Mortgage broker without a fee found me better deal than I was able to get direct

I’d not ride that on the front wheel down hill at 50mph, on the rear probs, for slower flatter stuff defo

Retirement is 12-13 years away for me @48…

I have planned well from 21 so I will be OK

But has anyone experience of drawing down a pension with PIE option…?  thoughts?

Wow sorry to hear this willard, I remember some of the great advice you gave me when I split up a few years ago.  Hope you get through it, as others have said, you need to fix you, build a life that is great, that someone can enhance, not that you need to rely on, then show up for them as the best version of you.

Its taken me about 3 years to do that!

I didnt move out until the sale of the house and purchase of my new house had completed, filed for divorce in Nov 21 and moved in Oct 22

My ex wife would have done almost everything in her power to hold up the sale of the house, her view was you want the marriage to end you leave.

As a result of this, and her drinking the environment became very toxic.

I ended up signing a consent order that gave her several 10’s of thousands of pounds more than me to get away from the situation and she moved into rented accommodation

I now have full time custody of my kids as after the divorce her approach to them was usually anger fuelled by alcohol.

Awful time, I think you put yourself on the back foot moving out, but the consequences of staying are just as bad, Hobson’s choice.

All that said, there is always light at the end of the tunnel

I have now finished renovating my new house, got my kids settled in a new routine and started a new relationship with someone awesome :-)

Can you take him up the oxo tower?

The custody thing is a bit of an aside 

I applied to the family court for sole custody in December and before the hearing she she granted it, also she pays me maintenance etc.

This event (unbelievably) came about as the kids reached back out to her for reconciliation, with a view to sharing custody. Kids are almost 15 twins for reference 

The kid filmed the incident, primarily because their mum was drunk and abusing them, so seen exactly what was said, the rest of it is an issue for the family court though

Sa Calobra is perfect.  All the Alpine climbs from the tour are good, but linking them together is the problem. Rocacorba near Girona is another one, not a race one but the pros use as a training ride.

Never ridden in the Pyrenees but would love to more than the alps due to the quieter roads

Close to home Dufton Pike FTW

Fun fact on non Tesla supercharging.

There are only a few sites in UK currently as stated above but the map for other European countries shows many more.

Well worth knowing if planning an EV trip to the Alps or similar as I intend next year

Actually, I found that the journey through France is possible without having to leave the motorway network to use Tesla and that provision, especially from TotalEnergies, Ionity and Fastned, is adequate to complete the journey.  Most are actually faster than Tesla and many are undercover

Has Intelligent Octopus with Solar and Storage been done yet.

Import rate is 7.5p

Export rate can move from SEG 4.1p to 15p on this tariff.

Depending on EV mileage and efficiency a net zero bill for home and ev is possible

I even discharge any remaining stationary into the grid before the cheap period.

Happy days!

Cav is obviously the GOAT, and has had a tough time in the interim years.  But he can be a massive c0ck sometimes.

Have someone on my team that came from a Startup.

You will be doing a bit of everything, not just your Job

Hours long

Pension poor

Getting product out quickly, good experience and getting Rich off the IPO are main drawers I guess.

I wouldnt do it in late 40s’

Plenty of the leading edge tech innovation will remain in the west, in the same way China was not able to refine the ICE.  All is not lost at all, we just need to play to our strengths.  All the best engineers want to, and will be paid to work for high end brands and Tesla ;-).  The driving experience will still be engineered in etc, its not all about battery tech and in car tech..

No, this is a different one :-D

I work for a big OEM on their EV programme.

Here are my hot takes without giving any industry secrets away

Far eastern makers will decimate GM, Ford, VW at the entry level.  In the same way Kodak, IBM etc etc..

High end may survive if it adapts quickly enough to full BEV, e.g. Porsche Taycan gets 400mile range 800v charging ASAP, rich people love brands

Battery swap will not be a thing – beta max

FUD, Oil Lobby etc will add 5 years to the transition

100% to that, ask to meet the day you match, dont invest 6 hours of your time either, do something that gives the option of an out, but potential for the date to continue..

And use Hinge.  Its many many more times as effective as bumble or tinder for getting a date Im finding.  I can find that as soon as I unpause my profile I can find another match that can be turned into a date within a day or two.

I have just been to lunch with an online date.  Perhaps avoid first dates on a Monday daytime would be part of my advice!

I dont know if it was the weather, the mindset I was in ‘cos of -its Monday but reality and expectations could not have been further apart!  Oversold on the photos and bio for sure :-D

Oh well back to Sq1 :-D

I got feedback from matches, some solicited some not!

Good advice MrOverhoot, I will use that, although some of them are learned quickly!

