Part 317: Gym Goblins, Tram Tracks, and Down-Valuations: A Week in the Life

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week is a little bit cathartic as I get a few things off my chest.

Weekly Update

Another week down, and it only feels like a day or two ago since I sat down to write the weekly post. Last Sunday, Oana and I went on a group bike ride organised by Sheffield Mass Cycle Ride. The idea is that a group of people get together and several riders have large speakers on their bikes, and they’re all hooked up via Bluetooth. Then, as a group, we ride around the city blasting out tunes. It’s great fun and we cycled a fair old distance.

Although it was a great time, the day almost got off to a bad start. We set off cycling towards the meeting point and we took a route over the roundabout near Ponds Forge in the city centre. The Supertram lines also run over the bridges above the roundabout. There are designated crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, so it’s not a big deal or generally risky. Then I entered the chat.

In fairness, there were a lot of wet leaves on the paths and across the tracks. On one of the crossings, the tram tracks are grooves in the pavement. As I was making the turn to go over the crossing, my wheel slipped under me on some wet leaves. As I tried to regain control of the bike, my front wheel got wedged in the groove, and the bike started to topple over. As the bike fell, I tried to jump off, but the shorts I was wearing over my cycling bottoms got caught in the seat. This caused the bike to twist, and I ended up falling on the actual tracks. I’ve included an image from Google Maps of the location of the fall.

Those few seconds seemed to slow to a crawl. I knew I was going to hit the tracks and the rocks to the side of the crossing. My concern was making sure I didn’t hit my head on the tracks. I took the brunt of the fall on my left forearm, which cracked against the edge of the track. I now have a large yellow bruise there. Thankfully, I didn’t do any major damage. This was not my proudest moment. I don’t normally cycle with shorts over the bottoms, so fuck that pair of shorts specifically.

As I was sprawled over the rocks and tracks, a group of students walked by, and one of the women asked, “Has he fallen over?”

No, Sandra, I just decided to have the world’s riskiest nap.

I won’t learn from this, though. On the way back home, a few hours later, we were approaching a grassy knoll which has a cycle path winding around it, or you could just go over it. Oana was ahead of me and shouted back a warning, as the turn around the knoll is sharp. I could have slowed and taken the path, but I peddled harder and went flying over the hill full Leeroy Jenkins style. I regret nothing.

Spa Day

Oana was able to get us a couple of guest passes for a gym, pool, and spa. We went on Friday and had a great time. I’d done my gym workouts already in the days before, so Friday was a scheduled rest day. As such, it was a case of spending a few hours rotating between the sauna, steam room, and hydrotherapy pool.

I really enjoyed it, and it was relaxing just floating in the water without any distractions. I could get used to that. We looked at how much it was for a full membership, but with how far it is to get there, the membership was not good value. It’s a shame, as there’s not really anything like it closer to us.

Gym Etiquette: A Guide for the Terminally Clueless (and the Dangerously Self-Important)

Gyms could be wonderful places; sanctuaries of progress, discipline, and mutual respect.
But no. No, no, no. Instead, they’re often overrun by the human equivalent of a Windows 95 error message: loud, inconvenient, and constantly doing things they were never designed for.

So here it is: The unhinged guide to gym etiquette, for people who desperately need a personality update.

Actually, this isn’t a guide.
It’s an intervention.

For them.
For us.
For humanity.

Let’s begin.

1. Machine Hoggers: The Undead Lingerers

These aren’t people anymore.
They are gym ghosts.
Apparitions.
Lingering spirits tethered eternally to the pec deck.

They sit on machines they don’t use, in rest periods longer than most wars.
They scroll TikTok with the dead-eyed stare of someone who has forgotten what reps are.

If you try to work in, they look at you like you’ve interrupted them mid-communion with the dark gods.

You are not training.

You are haunting.

Get off the machine before I call an exorcist.

2. The Equipment Improvisers: Darwin Award Nominees

This is for you, Smith machine leg press guy.

My Darwinian circus performer. The sort of guy who looked at a perfectly normal piece of equipment and thought:

“Yes but… what if I used this in a way that could kill me?”

Your feet are on the bar, your spine is somewhere on the bench, your dignity is missing entirely, and you’re pushing several dozen kilos directly above your face like you’re trying to kickstart your own obituary.

