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Jaded Burnout
Jul 10, 2004


I'm happy I'm being paid in dollars right now.

Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Apr 14, 2020

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Sloth Life
Nov 15, 2014

Built for comfort and speed!
Fallen Rib
I'm happy I'm not fired or furloughed right now. Siblings not so lucky, some furloughed on basic wage where commission was BIG MONIES. Sure I'm in actual physical danger because call centre lol no working from home.

ed balls balls man
Apr 17, 2006
Always wishing my employer did a higher % pension match, but hey atleast i'm still working.

Doccykins
Feb 21, 2006
In case anyone with a LISA needs to release some cash from it, there is legislation on the way to reduce the withdrawal charge. Buried in the graun liveblog at the moment but should be proper guidance soon

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...f087d47c778779b

quote:

Lifetime Isas are effectively being unlocked temporarily for savers whose incomes have been hit by coronavirus. The rule changes will mean people can access their funds early without facing the usual hefty withdrawal penalty.

The Treasury will legislate for a temporary reduction in the Lisa withdrawal charge to 20% between 6 March 2020 and 5 April 2021.

This will generally mean account holders will only have to pay back any government bonus they have received, and they will not have to pay the additional withdrawal charge of 5%.

Sloth Life
Nov 15, 2014

Built for comfort and speed!
Fallen Rib
Savings still low about 700
but base rate drop plus bank drop has cut my mortgage rate in half. Still paying full amount I was used to so making progress. Currently around 28k
CC debt is coming down, still using it because I'm a dope but paying the item off quickly like I always should have done. Will be 1825ish after this payment.

fluppet
Feb 10, 2009
Is there any reason i shouldn't swap to using starling as my only current account?

Jaded Burnout
Jul 10, 2004


fluppet posted:

Is there any reason i shouldn't swap to using starling as my only current account?

I don't know Starling but my main concern with new banks is FSCS protection. It looks like Starling has top-level FSCS (as opposed to being ringfenced inside a bigger bank) so that seems alright.

I recently switched everything GBP to Monzo and no regrets so far.

Sloth Life posted:

Savings still low about 700
but base rate drop plus bank drop has cut my mortgage rate in half. Still paying full amount I was used to so making progress. Currently around 28k
CC debt is coming down, still using it because I'm a dope but paying the item off quickly like I always should have done. Will be 1825ish after this payment.

Yeah if I take a punt on a 2 year discounted rate I can cut mine in half too. At the very least I can get a good reduction.

Because I work through a limited company, the most effective way to save money is to leave it on the company's books and avoid the income tax, which fortunately works well regardless of the BOE rate.

Zedsdeadbaby
Jun 14, 2008

You have been called out, in the ways of old.
Seven months ago I got a five year fixed at 2.5% and was told it would take the apocalypse to drive interest rates down further.

:shepicide:

Jaded Burnout
Jul 10, 2004


Barclays (who I've just moved away from) have cut the savings rates on their business accounts from a pitiful 0.15% GBP and 1.75% USD to 0.01% and 0% respectively. Like their monthly-fee business savings accounts are at 0.01%.

Cast_No_Shadow
Jun 8, 2010

The Republic of Luna Equestria is a huge, socially progressive nation, notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, cynical population of 714m are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich.

Zedsdeadbaby posted:

Seven months ago I got a five year fixed at 2.5% and was told it would take the apocalypse to drive interest rates down further.

:shepicide:

I mean their not wrong, Pestilence is one of the four horseman and I don't think War, Famine or Death have gone anywhere.

Still I put it in the same bucket as trying to time the markets. 2.5% is a historically low rate and is pretty cheap money. At least you've got security for the next five years, between Covid, Brexit and an economy built on endless Ponzai schemes smashing into each other who knows what the future holds, but at least you'll know what you owe the bank each month.

Lady Gaza
Nov 20, 2008

My three year fix at 1.89% is expiring soon. Great timing!!

Sloth Life
Nov 15, 2014

Built for comfort and speed!
Fallen Rib
Credit card debt getting smaller, 1k in emergency savings reached, mortgage still being overpaid at this point in time. Trundling along.