In two months I have only really learned how to perfect a bio and photos, it’s so much like a cv, get it right and you can have almost limitless amounts of interest. Then unfortunately it’s sorting the wheat from the chaff. And the rule fit/single/sane… seen a pretty face over and over.., wonder why!

Haha, provided me with a bit of a laugh this thread did.  I did the right thing and avoided a threesome, I mean any awkwardness, by letting one of them down

I wasnt a Hugh Grant film that was playing in my head TBH :-D

They were both talking about going to the same place on holiday on the same day, with a friend :-D

@Matt – sorry dont know how mention..

about 7 years, paid £9988 in January.  Assuming some energy price inflation.  Installer forecast 3900 kWh generation for the year and already at 2,700.

Wonder if Tesla will mind the Universal Supply Obligation, means they have to offer a Price Cap tariff to all including Prepayment customers..  I guess they want to ring-fence this to powerwall customers only?

Meanwhile: I have saved £660 in 6 months with my set up: 4.75kWp, 7,1kWh storage, MyEnergy Zappi, IPACE.  Done 10k miles, total cost of elec: £199 home, £151 public charging

Reckon the GC guys are rested after yesterday and Pogi will want to attack the last climbs.  Mike woods average power in the bunch yesterday 172w

GC day?  Jumbo with people in break, or Controlled all day for the bonus seconds near the end and a GC stage win.

Could.be.epic

I did 3 peaks CX on my Mason Definition https://masoncycles.cc/reviews/categories/definition-bikes/?taxon=categories%2Fdefinition-bikes.

I reckon if you can get 35mm tyres in, any road bike is a go anywhere bike

Anyone interested in industry developments, I think most OEMS will have V2G capability in 3 years time to meet this mandate https://driivz.com/blog/california-bill-bidirectional-charging/#:~:text=California%2C%20the%20EV%20adoption%20and,state%20after%20January%201%2C%202027.

Might kill the home solar and battery storage market though!

Recently had 4.8kWp Solar and 7.1kWh Storage. Lux hybrid inverter allows import and export settings. Paid £9.9K

On a dull feb day I am putting a couple of kWh in the battery at night on Octopus Go, so 15p, and the rest of the day is self sufficient. Generating 3.7kWh so far today has even topped up the battery

Very happy, I have only imported peak rate electricity 2 or 3 times in the last month

SOC by danjwilkinson[/url], on Flickr

ppv by danjwilkinson[/url], on Flickr

Yeah got Octopus Electroverse app which shows most charge points across Europe, and allows you to pay on many.

I moved some of mine into a SIPP. Have one DB, 2 DC and a SIPP now..!

Spectra Solar doing mine – Addingham

I am just about to get 4.75kw of solar and 7.1kwh of storage for £9,950

I drive an EV and my bill for the year on Octopus go is looking like £2,000

I forecast that this will come down under £500, helped by the ability to charge the batteries on Octopus go and therefore arbitrage daily use even in winter from £0.40/kwh to £0.12/kwh

Payback time should be around 6-7 years

Anyone else using radbot TRVs. I got some in the kids room, as I got divorced the rooms are only occupied half the week but the radbot learns occupancy. I’ve got my daily gas cost down to 5 or 6 quid, but using wood in the lounge in the evening.

Smart meters are pretty much essential if you:
Have an EV, so you can smart charge overnight
Have solar panels, so you can register export
Have a home battery, so you can charge or discharge overnight for energy price arbitrage.

The real time view of your consumption is nice, and so is the ability to get a daily reading, but their true function is enabling smarter home and smarter grids

Thanks, I will probably add another battery module to it. They are the Pylontech 2.4 units stacked

Hi

Just had a quote for 12 panels providing 4.75kWp of solar and 4.8kWh of DC side storage for £9,200. Think thats quite competitive?

I still have an old analogue meter which will run backwards in export, do I keep quiet or tell suppler ;-)

In terms of battery size, do you think I have got it right, my house consumption is approx 6-7kwh per day, should I go up a battery size to 7.2kWh for an extra £600?

I drive EV – high mileage and plan ASHP next year..

THoughts welcome

Have been made redundant twice and changed jobs 4 times since 2017, I was in the same company for 20 years before that. Easy come easy go for employer and employee these days… now after all that messing around I have as brilliant job in a totally different sector, something I never thought possible, especially as I approach 50!

There are still lots of jobs out there and when you see the one you want invest time in it, you want to sit in front of the interviewer as a better SME and with an action plan.

In practical terms the best investment I made was developing my presenting / interview skills.

Focus on the future, you can’t change what happened, have a vision and set yourself goals of how to get there

I never thought it would matter much, but s-works road shoes are a superb long lasting piece of kit

Up there with a gabba as must have road kit for me now