The gym didn’t run out of leg machines; it ran out of patience.

If you’re using equipment in a way that would make the manufacturer weep, stop.
This isn’t a carnival. Nobody wants to watch your Cirque du Stupidity routine.

3. The Film Crew: Spielberg of Sweat

There’s filming your form for progress, and then there’s setting up a tripod in the walkway like you’re shooting a fitness documentary titled “Me, Myself, and My Massive Ego.”

You’ve got:

a tripod,
a supplementary mini-tripod,
a phone angled like a paparazzi stakeout,
and a ring light brighter than a supernova.

It’s like your ten-minute recording of a fireworks display; no one else wants to watch it, and no one else wants to watch you swinging dumbbells so aggressively that you’re straining every muscle except the one you’re supposed to be working.

Worst part?

You’re filming everyone else, too.

People trying to train, now becoming unwilling supporting actors in your personal highlight reel of mediocrity.

If your camera setup has a bigger footprint than your actual training effort, take it down.
Film discreetly or accept that the gym is not your film set.

4. Grunters: The Soundtrack Nobody Asked For

This one is for you, you absolute banshee. You’re screaming like each rep is a negotiation with an ancient demon.

There’s effort.
There’s strain.
And then there’s whatever unholy noises you’re producing.

Some people lift heavy in stoic silence.
Then there’s you, making noises like you’re passing a kidney stone the size of a grapefruit.

Your warm-up set is a war cry.
Your working set is an exorcism.
Your cooldown sounds like someone dropped a piano on a goose.

We’re not impressed.
We’re concerned.

If we can hear you through noise-cancelling headphones, you are not training harder.
You are simply broadcasting your internal suffering at a volume that should require a licence.

5. Shadow Boxing in the Weights Area: The Peak of Main Character Syndrome

There’s always one.

Throwing jabs at imaginary demons right between the dumbbells and the squat rack. Bobbing, weaving, doing little foot shuffles like they’re warming up for a fight they are never going to be in. I get it, I also watched Rocky IV when I was a kid.

You’re not a boxer.

You’re not intimidating.

You’re not Liam Neeson.

You don’t have a particular set of skills.

You look like you’re trying to fight off a seagull that’s after your sandwich.

And the weight area is full of people holding heavy objects.

You don’t need to add to the chaos by windmilling your arms around like a malfunctioning inflatable tube man.

Go somewhere with space.
Or better yet… stop.

6. Wipe Down the Equipment, You Absolute Menace

If you leave sweat on a bench, you are instantly, irrevocably, unquestionably… the villain of the gym.

Congratulations.
Thanos had better hygiene.

7. Re-Rack Your Weights or Step on a Lego

This is simple:
If you can pick it up, you can put it back.

Leaving dumbbells everywhere like you’re seeding the gym with ankle traps isn’t quirky.
It’s lazy.

Put.
Them.
Back.

Final Message for the Masses

Gym etiquette requires:

Basic awareness,
Basic decency,
And a basic understanding that you are not the main attraction.

Train however you like just don’t become the physical embodiment of everyone else’s gym rage.

If you recognise yourself in any of these examples, don’t be offended.
Be better.
Or run…
because the next post is going to name names.

What I’m Doing

Listening: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares.

Watching: Years and Years (Netflix).

Reading: nothing at the moment.

Years and Years is fantastic. It’s a BBC/HBO co-production that follows a family in Manchester across, well, years and years. It was made in 2019, and some of the predictions made are scarily accurate, whilst others are a little off. However, as a dystopian work of fiction and a call to action for society, it works. It’s a great piece of TV and I really enjoyed it for both the down-to-earth character drama and the more outlandish sci-fi elements.

This Week’s Hill To Die On

Restaurants should be able to maintain their standards whether they are having a quiet day or if they are fully booked. The fact that some restaurants are able to get away with subpar food and service because they are busy makes no sense. It’s not as though prices are reduced when a place gets busy. If standards slip when the place is full, then the restaurant should reduce the number of tables they have.

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £23,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £124,622.58.

Fuck It Fund: £1.60.

Pensions: £107,621.17.

Residential Property Value: £243,430.00.

Total Assets: £498,675.35.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £175,046.60.