Sad Panda
Sep 22, 2004

I'm a Sad Panda.
I'm in my mid 30s and have north of 50k sat in random accounts doing not much more than being a far too big 'emergency fund' and so planning to do something with it. I'm a teacher so pretty sure I can't increase work pension contributions. I have no plans to buy a house. Only debt I have is 20k type 2 student loans, currently at ~2.6%.

The flowchart seems to suggest 3 things...
1. £4k into S&S LISA which would be used as a pension contribution basically to get the £1000 bonus from the government. I've got ~10k in a LISA with AJBell at the moment.
2. Setting up a SIPP, probably with Vanguard.
3. A S&S ISA, maybe also with Vanguard just due to low fees.

Given I'm trying to squirrel the money away, one idea that came to mind is to hit my SIPP & ISA caps for the year. I'd still have a very sizeable emergency fund left over.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this approximate idea before I embark. I've looked at the flowchart, read this thread, looked on monevator so have some general idea but very willing to accept that I've many misconceptions too.


Theophany posted:

^^ all very good points, the only thing I would stress is that unless you're investing your pension into property of something wild like direct shares or a property development, a SIPP is bad value for money 90% of the time. A Personal Pension* affords you all of the same benefits for less of the costs if all you're doing is investing in collectives investments (ie Unit Trusts and OEICs).

*you can get Stakeholder Pensions which are currently legally capped at an all in 1% fee, but the fund choice is usually locked to whatever garbage the provider is looking to hawk.

You mentioned SIPPs being bad value for money 90% of the time twice in the thread and I'm a bit confused. Given the flowchart mentions getting a SIPP, what am I missing from what you're saying?

Theophany
Jul 22, 2014

SUCCHIAMI IL MIO CAZZO DA DIETRO, RANA RAGAZZO



2022 FIA Formula 1 WDC

Sad Panda posted:

I'm in my mid 30s and have north of 50k sat in random accounts doing not much more than being a far too big 'emergency fund' and so planning to do something with it. I'm a teacher so pretty sure I can't increase work pension contributions. I have no plans to buy a house. Only debt I have is 20k type 2 student loans, currently at ~2.6%.

The flowchart seems to suggest 3 things...
1. £4k into S&S LISA which would be used as a pension contribution basically to get the £1000 bonus from the government. I've got ~10k in a LISA with AJBell at the moment.
2. Setting up a SIPP, probably with Vanguard.
3. A S&S ISA, maybe also with Vanguard just due to low fees.

Given I'm trying to squirrel the money away, one idea that came to mind is to hit my SIPP & ISA caps for the year. I'd still have a very sizeable emergency fund left over.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this approximate idea before I embark. I've looked at the flowchart, read this thread, looked on monevator so have some general idea but very willing to accept that I've many misconceptions too.


You mentioned SIPPs being bad value for money 90% of the time twice in the thread and I'm a bit confused. Given the flowchart mentions getting a SIPP, what am I missing from what you're saying?

A Self Invested Personal Pension is a specialist pension wrapper that allows you to hold esoteric or illiquid investments within it and for that reason, providers tend to charge much higher administration fees. For example, one of my clients has a SIPP and she holds her company's business premises within because it is tax efficient for her circumstances.

A lot of companies market Personal Pensions as SIPPs, which has effectively made the terms interchangeable. The point I was making is to always be poo poo hot on what you're being charged when you're looking at something that is being marketed to you as a SIPP.

Cast_No_Shadow
Jun 8, 2010

The Republic of Luna Equestria is a huge, socially progressive nation, notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, cynical population of 714m are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich.

You seem to be heading along the right path.

1) Work out what a good emergency fund for your circumstances is. Recent events should be a giant siren to how thin the veneer of stability really can be for any of us. Only you know what you're comfortable with, a young single person with no mortgage or dependents might rightly feel comfortable with far less than someone who is the sole wage earner in a family of four. Keep this in cash that you can easily access. A few months of key expenses (Roof over head, food on table, lights on) should be a good minimum bar.

2) Spend some time understanding your pension scheme. IIRC the teachers one can be a right complicated mess if you've been teaching a while as it'll be split between the old scheme and the new. But you'll thank yourself when you understand what your entitlement is and you make sure if there are any choices to make you're making the right ones for you.

