Never been fitted for a set, although that might be a good idea as I am 6ft 3. My accountant seems to think that as I am only buying them because of work then they can be a legitimate business expense.

Budget is ideally  £500 or less as they really will be occasional use. From what I remember a leisurely game of golf is essentially a whole day out and I would far rather ride my bike. Sadly our new corporate clients don’t see eye to eye with me on that one.

Those Caley ones look nice, but I guess a trip to the local golf course and a chat with the Pro in the shop might be in order.

We are members, they can be a bit of the stuffed shirt brigade sometimes. If you arrive at 12.50 you will be sent away because arrivals are strictly 1pm or later and you have to align your rig with the peg to keep the distance exactly right for the firebreak.

But if you can get beyond that then all of the sites we have stayed on have had really helpful wardens (notwithstanding the above), clean and well maintained facilities and no late night noise/ screaming kids etc.

They can be a bit pricey though.

Just to reiterate what has already been said, you can only make decisions for her when she lacks capacity to make the decision  for herself. Whilst she has capacity  you can only act on her directions.

One of the main five principles  of the Mental capacity act is that someone shpuld not be treated as not having capacity just because they make an unwise decision.

Sorry that doesn’t help.

@martinhutch If there is a spouse (or someone over 60 or under 16) living in the property they can’t put a charge on it it has to be disregarded.

Hi,

If you are in England the current rules say that if you have over £23,250 in assessable assets you will be liable to pay the full costs of your care. If you have below £14,500 then the local authority will need to pay for the whole of the cost of care. Between those two figures is a sliding scale where the local authority pay more as you pay less.

Obviously the key to this is assessable assets. If you mum and step dad own their property jointly and he is continuing to live there the value of the property will be disregarded for the purposes of a financial assessment (he needs somewhere to live).

For the Capital assessment. Her sole accounts will be taken into account – that is Bank Accounts, Building Societies, ISAs, stocks and shares, national savings, premium bonds etc. The only capital that is sheltered from the assessment is money held in Insurance Based Investment bonds.

Any joint accounts are treated as 50/50 so half of the balance will count towards an assessment.

They cannot assess any assets held in your stepfather’s sole name, unless they have been placed in his name deliberately to avoid care costs.

The financial assessment will also take into account income. Essentially all income will be used towards the costs of care with a £28.50 per week rebate to allow the person in receipt of care ‘pocket money’ for newspapers, hairdressing etc.

It is essential that you (they) take advice at this point as rewriting Wills and getting Lasting Powers of Attorney in place at this stage can save thousands of pounds in future care costs and a huge amount of hassle.

Happy to help if I can, jus DM me.

Rules in Wales, NI, and Scotland are different.

Hope that Helps
Nick.

I finally got my Brennan B3 and have been digitising all of my old CD’s – played Mayhem by Imelda May at the weekend, I forgot I even owned it, it was great.

and Yes I know I could have streamed it, but – sound quality and it would never have crossed my mind to say Alexa play Imelda May.

Another vote for Vanguard, I also have one with Moneybox.

The rules say revoke it and do a new one. You shouldn’t try and amend it.

If you use it and nobody notices then all well and good, but it would be best practise to do a new one.

This can be a minefield and like all minefields you need to tread carefully.

I do this sort of stuff for a living, but most of the experience that I use in my job comes from going through this with my Dad and my Father in law.

Where do you start the conversations? Do your own planning first, it will protect you and your family, and it will give you real insight that you can go to your parents with. It is much easier to start the conversation with me and my wife have just done our estate planning and we found out these things that will be relevant to you mum and dad.

What about care? This one needs a bit of research, find out about the care homes close to you – the CQC has a good list https://www.cqc.org.uk/care-services/find-care-home which tells you how they are rated. Then visit the good ones and find one that you feel comfortable with and you think your parents will be comfortable with. Once you have done this book them in for a week (the care home will call it respite care) you can dress it up as a holiday, rest, whatever will work for your parents. Once they have experienced living in a care home, even for a short while, it will be totally demystified. You will be amazed how many people love the experience and it accelerates their desire to move in.
If they don’t need that level of care then the assisted living space can be a bit of a nightmare. Be very wary of buying into a McCarthy and Stone type place. They are notoriously difficult to resell after death and continue to accumulate service charges until the sale we have one that has been on the market for over 5 years and is accumulating service charges at over £6k per year. Rental is definitely the best option in this space.

