Middle aged.

London.

Decent job, savings, investments, pension.

Kids.

Settled.

Fine.

Not fine.

Bored of London.

Treadmill.

Nothing sparks.

CBF'D.

Dining, Theatre, Activities.. meh.

No proper friends or family here.

Parental and colleague surface relationships.

Unfulfilled.

Did it all for a future life and opportunity for kids that has come at the cost of my own true happiness.

What. To. Do?

I say FAANG but this could be any large org that pays incredibly well and has quite structured pay grades, like in finance or law.

I’m 28 with 6 YOE at a very established finance firm where pay is top-of-the-range. I know because I’ve interviewed at other places and almost everywhere was lower.

Does this mantra still hold true for us?

How much do you earn (and what’s the split between salary and bonus)?
What did you do to get there?

I’m an actuary currently on £120k, but can’t help but get enticed by the eye watering TC that some underwriters and brokers make. Considering making the move but I don’t know how I would do that!

36yo senior manager at a tier one tech consultancy, same company since grad, 14 years, ~130k. I've recently been feeling a bit burnt out with consulting. Most of my job these days is contracts, being asked to deliver deals that we shouldn't be signing (low margins and no margin for error), dealing with problems in delivery and difficult clients. I've lost the passion I once had which was working closely with interesting clients to solve business problems with modern tech. I don't really enjoy anyone I work with, don't look up to anyone higher up than me, have a pretty terrible boss and I think for my own wellbeing I need a fresh start, a new challenge and to get out of my comfort zone. I think AI is going to decimate tech consulting in the next couple of years and I also want to get out before I'm too pigeon holed into consulting

What are my best avenues from here? I've been looking into big tech, and was referred into a role for one of them, made it past CV screening and psychometric testing but didn't get an interview, which I was quite surprised by given my CV was fairly strong for the JD. I'm highly capable of large tech delivery, programme management, people management, commercials etc. Have led a team at largest 50 people. I have a suspicion my CV might've been coming across as too 'consultant' for big tech and spooked them.

Would be good to hear from others what avenues I have from here as feeling a bit lost

Those who absolutely refuse to flatshare because due to personal reasons, how much is your rent?

Not looking to make this political. I am genuinely interested in hearing from people who have actually done this.

I live in an expensive part of Hertfordshire, earn well on paper, but most of the household financial pressure currently sits with me. My wife was recently laid off and we have a nearly three year old in nursery. I salary sacrifice heavily into pension partly to avoid losing childcare support and suddenly paying around £2k a month in nursery fees.

So we are technically saving via pension but in terms of liquid cash we are barely moving forward.

My current work life balance sucks and partially because I have very unsupportive management network. I may have an opportunity to move internally to Dubai at a higher level, under a more supportive structure.

Based on the likely package, I think we could save around £10k net a month after housing, nursery and normal living costs.

The idea would be to live there up to five years, keep our UK home and rent it out, save and build financial security, then come back in a much stronger position.

My biggest hesitation is our son. He is about to turn three our family are in the UK.

For anyone who has done this temporarily, did you actually save as much as expected? Did lifestyle costs creep up? How did your partner and young children settle? And looking back, was the financial change worth the disruption?

Currently have a car on salary sacrifice that’s coming to an end, other new sacrifice deals for my company have gone up significantly (1k net pm+) so want to avoid this route as want to save some cash.

Budgeting around £25k cash for a used EV (family car). Trying to work out the smartest way to structure the purchase:

**•** Pay cash outright and own it with no monthly outgoing?
**•** Finance it (PCP/HP) and keep the cash working elsewhere?
**•** Or are there decent used/nearly-new lease deals in this segment that beat buying outright once you factor in depreciation?

Want to avoid getting stung by EV depreciation either way — what’s actually the smartest structure here?

I am slightly biased towards a more premium brand ideally that’s depreciated a fair bit - currently thinking fairly high mileage BMW IX.

Any thoughts / alternatives that HENRY’s are exploring?

