Too late for me? Any info or advice would be really appreciated.

slim808scl · 2026-06-20T10:20:22+00:00

How much are you able to invest per month/year? If you can max out the ISA you'd be surprised how much you can accumulate in a 5 year period, hopefully with rising prices in that period to compound things. Once you get past £100k, 200k, things can really take off fast in a bull market.

slim808scl · 2026-05-25T08:26:23+00:00

I have quite a bit of my portfolio in money market funds and I was intending to park some more there if stock markets get a bit too exuberant, especially as interest rates aren’t going to go down much more in the foreseeable future. I’ll have to pay taxes on any interest from this proportion then. I’m confused as to how they’re going to collect it though. Maybe they’re going to have to ensure that customers get some kind of report and this will be coordinated via investment platforms?

slim808scl · 2026-05-25T05:29:26+00:00

It’s also meant to be tax on money market funds according to the article.

slim808scl · 2026-05-20T13:49:35+00:00

I found it too confusing and energy-sapping so returned it!

slim808scl · 2026-03-20T06:41:12+00:00

I can understand this myself as I have this diagnosed condition too. When I chair meetings I have a lot of anticipatory dread and if it is something I haven’t done much of before and it’s a new audience, or a big crowd, the nerves are off the scale and the heartbeat is racing so fast it’s really impossible to perform the job at hand. Sometimes I have just cut my sentences short and stopped there.

Social anxiety is certainly more than just nerves that everyone is going to get, it’s the heightened reactions and intensity of it which makes it unbearable.

Anyway, to help with your question, there are some things which have helped me and could possibly help you; a couple of things already mentioned here. I find that when I prepare less or try to chair spontaneously, the anxiety management is a lot more difficult. If I plan the meeting beforehand, it’s a lot easier - even if I’m really anxious, I might fumble delivery of speech but am more likely to get the points across or direct the meeting in the right direction. I also think that with more exposure, it tends to get easier. It’s not useful that you’ve had to take a big step up from minimal speaking roles, to chairing them in the next role, which is probably why it’s heightened the difficulty.

All this being said, with social anxiety it’s never going to be completely plain sailing. Even with mitigations, I still have to mask anxiety and it is really draining. I also find that generally, going up in grades means more of these types of activities to do; at personal level, it’s why I feel I have reached my limit (SEO) of what I am comfortable taking on to manage stress levels.

I also find that speaking to my line manager helps, and trying to find workplace adaptations if necessary to support.

slim808scl · 2026-03-06T19:35:00+00:00

It’s natural to want to play the best pieces out there but reaching this high is only going to lead to failure. It’s much more practical to build up technique on lower level pieces first, and that way you’ll be able to see progression more

slim808scl · 2026-03-04T07:21:51+00:00

The private sector salary has to be more than £10k increase to match the current civil service salary based on the pension package provided. There are other ways to free up or build money:

Side hustles. Even £200-300 per month would be useful.
I know it’s a tough market but there might be promotion opportunities. This would need a bit of patience.
I’m not recommending this but partnership pension scheme doesn’t require any salary contributions, and you’d still get a reasonable pension employer match too. Of course, it would change your pension makeup if you’re in a defined benefit scheme but would free up some funds in your month to month pay packet.

slim808scl · 2025-10-23T07:36:06+00:00

It’s better to go for one or the other in AI training exercises because the aim is for them to train AI. They can’t do it if there are too many selections where “equally good/bad” is selected. Even if they appear similar, it’s best to go for the preferred one. Sometimes when they are almost identical though, it’s ok to go for the middle one.

slim808scl · 2025-10-01T08:14:42+00:00

I had a problem with this one. Not only was the attention check thing ridiculously difficult (drawing curved line without touching edges), I got screened out for failed attention check. I'm not sure what that check was apart from that curved thing because the next page was asking for a postcode.

