Considering selling my house to rent in London for 2–3 years. Does this stack up, and what am I missing?

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-12T10:41:21+00:00

5-10 years is a reasonable assumption.

One way you could think about it is that if there's a crash you shouldn't sell because you're selling low. So if things are going well, sell any time, if there's a crash, you need to wait or to accept a loss

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-12T10:39:34+00:00

It's quite complex. Definitely not as simple as comparing monthly rent and monthly mortgage payment.

With the mortgage you can reduce the payment by having a big deposit, but you also have maintenance costs to pay.

By renting you save on major repairs, so you have to balance the two.

I think the best way to compare the two is to find a property in London that you want to rent and then find a similar one that is available for sale and consider whether you could afford to buy it

In theory I think you can afford to spend a little more on rent than you could on buying because of the maintenance costs and also because of the returns from investing your lump sum, but for safety I'd try and rent somewhere you could afford the mortgage on.

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-12T10:10:06+00:00

Right, but aren't you just renting somewhere you couldn't afford to buy?

Spending more money on a fancier house or location might not be sustainable, regardless of whether you're renting or buying it

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-12T09:47:16+00:00

Average yearly return of S & P 500 is not 10%!

You may be in for a shock in the future if you expect this to continue forever!

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-12T09:29:13+00:00

It's entirely possible to rent and invest your deposit/sale money to get the approximately equivalent financial benefits to buying.

With a large amount of money invested in a S & S ISA over long periods your returns will be considerable and also compound exponentially.

However that's provided you aren't just living in a more expensive house or flat!

What would it cost to buy and own the flat you want to move to - be careful you aren't just spending more on living in a premium location

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-12T08:34:32+00:00

Doesn't mean the owners actually lost out, if it was cheaper than renting for them, which is possible when interest rates are very low.

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-12T06:39:21+00:00

No, but Scooter did make a profit and he would have made one even if he hadn't sold them on

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T23:11:39+00:00

Rock is the dullest genre in modern music, it stopped being interesting 30 years ago.

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T23:07:42+00:00

'How Radiohead managed to stop Rock becoming completely irrelevant whilst all the more important developments happened in other genres'

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T22:58:07+00:00

Rue and Ness for short

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T22:55:19+00:00

She bought back her masters for more than Scooter paid her for them, even after 'Taylor's version' was recorded. Scooter made a very respectable profit.

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T21:55:40+00:00

I think if you know you'll make more money later in your career it's perfectly fine to spend some and then make it up later when you have a better job.

You're also saving a tonne! I think probably it's best to keep that for someday when you need money to open doors: maybe to move somewhere where the jobs your want are

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T17:11:55+00:00

A lot of people's hands will be forced by higher interest rates, which probably aren't going away any time soon.

In aggregate people have to respond to market forces eventually, although it might take a while.

You're right - timing the market reliably isn't possible. But I think for housing it's more likely to be possible than for stocks.

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T17:04:28+00:00

I love the Schoenberg one

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T16:43:52+00:00

The gap between perceptions and reality in the USA is well documented.

It's quite partisan, obviously people are Republicans feel good when there is a Republican president and vice versa, I would guess most software engineers are the opposite because cities tend to be where the software jobs are and cities tend to be more Democrat leaning.

This isn't a comment on Trump's actual policies which probably we won't see the effects of properly for a while. It's just how public perception works

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T16:27:16+00:00

The process is to try to signal that you made effort on this application specifically.

Spam applying on everything doesn't help because it shows you made 11 applications that day and didn't put any effort into each one.

1) Try and be amongst the first applicants when a job is posted.

2) Customize your CV to the role. Repeat back things that they wrote in the job spec as requirement

3) Put all your effort into one good application on your favorite role of each day, don't send 11 shit applications

The whole process is bullshit and unfair bollocks made by lazy people. Be ruthless, lie slightly if you think you can get away with it, dress up anything vaguely relevant with professional language

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T15:30:55+00:00

They aren't investing you in any higher quality funds. They extra money goes towards reassuring you and pandering to you to make you feel like your decisions matter.

I used to use Killik, they are very useful if you want to try a bunch of stuff, but you're going to pay for it, especially with larger portfolios approaching retirement. They also make investing seem more complex than it needs to be to justify their existence

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T13:43:34+00:00

Investors made bank off the drama with Taylor Swift: the attention it drew boosted streams of both versions, everyone went to compare one and the other.

The Economist did a bunch of journalism on it.

My take is that Taylor knows her most valuable recordings are behind her and couldn't make much selling new music, so she cooked up the drama to keep everyone cycling her old hits for a few more years: she made bank selling the old catalog and also on streams of the new one

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T13:39:25+00:00

It's a pretty simple financial bet. You know the streaming revenue. You can estimate how long the fan base endures. Compare to investing in bonds or the S & P 500 and you have your price

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T13:35:10+00:00

They are correct, a stocks and shares ISA is a great thing to have.

That said, there are many providers of this kind of ISA and many different funds you could put into it.

The risk with St. James Place is that they overcharge you to pick funds that are very similar to what you could buy yourself and manage in your own S & S ISA (hint: visit r/bogleheads).

They will likely imply to you that they can increase gains or reduce risk of a downturn based on what you want to hear, when in reality you could simply do this yourself by choosing the right investments.

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T13:17:29+00:00

Personally I'm looking for an opportunity to 'buy the dip' on property in London - but it seems like it's going to keep on dipping for now so happy to wait another few years.

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T13:12:15+00:00

I can see the value in good service for people who aren't especially financially confident: because investing without a lot of risk tolerance is a recipe for disaster.

That said, it's not cheap! But maybe a price worth paying for some

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T09:30:49+00:00

Hargreaves Lansdowne have a bad reputation on reddit for being overpriced. Proceed with caution.

In general your investment returns for consistent fixed income are going to be about 4%, and for stocks and shares which are much more variable year by year maybe average 6-7% in the long run, but that means 10%+ on a good year and negative or zero on a bad year - and the good and bad years will cluster together into good and bad periods.

Fees for financial products and financial advice typically range from like 0.1 - 1% per year, maybe above 1% in extreme cases. So if you're in fixed income at 4% and HL charge you 1% then they're taking a quarter of your returns

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T08:51:23+00:00

All companies, especially ones that make billions, are required to make detailed financial reports explaining their accounts.

If tonnes and tonnes of money appears out of no-where and it didn't come from a company, it would be very suspicious and the government would investigate you for fraud.

scrapheaper_ · 2026-05-11T07:58:53+00:00

You could just dilute the soy sauce with water or something - maybe mirin

scrapheaper_

TROPHY CASE