3) Double check my work here but: I think, given your defined benefit pension you're probably not really gaining a huge amount from setting up a SIPP/Personal Pension over and above a Stocks and Shares ISA. You have a lump sum now, but if your yearly contributions are less than 20k you could just set up a S&S ISA slap 20k in over a few years in April and do it that way. Less efficient but perhaps easier to manage.

4) If you do set up a SIPP pay close attention to the platform fee as well as the fund fees.

5) Remember your ISA is available to you at any point and any gains made are tax free, you have a yearly contribution limit of currently 20k. Pensions are locked up until retirement age. Neither is better than the other objectively, it depends on what kind of person you are and your goals. The flexibility of an ISA might be bad if you are the sort to panic over bad news and sell at the bottom for instance or know you'll always be tempted to spend that big wad of cash, conversely a pension might not be right if you could see yourself wanting the money for non-retirement reasons later, eg. at 45 you decide to buy a house. Neither option is a bad option but think through the consequences of each before you decide.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

If you really have no idea then I'd say just stick it in a Stocks and Shares ISA and shove it all into this: https://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-dis...-c-accumulation

You can buy more than £20k, the extra will just sit in a standard Stocks and Shares account and next tax year you can transfer it into the ISA. You won't even pay any tax on it, you won't hit the thresholds on dividend or capital gains tax in that year unless stonks really go up.

Sad Panda
Sep 22, 2004

I'm a Sad Panda.

Cast_No_Shadow posted:

You seem to be heading along the right path.

1) Work out what a good emergency fund for your circumstances is. Recent events should be a giant siren to how thin the veneer of stability really can be for any of us. Only you know what you're comfortable with, a young single person with no mortgage or dependents might rightly feel comfortable with far less than someone who is the sole wage earner in a family of four. Keep this in cash that you can easily access. A few months of key expenses (Roof over head, food on table, lights on) should be a good minimum bar.

2) Spend some time understanding your pension scheme. IIRC the teachers one can be a right complicated mess if you've been teaching a while as it'll be split between the old scheme and the new. But you'll thank yourself when you understand what your entitlement is and you make sure if there are any choices to make you're making the right ones for you.

3) Double check my work here but: I think, given your defined benefit pension you're probably not really gaining a huge amount from setting up a SIPP/Personal Pension over and above a Stocks and Shares ISA. You have a lump sum now, but if your yearly contributions are less than 20k you could just set up a S&S ISA slap 20k in over a few years in April and do it that way. Less efficient but perhaps easier to manage.

4) If you do set up a SIPP pay close attention to the platform fee as well as the fund fees.

5) Remember your ISA is available to you at any point and any gains made are tax free, you have a yearly contribution limit of currently 20k. Pensions are locked up until retirement age. Neither is better than the other objectively, it depends on what kind of person you are and your goals. The flexibility of an ISA might be bad if you are the sort to panic over bad news and sell at the bottom for instance or know you'll always be tempted to spend that big wad of cash, conversely a pension might not be right if you could see yourself wanting the money for non-retirement reasons later, eg. at 45 you decide to buy a house. Neither option is a bad option but think through the consequences of each before you decide.

I'm new to teaching and so am purely on the new scheme, which makes it marginally less confusing. To respond to this I read through the Teachers Pension website, so thanks for that push, and now know I need to read more into Faster Accrual & Additional Payment. Faster Accrual seems like a no-brainer, but have to apply before the financial year.

First year teacher salary is just over £24,000. I thought a SIPP would mean I could pay £19,200 in and tax relief would bump that up to £24,000. That is £4,800 'free' that I'd not have with an ISA. I'd pay tax on that later, but I thought the benefit being would be the 25% tax-free lump sum and that although taxed later on retirement it would probably be at a lower rate of tax. It also gives me an opportunity to invest £40,000 this financial year as opposed to just the £20,000 ISA cap.

In terms of where, Vanguard seems to be 0.43% (0.15% platform + 0.24% for the fund + 0.04% transaction fees) for the SIPP.

Good point about access to the ISA. My thinking is putting it into something along the lines of the Vanguard Lifestrategy 80/Retirement 2050. Splitting this chunk of cash 50/50 over a few years between the SIPP/ISA would also mean that not too much is locked up.
https://monevator.com/how-pensions-will-help-you-reach-financial-independence-quicker-than-isas-alone also seems to suggest SIPP being better than ISA later on.

