I have plenty of travelling planned for 3 years time when I retire. Shame about the 30 years of working in between mind you

Ditto.
If it hadn’t been for those pesky kids…

Incredible! He has some powers of recovery!

What I can’t recall off the top of my head is if there is any penalty for simply closing the HTB ISA account without buying a home.

Oh Yes!. Quite onerous penalties that may leave you mistrusting any further saving/investment schemes…

Check out the “high” interest current accounts on offer from the likes of Tesco, Nationwide, Lloyds, TSB, Santander , etc.

Tesco offer 3% interest, I think, on up to three thousand, and Santander offer 1.5% up to £20k.
The details for each are different but most allow you toi have an account each + a joint account .

What do you need to see underwater? 😛

How long has the cat been your sole little princess?

French keep all the good builds and pass all the Friday built cars to the UK?

Friday is RHD day!

How much extra was the insured option…?

A fortnight’s worth of residents parking vouchers with the tippers registration number and address of the bathroom he was fitting…

Do Knipex have anything suitable?

Gotogate is an alternative to skyscanner. Not sure how they compare on price/service though…

Wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. Rightly or wrongly I’ve alaways assumed it to be time consuming and the low margins not justifying the risk.

Put your own house on the market with the agent selling the house you want to buy. make it clear you are only selling to buy THIS house. The prospect of two commissions may get you some favourable treatment.

Fiat panda is tiny inside but has excellent all round visibility.
I’ve just spent a week ragging the tits off a vw up in Northern Portugal. I’m very impressed!
Slightly over your budget perhaps but skoda have beaten one to death with their ugly stick, so their version may appeal. Not massive inside but much bigger than the panda. A lot of fun to drive on smooth roads. Not a patch on the frogs when things get lumpy…

Do you tend to look where you’re going?

ETFs are a safer bet as they broaden your exposure across different markets.

As do conventional Funds or Trusts. I wouldn’t necessarily call ETFs safer though. Some are getting very complex…

Is there a disadvantage to two shares isas (other than two platform fees)?

Presumably one ISA this year and another after the 6th? Not really, unless you have to split an investment between the two…
iWeb don’t charge a platform fee, just a £25 joining fee. They do charge for tools like stop loss etc though, and slightly more for dividend reinvestment.
I’d open one of each, either side of the tax date. You can always transfer later…

If you can afford to loose the money then go for it.

Very true! You WILL lose money in the short term. Either you will learn from this or you won’t…
You will learn nothing by practising with a “fantasy” portfolio as you won’t find out your appetite for risk.

iWeb are OK. For dealing in shares they charge £5, HL charge £11,95 , I think, and if you trade regularly it adds up.
For funds, iWeb charge £5 dealing fee and no custody charge. HL charge nothing for dealing, but 0.45% custody charge. Do your own sums…
HL probably have a few more fund options than iWeb but it’s close.
Curiously, HL will only trade French or Italian stocks over the phone, and probably a few other nations’, but are happy to trade Scandinavian. iWeb won’t trade Scandinavian, but are happy with mainland Europe…

I use both

Why a LISA? I may be completely wrong, but cannot it only be used to purchase a first property or be cashed in at 65? If you’re using it to fund a house purchase then crack on, but if retirement is your aim then surely a SIPP would be the better bet, and leave your full ISA allowances intact.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/lifetime-ISAs

AllthePies suggested a Vanguard global tracker the other day. I’d go with that rather than Fundsmith.

Why a LISA? I may be completely wrong, but cannot it only be used to purchase a first property or be cashed in at 65? If you’re using it to fund a house purchase then crack on, but if retirement is your aim then surely a SIPP would be the better bet, and leave your full ISA allowances intact.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/lifetime-ISAs

Thanks everyone. Transferwise it is!
Just sent a sample transfer to check it out.
Getting 1.1725 on a tfr of £500. (actual rate 1.1767) so not too shabby at all, even on pocket change… The post office was offering 1.14, so I’ve saved four pints …

The Lord Nelson, round the back of the eye hospital….