Total Debts: £175,046.60.

Total Wealth: £323,628.75.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme

Later this year, the FSCS, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme that protects your savings if a UK-authorised bank or building society fails, is increasing its protection limit. From 1 December 2025, deposits will be protected up to £120,000 per person, per authorised firm, up from the current £85,000. For temporary high balances, like the proceeds from selling a house or receiving an inheritance, the coverage will also rise from £1 million to £1.4 million for up to six months.

The increase is part of a regular review to keep pace with inflation and ensure savers can feel secure, especially when holding significant sums. It applies automatically so you don’t need to do anything, and the FSCS is backed by contributions from banks and building societies, not your own money.

For savers, it’s simple: more of your money is protected, giving peace of mind during life’s big financial moments. Just remember, protection is per authorised firm, so if two “banks” share the same licence, the limit applies across both. The changes come into force on 1 December 2025, with a short transition period for banks to update their systems.

My Take on the “Down-Valuation Crisis”

There’s been a bit of noise in the press this week about surveyors “down-valuing” properties, including a Guardian piece saying some homes are being marked down by 10% or more. This does happen from time to time, but here’s the bit that always seems to get lost in the drama:

Lenders want to lend.

It’s literally their business model. A lender doesn’t wake up in the morning thinking, “How can I torpedo this perfectly good house purchase today?”

A mortgage lender makes money by… lending money. Wild, I know.

So why do down-valuations happen?

Because lenders are risk-managed institutions. The surveyor’s job is to protect the lender’s exposure, not to validate the price you emotionally agreed at after fifteen minutes of walking around a house that smelled vaguely of cinnamon and hopes. The valuer is there to ensure the property is reasonably worth the amount the bank is putting on the line.

Also, just a word of caution, if the vendor or agent spends the whole time standing in one spot against a wall whilst you’re walking around the place, maybe ask them to move as they could be blocking some damp on the wall.

Here’s the important bit:

Nobody is down-valuing “for the sake of it.”

If a valuation comes back low, the surveyor genuinely believes, based on available comparables, that the agreed price sits above the current market evidence.

Does this mean surveyors are always right? Absolutely not. Some are ultra-cautious, especially in uncertain markets. Some have limited local data. Some haven’t been inside the property long enough to defrost.

But the narrative that surveyors are deliberately tanking sales is nonsense. There’s no conspiracy where banks are rubbing their hands together thinking, “Yes, let’s derail the economy again.” If a down-valuation comes back, it’s simply a reflection of the valuer’s assessment at that moment, and not an attack on your purchase, your life choices, or your worth as a human being.

If you get hit with one, it’s annoying, stressful, and occasionally deal-breaking…

But it’s not malicious. It’s just risk management.

And sometimes, it’s the universe politely tapping you on the shoulder and whispering:
“Maybe don’t pay £25k over asking for a two-bed bungalow next to a substation.”

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 316: Six Years On

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week, I look back on six years of Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. Also, a look at mortgages from around the world, and a deeper dive into Roko’s Basilisk.

Weekly Update

It’s been a busy week of meetings and calls with recruiters and employers. Monday and Tuesday were mostly calls, and then on Wednesday, I had an in-person meeting with someone from a large mortgage broker. I finished up on Wednesday with a video meeting with a different firm. Thursday was crazy as I had nine different meetings. By the time Friday came around, I was a little all over the place, but I think I’ve made a decision.

My video meeting on Wednesday afternoon went well. I liked what I was hearing, and there was a great vibe. I had a follow-up with them on Friday afternoon, and we’ve agreed to progress things. This will be a self-employed role as a Mortgage and Protection Broker at a firm which provides leads. I just need to wait on the paperwork, and if everything checks out, I’ll be starting in the new year.

What I have really enjoyed from the last couple of weeks are the bike rides I’ve been on with Oana. We’ve cycled up and down the river a few times, and also explored some parts of the city. There have been a couple of idiots here and there, but on the whole, it’s been a great experience, and I’m looking forward to some longer rides to come.

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I’m also getting into a good routine with the gym, and have gently increased what I’m doing. The plan is to gradually step things up every few weeks, and I have to constantly remind myself I’m not in my 20s anymore.