Alchenar posted:

You can buy more than £20k, the extra will just sit in a standard Stocks and Shares account and next tax year you can transfer it into the ISA. You won't even pay any tax on it, you won't hit the thresholds on dividend or capital gains tax in that year unless stonks really go up.

Thanks for that. I didn't know that that was possible.

Sad Panda fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Jun 7, 2020

Cast_No_Shadow
Jun 8, 2010

The Republic of Luna Equestria is a huge, socially progressive nation, notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, cynical population of 714m are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich.

Sad Panda posted:

I'm new to teaching and so am purely on the new scheme, which makes it marginally less confusing. To respond to this I read through the Teachers Pension website, so thanks for that push, and now know I need to read more into Faster Accrual & Additional Payment. Faster Accrual seems like a no-brainer, but have to apply before the financial year.

First year teacher salary is just over £24,000. I thought a SIPP would mean I could pay £19,200 in and tax relief would bump that up to £24,000. That is £4,800 'free' that I'd not have with an ISA. I'd pay tax on that later, but I thought the benefit being would be the 25% tax-free lump sum and that although taxed later on retirement it would probably be at a lower rate of tax. It also gives me an opportunity to invest £40,000 this financial year as opposed to just the £20,000 ISA cap.

In terms of where, Vanguard seems to be 0.43% (0.15% platform + 0.24% for the fund + 0.04% transaction fees) for the SIPP.

Good point about access to the ISA. My thinking is putting it into something along the lines of the Vanguard Lifestrategy 80/Retirement 2050. Splitting this chunk of cash 50/50 over a few years between the SIPP/ISA would also mean that not too much is locked up.

Like I said, double check my work on the SIPP stuff. I hadn't considered the best way from a tax point of view. Since I'm on a defined contribution through work and just use that one. It may be more tax efficient to do that but given you also have a defined benefit scheme you might want someone who is wise to that world to chip in or do the research. But you're right, its nearly always the better option to take the free money first if you're good with the stipulations it comes with.

Fund choice wise vanguard targeted retirement funds are likely a good choice if you intend to follow the normal retirement at age X/Year Y strategy and that's somewhere in your last 1/4 - 1/3 of life, especially with a solid defined benefit pension behind you as well.

Hobo
Dec 12, 2007

Forum bum
Any recommendations for where to open a stocks and shares ISA? HL and Vanguard immediately come to mind, any major differences between them and any others worth knowing?

edit: to add to that, I'd just be whacking it all into some ETFs and just leaving it there rather than doing any sort of active trading.

Hobo fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Jun 7, 2020

Theophany
Jul 22, 2014

SUCCHIAMI IL MIO CAZZO DA DIETRO, RANA RAGAZZO



2022 FIA Formula 1 WDC

Hobo posted:

Any recommendations for where to open a stocks and shares ISA? HL and Vanguard immediately come to mind, any major differences between them and any others worth knowing?

edit: to add to that, I'd just be whacking it all into some ETFs and just leaving it there rather than doing any sort of active trading.

HL are pieces of poo poo in the same vein as St James Place. Ignore their utterly terrible buy lists if you do use them, though.

Sad Panda
Sep 22, 2004

I'm a Sad Panda.

Theophany posted:

HL are pieces of poo poo in the same vein as St James Place. Ignore their utterly terrible buy lists if you do use them, though.

What's the issue with St James Place? I have family that use them. My main issue with that is they're paying way too much for advice breaking the fundamental rule of passive investing.

Theophany
Jul 22, 2014

SUCCHIAMI IL MIO CAZZO DA DIETRO, RANA RAGAZZO



2022 FIA Formula 1 WDC

Sad Panda posted:

What's the issue with St James Place? I have family that use them. My main issue with that is they're paying way too much for advice breaking the fundamental rule of passive investing.

They're a publicly traded company, so they exist to create shareholder value over and above customer value.

More tangibly, most of their clients are paying a front load of around 5%, their fund fees are exorbitant as their pension exit fees are insane (5% with a 6 year clock that resets every time you contribute to it).