Really, I’ve moved a few around and didn’t even notice the fees (as in they were in the noise).

Maybe not then. Looking at the fees they do seem substantially more costly than shifting ISAs, but I’ve only started contributing to SIPPs since I retired, and that’s only at the minimum statutory amount. For larger sums I suppose the fees would disappear in the noise….

Go and ask the same questions on http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=217

You’ll get some sensible advice.
Only wills that have been registered for probate will be on that list. Someone will have had to approach the solicitor to register the will.
It may be worth contacting all the solicitors in your area to see if they have one lodged, though I’m not sure if they’re obliged to tell you.
If the will has been properly witnessed then it may still stand.

Read this.
https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/if-the-person-didnt-leave-a-will

Go full barrell into stocks and shares. You have 15 years of ups and downs ahead. Some years you may lose money but most you will gain. An S&S Isa should comfortably outperform cash.
If you must have some cash savings you’ll probably find non Isa savings accounts pay a better rate than Isa savings accounts.

Child ISA (stocks and shares variant). Put all the ££ into Vanguard VWRL ETF.

+1.
In 15 years time it should do very nicely indeed!

And Red Leicester.
You can keep the rest…

might have read wrong but dont they charge a quarterly fee too?

T

For a SIPP it looks like they do, £22.50 per quarter up to £50k. It’s worth checking other providers’ charges too, not just the charges when you’re putting money in, but also when you’re taking money out. Moving SIPP accounts looks to be a pricey affair, whoever you’re with…

iWeb are good. They charge £25 to open an ISA and trading account and then nothing except £5 dealing charges. That is less than half of HL’s, and most other’s charges I’m not sure what they charge for a SIPP.
They have improved their website though it’s still not as good as HL’s, but do have all the dealing toys, stop loss, etc…
They are part of Halifax, so what could possibly go wrong..?

You should be able to open a SIPP within a week, and deposit some loot. There’s no need to decide what investments to buy yet, and I believe, but please check, you can top up this year’s allowance in the future should you find something down the back of the sofa.
I use AJ Bell Youinvest.
I haven’t a clue about pensions other than SIPPs.

(it’s a private use lease scheme so I pay an amount), and depressingly, it’s a Skoda superb.

Hold on. You’re paying, or contributing towards a car, either of the three, that you don’t want? How does that work? Why only these three cars?

Is that it? A choice of three very different cars from three different makers?

Get the Clio and rag the tits off it! More fun than the other two.

We had a problem with the neighbours’ gardener burning building rubbish. The builders would put their crap in the skip and the gardener would get it out and burn it: MDF, Ply, old gloss painted wood, polythene and polystyrene etc. You name it…
After a week of talking to the neighbours and their saying they’d sort it out, a call to Environmental Health (I think, as all departments were passing the buck) resulted in a site visit from an eager young man who took some samples of the ash and left a leaflet highlighting the possible penalties for burning building waste. No more bonfires…

Pancakes, fried in butter with sugar and lemon.
My daughter has them with some revolting french chocolate confection.

It’s only once a week so we pig out!

Briggs and Stratton engines are generally very reliable, but those “wire” handles look a bit flimsy.
Spares may be an issue if this is only available from Aldi…

With a gravel drive they’ll be able to hear you coming too…

What about the 4 bed bungalow on Culloden Rd that sold for £315k last year? It’s a bit nicer and has a garage, but was also worth a lot more than 260k.

That’s probably a better road. The worst house in the best street will always be a better investment than the best house in the worst road.
Sounds like the vendors have over improved the house, if removing what must be a double garage to squeeze in two beds and a bath is an improvement…

Meh…

HL aren’t a bad place to start at all, and I still hold shares with them. As said above, their research and trading tools are second to none.

Some of the cheap sub 10 gbp trade platforms may mark up trade prices to compensate for lack of fee income.

I can’t say I’ve noticed that with iweb, or Charles Stanley or AJB You invest.
I use ADVFN to check the real time prices of shares and recent trades.
Fund prices can be easily checked as they are only valued once a day.