Essentials – Lasting Power of Attorney and an up to date Will that protects each spouses assets in the event that one dies and the other needs care. This will at least leave some inheritance for the family (I know the OP says you are not overly worried about that). Also get pre paid funeral plans, either from the Co-op or Dignity or someone who is reputable. It is better to pay for the funeral from pre care costs rather than try and scrape the money together after care has diminished the available pot.

Finally, take professional advice before accepting any care solutions that are presented by the Local Authority, they are normally driven by cost. Make sure that you are claiming Attendance Allowance for both parents, it is not means tested and is designed to help with day to day needs.

Hope that helps. If you need anything more you can PM me and I will help if I can.

Regards
Nick.

Croatia and Montenegro fits the bill, except for the December temps. Some great riding over there.

I offered all of my staff a four day week as a trial back in June of 2021. The deal was Monday to Thursday 8.30 to 5.30 instead of Monday to Friday 9 to 5. The trial was to run until Xmas that year with a review in January 2022. Money stayed the same (effectively a 9% pay rise if you work it out hourly).

I gave the staff the choice of keeping the 4 day week with longer hours or going back to 5 days a week unsurprisingly everyone chose 4 days – who wouldn’t want an extra 48 days a year off. So I am sitting here in a deserted office with no phones ringing catching up on stuff. I don’t see us ever reverting to 5 days.

From my perspective as the business owner. We are more efficient, the staff are more loyal to the company even our clients think its great. Personally, I always used to use Sundays as my own catch up day where I could clear my work backlog undisturbed. Now I get to do it on a friday and ride my bike on a Sunday so big win all round.

More people should be brave enough to do it.

Rasin & Biscuit Yorkie for me.

Back in the day it was Nutty Bars, handfulls of peanuts stuck to gooey caramel. If they hadn’t been discontinued they would of been banned by now.

Watched it and enjoyed it. You really have to feel for him in his dealings with the council. There is a real feel of ‘well if it’s Clarkson we will reject it’ without any thought for the reality of the situation and the benefits that his schemes could bring.
Having been on the wrong end of similar decisions from a different council because an influential councillor didn’t like me or my family, regardless of the harm that rejection would cause to the community at large. I can tell you that the council meeting that was filmed was very true to life.
Local politics is full of NIMBYs and small grey men (and some women) on power trips.

Up a bit then down a bit missed the 5 week target by 1KG but not disheartened. Next week has me away for three days of hotel breakfasts, and little chance for lunch so the fasting thing is going to be hard.

Fingers crossed for next friday.

You are most likely an unincorporated association and there are lots of interpretations as to what that may mean. What does the Club’s constitution say (if you have one) about surpluses? That will answer many of the questions. The law might treat the officials of the club (committee members) as constructive trustees holding the funds on behalf of the members or it might decide that you are a body corporate and you could be liable to corporation tax on profits as mentioned above.

The one thing that you do need is an accountant to help you out.

The randomness of it all. On Sunday I had two halves (a sign of age in itself) of lager with a pizza at dinner time. Woke up yesterday with a proper hangover, felt really sluggish all day. I went to a committee meeting last night in the local pub had four pints woke up this morning, no effects at all and felt ready to take on the world.

No rhyme nor reason to it.

1.3kg this week, still sticking to the fasting. Seems sustainable hopefully.

I like the R2 line up with the exception of Jeremy Vine – Ken will leave big boots to fill.

Jo Whiley for me would be the best choice, she is good in the evenings. But don’t they have a habit of bringing in ex Radio 1 DJs so it could be Nick Grimshaw.

2.7kg for me, first week, but I suspect its maybe fluid loss. I am doing the 16//8 fasting method. Seems to be working and most importantly easy to stick to. Time will tell.

