r/HENRYUK

I am 33F, originally worked in banking and pivoted to tech. I recently tallied up all my accounts and realised I passed the £1M net worth (£500k in pension - not accessible until 59, £200k in property equity (edited: equity split in 2 properties I rent out) , £300 £300k (edited) in ISA) a few months ago. I earn 300k (half of those in tech equity not cash). I have no dependents or debt. I am renting, not owning in London since the interest rate +SDLT make it a less attractive option for me.

Yet I feel burn out and anxious at work. I look at the dark long stretch of 20 more years of grinding ahead of me to just accumulate more and it just seems pointless.
When I was younger I was motivated mostly by fear of not having enough, not financially secured enough.
Now with more than my family ever had in their entire previous generations, I feel even more worried (highest tax burden, my property losing values as interest rate rise, my stock investment volatility etc).
I recently signed up for a few interviews with other companies for the prospect of higher pay (discussed package with recruiters and hiring managers and if I passed the interviews it could be 30% upside) but right now Im questioning my life choices. These jobs are gonna be even more demanding and stressful and I’ll be repeating this cycle.
how does one get out of this?

I’m a junior lawyer in a UK firm (England) working in a niche practice area, and recently had an informal chat with a partner & HR member that things aren’t working.

Her reasons were that my utilisation / busyness is too low (I have screenshots of a partner that I work with not reply to me for weeks across multiple deals, meaning I can’t bill hours until they sign-off on my document drafts), and that my performance is poor (I have very recent feedback from partners that I work with which is very positive). It was a very wishy washy meeting.

The team has (allegedly) been loss-making last month, whilst other teams in this firm are profitable. Employment lawyers that I’ve spoken to suspect it’s a cost related redundancy but packaged as performance related.

The offer is 3 months notice period + 1 month ex gratia salary. The alternative is possibly a PIP (which sounds like a sham process leading to dismissal).

I have just over 2 years continuous employment, and really disagree with their grounds.

I’m liaising with an employment lawyer, but what can I do? What sort of negotiations can I ask for? People say 1 month salary on top of notice is fair, but how can it be fair when I have written evidence of very very recent positive feedback from established partners?

Throwaway account for obvious reasons.

I have been extremely lucky. Before moving to the UK, I joined a company early days and randomly left all my bonuses in stock (they were tiny bonuses, converting seemed like a hassle, didn't feel like doing it). A decade later, they now have IPOed and my silly bonuses are worth four millions (!!). I can't even compute this number.

I will be selling in a month. I will hire a "chartered accountant", but I am quite scared of being taken advantage of, as I am a foreigner and unfamiliar with the ins and outs of British law. I hope to get the community help in sorting three doubts:

1. How do I find a reputable accountant? I use an online service for my regular accounting (160k/year), but never needed anything fancy. I'd prefer a brick and mortar service since I need to move this gigantic amount of money, is there any recommendation?
2. Where can I open a bank account in USD? I have HSBC and they can sort it for me, but my wife has a Monzo account that doesn't seem suitable for large amounts of money (she has a fair less, but still ~2M). Can we go to Chase and open an account? Wouldn't that look super suspicious, to open an account and randomly deposit a couple of millions?
3. How do I pay a million in taxes? I read I can use CHAPS, but the amount unnerves me. Can one call HRMC and ask for help in figuring it out?

We are not at all interested in optimizing for lower taxation, we just want to pay what is due without getting scammed or making expensive mistakes. We are about to get our citizenship and intend to stay here. Thank you for what help you might offer.

Edit to add: thank you everybody for the help and support!
Just a clarification: we are not trying to pay _less_ taxes. I am a firm believer taxes should be paid, and I'm looking forward to paying our share. After all, we've been extremely lucky.

It feels unlikely that HENRYs will be done any favours in the upcoming budget.

But the "British ISA" idea was floated before. Would fellow HENRY's support the British ISA? £5k Tax free investment in UK businesses.

Would bring the ISA allowance up to £25k, but with restrictions. Personally I'm for it. Wondering what others think.

Got an offer for a Staff AI Engineer role at M&S London.
I’m currently a Senior AI IC at a US SaaS company. Engineering culture is great and the tech is pretty cutting-edge, but ownership and direct business impact aren’t always very visible.

M&S sounds like it could be the opposite: more direct ownership of AI products and business problems, but probably a more constrained Azure/Microsoft-heavy environment.

Anyone here worked in M&S Tech/AI? Mainly curious about:
- engineering culture
- M&S vs US SaaS for long-term AI career growth

Hi again! Back on my throwaway! 32F, working in tech! A year ago I posted my first update so I thought l’d come back a year later and share progress, so here goes. If posts like this aren't allowed, mods please remove.

Last time I'd just moved to London from the US, with no familiar faces and nobody close by to celebrate with. A lot of you were really kind about that, and honestly it meant more than the number did. So here's an update on both.

I'm still in London, and yes in Ealing, and it's starting to feel like home. It's still a long way from the US, and the first year is genuinely the hardest, but it's getting easier.

A year ago I crossed £250,000 (about $339K). Today I'm at £322,000 (around $430K), up roughly 29%. I'm still quietly very proud of that, and this time I've got a few of you lot to tell.

