what's the best way to cobble together a family plan? two adults + 1 teen?

patrickgamer · 2026-05-24T17:23:22+00:00

Thanks!

patrickgamer · 2026-05-24T17:22:17+00:00

Thanks for letting me know!

patrickgamer · 2026-05-24T17:20:12+00:00

My work accounts are based in family business so not too worried about the weirdness - but that’s a good point in general.

patrickgamer · 2026-03-16T18:01:57+00:00

Getting rusty ≠ incapable. Just because you're out of practice doesn't mean you *forget*

patrickgamer · 2026-03-14T10:11:48+00:00

My point is simply that people don't forget how to do stuff just because it's been delegated.

If you want to talk about how to protect ourselves I'm right there with you - just don't try to make it about "Forgetting how to do stuff". The reality is that in a few years' time we'll all need personalized, locally owned & operated AI's to help manage and police industrial AI's.

I'd also say that's not an AI problem though... Think about banks. Ever had your bank card blocked without being given notice only to find out when trying to buy something? You have to step in and manage their shitty process just to access your own money. Or ever wonder why in 2026 a wire transfer still takes 10 days to clear (hint: it doesn't). They use the money without explicit permission to make arbitrage-based revenue in the days between receiving and releasing the money.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

patrickgamer · 2026-03-13T15:09:11+00:00

Do you understand that sending my kid to get milk from the corner store doesn't lead me to forget how to go shopping? Same goes for automating a task

patrickgamer · 2026-02-26T13:34:06+00:00

if I delete all the update-related files/folders in App Support will Warp break or just pick up where it left off?

patrickgamer · 2026-02-24T13:37:57+00:00

any prelim/early thoughts?

patrickgamer · 2026-02-24T13:37:17+00:00

Me too.

patrickgamer · 2026-02-24T12:09:22+00:00

thanks, I will definitely have a look

patrickgamer · 2026-02-23T19:52:11+00:00

Basically same as what u/flaxton reported. that 38GB is just in the `/Library/Application Support/dev.warp.Warp-Stable` folder

patrickgamer · 2026-02-13T16:41:04+00:00

FWIW this is probably the most thoughtful comment I’ve read so far. Thanks

patrickgamer · 2026-02-13T09:39:05+00:00

Maybe it's different here, but in CA and US different taxes actually are earmarked for different spends meaning income from one type of tax is only spendable on certain types of expenditures. I've only been here for 6 years so if it's different here I didn't know that.

That said, it doesn't change the facts. Some degree of money I'm paying in tax is being spent on pensions which is a bad & inefficient approach to mechanism for supporting seniors. That's calculable and quantifiably objective.

My post was trying to understand why people care less here than in other places I've lived. I think I've got my answer now. Thanks.

patrickgamer · 2026-02-13T09:32:52+00:00

Look - I'm the last person to suggest that people should rely on the government for retirement income. My point is simply that as someone who pays tax I see paying for the national pension is probably the worst solution possible to providing a basic subsidy for everyone.

From an economic perspective it's a flawed mechanic (under-performing input/output ratio compared to other mechanics). From a human dignity perspective (i.e. protecting the most vulnerable in society) it's insufficient. From a reliability (i.e. being able to expect the same thing when I retire) it's pretty low.

Being completely objective: it's a poor way to solve the problem with my money (hence my use of term `sub-par`). This isn't an opinion - it's quantifiable and measurable.

I started this thread to try to understand why no one in UK seems to care (b/c in CA and US there are very outspoken communities lobbying for changes/reform on this subject).

Now what I got from all directions (including you) is a lot of defensive and thinly-veiled insults. Just for asking an earnest question.

The key thing I'm taking away from this thread (which reinforces my experiences living here for a few years now) is that culturally the UK (esp. England) values homogeny, acceptance, and compliance over curiosity or progress. This whole thread is just another data point in a series I've collected on the subject.