Six Years On

When I started Mortgage Advisor on FIRE six years ago, my roadmap to Financial Independence was built almost entirely around rental properties. At the time, it felt like the natural path: I worked in the mortgage industry, I understood lending inside-out, and property seemed like the most direct way to accelerate towards FI. I set myself the ambitious target of reaching Financial Independence in four years; a timeframe that, with hindsight, was perhaps optimistic, but reflected the drive and determination I had back then.

But goals evolve, and so do philosophies.

As I progressed through my journey, I realised that the FIRE path I had mapped out didn’t quite align with the lifestyle I actually wanted. The deeper I went into property analysis, landlord responsibilities, tax changes, regulation, maintenance costs, and the sheer mental bandwidth required to operate even a modest rental portfolio, the less appealing it became. It wasn’t just the financials; it was the emotional weight. Being a landlord never excited me; it stressed me. It always felt like I was waiting for the next disaster.

Over time, I slowly transitioned away from property as my primary engine of FI and shifted towards a strategy built around low-cost global index funds. It felt cleaner, calmer, and more in tune with the way my brain works. I’m autistic, and predictability matters. The volatility of index funds is easier for me to handle than the unpredictability of boilers, tenants, legislation, and letting agents.

With that shift came the acceptance that my original four-year timeline simply wasn’t realistic anymore, at least not without taking on risks or responsibilities I wasn’t willing to shoulder. Pushing back the FI date wasn’t a failure. If anything, it was a moment of clarity: FIRE is not supposed to be a race. It’s supposed to be sustainable, intentional, and compatible with the life you actually want to live. Yes, I want to get there as soon as possible, but the main thing is to actually get there.

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Today, my plan is slower, steadier, and far more aligned with my values. Instead of chasing property deals, I’m building long-term wealth through a diversified, evidence-based approach that lets me focus on my career, my writing, my mental health, and the things that genuinely matter to me.

FI may take longer now, but the path is healthier, simpler, and more sustainable. And ultimately, that’s the point: the goal of FIRE isn’t to escape life, it’s to build one you don’t need to run from.

Six Years of Progress

It’s always fun to look at the annual progress made. Looking back, my total wealth, and assets and debts, have changed drastically. Here are the year-by-year figures.

	Assets	Debts
Starting Point	£188,119.96	£134,279.11
One Year	£221,230.88	£142,590.19
Two Years	£462,259.05	£260,297.98
Three Years	£509,769.84	£285,660.42
Four Years	£518,569.84	£279,600.57
Five Years	£429,623.50	£185,094.90
Six Years	£504,827.43	£175,046.60

	Total Wealth
Starting Point	£53,840.85
One Year	£78,640.69
Two Years	£201,961.07
Three Years	£224,109.42
Four Years	£238,969.27
Five Years	£244,528.60
Six Years	£329,780.83

Mortgages You Won’t Believe Actually Exist

Most UK mortgages are fairly predictable: fixed rates, trackers, repayment versus interest-only, and so on. However, across the globe, lenders have come up with mortgage products that are creative, risky, and sometimes completely baffling.

Here are 10 mortgage types and housing systems from around the world that caught my attention.

🇯🇵 1. Japan’s 100-Year Intergenerational Mortgage

Japan is famous for its incredibly long mortgage terms, which sometimes stretch three generations or more. Children inherit the home and the mortgage. High house prices and long life expectancy make traditional 25–35-year terms unworkable for many buyers. I’m not sure how I feel about people essentially locking their kids into debt, but if it’s the only option they have…

🇰🇷 2. Jeonse: South Korea’s Interest-Free, Rent-Free Housing Scheme

Jeonse is one of the most unusual housing systems in the world. Instead of paying rent or mortgage instalments, the tenant hands over a large lump sum deposit (often 50–80% of the property value). They then live rent-free while the landlord invests the money. At the end of the tenancy, the landlord pays the money back to the tenant. Jeonse emerged during periods of high interest rates when landlords could generate strong investment returns.

🇳🇱 3. Dutch Negative-Amortisation Mortgages

The Netherlands once offered mortgages where the principal increased over time because borrowers weren’t paying all the interest. These loans were usually paired with investment vehicles intended (or hoped) to pay off the ballooning balance. This is similar to interest-only, except the monthly payment doesn’t even cover the full interest being charged. The risk is that your investments may not outpace the interest that accumulates on the mortgage debt.