It's a vertically integrated business that seems hell bent on squeezing as much as possible at every part of the value chain.

Oh, and SJP are just about to launch a range of passives! Coming out with an OCF of around 1.17% and a 5% initial fee. They're robbing bastards.

Pantsmaster Bill
May 7, 2007

I haven’t checked recently, but HL are generally pretty expensive.

Compare here:

https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

Usually % based are cheaper for a lower amount, flat rate cheaper for a higher amount.

mfcrocker
Jan 31, 2004



Hot Rope Guy

Sad Panda posted:

What's the issue with St James Place? I have family that use them. My main issue with that is they're paying way too much for advice breaking the fundamental rule of passive investing.

Without going into any detail, I've seen the company "conference" (holiday) they send partners on. Everyone there is making way too much money

Theophany
Jul 22, 2014

SUCCHIAMI IL MIO CAZZO DA DIETRO, RANA RAGAZZO



2022 FIA Formula 1 WDC

mfcrocker posted:

Without going into any detail, I've seen the company "conference" (holiday) they send partners on. Everyone there is making way too much money

They quietly binned those off last year after a former partner wrote a tell-all in The Times, but I'm sure they'll figure out something else to replace them.

The gist of it is here: https://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/an-ex-sjp-partners-opulent-tale-as-firm-reviews-perks/a1266357?section=wealth-manager

former bastard posted:

‘The beauty of all this is that customers never really understand how much they are paying. Of course, we presented everything to them — but I never really believed they knew the full impact.’

The partner claimed that if a client wanted advice about withdrawing their funds he would make it ‘as difficult as possible to arrange a meeting’.

For investments outside a pension SJP charges an initial fee of 5% and annual charges of about 2%’ said the partner. For some products there are early withdrawal charges applied within he first six years of the investment.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

I use HL for my ISA and stocks and shares account, and consider the slightly higher than average ISA charge worth it for the quality of the website and app.

I do my own research on funds though rather than follow their somewhat dodgy wealth 50 list, and have no interest in the other products.

ed balls balls man
Apr 17, 2006
Is anyone here doing matched betting? Have seen it around on various finance blogs for the past few years and tried it through profit accumulator as they had a £1 trial on. No ref link or advertising am genuinely looking for opinions. Up £300 so far and fairly easy to do with a bit of research and a starting bank of around the same value.

Am I missing anything or is it really too good to be true? Tax free as well!

Sad Panda
Sep 22, 2004

I'm a Sad Panda.

ed balls balls man posted:

Is anyone here doing matched betting? Have seen it around on various finance blogs for the past few years and tried it through profit accumulator as they had a £1 trial on. No ref link or advertising am genuinely looking for opinions. Up £300 so far and fairly easy to do with a bit of research and a starting bank of around the same value.

Am I missing anything or is it really too good to be true? Tax free as well!

First read about it on MoneySavingExpert back in... 2013 or so. Was really good for a few years and has dropped off massively since. Massive number of casinos moved out of the UK market in the last year and obviously somewhere like PA (where I started), OddsMonkey (where I moved to as they had better tools) and the rest have now got relatively huge numbers so bookies are much less generous than they used to be.

I've still got an OM subscription but should probably cancel it one day. Most of the reload offers on the daily thing have an EV of under a quid which is just way too little reward for the effort. Given it's Ascot and the Premier League is starting it might be worth seeing if any places have special signups.

Cast_No_Shadow
Jun 8, 2010

The Republic of Luna Equestria is a huge, socially progressive nation, notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, cynical population of 714m are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich.

Want to explain it for those not in the know?

Is it simply making bets with a decent ev to get the most out of a sign up /reload bonus or some form of bookie arbitrage?

ed balls balls man
Apr 17, 2006

Cast_No_Shadow posted:

Want to explain it for those not in the know?

Is it simply making bets with a decent ev to get the most out of a sign up /reload bonus or some form of bookie arbitrage?

For starters, it's placing matching bets on bookies vs exchanges to essentially try take 80%+ of sign up bonuses out as cash, then reload offers, then eventually working through to ev on slots/freespins/blackjack and bookie arbitrage when you have a solid understanding of the value/math.

