A couple of pages back I talked about the option of taking a package and contracting to get to where I needed to be financially. Since then I managed to negotiate a 6 month extension which bumps my payoff into the next tax year which is a massive bonus. Anyway, all looking good and senior management buy-in to my extension proposal as its a win-win situation. Then HR step in with ‘computer says no, you go now or stay and carry on as normal’. In the end I agreed to stay but was gutted for a couple of days last week.

Well the SIPP companies I was dealing with would only accept a transfer is there was a positive recommendation to transfer and they were explicitly named in the recommendation, which was pretty impressive IMO as it shows a real duty of care even if its based on not being sued down the line.

It surprised me that AJ Bell would accept transfers against an IFA’s advice. Even more surprising was the person at AJ Bell I spoke with put me onto the IFA I used.

I was quoted a flat fee of £4k for a transfer of £230k. Chances are they will say don’t transfer, but there are SIPP providers such as AJ Bell who will take a transfer even if the IFA says don’t transfer.

Thanks guys, good advice.

Another vote for T&G and I particularly like the wide hole for refilling. Anyone still using the ones where you undo the nut then attempt to navigate the peppercorns into the grinder without them bouncing off the central pole and onto the floor?

I retire at 60 skint.

No quite what you wrote on page 1 ;-)

We will have a much lower retirement income than people say we should – around 30% of current salaries. However we are prepared to cut our cloth accordingly. We do not get state pensions until 67

Seriously though tj, best of luck when you do retire.

For financial reasons my plan is to work until the end of 2022 but I’ve just been offered a deal that sees me go now, with a payoff that would be the equivalent of being paid until the end of 2021. In normal times I would risk taking the money and picking up some IT contract work, but the triple whammy of Covid/Brexit/IR35 means that option is high risk. Best case scenario is I pick up contract work which means I can retire say, at the end of 2021 having met my financial plan. Worst case scenario is I don’t pick up any contract work and fall short on my financial plan. Any suggestions?

Off to Barmouth on Saturday for a week so thanks for starting this thread lunge. Salt Marsh kitchen looks great.

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Penguin from the outlet store at Cheshire Oaks has served me well. Good quality and always offers on.

That is just ridiculous for something that just sits there

Or you can sell them on for about 70% of purchase price and move on to the next model. I’ve found building Lego to be a good stress buster over the last few months.

Happened to be watching the Grand Tour the other day and they did a 287 mile shortened version From the program the A838/9 looked quite spectacular but that may have been the editing. Is this route any good?

Good info on this thread. It got me thinking and I moved my Ruark MR1 MK1 from the kitchen onto my desk this morning and connect via Bluetooth to the laptop and desktop. The main thing I noticed is the sound changes massively depending on whether I’m typing or reclining back in the chair, with the typing position sounding quite harsh but when reclining the sound is a lot warmer.

Anyway, the problem I’ve got now is what to put in the kitchen? I’m thinking either The MK2 Ruark’s or a pair of Sonos Ones in a stereo pair. The Ruark’s go on the window so have quite a narrow gap between them and because of the power outlets I have the left and right the wrong way, but I don’t think that makes a significant difference. The Ruark MK1’s were also a bit of a pain connecting to Bluetooth but it looks like the MK2 are much better in this area. The Sonos would be about 10 feet apart so in theory should fill the room better. Any advice?

Thanks for the link footflaps, I should be OK. I’m home based anyway and it will only be for 4-5 weeks but I need to get approval from management/HR. Staying with friends who have a self contained underbuild so it will be very discrete.

Sam Warburton and AWJ. And from golf Tommy Fleetwood.

I’m currently looking at decamping to Spain for the whole of October as part of my WFH, especially now Mrs S is retired. Obviously it depends on travel restrictions but I reckon I could line up a pretty cheap 1 month rental for a change of scenery and weather.

I liked Pauls Merton’s question on HIGNFY. ” How many of those books have you read (pause) or colourded in?”