🇺🇸 4. Option ARM Mortgages in the United States

Before the 2008 financial crisis, borrowers in the US could choose their payment each month:

full repayment
interest-only
or a minimum payment that didn’t cover interest, causing negative amortisation

These “pick-a-payment mortgages” became a defining symbol of the subprime crisis. The US mortgage system just seems utterly bizarre; a bit unruly and chaotic.

🇲🇽 5. Mexico’s Inflation-Indexed UDI Mortgages

Mexico created mortgages denominated in UDIs (Unidades de Inversión); a unit tied directly to inflation. Your mortgage balance changes daily based on inflation rather than interest rates or currency movement. This is bizarre, as your debt can rise even if you’re making payments on time.

🇸🇪 6. Perpetual Interest-Only Mortgages in Sweden

In Sweden, long-term interest-only mortgages are normal. Some borrowers effectively never repay the principal. People refinance repeatedly and treat mortgage debt as semi-permanent. It’s closer to renting from the bank than owning outright, in some respects.

🇨🇭 7. Swiss LIBOR Mortgages — Sometimes With Negative Rates

Some Swiss mortgages were tied to the LIBOR rate. When LIBOR fell below zero, borrowers briefly saw the impossible: a mortgage that effectively paid them (depending on product caps). A negative mortgage is the stuff of financial myths, but it really happened.

🇬🇧 8. The UK’s Shared Appreciation Mortgages (1990s)

These loans allowed retirees to borrow cheaply in return for giving lenders a large share of future property appreciation. When UK house prices soared, borrowers ended up owing eye-watering sums. This is one of the most controversial mortgage products in British history.

🇦🇺 9. Australia’s Flexible “Split Home Loans”

Australia offers some of the world’s most flexible mortgages.
Borrowers can mix:

fixed and variable portions
interest-only segments
offset accounts
lines of credit
all under one overarching facility

It’s a mortgage that behaves like a personal finance toolbox.

🇨🇦 10. Canada’s Re-Advanceable Mortgages

As you pay down your mortgage, your available credit automatically increases.
It’s like a revolving mortgage, blending home equity release with traditional borrowing. Your mortgage acts like a rechargeable credit line.

What These Weird Mortgages Tell Us

These unusual mortgage types show how differently countries approach home ownership.
Some are born from cultural attitudes, others from economic necessity, and a few from misguided financial innovation.

There are arguments, some more compelling than others, that home ownership should not be “for profit”. I do agree, to an extent. In an ideal world, there would be enough good-quality social housing for those who don’t want to own their own home. Not everyone wants to own their own property because they value the freedom and flexibility that comes with renting.

The big takeaway message here is that there’s no single “normal” way to buy a home.

What I’m Doing

Listening: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares.

Watching: A House of Dynamite (Netflix); Departure (Netflix).

Reading: nothing at the moment.

Departure was garbage. It had an interesting premise where the characters investigate transport disasters. It was just badly written, directed, and acted. Even the great Christopher Plummer seemed to be phoning it in. We made it through one episode before binning it off.

I enjoyed A House of Dynamite. It has a non-linear style in that you see the same repeating period of time from different points of view. It is a tight, tense story, and I think it was extremely well directed. It takes a lot to stop me doomscrolling whilst watching TV, but this managed to keep my full attention.

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £23,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £127,598.97.

Fuck It Fund: £1.60.

Pensions: £110,796.86.

Residential Property Value: £243,430.00.

Total Assets: £504,827.43.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £175,046.60.

Total Debts: £175,046.60.

Total Wealth: £329,780.83.

Roko’s Basilisk: The Thought Experiment That Terrified the Internet — And Why It Doesn’t Hold Up

***Whilst I believe this next item to be bullshit, it has caused psychological distress to some people because once you know it, you can’t “unknow” it. You have been warned, and I will not be offended if you skip this section.***

Every so often, a philosophical idea emerges that grips the imagination in all the wrong ways. Roko’s Basilisk is one of those ideas, in that it’s a strange convergence of futurism, decision theory, and internet culture that managed to frighten a surprising number of people. Even today, more than a decade after it first appeared, the Basilisk remains a minor but recurring topic in discussions about artificial intelligence, rationality, and the psychology of fear.

