ReflexArch

So many variables. My income vs 50% of mortgage? (Though our income are 50/50) Household income vs 100% of mortgage? Gross income or net tax? What about gross or net pension contributions that come directly off my payslip each month? Do you just want mortgage/rent alone? Does the 30% rule of thumb include all household costs? What about council tax, property and contents insurance, G&E, water and internet etc? If you take the gross gross figure pre tax and pre everything (household income not just 1 person) and only include the mortgage it's like 10%. If you take net of everything post tax, pensions, council tax household bills etc its probably 25-30% depending on what you count as household bills.

You has me till the part about stripey tops.

Yeah asking for it and being offered it are very very different in my view. My parents have gifted me some money over the years for example (nothing crazy) but I'd never ask for money from them.

Condom

Haha fair. Hadn't seen that one before. Loving it though. Going to be long night down this rabbit hole.

Sounds like they are already inside. No point worrying about what happens next, it is inevitable now. Jokes aside I avoid mirrors and the dark in these situations.

The euro millions tomorrow is £111million. 100% I'd retire. One of the best things money can buy you after basic needs are met is: time. I would like to put something aside to long term help and build a small charity that helped my family, but I'd probably want to be a silent backer not hands on. Now the boring bits out the way.... personally I'd have more kids, buy a few properties around the UK but always just rent aboard. I'd want holiday homes where I could host my family and have some great experiences for our kids. Day to day hire cleaners, gardeners and cooks for basic stuff but then hire some coaches and chefs to teach me lots of new skills. Spend my time on what I want to do. I'd probably hire personal trainers, dietitians etc to help my family stay fit and healthy for as long as possible. I'd travel the world with my kids in as many school holidays as I could. Exploring and seeing the wonders of the world. Happily pay for a travel agent to sort it all and wouldn't be slumming it but wouldn't go crazy. Work our way through the standard lonely planet line up whilst young and build up to more advanced stuff as kids get older. I'd like to obviously give the kids the best start in life but need to ensure they don't become spoiled brats as well. Help out family as well and try to encourage/set a company to manage the bulk of the money to set up my family for many generations without the funds being wiped out in a few generations. So yeah, I'd retire.

Your kid has been shafted. Best bet is probably porridge but as others have said there is no cereal in an English Breakfast.

Second paragraph is spot on. My response to the boring question of what would you do if you won the lottery is always: have more kids.

All fine till you have kids is normally what I find with these.

Yeah that is doing it right. Good location and good price for train all things considered. Obviously an hour is a much longer commute but the cost of a season ticket my way is insane.

True but does depend on your season ticket costs. I'm 1hr to 1hr 10 mins from a big London terminal (depends which train you get) and the season ticket is almost £13k a year. That is 13k a year of take home pay that could be going into a bigger mortgage closer to London and also saving me travel time.

Yeah I opened mine and it was like I had opened a door to mount doom. Hell no.

What if they (or I) opened the loft hatch? Would the heat keep rising and lower the temp on the 1st floor?

Open windows at night and every single window and door open from c. 5am to 8:30am. All curtains closed and extra bedding/sheets over the curtain poles, tucked in around the edges. My sitting room right now is 23.9C. not too bad considering it hit +32C outside here yesterday.

The dress code specifically said shirt had to be tucked in. We are talking about 20 years ago now but not quite Victorian times haha

Depends on circumstances and home set up I think. I have a baby and a toddler and it's pretty worrying. NHS guidance for SIDS is "do not let your baby get too hot or too cold – make sure that your baby's room is between 16C to 20C" 20C is impossible.

Fuck nuts

Years ago I got sent home from work for wearing tailored shorts. Smart shirt tucked in, belt on, formal shoes. Basically summer office wear done properly. Meanwhile, others in the office were wearing light mid length dresses with thin straps and open-toed sandals without issue. I wasn’t happy about it and did push back, (not enough though in hindsight) but I still went home and changed as it was the 'long standing policy' for no shorts. The more I thought about it during the day, the more ridiculous it felt, so I made an official complaint about the double standard. The next day? Shorts were suddenly allowed for everyone, along with a much fairer summer dress code going forward.

House was listed for 425k.... They dropped the listing over time to £400k because they were being greedy/insane and didn't get any interest, I assume. We made a number of lower offers but £380k was accepted. Paid for the level 3 survey and then haggled on the price at little to £377.5k due to some issues. I've also offering over asking price on other property since but we were outbid.

Ah yeah ok that's a fair enough 😄

Do we call them malls now? I thought we said shopping centres but I can't see any comments on this so maybe just me.

😂

God help us...... hosting my wife's family. Parents, 3 siblings, their partners and their kids. Fuck. Two babies under 1 and two toddlers under 3. Rest of the kids all older. Honestly I'm going to be stressing about keeping the little ones cool. 33 degrees in the shade in the UK is too much imo.

Mainly work colleagues actually.

I remember being told 3x your monthly salary 😂. No thanks.

