u/ForwardFan6283

We started a small garage conversion (90s home - garage is ~8x12). It’s being turned into a room and a commode. The builder’s quote was ~9000£. It was an incredibly low quote and this builder had done work for another family we knew so we engaged them. But their progress is incredibly slow. They may show up 2-3 times a week do some work but it doesn’t seem like things are progressing. The amount was split to 5 payments and we’ve made all except for the final payment. And my understanding is that that happens only after completion. Are they deliberately stalling the work coz there is no more money coming their way. Should we offer them more to hurry things up? As I said the initial quote was much lower than we expected and we do have some money kept aside. Is this normal? How much did it cost others for such conversions?

I was listening to a lecture on the Hebrew Bible patriarchs and got stuck on something: Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel are all described as barren before eventually having children. That’s three generations in a row. I started wondering if there’s a real sociological seed underneath this literary pattern, and wanted to pressure test the idea here.

The observation: In agrarian societies generally, more children usually meant more advantage: more hands for farm labor, more security. So on average, fertility and prosperity would have gone together, and the cultural belief clearly followed that logic too (barrenness treated as a curse, children compared to arrows in a quiver, and so on).
But not every family in that world made its living by farming. Some, like the ancestral figures in Genesis, get ahead through trade, alliances, livestock deals, and outright cunning: Jacob’s stolen birthright and blessing, his flock breeding scheme against Laban, Rebekah orchestrating the blessing switch, Rachel stealing the household idols, Tamar tricking Judah. None of that is farm labor driven wealth. It’s deal making and strategy.

My speculation: maybe there was a real, small subset of households in that world who prospered despite having fewer children. Not because low fertility caused prosperity in general (it clearly didn’t, in a farm labor economy), but because these particular families weren’t playing the farm labor game at all. They ran on trade and strategy instead, and in that mode a woman not tied down by constant childbearing could be an active strategic partner rather than mainly a laborer and caregiver. That seems visible in how consistently sharp and central the women are in these specific stories (Rebekah, Rachel, Tamar).

If a family like that visibly did better than their large family farming neighbors, that would look like a contradiction to everyone around them: barren, yet blessed. And in a culture that explained everything through divine causation, the resolution wasn’t “they succeeded through trade and cleverness,” it was “God opened her womb and blessed them.” The economic mechanism got erased and replaced with a providence narrative.

Where I know this is shaky:
• This can’t really be tested against the text itself. I’m not claiming Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob existed, or that any details are historical, so there’s no way to check the theory against in story specifics. Timing and ages don’t need to line up, but that also means there’s no way to confirm it from the story either.
• There’s a real, separate scholarly tradition treating these as two different motifs: the “barren woman” type scene (about divine election of a chosen line) and the “trickster ancestor” motif (about a disadvantaged son getting ahead through wit). Ugaritic parallels like the Keret Epic (14th century BCE) show the barren then blessed pattern was a shared regional convention about dynastic anxiety, not something specific to small family economics. Nothing in the existing scholarship connects the two motifs through fertility the way I’m doing here.
• The general “quantity quality tradeoff” from parental investment theory is real in modern economics and evolutionary biology, but reviews of the literature suggest it mostly kicks in after the demographic transition. In pre-industrial farming societies, more children reliably correlated with more household wealth, not less. So the mechanism I need (fewer kids, more resources and strategic bandwidth, more prosperity) is swimming against the general current for this era, even if it could still hold for a small non-farming subset.
Curious whether this is a known idea I’m just not aware of, or whether there’s a good reason nobody’s connected it this way.

Disclaimer: I’ve used AI to clean up the text but the idea is mine.

We bought our first home but know this is not the forever home. What’s a typical length of time to be in a house. Build equity and some price appreciation (we bought cheap in a good area) before getting a bigger place. I know it is twice the legal costs, moving costs etc. We’re thinking 5 years coz it gives us a 25 year mortgage for the new place but does this have to be longer? Say 10? I know there are no rules when you can sell or buy a place but asking from a practical and financial point of view.

Academia is not famed for generous pay. However I’m curious what people are managing to save/invest in a permanent academic job. The DB pension is a good guaranteed income at 67-68 but I was wondering if early retirement with S&S ISA is possible. Anyone able to retire at say 55-60 with a nice DC/ISA/LISA pot?

We bought an EV for 30k. 9.5k deposit including part exchange plus a 4.9% interest auto loan. Monthly payment of 380£ for 5 years and other expenses (insurance, service, maintenance etc) averages around 150£/mo. Total cost of ownership 530£/mo. We’re keeping this car for at-least 8-10 years or longer.

Combined monthly take home income 6000£/mo (after pension is deducted). We are contributing to a DB (mine) and DC (partners-16% of gross income) pension and 20% of take home pay to a S&S ISA. The purchase doesn’t really derail anything except for deviating from the FIRE philosophy of buying a used car for full cash. We have a 20 year time horizon to retirement. I think the car purchase is okay as long as the long term goals are on track. What does the community think?