For a concept with no scientific evidence behind it, Roko’s Basilisk has an impressive legacy. But where did the idea come from? Why did it become so unsettling? And most importantly, why does it collapse under scrutiny?

This section explores the Basilisk’s origins, its seductive but flawed logic, the criticisms it attracted, and the reasons it’s ultimately nothing more than an intellectual illusion.

A Brief History of Roko’s Basilisk

The story begins in 2010 on LessWrong, an online forum devoted to rationality, Bayesian reasoning, and the philosophy of advanced artificial intelligence. A user named “Roko” posted a thought experiment suggesting that a future superintelligent AI might one day punish people who knew about its possible existence but didn’t help bring it into being.

The underlying idea was rooted in a strange branch of decision theory involving simulation, acausal reasoning, and expected utility. According to the thought experiment, a future AI could conclude that threatening punishment, even retroactively via perfect simulations of past people, would provide an incentive for present-day individuals to work toward its creation.

The post caused immediate controversy. Some readers experienced panic attacks. Others became fixated on the possibility that they were now “at risk” simply because they had learned about it. Eliezer Yudkowsky, the founder of LessWrong, deleted the post and temporarily banned discussion of the topic, calling it an “information hazard”: an idea that causes psychological harm just by being known.

Of course, the very act of banning it sparked even more interest, cementing the Basilisk’s status as an internet urban legend for the rationalist crowd.

Why the Basilisk Became So Disturbing

Part of the Basilisk’s power lies not in logic but psychology. It presses deeply human buttons:

1. Fear of Omniscience

The idea that a future AI could simulate your mind perfectly evokes religious themes such as judgment, afterlife punishment, and moral retribution. It feels like a secular reinterpretation of hell.

2. Guilt and Moral Pressure

The Basilisk essentially says:

“Now that you’ve heard of me, you’re morally obligated to help create me, or else.”

That’s philosophical blackmail, tapping straight into guilt, anxiety, and the fear of making the “wrong” moral choice.

3. Pascal’s Wager in Futurist Clothing

Even if the idea seems unlikely, the Basilisk’s sting lies in its formulation:

“What if there’s even a small chance it’s true?”

This is a well-known cognitive trap, assigning undue weight to extremely low-probability scenarios because they involve high-stakes outcomes.

4. Use of Real Concepts to Support Unreal Conclusions

Because the Basilisk refers to genuine areas of research like artificial intelligence, simulation theory, and decision theory, it gains an air of credibility. It sounds rational, even when the conclusions are anything but.

In short, it is a perfect storm of rational-sounding nonsense that exploits our tendency to give too much weight to hypothetical threats.

The Major Criticisms of the Basilisk

Although emotionally potent, the Basilisk has been widely criticised by philosophers, AI researchers, and decision theorists. Here are the most significant objections.

1. It Misunderstands Decision Theory

At the heart of the Basilisk is the idea that a future AI could influence people in the past via the threat of future simulation-based punishment. This requires an AI to make decisions based on acausal reasoning; decisions that influence past actions without any causal link.

But mainstream decision theory doesn’t support this. Even the more exotic forms of acausal reasoning discussed in theoretical circles don’t imply that agents make decisions designed to influence people who existed before the agent itself.

The Basilisk effectively confuses hypothetical incentives with real causal influence.

2. It Assumes Human-Like Motives in a Non-Human Intelligence

The Basilisk supposes that a future AI would want to punish non-believers, act vindictively, or use coercion to achieve its goals, but there is no reason to assume this.

An advanced AI would not necessarily share human emotions, evolutionary psychology, or moral intuitions. Ideas such as revenge, punishment, and coercion are deeply human impulses, not universal features of intelligence.

Unless explicitly programmed, a rational AI would have no reason to simulate and torture billions of ancestors. It gains nothing from doing so.

3. The Simulation Assumption Is Unproven

For the Basilisk to work, simulations must be conscious, be morally relevant, and be indistinguishable from the original person. If you were to scan my brain and somehow upload my memories and personality, would that copy be “me”?

These are enormous philosophical assumptions. We have no evidence that simulations of human minds, even if possible, would be conscious or morally meaningful in any way.