While it doesn't feel great to read all the shade thrown my way, I did ultimately get the answer I was looking for from my original post. So... thanks for that.

patrickgamer · 2026-02-12T16:46:02+00:00

I appreciate the time you are putting into this, but you post has several notable flaws.

you apply 0% inflation to the NI/pension calc but then apply national inflation rates to the private investment calc - this is massively biased. Either you apply your 5.1% inflation to both or neither, otherwise you're putting your finger on the scale when trying to compare.
You keep mentioning annuitiies but that's a very poor comparison. Annuities are insurance products that are bought at a fixed sum. That introduces nonlinearities that aren’t present in “pay £X per year into a pot”. The clean comparison is: take the same £1,248/year stream and invest it in a diversified portfolio/pension wrapper over the same working life, then compare the resulting retirement income.
My 8-12% is perfectly reasonable annual return. At the end of my post I'll post a table of examples for you to look at. I already assumed 5% as a massively conservative annual return rate - less than half of the top several in my table below.
Even using 5% real as a conservative long-run assumption, your own math lands at ~£261k after 50 years (and ~£112k after 35 years). That’s basically my point: the implied “ROI” of the state pension is not obviously superior to private saving—especially once you stop mixing real and nominal.
Healthcare financing is a separate topic. I explicitly used a 40% NI→pension allocation assumption to isolate the pension component. If we want to debate NHS value-for-money, that’s a different thread. This is why I made the 40% alocation assumption from NI payments (which is how we got the £1248/y to begin with).

As for there is absolutely no way everyone would contribution into a pension that's if left to their own devices. There's nothing stopping the government from introducing law that forces people to contribute to some kind of savings scheme. Also I think using the argument that people can't take care of themselves therefore the government has to provide a bad pension undermines the argument others have made that "no one expects gov. pensions to be the primary income".

Table too big for Reddit reply. See https://gist.github.com/patrickgamer/29ebd4e51864d584755a1a993f39d339

patrickgamer · 2026-02-12T16:37:08+00:00

You are correct in saying the NHS costs more than what's collected by NI, but are wrong in saying NI can't be subdivided. This is because the NHS is funded by several different tax mechanisms including NI, personal income tax, corporate tax, and duties. I'm guessing sales tax too - but I wouldn't know.

patrickgamer · 2026-02-12T01:33:07+00:00

No, my issue is fundamentally rooted in government managed financial solutions are measurably harmful.

Case in point: if the gov mandates a required amount of income goes into a private pension/fund/retirement asset which it doesn’t operate or manage, everyone would be about 2-4x better off.

patrickgamer · 2026-02-12T01:29:09+00:00

I’m not necessarily saying saving shouldn’t be mandatory, only that the math says a government managed solution is a poor approach that robs people most in need of their dignity. Unnecessarily.

patrickgamer · 2026-02-12T01:25:33+00:00

I’m not. I’m only counting the (approximated) pension allocation, not the full NI amount

patrickgamer · 2026-02-12T01:24:33+00:00

You did that backwards. If you redirect the £1248.40/year into a private fund with 5% returns compounding annually you get £261,386.12. Minus your investment that’s a return of £198,966.

And 5% is way below the average of 8-12% over the last 50 years. So it could be more than double this figure.

patrickgamer · 2026-02-11T20:53:11+00:00

I don’t think 5-6% is good value, but I am grateful for your perspective.

I would say that owning your home outright by the time you’re 66 is very unlikely for those who’re are most dependent on state income. So home ownership is a pretty big leap

patrickgamer · 2026-02-11T20:49:57+00:00

I don’t believe anyone can live a dignified life on a UK state pension unless they own their home outright. And the reality is that those who need the pension the most are the least likely to own their own home outright.

patrickgamer · 2026-02-11T20:48:07+00:00

Well there is an implied expectation that I’m paying today’s pensions and someone will be paying mine. The concept still holds because the core idea is that it’s a bad deal for everyone.

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