The numbers say it costed around 12Cr to make and made around 17Cr. Now that’s not a flop but not a huge success either. And honestly I think that’s the status it deserves and here’s why.

When I saw the movie I liked it. Making was good. The mid lag didn’t really bother me and Naslen was great in it. And if things had stopped there I would have been disappointed with the box office number and would be here saying it deserved more.

But then I opened Reddit and YouTube and went into a rabbit hole about the “real” people in MT, ASN is Vineeth and Basil is Arjun Haridas conspiracy theories. And overall I was cringing about what was done in the movie.

There is a YT live with all these guys. ASN, Basil, Vineeth and in that it is clear that the brilliant director didn’t give the full script to anyone. So Basil when he acted in this movie didn’t know that he is going to be portrayed as a plagiarist with no real talent who survives with his like-ability. This itself is backstabbing someone who is supporting you. Basil aa video lu chirich joke okke cheyyunnundenkilum you can see he feels the betrayal.

I think this movie is made of half truths. ASN seems like a petty, vindictive and jealous guy who cannot accept that somehow his less talented colleague who doesn’t know world class directors and movies became more successful than him. He tells himself this happened because Basil was like-able and he is this brilliant nonchalant genius whom no one gets. It’s narcissistic.

Enthokke director brilliance nnu paranjaalum koode ninna oraale ingane samsayathinte nizhalilekk itt koduthitt poyirunnu njn revenge eduthannanu ennu pretend cheyyunnath shudha thenditharam aanu. I have zero respect for this guy. And he doesn’t deserve the brilliant genius master filmmaker titles people are giving him. He is a narcissistic human being. He is not Vineeth Madhavan he is Mukundan Unni.

There I’ve said it. I expect this is not going to be a popular opinion here but it had to be said.

Mollywood times (MT) erangiyappo udayanaanu thaaram (UT) movie yumaayi comparison kore vannu. Cinema kkullile cinema. Criticising many of the stuff in the industry and getting the very actor you criticise to act in it. I’m reminded of Mohanlal and the pappadam export joke. Role reversal between Mohanlal and Sreenivaasan.

Pakshe ee padathil Basil ne kaliyaakki yirikkunnath true or not it’s in a backhanded way. Basil or any others don’t know the full story or script. So koodeyulla oraale support cheyyaan poyi abhinayichitt theatre lu povumbo realising that you are implicated and accused of plagiarism in the movie.

And pappadam, ego joke pole alla an accusation on plagiarism. It invalidates everything you did and achieved so far. Unless Basil was aware of what’s gonna happen this is not an innocent joke to be treated lightly. Cinema lu paranja ellaarum underdog nte koode nikkum nnullath appo ASN misuse cheyyuvalle. Basil is hugely successful now ASN is the underdog so enth paranjaalum kozhpilla ennaano? Overall the more I think about it doesn’t seem right.

Enjoyed the movie but oru question.

Ithil Harris Basheer nte character Vineeth nte movie sabotage cheyyaan nokkunnath oru tax reason paranjittaanu. They nicely explain it using an infographic.

Ithaanu logic: Say HB make 500Cr last year. Athil 150Cr tax adakkanom. So he makes a low budget movie for 10Cr and shows in paper that it costs 35Cr to make. Now when the movie flops he can declare losses of 35Cr and he needs to pay only 115Cr tax. Net he has 500-10 (making of movie) - 115 = 375 Cr

This is fine. Apparently something movie industry does. Pakshe ee tax dodge nadappilaakkan hit aavaan saadyatha ulla oru padathine pottikkanda kaaryam illaa. Let’s say Vineeth’s movie hit aayi it makes 50Cr. Now HB has 550Cr. Athil puthiya padathinte profitnum cherth 154.5 tax kodukkanom. Net kaiyil 385.5Cr (550-10-154.5).

Pinne enthinaanu HB movie ne intentionally sabotage cheyyaan nokkunnath? Theatre lu vannirunnu I just wanted to make sure it was empty nnokke parayunnath. It doesn’t make sense.

Harikkumbozhum gunikkumbozhum utharam seriyaavunnilla.

Is it like Lecturer but research focused?

I work in a job earning 54k salary plus bonus. Recently our company offered VS for 45k + 3 months pay (13500). 30k of 45k is tax free and in the 3 months pay what’s left of my 12.5k allowance would be tax free. My job is not currently under threat. But I can take the offer if I want. I’ve been looking into changing jobs for a while now but held off due to life events. We bought a home last year have 188k mortgage left on it (~50k equity and 1000£ mortgage payment). 47k in pension (just mine, partner has DB), 30k in S&S ISA and another 10k in cash emergency fund. Partner is employed and we could manage our fixed costs with partner’s income alone if we tightened our budget. So until I find a job we won’t have any additional savings or investments but we won’t have to drain our reserves either. Would you take it? The job market is dull so I may have to up-skill and it may take a while (say 1 year) to find the next job.