Again brand new to it, but that's my understanding.

Sad Panda
Sep 22, 2004

I'm a Sad Panda.

Cast_No_Shadow posted:

Want to explain it for those not in the know?

Is it simply making bets with a decent ev to get the most out of a sign up /reload bonus or some form of bookie arbitrage?

Basically that yeah.

There are way too many casinos & bookmakers, they offer sign-up and reload promotions which have +EV. It used to be ridiculously easy to make 2-3k a month, now it has dropped a lot. I've barely touched it in the last 12 months or so.

A bit of a brain dump. Feel free to ask more if you think it's not too off topic for this thread.

Sports
Simplest sports offers are bet x on an event and get a free bet worth x to use on a different event. So you put a £20 bet on United to win and lay it off on another website. Due to market cut meaning odds on the bookmakers aren't great that probably costs you <50p. They might then give you a £20 free bet. You go and put that on something else with the aim of getting about 80% of it back.

The most useful skill is a level of comfort with figures. There are calculators that'll tell you what number to type in where, but having an understanding of those numbers definitely helps. There are some bets (betting on horses) where it's also rather useful to be quite fast at acting because the market just before a race (especially with greyhounds) can be very volatile.

Knowing nothing about sports is actually really helpful because obviously the easiest way to lose money (other than the typo where you miss a 0 or add an extra 0 and get very upset when the horse wins and it cost you 10x what it should have) on these kind of things is if you start actually gambling and saying that of course the team can't lose and so not laying it off to save money. Works sometimes until it doesn't and can cost you a good chunk.

More profitable sports bets are based on +EV for example a really popular offer (though the odds have turned crap due to how profitable they were for matched betters) was the 2up offer. Bet365 + Paddy Power paid out bets as winners if a team went 2 up irrespective of what the end result is. This doesn't happen that frequently, but when for example Man Utd came back from 2 down to beat Man C 3-2 to stop City winning the title, those who had bet on City to win the match and laid it off won both the back and the lay and with decent-sized bets can easily lead to 1k+ profit. As I said, 365 + Paddy Power odds have got worse since (they increased their overround/cut on the market)

How much
Having a couple of grand of float available is not at all necessary, but does speed the process up to begin with. Some start with £100 and build up slowly from there. Whatever bank you have available will work, but given the lack of sport over summer if you're wanting to get into it then making the most of the end of the season would be a good idea.

Casino
Casino offers involves a lot more trusting in the power of EV. Caisnos might give you a 100% bonus. You sign up, deposit £50, they give you a £50 bonus but you have to play it through 35x. That amount of play taking into account the RTP (Return to player) means that maybe there's an EV of £20 but that might have an 85% bust rate. This is the higher-risk side and I've been amazed by the way some people's EV graphs (tracking profit v EV) match the line really well while others (including mine) can be thousands of pounds below where it should be. After a couple of months I'd deposited ~£10,000, had ~£5,000 of EV and a profit of ~£300. Other friends in a similar situation were +£10,000, a couple were down a couple of grand. There are plenty of lower-risk offers, but those are the ones that generally have an EV of 73p for an hour of playing mindless slots. There are definitely reasons I wrote a bot to play these things.

Popular websites include OddsMonkey (feel free to use my affiliate link that gets me £6 a month of the £15 a month sub if so inclined) and Profit Accumulator. They have guides to walk you through it all and answer any question. There's a free trial where they walk you through the first 2 offers I believe. They make their money from your sub but also by all their signup links being affiliate links where they profit off you losing.

Those subs are decent for newbies. They have very useful calculators and tools to find the best value odds on a bookies website. The main reason I'm still subscribed (though through my own affiliate link so I get a cheaper subscription) is because they had an offer that meant you got 0% commission on a betting exchange called Smarkets where you lay off your bets.

Longer term
Once you've got used to it and feel comfortable, to make really decent money, people end up 'multi-accounting' which is basically running your friends betting accounts for them. People might pay say 10% profit to the client as a fee. The client provides a bank account & required documentation. It's common to have maybe 5 sets of accounts. On the higher end, some have 100+ accounts and hire people to do the offers for them (and use bots to automate the play because oh god slots are mindnumblingly tedious). This is not illegal despite sounding rather dubious.

