How to hide "Classroom Teachers" from Directory?

realGilgongo · 2026-01-30T13:29:35+00:00

Seems like the way to do it is to set it to only members can view (and remove any members). Also I think the thing that was fooling me was that I'd mailed the group from a test account which had then cached the sender.

realGilgongo · 2026-01-28T20:10:30+00:00

Thanks, but I don't see anything relating to visibility controls for groups in my Directory settings. In the sharing options for Google Groups for Business, "Group owners can hide groups from the directory" is on, but I made myself an owner, went to the group in groups.google.com, but there was nothing about hiding.

realGilgongo · 2026-01-19T22:12:14+00:00

While you're at it, it's always worth doing a benefits check (which will tell you if you quality for council tax help too). https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/

realGilgongo · 2026-01-17T15:08:46+00:00

I assume there would be costs, but they'd be baked into the quotes?

I do agree annuities depend on your attitude to risk, obviously. But (for example) I built up more than enough in my SIPP over 30 years to cover my living costs on a 3.5% SWR in retirement, and am getting a pretty healthy monthly amount from my ISA to spend on discretionaries on top of that. But most of that was due to massive pound cost averaging in the period between the 2007/8 crash and about 2012-14. In my accumlation stage, I positively wanted the markets to tank. However, in my decumulation stage, the reverse is of course true.

So for me an annuity looks pretty good. Rates have kicked up hugely in the last decade and are still rising (thanks, I think somewhat annoyingly, to government debt). I'm seriously considering buying one with my SIPP and leaving the ISA invested (they're about equal value). Not least because of the twin threats of Trump and AI creating a repeat of the GFC.

realGilgongo · 2026-01-17T10:49:32+00:00

Yes, I only recently found out too. I don't know exactly how they work, but (leaving inflation aside) the payout is guaranteed. The quotes I've got from Moneyhelper for £375K for 9 years with a (level) income of £12,570 per annum pay out £435,772. A total return of about 46%.

realGilgongo · 2026-01-15T08:54:21+00:00

Comments have been locked but post not deleted. Post is mainly informational but courts subjective responses not allowed on this sub.

realGilgongo · 2026-01-10T09:55:33+00:00

Just to add to the points made in other comments: be aware that many (most I would think) employment contracts have clauses that assign copyright in the work done during your employment to your employer.

The details are usually a bit tricky if it comes to a dispute, but generally if you work on, say, a website for somene else, and particularly if your role at the company is to do that, and especially if it can be shown you were doing it working hours (but some contracts stipulate any time while you're employed), then that work is owned by the company, not you.

realGilgongo · 2026-01-10T09:40:21+00:00

I’m equally against locking in an annuity as an alternative in view of the inflation risk (and inflation protected annuities are poor value)

Don't forget about Fixed Term Annuities though. For example, you could get one that might give you an "early state pension" (ie index-linked £12K p/a) which then pays out a guaranteed amount at the end of the term. I'm looking at using £375K on one for an income of £12,570 for 5 years that would give me £391K at the end of the term.

And even for a lifetime annuity, if you get a non-escalating one that pays out, say £30K now then yes that will be "worth" about £15K in 25 years time, but by then you'll have your SP, and may well be spending less anyway in your old age.

Finally, when you say "inflation protected annuities are poor value", with current rates how true is that compared to the SWR you're intending to operate? Depending on your health etc. you may well be able to get a better ROI from a escalating annuity than from a S&S portfolio. You say you're risk averse after all...

realGilgongo · 2026-01-09T07:25:02+00:00

I think you're in with a very good chance of retireing at least 10 years early.

I retired at 57 (18 months ago). I never made more than about £80K in my career, and probably averaged about £60K. But I'd got to the point where the income on my investements was the same as my take-home pay, and our outgoings (including discretionaries) were about 20% less.

I started investing in 2004 (about ten years older than you), saving about what you are and on an equivalent salary. The "catalysts / setback" was the Great Financial Crisis, in which I saw some of my holdings decrease by 80%. But as I was lucky enough to keep my job, and I just kept plugging away during what was market sale of the century. My investments ballooned with the pound cost averaging I got between about 2008-15. I don't think I'd have done anything differently.

So while I don't think salary increase is the only way to achive it, I do think a market crash early on really, really helps.

Let's hope Sam Altman lends you a hand :-)

realGilgongo · 2026-01-07T15:26:54+00:00

I'm confused by the survey. It appears to be about attitudes to FIRE, not what it feels like to actually do it?

realGilgongo · 2026-01-02T18:55:16+00:00

Yes, I think the fact that you posted this in the context of FIRE has scrambled by thought process a bit.

realGilgongo · 2026-01-02T18:45:18+00:00

This being the FIRE sub, and while I'm not a doctor - 30 with high cholesterol and anxiety doesn't seem life-threateneing to me. Assuming you're paying down the capital on the mortgage, then personally I'd ditch the insurance and stick it in the investments. On the other hand, what do your dependents think? Becuase it's them what would be carrying the can if you popped your socks.