Another way to look at it would be I’ll be adding ~50k to our wealth in one go. So even if we don’t save or invest for a year it’s okay.

The redundancy is due to one of the divisions getting shut down. I got reassigned to another division which is profitable. So my job is not immediately under threat. But the VS offer is open to all.

I work in a job earning 54k salary plus bonus. Recently our company offered VS for 45k + 3 months pay (13500). 30k of 45k is tax free and the 3 months pay is also tax free. My job is not currently under threat. But I can take the offer if I want. I’ve been looking into changing jobs for a while now but held off due to life events. We bought a home last year have 188k mortgage left on it. 47k in pension, 30k in S&S ISA and another 10k in cash emergency fund. Partner is employed and we could manage our fixed costs with partner’s income alone if we tightened our budget. So until I find a job we won’t have any additional savings or investments but we won’t have to drain our reserves either. Would you take it? The job market is dull so I may have to up-skill and it may take a while to find the next job.

Hi we are an immigrant family residing in a mostly white neighbourhood. In our country if you have some food leftover from a party or something it is customary to distribute it to neighbours. Now we have a cordial relationship with our neighbours. Say hi and chit chat for a while when we see them outside. Not friendship but very polite coexistence. Twice (in the course of a year) we’ve given them some food we prepared. First it was some sweets we prepared at home when we first moved in sort of like a housewarming thing. Next we had a party (not at home) and had lots of our traditional snacks left over from it. Whenever we gave we’ve been careful to specify the ingredients and the spice levels so that if they have allergies or if they give it to kids they can be careful. Is it okay to do this? We would really love to share our food but I don’t want to step over any boundaries. They’ve been really polite in accepting the food and talks very nicely every time we meet but I don’t know if they are just being polite so as not to offend us. Honest opinion on what you would think if your neighbour offers food.

Thank you for the overwhelming positive response. I won’t worry about it anymore 🙂

Just got curious from the financial asset statements of some actors during the recent election. I’m not talking about stars like the A10s and R10s. They’ll be obviously filthy rich. I’m talking about someone like Ramesh Pisharody. Popular actor but not in the star category. I read somewhere that in the recent election he declared assets of around 3Cr. Is this accurate or even in the ballpark of accurate? To me it sounds less. I’m thinking he must have more but maybe in the name of family members. What do you think is the Net Worth of a popular actor or director or technician in the Malayalam film industry? Again not those in the top 1% but someone with above average success.

Hi we are doing some home improvement works and took a quote for a downstairs bathroom (no shower) fittings : £1600 for the toilet + sink and bathroom tiles for floor and wall total area 10-15m2. The quote also includes everything needed to fix the tiles grout and cement board. The quote is from a good quality supplier although not luxury. Is this reasonable? Someone who has done their bathroom recently please respond.

The quote is just for the fittings (material alone) not labour. We are doing a garage conversion and we’re just buying this for the builder. He will do the fittings.

Hi we are doing a downstairs bathroom (no shower) and got a quote for £1600 for the toilet + sink and bathroom tiles for floor and wall total area 10-15m2. The quote also includes everything needed to fix the tiles grout and cement board. The quote is from a good quality supplier although not luxury. Is this reasonable? Someone who has done their bathroom recently please respond.

Hi we are doing a downstairs bathroom (no shower) and got a quote for £1600 for the toilet + sink and bathroom tiles for floor and wall total area 10-15m2. The quote also includes everything needed to fix the tiles grout and cement board. The quote is from a good quality supplier in town although not luxury. Is this reasonable? Someone who has done their bathroom recently please respond.

The quote is just for the fittings (material alone) not labour. We are doing a garage conversion and we’re just buying this for the builder. He will do the fittings.

So there are the repeated job cuts and “voluntary” severance news coming from various UK universities and I know we are going through a crisis. You need to cut 200FTEs for the university to be sustainable etc etc. I know approximately what the academics earn in these universities. Starting from 40k to somewhere around 80k if you are a Professor. Now I know that some earn up to 100k or more depending on a lot of other factors but I’m talking about the majority. Support staff also earns something similar if not lower. I recently saw a post that if a VC takes I pay cut that could save 2-3 such FTEs. So wondering how much do the “higher ups” or decision makers actually make in these universities. Now I’m not judging how much anyone deserves. It might be a very small number of people who actually make this kind of money. Since many of these recruitments are internal or invitation based I’m not sure where to check for this information. If anyone knows please share.

I immigrated to the UK from India in 2021. It’s 2026 and I’ve already seen 5 Prime Ministers. On one hand I like that no one individual has a lot of power here. If you screw up you need to go. We have our Modi ji and his Modi bhakts (devotees) in the country and the man has sort of a God like persona which is not healthy. Criticise him you are anti-national. Coming from that I sort of like this power people have over political leaders. But 5 in 5 years isn’t it too many? What do people who have been born and brought up here think of this?

Wondering what’s life like if you have a combined income of 100k.