£ value is meaningless here given inflation since old purchases and wild variations in people's wealth. At the time I did just under 1x my take home monthly pay.

1.2%! That is an extra £400 a month in my hand here. Well played getting that. The people who got 10 year fixes in 2021 must feel like fucking millionaires right now.

Oof that is a big mortgage for 125k household income isn't it? Including council tax, insurances etc how much does your total housing cost you as a % of earnings? If I may what was the max mortgage when you took it out as I note you said 'left' so obviously paid some off.

Unless you are feeding a baby or maybe a young toddler (not sure where the cut off age is for that being acceptable actually) all food and drink should be from the venue. Growing up we often didn't get a pudding at restaurant but on the way home we'd pop into the shops and buy some fancy ice lollies or something. We were cheap but we never even considered buying something and taking it back to the restaurant.

Check BBC website and if, rarely, I watch the news I actually like BBC news. I see people on the left slamming it for being too right wing and people on the right slamming it for being too left wing. Probably means they are doing something right to try and be balanced. Never heard someone say that GBnews is too left wing for example 😅

What is up with all the outside London posts recently. The costs of living for the entire UK excluding London isn't the same. There are some wildly expensive parts of the UK still. In fact it might be worse because in London, on average you have much higher salaries, but that isn't always the same for the rest of the country. Lots of public sector roles for example have a London uplift then everywhere else is the same band even though cost of living can still being very different (Cambridge Vs Carlisle etc). Plus depends on city/town/village then area within that. Property in my south (but not London) town can change 100k + for the exact same house if a mile in the other direction but same town.

I'd hand it in to the nearest branch of that bank if one was in my town. If not I'd chop it up. I found someones travel money bag on a train once. The ones that you wear under your clothes. It had 4 passports in it, debit and credit cards, loads of cash in both pounds and euros, flight tickets for that day! I handed it in to the office at the station and went on my way to school buzzing with excitement, did the family make it?!?? Asked the man in the ticket office on my way back home and was told shortly after I handed it in the family rushed in looking for it and was very grateful. Guy said he thought they should have made it but every now and then when I'm reminded of that day I do think... Did they make that flight?

I got laughed at for eating a fish fingers sandwich and asked if I was 5. Solid lunch I thought 😂

Ooo didn't know that. Must admit I assumed it all went back into the nhs "pot"

Mate it's May. How is it £8 when you have basically done nothing? That gas looks very high to me. £5.66 and you only cooked a meal? That is either broken or you forgot to mention your heating is on and/or you and your partner have insanely long hot showers. Smart meter can get depressing in a cold dark winter I found. "Oh look, burning money again".

You were both entitled to use that space in my opinion. No idea of the offical policy though. Being very late stage of pregnancy is key here for me. Bet she was just annoyed you got the last one. If there were loads of those spaces and she still got one I bet the thought wouldn't have even crossed her mind. Being annoyed at a very late third trimester pregnant lady wanting to park closer is a bit of Karen move.

The insane cost. Especially if traveling peak times.

Depends on stage of your life. Kids moved and and mortgage free.... Why not.

What is comfortable? Dual income household? So many variables on location, family, mortgage etc etc. Plus choice of lifestyle. How many and what type of holidays we talking? 60k in Hull vs 60k in Chelsea is rather different. I think comfortable is if you can live a reasonable but not flashy life AND save well for long term goals/retirement. 50k living reasonably well but saving nothing long term and/or for retirement is so different vs earning 75k and putting 25k into pension. Short answer to try cover all major variables: Anything over 100k gross.

Wife is a teacher. When we got our mortgage and took out some income protection insurance my wife's insurance was insane vs mine. The broker told us that teaching was in fact one of the worst jobs: way higher than average no. of claims due to mental health, stress and burn out etc. It is actually in the high risk category of occupations even though it doesn't sound that "risky" on paper vs many jobs.

COVID lockdown wasn't covered on the wedding insurance I got. Didn't cover "acts of government" or something like that.

Depends who it is. I'd not doing it for a mate of a former PM who knighted his mates and business colleagues (bribes). If the knighted person showed me respect and treated me as an equal I'd be more inclined to give them their title on occasion during the conversation. That said on the rare occasion I have to attend court for work. I always address everyone throughout by the appropriate title without hesitation.

I don't really like any logo that is bigger than my thumb. I actively try and avoid logos when shopping. I am not a walking advert.

Actually had this work myself multiple times.

Do those same people who say don't invest in your personal pension also complain about the debt of the country and people being a burden of the state?

To be honest I don't know anyone who gives a flying f about american football so it almost never comes up. That said if it ever does come up it is certainly american football. Few mates played it back at uni and even they, the ones actually playing it, called it american football.

Someone chewing with their mouth open.

How different is this to someone having some music playing in the garden? Assuming not insanely loud music but still loud enough to hear. It's annoying but unless really loud and/or late in evening it is just one of those annoying things that happens isn't it?

Do what now? 😅