Not much consolation but if there’s one thing worse than facing a big tax bill, it’s not facing a big tax bill 😉

Guiide | Give your pensions some love The free pension calculator. Build a plan, keep more of your money.

Www.guiide.co.uk is a firm I like that helps you plan withdrawals and part of that is mimimising tax. It’s free to use.

Might also let you claim child benefit that would be clawed back via HICBC, avoid loss of free child care at £100k and taper of personal allowance

Pensions contributions whilst working save income tax. If done by salary sacrifice then also save employee NI + employer NI + apprenticeship levy + student loan repayments. When withdrawing, 1/4 is tax free and remainder taxed at marginal income tax rate (almost never higher than when working)

Not sure strangers marrying is a good idea 😜

Good luck to them and nice to see happy news.

A friends wife used to do this. Personal concierge role I think. Wealthy people moving to London and she’d arrange visits to schools, home viewings, gym/club membership etc.

I wonder if any/all spending increase now goes to Ukraine for them to decide what is needed there. Hopefully speeds up the end of that conflict and we start trying to reform defence spending here. We end up with a better idea of what to spend on and how to spend better.

If I get any more I’ll send in. Had one so far which I thought was lib dem as had a dodgy bar chart on it. Was actually Tory trying to show they and not reform could beat lib dems. Mole valley.

Loving your positive attitude and looking forward to whichever olympics it is you decide to compete in 😂

Same with staying in hotels. The “we’ll knock that off the bill” is no compensation at all when something goes wrong on a business stay vs personal visit. I only flew on business a few times so was a treat but stayed in hotels loads and became a chore.

Not least that it’s so stressful until you’re actually through bag drop, security etc. needless to say, my wife is in the “they don’t really mean arrive 2 hrs before departure” camp

How that bath survived the first time, let alone the others, a sleepy occupant fell into it is beyond me.

As if by magic … bsky.app/profile/henr...

If you enjoy it great. In general though, I think the professionals at the scheme are better than the members at investment management. If they aren't, the regulators should be getting involved.

I'm still impressed by the tech they developed a few years later... They bought lots of US shows and dubbed them; Miami vice, A team and Buck Rogers in afrikaans were rather odd. Then they started broadcasting the original soundtrack on the radio so you could choose your language.

TV in south africa when I was a child was mad ... It was only on 4pm - 9pm and 1 channel. Languages alternated. English 4-7 and Afrikaans 7-9 on Mon, Wed, Fri and other way round the other days (might be other way round). Sunday started earlier for sport and language order swapped fortnightly

A freedmans' loony tunes countdown of the US cabinet would make an interesting but scary substack piece...

Analysis: Shariah annuities in the spotlight The financial industry is failing to recognise and communicate that annuities do not align with Shariah principles, putting Muslim members

Interesting - seems you and Claude are right corporate-adviser.com/analysis-sha...

CDC gets a mention as being a possible solution - @henrytapper.bsky.social this might be of interest if you're not already aware.

Only pub talk so no real weight on it but I remember hearing that most of the investment analysts at Nest put their own money into the Sharia fund

Not quite sure ... I just signed up so think the answer is yes but not sure if you have to meet both of the criteria on this page or just one www.nestpensions.org.uk/user/registr...

and you're right - the vast majority of people do not want to think about the investment side. Whilst they can choose where to invest, around 99% leave their money in the default fund.

It's not quite government run but very close - Nest is available to all...

A Pensions Mutual for a CDC. It is good to launch a good news story and I can today. Last Monday, while talking “small pots” we got news from the FCA that the Pensions Mutual had been registered and sealed   W…

Hopefully there will be more efficient options available for you well before you retire so you can either either retire sooner or pay less. @henrytapper.bsky.social is trying to introduce actual pensions (pay that lasts as long as you do) rather than savings pots henrytapper.com/2026/03/09/a...

Yes but I don’t think that magic wand exists. So better to provide pensions by default than keep looking for it …

Which nation? Maybe both?

I went to a Catholic, boys, private school although it did merge with the girls school across the road the last 2 years I was there ;) Comprehensive for A levels back in the UK. Agree with all your reasons for banning them although too hard in practice. Still, should be taxed more.

We were going to splash out on Luxor and the Red Sea and now we’re not. France instead.

Bust it is then.

My wife saying “I told you to turn the lights off when we left”

Will he stay though?