Sad Panda fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Jun 15, 2020

Cast_No_Shadow
Jun 8, 2010

The Republic of Luna Equestria is a huge, socially progressive nation, notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, cynical population of 714m are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich.

Yeah got it. Thanks for the explination.

Probably a bit of a derail if we take it any further.

Also probably important to say falling into gambling is awful for your finances and potentially the rest of your life if you fall deep. The reason that they keep these offers going is enough people lose enough money to make it worth it etc. Etc.

Sad Panda
Sep 22, 2004

I'm a Sad Panda.

Cast_No_Shadow posted:

Yeah got it. Thanks for the explination.

Probably a bit of a derail if we take it any further.

Also probably important to say falling into gambling is awful for your finances and potentially the rest of your life if you fall deep. The reason that they keep these offers going is enough people lose enough money to make it worth it etc. Etc.

Definitely. I guess I should have had made that more explicit somewhere in that.

If it is treated like an investment, and strict rules are followed then it's an easy way to make some money. I'd be surprised if all the low hanging fruit is less than £1500.

However, gambling is incredibly toxic and the appropriate caution is needed - especially on Casino because it's vey easy to be certain that losing an 11th hand of Blackjack in a row just isn't possible.

Sad Panda
Sep 22, 2004

I'm a Sad Panda.
I went digging into Teachers Pensions and playing around with the calculator they have on their website. The amounts per year are revalued up until retirement rather than absolute amounts.

I'm a first year teacher so salary of ~£24,000. My regular pension costs me about 7% (school contribution is about 20%). This gets me £427.60 a year.

I have two options to increase this.
1. Faster accrual at 1/45 would cost me £1706.11 and increase that by pension amount by £114.03 to £541.62 a year. (Costs 14.96x the annual increase)
2. Additional Pension has the option of a lump sum of £2210 (or £2262 split over a year) to get a £250 increase. (Costs 8.84x the annual increase)

Given the numbers, the additional pension is obviously the much more effective return.

My question is, how does that ratio of investing £2210 (can get tax relief on this) to get a £250 increase in salary compare?

I'm thinking in terms of for example putting £2210 into that pension to get £250 v £2210 into a SIPP. Obviously the SIPP is a lot more varied.

Sad Panda fucked around with this message at 11:48 on Jun 17, 2020

Theophany
Jul 22, 2014

SUCCHIAMI IL MIO CAZZO DA DIETRO, RANA RAGAZZO



2022 FIA Formula 1 WDC

Sad Panda posted:

I went digging into Teachers Pensions and playing around with the calculator they have on their website. The amounts per year are revalued up until retirement rather than absolute amounts.

I'm a first year teacher so salary of ~£24,000. My regular pension costs me about 7% (school contribution is about 20%). This gets me £427.60 a year.

I have two options to increase this.
1. Faster accrual at 1/45 would cost me £1706.11 and increase that by pension amount by £114.03 to £541.62 a year. (Costs 14.96x the annual increase)
2. Additional Pension has the option of a lump sum of £2210 (or £2262 split over a year) to get a £250 increase. (Costs 8.84x the annual increase)

Given the numbers, the additional pension is obviously the much more effective return.

My question is, how does that ratio of investing £2210 (can get tax relief on this) to get a £250 increase in salary compare?

I'm thinking in terms of for example putting £2210 into that pension to get £250 v £2210 into a SIPP. Obviously the SIPP is a lot more varied.

It would require a tremendous amount of mental gymnastics to recommend anything other than the defined benefit pension, tbh.

I know it's no longer final salary and calculated on a career average, but it's a guaranteed pension income for life. I don't care if you're Terry Smith or Crispin Odey, a government-backed DB scheme is still the gold standard.

Sad Panda
Sep 22, 2004

I'm a Sad Panda.

Theophany posted:

It would require a tremendous amount of mental gymnastics to recommend anything other than the defined benefit pension, tbh.

I know it's no longer final salary and calculated on a career average, but it's a guaranteed pension income for life. I don't care if you're Terry Smith or Crispin Odey, a government-backed DB scheme is still the gold standard.