@t3ap0t It might do. It depends if you had an anticipation of marriage clause inserted into the will when you wrote it. S18 Wills act 1837 says that a Will is revoked by a subsequent marriage unless there is a clause anticipating the marriage.
It would typically say something like –
‘Contemplation of Marriage
I expect to marry my partner Miss XXX of 123 The Street, Anytown, AA1 1AA, and want this Will to stay in force after our marriage’

If that or something along those lines is in it then you are OK, if not you need to redo the Wills.

This stuff is right in my wheelhouse. Full disclosure I own Will & Probate Services http://www.will-probate.co.uk

As far as writing a Will goes, you can do you own if your affairs are very simple. In the OP’s situation the biggest risk is the sideways disinheritance thing – he dies, spouse remarries (which would revoke her Will (S18 Wills Act 1837)) she the dies and the new spouse (wicked step father/ step mother) cops the lot. Lot’s of people see this as a real risk and drawing up a professional Will can avoid this.

The probate registry do require the original Will in order to grant probate, there are very few situations where a copy of a Will can be admitted to probate. The starting presumption when trying to prove a copy of a Will is the presumption of revocation by destruction – i.e. that the person who wrote the Will decided that it was no longer appropriate and destroyed it. Anyone putting forward a copy will have to prove to the satisfaction of the courts that this was not the case. We all know how hard it is to prove a negative, especially when the only person who knew the real answer is dead.

Family squabbles and disputes are regular, but that said claims that progress to court are mercifully rare. This is because the grounds to challenge a Will and the people who can challenge are laid down in law and are surprisingly limited. Claims that a Will is invalid are notoriously hard to prove. It is also crucifyingly expensive to get the initial claim in front of a judge for a preliminary hearing and if you go to a full trial it is really easy to spend more than the estate value in legal fees to arrive at a judgement.

Most claims and disputes are families airing old grudges, or a kite flying exercise by someone trying to extract a settlement from the named beneficiaries. As such most are settled by a few solicitors letters and in some cases mediation.

If any one wants to chat through any specific questions I am always happy to help just drop me a message. I have been lucky enough to help a few members in the past.

Just added myself, hope that’s OK. Need some motivation and a little bit of accountability.

They should be pretty much instant once keyed in as long as they are scheduled for immediate payment. You can schedule them up to 45 days in advance.

Once sent they might be flagged for a random security check, that’s why they say they can take up to 2 working days to appear in your account.

23% plus VAT of the estate administration is very high I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole – they are Heir Hunters or probate genealogy companies as they prefer to be know. They insert themselves into an estate administration where they can when there is no obvious family to do the administration. They have no rights to do this unless and until they convince a relative entitled to administer the estate to sign up.

If you are entitled to administer the estate and establishing that can be complex then you can apply for probate yourselves, appoint someone to work on your behalf – preferably someone who will work for a fixed fee (send me a DM for a cost), or and I can’t stress this enough they are very expensive sign up with the Heir Hunter company.

Essentially if there is no will, and it sounds like the council may have established that there isn’t then the statutory order for entitlement to a grant is as follows Surviving Spouse, Child of the Deceased, Parent of the Deceased, Sibling of the deceased, Niece or Nephew of the deceased. Once you reach a category that has surviving relatives anyone in that category has the right to administer the estate.

Obviously if you were not close it may end up being difficult to track down any assets and importantly any liabilities, although the council may well have details. If there is not enough money in the estate to pay any debts that can be problematic if you haven’t taken the right steps.

If it were me I wouldn’t take it on myself as I would be wary of taking on personal liability. But equally I wouldn’t be signing up with these guys either, shop around you will get a better deal.

As a final point, the heir hunters are likely to have done some background research, so they will know what the estate is likely to be worth and will have priced it accordingly. Obviously they won’t share it with you unless you sign up with them, so it is unlikely to be a fortune but will be worth their while.

Hope that helps.

Nick.

The basis of valuation of personal chattels within an estate is what a Willing Buyer would pay to a Willing Seller on the day of death. Quite often this is not a lot.

HMRC Guidance is here https://www.gov.uk/valuing-estate-of-someone-who-died/estimate-estate-value

It says (amongst other things) For items such as jewellery, paintings or other household goods, work out how much you would have got if you’d sold them on the open market. You can use online marketplaces to help work out their value.

