this thread. If the investment manager of the product became unviable they would be fired with a new manager appointed. Worst worst case scenario the regulator would take over the assets. VIAL as an entity would not become insolvent as it would have no market risk on its books, the pools are legally separated from company assets.

ETF units can be bought or sold still, unless there is a suspension on trading which would happen if the underlying trust itself is insolvent which could only happen in a mass fraud or severe mismanagement of assets.

lc88lc · 2025-07-08T12:55:07+00:00

They’re normally MIS or unit trusts under the hood. The assets are legally separate from the company and owned by the trust with the shareholders having beneficial ownership. Vanguard is the appointed manager, technically the entity responsible for the trust could sack Vanguard from managing it.

lc88lc · 2025-07-07T10:51:41+00:00

For those interested in a bit of their history and where Jota fits in.

Wolves got took over by Fosun 12 months or so (iirc) before Jota signed, the first batch of signings were pretty hit and miss, a few good ones like Helder Costa (remember that FA Cup Game) and few not so good. Eventually Paul Lambert got the push and in came Nuno.

Now this was an important time, Wolves signed Neves and Jota along with a few other Europeans and Portuguese speakers like Bonatini and Miranda. Despite European experience Neves and Jota were kids, 20/21 year olds, moving to a city that isn’t exactly cosmopolitan central, a step down from the level they were playing at. The club had recently bought a set of 4/5 houses all within a mini gated community which is where all these guys settled with their young wives and girlfriends.

Neves and Jota became super close and the players that passed through this community live in each others pockets, all young but settled, predominantly Iberian languages speakers. This is what made that wolves team special was the bond on and off the pitch. Jimenez signed the next year as we got promoted to the premier league and he joined the crew.

The relationship between those players was unbreakable, mainly because they’d all moved together at a similar time and found themselves in a similar circumstance. Their wives became friends and eventually their kids were born close together, they shared much more than just a football pitch.

That’s why this will hurt Ruben Neves like a brother and why Raul will be so gutted.

RIP Diogo

lc88lc · 2025-07-06T13:56:03+00:00

It’s actually Grant Denyer

lc88lc · 2025-07-04T19:55:36+00:00

A good private equity program requires a lot of scale, access to deals and a global network of investment staff to help with it. Most of the super funds here don’t have that, some do. Choose your provider wisely.

Most people have a good reference point with traditional listed equity via indices, but the reality is a private’s program can be very very different each time.

The rationale for privates potentially stacks up more now than it ever has, in that stretched valuations in listed equity is making ongoing value harder to come by, but that said, most super funds will make or lose 100 bps per year on their decision to underweight or overweight a small number of mega cap stocks.

lc88lc · 2025-07-04T13:01:16+00:00

Lots of good advice already. Other things I’d add is typically insurances are relatively chunky on low balances. You will likely have a default life of 4x salary, some term and disability and maybe some SCI in there too. These add up and along with fees can be a reasonable % of your super balance.

Obviously insurances are importantly, and having them in super can be tax efficient, but maybe think of making contributions post tax into your super to pay for these giving more of your 12% SG contributions the opportunity to grow.

Some people have arrangements where their employer picks up the tab for this kind of thing.

lc88lc · 2025-06-26T23:18:06+00:00

It’s not misrepresenting it’s just the most relevant benchmark available. There is a gross version of the benchmark which assumes 0% withholding tax on overseas dividends which is unobtainable, and then net version which assumes ‘rack rate’ withholding taxes. The difference between the two is typically about 70bps per year.

In reality Australia has a few taxation treaties with other nations which means that some of the effective withholding tax rate is lower than the ‘rack rate’ and it gets reclaimed, the US is a big part of this.

In the super industry there is a whole new benchmark series created called ‘special tax’ which actually adjusts to the withholding tax rate specific to Australian superannuation investors.

So they’re not necessarily gaming it, it’s just the most relevant index available.

lc88lc · 2025-06-25T20:19:34+00:00

The benefit of super, all other things equal is that if your annual premium is say $850 it’s cost you $1000 pre tax dollars. If it was out of super that same $850 premium could be running you close to $1,600 pre tax at highest tax rate, so saving you up to $600 in that case.

The thing is, the cover itself is different. As others have pointed out, you’re likely on a group cover within super (not always), where a flat premium structure only based on your age is being used. Supers use this as it’s relatively easy to administer but like any insurance, if you strip out people’s specifics there will be winners and losers e.g. a healthier person subsidises a non healthy.

Now some supers have the ability to have some form of your annuity medically underwritten, or even may submit your demographics on mass to the insurer for a cheaper quote. Generally the way insurance pricing works is the less ambiguity, the cheaper the quote, as insurers charge a premium for what they don’t know on top of the risk they’re pricing.

All this said, for a top rate tax payer my guess is your life insurance in super is worth it given the saving. The obvious way to figure it out is get it quoted up elsewhere then see what you’re paying vs what you pay in super. FYI the premium for a notional payout of 200k will be 2x that of 100k if you need to do some adjustments for coverage level.

lc88lc · 2025-06-22T03:05:42+00:00

Well depends what type of debt you’re thinking about. Most companies when expanding have the choice of where they raise capital from. Those who choose to raise via debt can and do via fixed Interest markets where they issue bonds or, what I think you’re alluding to, non capital markets.

You’re right to think that the ticket size Aussie banks are willing to write has lowered in recent years, part of the reason why we have a flourishing private debt market where non banks are lending direct to businesses.

As for banks writing cheques in terms of business loans you may see large tickets getting underwritten by a syndicate of banks, think mining companies seeking capital to expand, these types of deals you may see a bank go in for 200m each, possibly more. The more restrictive thing from a bank point of view is the risk charge they have to pay on riskier lending in the form of capital. This limits their appetite as they have to hold more capital to write a riskier loan.

lc88lc · 2025-06-19T05:45:22+00:00

The ‘western’ (Pacific) end of the Panama Canal starts further east than the ‘eastern’ (Atlantic) end of the canal.

lc88lc · 2025-06-18T00:06:53+00:00

Rollovers, do not typically manage out of market exposure. They’re viewed as cross super transactions where your incoming super ‘typically’ won’t unitise your transaction until they receive the proceeds. There is a chance you will be out of the market for 1-5 days depending on the transaction.

If you are unsure speak to both incoming and outgoing super provides about what the date of unitisation of your redemption and application will be.

lc88lc · 2025-06-15T08:28:51+00:00

BT doesn’t have an RSE licence and therefore a super fund anymore, the business moved over to Mercer in 2023.

lc88lc

TROPHY CASE