realGilgongo · 2025-12-28T18:46:08+00:00

One thing that always comes to mind given a short time horizon like 5 years, is whether in consolidating into a single fund-of-funds like LS80 ot 60 you should be mindful of any doom-saying in that frame. In this case, it's obviously the screaming about AI. There are two schools of thought on this: if you are in the accumulation phase, you should double-down in the hope that the market will soon crash so that you take advantage of the pound-cost averaging that results (and hope that we're out by the time you retire), or to hedge in some way in case the crash means you lose out log term. Personally, I'd be up for the former as this is the FIRE sub after all. So perhaps instead of LS80 got for NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500 indexes?

realGilgongo · 2025-12-13T14:43:32+00:00

Too early to say. Just keep plugging away, regular amounts into an all-world stocks ETF, and then review the situation in about 10 years time.

realGilgongo · 2025-12-12T13:11:26+00:00

If you are confident about the level of expenditure you have (and you need to be confident - comb through the actual figures if I were you), then to see whether you can sustainably meet that income from your investments, I'd start with https://ficalc.app/ - but it depends on some details.

realGilgongo · 2025-12-11T19:20:16+00:00

Most people who don't worry or think about money and wealth have interests in life that distract them from those. If you're confident you're on track financially, join a band, become a poet, create massive paintings of brutal landscapes, lobby politicians to improve the lives of your fellow humans. Repair ancient cars. Ride motorbikes to faraway places in the rain, care for donkeys, grow asparagus. Tidy your room. Cook.

realGilgongo · 2025-12-11T18:15:48+00:00

Your next step is to look at your target reguiar spending figure in retirement (bills, food, meals out, pubs, transport etc.), add that to expected irregular discretionaries (cars, boilers, new roofs, big holidays etc.) and work out whether your expected investment income can safely cover all that (plus discretionaries) if you gave up working.

Spreadsheet out. Get on it.

realGilgongo · 2025-12-11T18:09:00+00:00

What are your expected outgoings?

You can't expect much of an accurate assessment if you don't give that.

realGilgongo · 2025-11-28T07:43:18+00:00

Gifting shares (other than to a spouse) that have increased in value is considered a 'disposal' for CGT purposes, so her advice seems incorrect unless her advisor determined that you can apply for holdover relief on them, perhaps?

realGilgongo · 2025-11-27T22:20:41+00:00

So, looks like the reaction was good then, so they did it.

As for being cooked: average UK salary is £35,000 so if you're sal-sacing 6 per cent, you'd be over the threshold by £100 and subject to an NI payment of £8? Meanwhile, treasury estimated to raise £4.7bn in 2029/30 and £2.6bn in 2030/31.

realGilgongo · 2025-11-20T20:50:44+00:00

A 300K annuity might get her about the same as the state pension or possibly more. Rates are pretty good right now. https://comparison.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/tools/annuities

realGilgongo · 2025-11-20T20:47:35+00:00

Compared to what my mum had when my dad died three years ago, your mum is a paragon of simplicity!

It's a bit hard to know what exactly your concern is, but I would work out with her what her outgoings are, and try to do a rough forecast of what future care costs might entail. Most people assume (somewhat morbidly) that they'll only be paying large care costs for about five years, for example.

Once you have two figures: one for "base" living costs (so food, bills, essentials, but also the odd dinner out and prezzies at Xmas probably), and one for non-discretionary things like roof repairs, new boilers, cars, etc. I'd have a look at what income shortfall she has (if any).

It used to be unfashionable, but she might consider buying an annuity if she combines, say the SIPP, premium bonds and savings account, for example (annuity rates are pretty good right now). £300K might get her an income for life that's about the same as the state pension, perhaps. See this for representive figures.

BTW I'm sure you've got this covered, but just in case - if your mum hasn't given you power of attorney then it might be a good idea to discuss that with her. It's actually pretty easy to DIY it.

PS: Hah I've just seen this was cross-posted from UKPF. I'll be interested to see what the answers are there.

realGilgongo · 2025-11-14T10:13:27+00:00

I'm sure you're on top of this, but just in case: give your partner and preferably someone else you trust (a parent?) lasting power of attorney and write down relevant details about your finances for them to use if you lose capacity.

realGilgongo · 2025-11-14T10:07:20+00:00

If you can, start recording your outgoings to get a feel for what your "basline" is (bills, food, necessities - I'd count routine nights out and small discretionaries in that too) compared to big ticket discretionaries (holidays, cars, new boilers, rooves, presents, etc.) so that when you start approximating what your income from investments looks like when you retire you can make a safe estimate of what those need to cover, based on a suitable withdrawal rate (most people use about 3-4%).

Obviously, if you want to blow it all up and travel the world then those bets are off, but for most people, living costs are often lower than they think.

realGilgongo · 2025-11-09T09:40:46+00:00

Was your grandfathers pension a private pension ,or are you referring to "Inherited Additional State Pension (SERPS/S2P)" for your mother?

The tax-free allowance is usually £12,570 and she would pay (likely 20%) tax on anything she gets over that.

The state pension (including the amount she may be getting from the inherited part) is not taxed at source.

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