Will

I can imagine! The economies of scale really ramp up for bigger companies and allow them to do a lot of great stuff. My last company was about 12 people and benefits were basically non-existant. My new company is 18,000 and they have a benefit for just about anything you can think of.

I’m not at all surprised, seems more and more companies are pulling back benefits like this to the minimum. I was exactly the same when I first graduated. It didn’t help that at the meeting they basically described it as if you give up 5% of your salary you’ll get 200 quid a month when you retire. Seemed I was better off keeping that money in my pocket than have them look after it.

I follow the general strategies of FIRE but haven’t yet started to think about when I might want to pull the trigger on anything. We haven’t really decided where we want to end up yet which will have quite an impact on the amount of money we need to have available to us. That’s a really nice match scheme. The big problem here is that state and private pensions are basically linked together as one and only available to residents. On the upside income tax is basically zero so you gain in that area to make up for it. I’ve been thinking about getting permanent residency here as it would mean my employer has to pay 17% of the first $6,000 I earn per month towards my pension - which is a pretty nice amount of money for not doing anything.

Best Story This one was a little tough for me as I generally don’t play too much thatis story driven that i haven’t already mentioned. One game I absolutely loved and will play again at some point is Eternal Darkness. Loved the different settings and interwoven storylines across different times. Probably wouldn’t be considered great by today’s standards but for the time it was really awesome.

This one is great too. It’s a shame they don’t put out videos very often but when they do they are well worth watching. Seeing the progress and when/how discoveries were made is really cool.

I think my favourite would have to be Screenrant’s pitch meeting series. They use a lot of the same jokes in each one but it’s done in a good way. Well worth digging out your favourite films episodes.

Oh wow! My Nan lives in Wollaston so we were there a lot as kids. I like that area down by the canal, remember rambling around the overgrown area by the river too but not sure what that’s like anymore. I grew up in Norton very close to Mary Stevens park, my parents moved a few years ago but are still in Norton. For school I was at Old Swinford the whole way through 11-18, but I did go to Ridgewood for one day when they do the initial induction day as I hadn’t gotten my place confirmed at OSH yet. I didn’t get in at first and was on the reserve list, somebody dropped out later on so I took the spot. It’s crazy how much some things have changed yet how similar other areas of town are. I do rather enjoy it when I’m back there.

You should get that credit card cleared! Even if it’s only a small amount of interest you pay it’s still money that you could use on something else.

Oh my god that thing looks amazing. I can’t wait to get my hands on it. It’s all about the building really, seeing how it comes together and then seeing it in action. It’s just nice that it exists and you could play with it if you wanted. The Saturn V they did a few years ago is similar. If you want to it all comes apart into the different stages and the build process is super interesting and a lot of fun. Mine has sat next to the TV for two years and never been touched since. But I could pretend to launch it to the moon in a grand re-enactment if I wanted to.

Colin on the This Does Not Compute youtube channel just did an ultimate GBA mod video that used a few of their parts and was raving about them. He doesn’t tend to do any sponsored stuff unless he really thinks they’re a good company so for me it’s enough to give them a try.

They’re showing up fine for me too.

They do! They really do blast around the track. It wouldn't surprise me if their (scale) top speed is actually faster than their real counterparts.

Mine is more a re-found hobby. As a kid I loved Hornby trains and had a few sets and various different bits to go with it. We got close a few times to having a proper model layout but it never really materialized. I can’t remember why exactly, but around this time last year I started looking into it again and decided to start buying some n-scale models with the intention of building a proper model railway. I’ve currently got a N700 Nozomi Shinkansen, a “Dr Yellow” Shinkansen and a Flying Scotsman steam train, so the setup won’t exactly be realistic but I don’t care. My plan is to build a small Christmas layout to go around the tree while I’m still in Singapore and renting a place, then once I have my own place to build some giant permanent thing. I also have a semi-plan of investing some time into designing better software for the digital control systems now available, seems like a great opportunity for someone to do that properly.

I did exactly the same, thought I’ve never gotten around to playing the full game. One day.

2D platformer For me it has to be Sonic 3 While I enjoyed the first two this one really perfected the formula. Great levels, lots of secrets, an awesome soundtrack - it had everything I wanted in a Sonic game. Add on the fact you could combine it with S&K for an even bigger experience and for me I think this is the best 2D platformer of all time.

I think it’s a good call to discuss all discrimination in one topic, so yeah I think that a change to the title to reflect that would be a good idea. It’s a wider problem that we also need to think about in these times.

This is great, good to get to know you all. I’m quite surprised by how many people are in and around the midlands. Maybe we should have Christmas drinks in Birmingham. Enjoy your sleep while you can! This must be interesting. Is it just a general non-interest or an actual dislike? That’s great, was there anything in particular that triggered the change? Wow! What part of town are you from? Where did you go to school? What do you think about the Tesco?!?! I thought people usually do this the other way round? People not wanting to be Father’s and being told they’ll want it later. Either way, it’s a great experience! I think not wanting kids is fine, but for the right reasons. If you really want kids but don’t do it out of fear of how they’ll feel when you die then you’re missing out. If it’s for other reasons then it’s totally understandable. I know you talk about the cars a fair bit so sorry for not remembering this - what are the three cars your currently have? Driving is one of the things I really miss and really hope I’ll be able to have a car at some point in the future. I cut down my retro collecting and now only buy GameCube and Saturn. Love exploring the shops in Japan for anything new whenever I’m there. As the console was quite popular there the prices aren’t as ridiculous as they are in the west. Panzer Dragoon Saga usually 20 quid or so for example. Do you have a favorite thing in your collection?

This is my dashboard: I then have the breakdown for each of the main categories below this so I can see everything in detail. The other major tabs I have are a net worth tracker and then a inflows/outflows tab that everything is populated by.

That must have been one hell of a trip! Hope you didn’t spend it all gambling! Forgot to say earlier, would love to see your sheet if you’re ok sharing it. I’ll put some notes on mine and post it up tomorrow too.

Yeah that totally makes sense. Our wedding cost a fortune despite only having close family there because we had no choice but to travel for it. Of course it was well worth it but I do think about other things we could have used that money for. I also totally agree that it’s very comforting to have an emergency fund available to you. Having just lost most of mine through unemployment and paying to have a baby (no NHS type service here) I’ve had a few moments of dread. Hopefully we’ll have it back quite soon and I can relax.

Your very own personal forum stalker! Glad to hear everything is going well. Must be a big relief to know some of the risk is gone for future rounds.

I read that as you weighed 4 stone 2 and thought your scales must be a bit messed up. That’s really awesome progress though. Well done. Is everything OK following the surgery?

@nightwolf, that is great stuff, glad I have a fellow fan of budgeting. 100% this, there is no reason not to share information with friends and help each other out. As someone that’s been on the other side of it I can absolutely assure everyone that companies will not pay everybody fairly if they don’t have to and it will save them money. Personally it’s not a practice I agree with. It’s all good to share salaries and increments. Your budgeting system sounds interesting and I’m glad it works for you. I’m not sure I could handle not having 100% accuracy but it’s far more important to have a system that works for you and generally that’s going to be different for everyone. You can really do well with this stuff. It’s probably a viable strategy to pick roles based on stock allocations and see where they go over a couple of years. You only need one thing to do well and you can be very well off from it. Your house saving account is pretty self-explanatory, but do you have anything in mind for the personal savings?

Now THAT is the Nintendo LEGO I wanted to see. Definitely going to pick it up.

I hope that’s real. I’d definitely go for that over the white thing.