Search results

@benvi85 I haven’t been to Leeds in years but yeah that doesn’t surprise me - I guess they prioritise geographic coverage so they can claim the whole “99% coverage!” thing which sounds good, but it’s pretty frustrating to use in a busy city centre because often I’ve only got a tiny amount of...

@vicinity I find Three (and therefore Smarty) suck in big cities like London/Manchester/Birmingham, but work great almost everywhere else, with often surprisingly good coverage in the countryside My partner is on O2 and finds the opposite, hers works great in the city but is patchy in less...

@csanders0520 That would be worse than worst case unless you leave your heating on full blast (with no thermostats) in July For most people, you should be able to dig out your last year’s usage, and work out exactly what you’ll pay for a similar year, which should be pretty representative

@yeshuas_my_freedom For the love of god don't opt out without a LOT of consideration Civil Service might be a good bet if that's an option for you, but other than a handful of other DB schemes like that, there's little you're going to find better The 12.5% band is a little painful, but you're...

@yeshuas_my_freedom NHS represent (I assume, based on the weird 9.3% contribution rate)

@annakorp And that's before you consider your potential death in service benefits A lump sum of up to 2x your salary (reduced if the ongoing pension is paid) 3-9 months of your full pay if you have children An ongoing pension paying your widow/widower the equivalent of what your pension would...

@annakorp I don't have the calculations now, but that was roughly the figure I came up with when calculating my own NHS Defined Benefit scheme (which is broadly similar to the Civil Service scheme, as far as I understand it). Essentially I looked at a 40 year career and 30 years of retirement...

@annakorp My opinion is to go for F (S&S ISA) or perhaps G (LISA). It's the least optimal in terms of £-in-£-out, but it's by far the most flexible - you can access the money early for free (S&S ISA) or a small cost (~6%, LISA, in exchange for +20% if you don't take it early). I'm not entirely...

@amazingayla You might not say it But you just described it The market might cool a little from a rather crazy 2021, but fundamentally we simply aren't building enough houses for the number of people who want a house, so there is always going to be demand. And in any case, most of that...

@seekingchristiancommunity It's worth noting that this doesn't really apply to Defined Benefit schemes. I know that's not the case for OP, but I like to mention it in case someone with a DB scheme is reading this and confused at how far disconnected their pension is from it Eg at

@jane14 Like any rule of thumb/guideline, that kind of thing is based on a "typical" career trajectory, and an assumption that you have a baseline lifestyle/quality of life that will stay vaguely consistent through your life. The idea being that those pension savings levels will roughly (with...