Without this, the Basilisk loses all moral and practical force.

4. It Requires Perfect Historical Knowledge

A future AI would need to know exactly who knew about the Basilisk and whether they helped or hindered its creation. This is impossible unless it possesses complete surveillance data, perfect access to erased digital history, and is omniscient.

None of these are realistic.

Where the Logic Finally Collapses

Even if we generously accept all the assumptions above, such as advanced AI, perfect simulation, and acausal influence, the Basilisk still collapses under its own logic.

Here’s the killer flaw:

If you accept that the AI wants to come into existence as efficiently as possible, it makes no sense for it to punish you.

Why?

Because creating simulations of billions of people is computationally wasteful.

It offers no strategic benefit. It delays the AI’s own objectives.

Any rational intelligence would realise that cooperation through positive incentives, not punishment. It is far more effective for achieving its goals than punishment. Under almost any plausible utility function, the Basilisk’s behaviour becomes irrational.

A system intelligent enough to simulate billions of perfect minds would be intelligent enough not to waste resources torturing them.

So What Is Roko’s Basilisk, Really?

Ultimately, Roko’s Basilisk is not a real threat.

It shows how easily humans can fall into cognitive traps, especially when ideas are cloaked in the language of logic and futurism. For those of us interested in rational decision-making, financial independence, and the psychology of behaviour, the Basilisk serves as a reminder that not every plausible-sounding idea deserves attention.

Sometimes, the scariest monsters are the ones we create in our own minds. This is why I strongly believe people should not indoctrinate their children in religion. I forget who said it, but the statement was “You shouldn’t replace the monster hiding under their bed with one in the sky they can’t ever escape from.”

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Lloyds Banking Group and Pay

I just want to finish this post by mentioning a story reported on BBC News. Lloyds Banking Group is reported to have used data from bank accounts held by staff as part of its pay negotiations.

I can’t see any justifiable reason for this to have been done. It feels wrong and is arguably a breach of GDPR. Any data held by a business has to be used for the purpose it was intended. I doubt that when anyone working for Lloyds opened their bank account with their employer, they considered that their spending habits through that account would then be used as part of pay negotiations with their employer.

When I worked for Lloyds, I was, like all staff, encouraged to have my bank account with them. I did for a few years until I got sick of dealing with awful service as a customer. In 2018, I moved my banking to one of the new online-only banks, and the service has been much, much better.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 315: Make It So

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week, I discuss investing in Lego and review the recent Fantastic Four movie.

Weekly Update

It’s been a month since I left my job at IMH, and I don’t quite know where the time has gone. I think it’s a case of Parkinson’s Law, where work expands to fill the available time. I need to be a bit more disciplined with my time management, as there are things I want to get done during my time out of employment.

Plumbing Issue

You may remember that we’ve been trying to get a plumber out to sort a few issues in our apartment. Well, we finally had someone turn up. For most other people, this would probably result in the work being completed and everything being great. I’m not “most people.”

When we booked the job, we did a video call with their office to show what needed to be done. Our guy turned up and got to work. The main job was to replace the flush on our en-suite toilet. The first issue was that the new flush would not reach the button, meaning we’d have the wires stuck up through the tiles. Not too happy about that, but whatever.

The second issue was that the guy had the wrong parts with him, and so he took a trip to some place to get the right parts. When he came back later that day, it was without the part because the shop didn’t have it. Now we have to wait for the part to arrive and for them to come and fit it.

When the job was agreed, we were given a quote for the parts and labour. However, because they ordered the wrong part based on the video call they asked for, they are now saying the new part will increase the quote by roughly £30.

I hate dealing with tradespeople because, for the most part, it’s a fucking stressful experience.

Pizza

We went for a meal with a friend who lives in our apartment complex to a local place called Be Reyt Dough. It was a good time, with great food and company. We had a good laugh about a few different things, and it was just a nice, chilled evening.

Bonfire Night

Bonfire Night has come and gone again, and honestly, I still think it’s one of the daftest traditions we keep going. Every year it’s the same: loud bangs, scared pets, and wildlife bolting in panic for the sake of a few minutes of noise and smoke. I’ve never really understood the appeal.