Ah yes Scramble. I remember playing that in Corfu in 1983 with a BA pilot who was absolutely rubbish at it and continually crashed within about 10 seconds. I seem to remember it got quite tricky when the scrolling landscape started to come down from the top of the screen as well as the bottom.

Space Invaders. Galaxian which was similar but the bombers peeled off and dive bombed your position. Missile Command which used a trackball to position your missiles. And of course Donkey Kong.

As long as Bob and Doug are OK I don’t mind if the stage 1 landing was a con.

glass, bottle. bottle, glass ;-).

That Stage 1 landing was impressive.

They lost the signal on the feed I was watching. Did you actually see it land?

None. As long as you are happy with the difference in price between your flat and the new house.

t is as simple as that most online games are around 96% RTP, so for each £1 wagered, you expect £0.96 back.

quite a small margin, but when you apply the law of large numbers it becomes very profitable for the online casino. The variance in some of the online slots is huge so on some you get smallish wins frequently and others long losing streaks with the odd bigish win.

I’ve got quite a flat top tube on one bike so the standard mount fits nicely on that and doesn’t budge.

We’re on to page two and the biggest villains of all, the UCI, are yet to get a mention.

He’s a lying shit that doped his entire career.

Not quite true. The US riders didn’t realise the extent to which doping was going on in Europe and Lance got so fed up of being being beaten by dopers he decided he was going to do it, and do it better than everyone else. No sympathy for him whatsoever.

I still think there is no substitute for face to face client meetings unless it’s a fairly transactional service

That’s assuming clients will still want you on site in the future. I can see suppliers being banned from attending customer sites for quite some time to come.

If you are thinking about being a Sparky what about specialising in installing EV charging points? I’m not sure if the market has already been cornered but there will still be growing demand in the future.

A thread about a pending public sector pay freeze gets turned into the usual “NHS pensions are not funded” bullshit.

Well you can blame TJ for picking that scab. Again.

However, it does grate that we keep having all these fantastic benefits and conditions used against us by people who for some reason aren’t prepared to come and enjoy it for themselves.

I’m not seeing that feeling in this thread, quite the opposite.

Don’t misunderstand me I in no way begrudge the public sector its pension but I do suspect that those who be in receipt of it significantly underestimate its true value.

Edit:timing was never my strength

The main road through Delamere Forest has been marked up for patching and is numbered from 1-56 over a 2 mile stretch. I rode it last week and they have missed about another 50 areas. How can the council justify patching when its crying out to be resurfaced?

Reminds me of spending time in my grandad’s shed when I was a young kid and he used to tinker with all sorts of stuff, but the skill level of the people in the program and the care they take restoring stuff is incredible.

I watched it on Breakfast this morning then they cut back to Naga who called him out for being racist a few months ago which got her into a bit of bother. She had a brilliant look of half bemusement/half disdain on her face and didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds.

Sheffield Steel – Joe Cocker. Not heard from him in a while.

We’re incredibly privileged to be able to carry on cycling when pretty much every other sporting activity has been closed down. Cyclists need to remember that privilege brings responsibility and from what I’ve seen around the Cheshire lanes 99% of them are acting responsibly.

Can I have that in pictures? Preferably simple ones.

Pictures

This guy has put together a good graphical summary of how the major European countries are tracking against Italy in a few slides, and the UK is uncannily close to Italy when you baseline against day 1. Deaths in Spain are now growing at a faster rate than Italy when aligned on the day of 1st case.

Tesco are moving some staff doing back office roles to stacking shelves in stores. I’m pretty impressed with how the big retailers are reacting given the muppetry of their customers.

Regarding the mortality rates in different countries I saw a stat that the median age of positive cases in Germany was 45 and in Italy it was 64.

As for the claim that there are ‘only’ c500 cases in the US – bullshittery of the highest order.

This twitter thread gives a shocking insight into the problem the US are getting themselves into.

#NoTestNoTell is also worth a browse