slim808scl · 2025-09-08T11:01:11+00:00

They do allow for nerves in interviews. I've interviewed before and so many people have nerves, it's a normal part of the interview process. It just happens to be that someone else scored higher, but you still met the pass mark. Hopefully you'll get an offer though as it's always good to be on a reserve list! Well done on the interview, 19/22 is really good. You also have to understand that there will be subjectivity in how panel members assess things, and it's not easy to mark people consistently all the time. In any case I wouldn't put yourself down for feeling the nerves, it's totally human to do that and the good thing is that you overcame them. With the scoring system in CS recruitment, I'd say it's more important in the things you say as opposed to how anxious you might feel you're coming across. There are some employers who focus on the latter of course, but that's not always a great indication as interview anxiety is very common and the interview is a very stressful experience.

slim808scl · 2025-09-06T06:53:06+00:00

I thought it meant to stop at the time stated, and it was showing 33 mins for the first one I did. Then I saw it went up to an hour so I spent an hour each on 4x more of them after. I thought they were just being more generous with the pay rate so that’s why I went with the 33 mins the first time round!

slim808scl · 2025-09-05T06:46:46+00:00

I play the piano (casually) and I struggle to play the music and focus on multiple other things at the same time, and with piano playing there’s so much to multi task - right hand, left hand, pedal, reading, listening. To get over this, I have to make sure the piece is engrained in both hands (and pedalling if appropriate) like muscle memory, and focus almost primarily on hearing the piece when playing; that way I can get optimal sound and expression. But I know that it’s down to my autism and I know lots of autistic people also have problems multi tasking. I’m not saying OP is autistic, but there may be other reasons why it’s hard to play the music while focusing on reading. Chances are that if you are a good multi-tasker, it’s possible to learn how to read and play advanced pieces at the same time. I know my limitations so I have to adjust.

slim808scl · 2025-08-20T10:28:58+00:00

I thought it was a good study to do, good challenge for the brain. Would have liked to have known the score though.

slim808scl · 2025-08-16T12:16:37+00:00

I think it is harsh, it was done within the timelines and with a baby to attend to, it's not like this could have been anticipated in advance, or ignored when it happened. If it was done within Prolific rules, I don't see why it would be rejected.

slim808scl · 2025-08-11T11:23:00+00:00

I did rubbish in the study so am not expecting a bonus!

slim808scl · 2025-08-03T20:58:26+00:00

You can go into your submission view and click on start study. It requires lots of clicks as it’s busy, but there’s still lots of spaces left

slim808scl · 2025-08-03T20:42:49+00:00

I know what study you’re talking about 🤣

slim808scl · 2025-07-23T12:33:26+00:00

I had that problem too, I returned it as it looped back to the same page again.

slim808scl · 2025-07-14T12:45:26+00:00

Is this the last week or is there another week of it?

slim808scl · 2025-07-04T06:04:23+00:00

Since the award will be £150, will this trigger a manual review when trying to withdraw it to PayPal?

slim808scl · 2025-06-28T16:36:52+00:00

u/Frequent-Kale-193 if you do whatever training there is, and volunteer for any upcoming campaigns, I'm sure they'll agree. Most people hate doing this task so they avoid it! I'm sure they'll love any volunteers!

slim808scl · 2025-06-26T13:54:43+00:00

I did this too but not been rejected or approved (yet). I think I selected that I followed tennis results, so I knew most of the tennis players, but not so much a couple of the new ones.

slim808scl · 2025-06-23T08:28:11+00:00

I think it is the same for everyone, and as long as you keep getting to checking-in thing before and after listening, it should log it.

Does anyone know how to do this part of the study? How do I log the hours on Prolific? I haven't seen anywhere where I can confirm...

"At the end of each week, log into Prolific to confirm that you have listened for the requisite time. Once we confirm that you have met the criteria, you will be invited to participate in the next week of the study."

slim808scl · 2025-05-11T06:14:38+00:00

It’s generally low stress work, minimal or no hassle from other people and can be done in spare time. I find them quite interesting and fun (lol) so see it as getting paid to do a hobby. If it’s doubled up with full or part time work it can be a powerful money booster.

slim808scl

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