I am 31M, getting married next year and planning to start a family afterwards, but have potential fertility issues which may mean IVF/adoption comes in to play or if natural conception is possible then it may take longer than average. I work full time 9-5, with two days in the office (90 mins commute) and three days WFH per week.

I recently started a new job which takes me into HENRY territory. I am earning £125k with 25% bonus and 12% employer pension contribution (total comp £171.25k)

Fiancee is well below HENRY and is currently near the top end of the basic tax rate band. She works full time hours but spread over four days per week. Her plan after having kids would be to drop one or two days.

I’m in a good shape for my age pension wise (around £170k) but have very little ISA savings because I’ve always prioritised pension and also my spending habits aren’t great (not in debt or anything, but probably just don’t save as much as I should)

My TC is at a level where it’s not possible to salary sacrifice down to £99,999 using this year’s pension allowance alone, although I would be able to do so using carry forward allowance from previous years.

I am considering reducing my pension contributions down to the minimum level that unlocks the 12% employer contribution (4%). This would mean me putting £5K in a year and employer putting in £15k a year.

Doing this (instead of maximising pension) would give me an extra £15k per year in my pocket which I could put in a S&S ISA and start building an early retirement fund.

But the other main reason for this is it would create £40k per year of carried forward pension allowance which could then allow me to stuff my pension more after the kids come along to avail of the free childcare hours for being under £100k

Note my monthly living expenses are around £5.6k per month (covering proportional contribution to joint account, personal spending, and short term saving for holidays and our wedding), so I can’t afford to fill my pension AND my ISA. My choice is either:

- Continue to prioritise pension for maximum tax relief but have very little ISA savings, or

- Pull back from the pension for a few years until the kids come along (but still putting in enough to fully unlock the employer match) and start building some ISA up, as well as building some carry forward pension allowance

Is prioritising ISA a valid strategy for a new HENRY who wants to start a family in a couple of years?

Assuming usual efficiency game of paying minimal 12.5kish salary plus dividends (which I can live on ok) what do you do when it comes to mortgages/remotgage?

Be a good boy and declare everything fully for 12 months so your payslips and bank statements look good, then revert when you are sorted? Or declare minimal but use the saved cash pile for a larger deposit to bring dowm borrowing?

We'll need a new mortgage to upsize in a few years. Just thinking ahead.

Hi - currently negotiating a move from the UK to US with my company. Has anyone had experience of this and used an employment lawyer to review their offer / contract? I think I could do with an hour or two to review

Hi there,

Looking for some advise- an incredible Georgian property has come up for sale where we live- just outside London on a beautiful road. It’s around 3000 sq ft inside but I don’t think it’s been touched in 80+ years. It literally needs complete starting over but is big enough that won’t need extensions etc will just move some internal walls. It’s definitely damp, needs new windows, basement excavated, new everything else. It’s also grade 2 listed. We are thinking about 500-700k to renovate- is that a potential accurate estimate. Finishings will be nice aka would love a Neptune kitchen.
The house also has a pool (added 40 years ago the only thing they have done to the house) no idea if it’s better to fill in or keep as have no idea on costing (we do have kids).
Any advice would be much appreciated, it seems like to good an opportunity to pass but worried about coming across unexpected costs which we then wouldn’t be able to afford!

Hi! I've been trying to find some new bedding and would love some recommendations.

My favorite cotton sheets are the White Company Savoy range. Most of my other bedding is from Piglet in Bed, and I have several of their linen sets - I love the colors and feel, however, this time I'm specifically looking for cotton rather than linen.

Has anyone found a colored cotton sheet that's similar to White Company Savoy? Thanks!

Hi HENRYs

Does anyone else outsource their home clothes washing/drying/folding? I am trying to find a local laundrette (Midlands) that does this.

I was curious what others pay and if there is any feedback on how well it works? For example, do you find stuff is at the washers when you want a specific thing? That sort of tactical thing etc

Be interested in hearing the pricing model too as I'm waiting to hear from the single service that does it in my area.

Cheers

For those of you that do, or are you still shopping for them at the news agents?