The big change this year is that I finally put my cash to work. Last time I was mostly cash and savings, which wasn't exactly the plan. I'm still mainly in various trackers but a lot of the return this year has come from past previous single company investments (invested over a year ago). 2 of the largest were CrowdStrike, and ASML. Again not advice, and consider myself very lucky.

A few reflections, including on last time:

• Last year I said to take your profits because my goal was to buy my first house. I'm still working towards that.
• "Little and often, every month" mattered more than any of the picks. A good chunk of the gain was just paying in.
• Idle cash was costing me more than I realised. I only noticed because I could finally see everything in one place.
• Celebrate your own milestones, they're different for everyone, and I still standby this. But also don't expect everyone to be happy for you.

I’ve actually made a few IRL friends from this Reddit since last time, so thanks to everyone! I’ll try to post more frequent, the ups and downs as we move forward! Now that I've remembered the password to this account!

Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/HENRYUK/comments/1mo5fr9/hit_250k_net_worth_recently_moved_to_the_uk_and/

My company has informed me they're going to make me redundant and offered me a settlement agreement lieu of that (they specify 'risk of redundancy' but essentially they are saying we will make you redundant if you don't accept this).

They've offered me 3 month PILON plus 1 month wages ex gratia. I did some research, spoke to a lawyer and was informed the average tends to be a fair bit higher than that, so I countered for 4 months plus a few others bits. They've come back offering 2 weeks more pay and rejecting the other pieces.

I've worked there for 5 years and earn £115k at director level (basically middle management).

I can obviously keep trying to negotiate, and clearly I am getting lowballed. They do want me to stay and do a handover pre the notice period for a few weeks, but other than the threat of potentially a poor handover (which I don't think they'd feel is the end of the world), I don't really see what cards I hold from a negotiating standpoint. I'm happy to negotiate hard, but you have to actually have some cards in hand, and potentially I'm ignorant of cards I do have from a legal or HR perspective.

Any thoughts on how, or whether, I could actually get a better deal?

Looking for advice on next steps in this difficult (and strange) job market. Been in accounting for the past decade working for some large Fortune 500 companies and have moved to the UK a few years ago from America. Made redundant and now looking for a finance role in London but can't get any bites as I do not hold any accounting qualifications (in the US, you don't need a qualification if you've moved up in industry). Looking for advice on next steps, referrals, and even suggestions on what to to do next. Have been applying for Finance Manager and Finance Controller roles but only getting rejections. Last role paid £130K

Hello,

I wanted to ask has anyone here sought investment for something such as fast food / restaurants, I was looking at raising £150k from a silent partner for the opening of a new fast food chain in London.

It’s a family business currently operating up north (generating roughly £12k per week gross) but I am looking at flying solo down here. Does anybody have any tips / methods of seeking investment for such a proposition. Also want to mention everything is very fragmented so any possibility of investments will be a new investment in a NEW business, other stores / chains won’t be referenced to due the fragmentation of stores, what I mean by this is:

- some have franchise agreements
- some family friends operate businesses with the same name - without paying anything to my family
- a pen and paper is still used in some stores to take down orders

Nevertheless with the above mentioned each store does roughly 12k per week gross, and theres a total of 6 stores operating throughout the midlands.

I understand the above will spook people however this is why I was looking at asking here, as it should be a standalone new business with new paperwork simply operating under the same name.

The question is what is the likelihood of finding an investor for such a business opportunity in London and also where should I look.

Hello, my Lloyds Ultra credit card is expiring in a couple of weeks so I’m looking for a new everyday rewards credit card. I’ll likely spend £20-£25k on it over the next year. My partner and I travel to Europe every two/three months and planning on two long haul trips next year.

I need to wait one more year for Amex sign up bonuses to reset, so therefore Amex is not an option.

I’ve been doing some reading and nothing massively stands out. The Chase 2% seems decent. I have a savings account with them already.

I’m also considering getting a 0% credit card and stoozing for a year by sticking the money into a HYSA / cash ISA.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

My company has just been taken private and all my shares already held plus unvested RSUs were cashed in automatically, big influx about equivalent to what I already had in liquid savings:
Currently about £450k across ISA and GIA, about £450k in pension, influx of another £420k (and about £400k equity on property but with £600k outstanding mortgage). Current total comp around £340k depending how they replace the prior LTIP.

Between the new owners and my job already being one whose main responsibilities wrap up in about a year, I’m not feeling very safe - I’ll be trying over the next several months to turn change into opportunity for the next internal thing (20 years at the company), but seems like redundancy definitely one possible outcome by end of 2027.

Feeling a bit institutionalised to go out job hunting but will probably try to take some next steps early next year if I’m not seeing positive signs internally. Any exit though should come with a pretty good payout safety net on top of existing assets, so I would definitely have some time. It might almost be the trigger to think about FIRE properly (but two teens and about to cover c.7 years of uni costs so don’t feel like I’m going to quite be there yet).

Going to spend some of this new cash - replace the car, home improvements - but majority of it can be just upping the savings/retirement pot. Pension isn’t as high as it ought to be really esp as it will need to cover my wife too.

Not sure I’ve really got a question now I’ve typed this out. Main thing is uncertainty in staying in a job but I think assets should keep me pretty safe for a good while.