I’m turning 40 over Christmas and haven’t organised anything - would quite like to just get away with the kids somewhere exciting. We’ve got up to 2 weeks leaving Boxing Day, kids are 6 and 8. Considering South Africa or Thailand but open to anything - any recommendations? Budget about £10-12k.
I’m 39F, married with 2 primary age kids living in London. Assets are:
- pensions (£530k DC pot for me; DB pension which should pay £15k pa and DC pots of about £100k total husband)
- home equity - £600k (50% LTV so big mortgage)
- ISAs (£75k me; £20k husband)
Plus kids JISAs of about £20k each.
My husband loves his job and doesn’t want to stop any time soon (low stress, v flexible, earns c.£45k pa). My job is very stressful and I’m about to be promoted which will increase stress, long hours etc, but salary will be about £350k and should increase from there.
Pensions are fine - I could stop contributing now and would be ok for retirement. The issue is the mortgage and future costs for the kids (university etc).
Options as I see it are (a) downsize now - probably leave London and have no mortgage or a much smaller one, I can do an easier job and be around for the kids more, or (b) take the promotion and save aggressively for next few years with a view to paying off/substantially reducing mortgage and building more savings to retire completely or have more of a buffer before coasting.
Kids are year 4 and year 1, so still young but conscious they may want to spend less time with me as they get older, so maybe time is more valuable now? Equally if I step back now I’ll never be able to earn this much again in future. Wwyd?
We live in East London but are considering moving to Ealing next year, mainly for (what we understand are) the good state secondary schools - kids are young primary atm. Does anyone have any intel on the Twyford trust schools - which is the most sought after, and are there other local schools that are as or more highly rated? We are not C of E but would look at the music aptitude places for Twyford, and my understanding is that the others dont have a faith requirement. Thanks!
Think I’ll get my husband a bike for his birthday - want something that beats my previous best gift of the Sage barista pro. We like cycling with the kids so would be mainly for leisure on mixed terrain. Obviously doesn’t need to be super high spec but I’d like it to look nice. Any recommendations? I was thinking up to £1k budget but not sure how realistic that is.
I feel like there is *something* up with how my 8yo son processes information but not sure quite what.
He doesn’t fit a typical dyslexic profile because he:
- learned to read early (I taught him at 3)
- is top of his class across the board including reading, writing and comprehension, excellent at maths and easily learned all times tables
- always full marks in class spelling tests and has won prizes for handwriting (one of the first in his year to get a pen licence)
- excellent musician and no issues reading music
- if relevant, has excellent fine and gross motor skills - crawled and walked early, riding a pedal bike before 3, v Good hand eye coordination (table tennis whiz)
BUT
- he just does not read for pleasure, despite loving stories (audiobooks and being read to) having a massive vocab
- will avoid reading eg info signs in museums, preferring to ask me what they say
- when reading aloud will skip small words - seems to rush over them
- despite doing well in spelling tests, will make silly mistakes in creative writing - eg still writes “walkd” or “likd”; spelled his sister’s name wrong the other day in a game
- will make spelling mistakes even if the word is there - eg when answering comprehension questions he will spell words from the text incorrectly - perhaps this is also a reflection of him not using written clues to help him. Eg in an unfamiliar topic he will ask me rather than look at instructions
- is ok at following instructions but very poor at answering questions at home - he seems slow on the uptake in conversation compared to his younger sister often (despite being very bright), though this doesn’t seem to be a problem at school (contributes a lot in class, very popular with lots of friends)
There is no family history of dyslexia on either side - in particular reading has always been my biggest skill and passion, so it might be that he’s just normal and I only think he’s unusual because I was such a bookworm. But his younger sister is 5 and already eg reading signs when out and about which he has never done.
There is no question that he is highly intelligent, and his school don’t think there is a problem, but I can’t shake the feeling that there is. Does this sound like dyslexia/something else or is this typical for an 8yo boy?