OK, to make sure I'm not being an idiot. What you are saying is that rate of paying £2210 to get a £250 increase (which stays at the same rate up to the max of paying £61,880 for £7,000 a year pension increase) is the best option that there is and I should dump a fair chunk there? Sounds a good easy option to me.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

Sad Panda posted:

OK, to make sure I'm not being an idiot. What you are saying is that rate of paying £2210 to get a £250 increase (which stays at the same rate up to the max of paying £61,880 for £7,000 a year pension increase) is the best option that there is and I should dump a fair chunk there? Sounds a good easy option to me.

Yes. If you are asking these questions and all you want is to spend your money now so that future you gets to retire happy and secure with a cheque every month then increasing contributions to your DB pension is the right way to go. The reason my savings go into an ISA rather than additional pension is because I enjoy doing the occasional bit of stock picking (it's really motivated me to take a much more serious look at how the economy works, which I consider self-improvement) and because while it's at risk it's still accessible should I decide I want to take some profit for any reason.

I'd question your lack of interest in buying a home though (though I understand if you're career plans mean you don't want to fix yourself). If you have the income and job security then the next few years are going to be a buyer's market, and long term we just aren't going to fix the enormous supply-demand gulf for housing in this country so it's a pretty safe investment.

Sad Panda
Sep 22, 2004

I'm a Sad Panda.

Alchenar posted:

Yes. If you are asking these questions and all you want is to spend your money now so that future you gets to retire happy and secure with a cheque every month then increasing contributions to your DB pension is the right way to go. The reason my savings go into an ISA rather than additional pension is because I enjoy doing the occasional bit of stock picking (it's really motivated me to take a much more serious look at how the economy works, which I consider self-improvement) and because while it's at risk it's still accessible should I decide I want to take some profit for any reason.

I'd question your lack of interest in buying a home though (though I understand if you're career plans mean you don't want to fix yourself). If you have the income and job security then the next few years are going to be a buyer's market, and long term we just aren't going to fix the enormous supply-demand gulf for housing in this country so it's a pretty safe investment.

Perfect, pushing a fair chunk into my pension it is then. I'll put some in ISAs too to have some level of accessibility to part of my money.

Yeah it's not liking being fixed for one. I've had a rather nomadic time since I finished uni (worked in Asia for 6 years then cycled around the world for 7, which also means current pension & NI situation is rather non-existent) and very much see myself moving overseas as a distinct possibility in the not that distant future. My current living situation helps with that flexibility.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

Sad Panda posted:

Perfect, pushing a fair chunk into my pension it is then. I'll put some in ISAs too to have some level of accessibility to part of my money.

Yeah it's not liking being fixed for one. I've had a rather nomadic time since I finished uni (worked in Asia for 6 years then cycled around the world for 7, which also means current pension & NI situation is rather non-existent) and very much see myself moving overseas as a distinct possibility in the not that distant future. My current living situation helps with that flexibility.

You might want to sketch out what your life plan is in a bit more detail and what the big costs you expect are. The 'not paying into a pension or NI for over a decade' would be a big problem but for the fact that you haven't pissed all your savings away and have a decent pot. If you try and live the next ten years without any sort of long term plan then you are tossing a coin on reaching the other side that much closer to retirement but without having set enough aside.

e: pay extra into the pension, set aside a 'rainy day fund' in a savings account that won't pay any interest because we live in a zero-rate world but will guarantee the capital amount, max out your ISA, then plunge the rest into a regular index fund that you plan to transfer into the ISA next year.

Alchenar fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Jun 17, 2020

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Theophany
Jul 22, 2014

SUCCHIAMI IL MIO CAZZO DA DIETRO, RANA RAGAZZO



2022 FIA Formula 1 WDC

Sad Panda posted:

Perfect, pushing a fair chunk into my pension it is then. I'll put some in ISAs too to have some level of accessibility to part of my money.

Yeah it's not liking being fixed for one. I've had a rather nomadic time since I finished uni (worked in Asia for 6 years then cycled around the world for 7, which also means current pension & NI situation is rather non-existent) and very much see myself moving overseas as a distinct possibility in the not that distant future. My current living situation helps with that flexibility.

Class 3 NICs exist to top up your gaps, I wouldn't lose sleep over them mate.

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