So eBay is OK as long as you have evidence of past auctions. Even STW classified could work.

My experience is that Charities are realistic about chattels. They realise that it often costs more to value and dispose of things than they are worth. We have seen frequent examples of people using local auction houses to clear stuff and ending up with the estate owing the Auction house money due to valuation, transport and sale costs (they charge for them all and offset against the sale proceeds).

Tread carefully if you go down that route.

I was pretty fit before the op, not height of summer fit but in a good place. Nice to read the encouraging comments. It’s just at 58 going backwards makes it look like a long steep climb back to full fitness.

If they were joint beneficial tenants then the surviving joint owner on the deeds inherits the property by survivorship. If they were tenants in common then the default is 50/50 unless it can be shown that the ownership was different this would normally be by way of a trust deed.

Your friend will need legal advice to sort this out. I am a Probate lawyer and civil and commercial mediator so have experience in this area. Happy to have an initial conversation with your friend and point them in the right direction.

Drop me a PM if it will help.

So I think I get the NAS concept (took a while) but I am in the dark on what software I need to get from the CD to the NAS via my computer. It used to be I tunes, but that is dead now.

I am sorry but Parenting is like Candy Crush, there is always another level.

Setting Sons – The Jam.

@Cougar – I think what she is trying to avoid is them going out and buying a new TV, I-pad, Laptop etc. Something that will be useless, out of date in a couple of years. Maybe I phrased it wrong in my original post.

Every morning the girls in the office walk in and inevitably someone says ‘Alexa play upbeat pop’. It kind of just works, pretty inoffensive and nobody ever challenges it.

On the 1st of December someone will walk in and say Alexa play Christmas Tunes and that will be it for the month – they have already tried it but I have done my best Grinch impression.

Just to be clear, I share the PITA feelings, but her heart is in the right place and she has done a huge amount of family research to plot her family tree and one of her regrets is that she has nothing from her parents and grandparents generations.

I have researched a bit and son 2 could get three gold sovereigns from our local auction house. Son 1 is on the look out for the right vintage watch, again from auction rather than retail. I am aware of the potential issues with buying at auction, but my wife runs a home clearance company so we are comfortable with the risks. We are also very aware that most stuff ends up worthless in the end.

As for the kitchen table, the eldest needs a house to put one in, and we bought the younger one just that as a housewarming present when he moved into his first home.

Still doing loads of searching and this popped up https://toptechreport.org/qinux-drone/ seems too good to be true. Has anyone got any experience of this or similar?

We use 3CX, it has the option for handsets, softphones with headsets or using your mobile through the App to make work calls. It was a PITA when we were on basic fibre as our upload speed was only 5 meg, now we are on full fibre it works really well.

A bit like your mobile contract you buy a bundle of minutes each month, it seems pretty cheap compared with our old phone system.

We get far better results from Facebook than we do from e-mail campaigns. But they have to be super focussed on a niche. We crate an event – live legal clinic for Islamic Wills, Young Mothers, Parents of disabled children. Invite loads of people from special interest groups. Do the clinic, answer their questions live and then share the recordings back to the special interest groups. We normally get between 5 & 10 people watching it live and average about 1500 views when the clinic gets shared to groups.
The trick is to play it straight, answer the questions and no selling. Not so much as a ‘I can help you with that’. Just some contact details at the end. Works every time.
E-mail only works for us with existing customers and prospects who have actively opted into something.

My local bike shop, build a good relationship with them and they will see you right.

We have a peloton bike, have had it for almost two years. It is excellent for maintaining basic fitness, but I prefer to go to ‘real life’ spin classes where you get to interact with people. So I tend to do a couple of in person classes a week and aspire to do a couple of peloton classes as well (although they often get dropped).

Peloton sub is £39 per month, but it includes some really good stretching/ Pilates/ yoga classes and some excellent meditation classes amongst many other options and we have five users on it as well. So reasonable VFM if you can get the bike at the right price.

Worked in a Bike shop when issue one came out, we used to stock it so I got my copy there. Subscribed when I left the bike shop, been around ever since.

I met him once, genuine eccentric genius. He was right about so many things and was a visionary when it came to two wheeled transport.

A sad day RIP.