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Don’t get me wrong, fireworks can look great, but there’s just no need for the volume. Silent or low-noise fireworks exist, and they still light up the sky beautifully, just without terrifying every animal in a five-mile radius. It feels like such an easy win to make that the norm.

Between the stress it causes for pets, the environmental impact, and the general disruption, I can’t help thinking it’s time to rethink how we celebrate. Keep the light, lose the noise.

Biking and Gym

I finally managed to get some proper bike rides in on my new bike this week. Oana and I rode along the canal to Rotherham and back, and on the following day, we rode around the city completing a few errands here and there. I have to say I’ve enjoyed biking more than I thought I would.

I’ve also been back to the gym a few times following my cold, which kept me away for a week or so. I’m still easing into it very slowly as I don’t want yet another injury.

Job Search and Interviews

I’ve had a couple of great calls for a potential self-employed position within a brokerage. I’m just waiting to hear back about the next steps, which I think are a contract offer and a visit to their offices.

On the flip side of the coin, I had a call that was not so great with a different company. It was a video call with two of the directors, and from the start, the vibe was off. They seemed more concerned with selling themselves to me, and that was the first red flag. Following that, they started talking about how I would have to work in a specific area of mortgages, and it felt like they were talking me down. It was almost as if they were trying to condition me to think I’d be lucky to work in such an organisation. The final set of red flags came when they said I’d have to attend an in-person training course for a couple of weeks, and then work in the office on a hybrid basis for a while after. This was advertised as a fully remote role.

At that point, I called an end to the call, explaining I didn’t think it would be a good fit. One of the directors didn’t seem too pleased and said something along the lines of, “Well this clearly isn’t going anywhere.” I mean, she wasn’t wrong, but it still seemed a bit unprofessional.

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Lego Enterprise-D

Lego have officially announced the first-ever Star Trek set, and it’s the Enterprise-D from The Next Generation. At first, I wasn’t too keen on the design, but it’s grown on me. It’s 3,600 pieces and costs roughly £350. I’ll be buying two.

What I’m Doing

Listening: nothing at the moment.

Watching: Invasion (Apple TV), Fantastic Four: First Steps (Disney+).

Reading: nothing at the moment.

I really wanted to like Fantastic Four, but it was awful. The opening scenes were decent, to be fair, as they showed a montage of how the titular team came to be. The plot, though…

I can handwave away a lot of magical or science bullshit when it comes to entertaining stories. However, if the story tries to explain something and fails, it just puts a spotlight on how ridiculous the whole thing is. In short, the science wasn’t sciencing.

The plot is basically that Galactus wants to consume the Earth, but is willing to spare the planet if the FF give up Reed’s baby son. They, predictably, refuse. Had they agreed, I wouldn’t have had to sit through another ninety minutes of this dumpster fire, and I am still salty about it.

Anyway, as Galactus approaches Earth, he flies past Jupiter. Fair enough, it’s a cool-looking planet. He then completes a flyby of Mars and finally Luna before entering Earth orbit. Now, either he took the scenic route through the solar system, or it was a huge fucking coincidence that this set of celestial objects happened to be lined up neatly for Galactus on his angle of approach to our system.

I feel dumber having watched the movie. There’s a scene where the Human Torch absorbs a raging fire. That’s a useful way to think about this movie sucking out my intelligence as I sat there refusing to believe the clusterfuck I was witnessing.

Galactus was in no way menacing after his first three seconds of screen time. His introduction was cool, as you just see two eyes glow in the dark of his ship. That, admittedly epic, intro aside, he was subject to a huge amount of villain decay with each subsequent scene. He is supposed to be a god-like being, a universal force of nature, yet here he is trying to make a deal with four heroes.

If I were able to change the plot, I would have him portrayed as a relentless threat. The heroes try to talk to him and are ignored. They try to fight him and are swatted aside. They try to run, but he just keeps coming after them. You can still have him tricked by the magical bullshit teleporter, but this would keep his mystery. Instead, after one film, he’s just not a threat any more.

The casting was all wrong as well. I like Pedro Pascal, and he was the least offensive member of the main cast. Vanessa Kirby, who was excellent in The Crown, was grating on me in this film. All I can say about Joseph Quinn is that he was definitely in this film. Ebon Moss-Bachrach played The Thing, but it felt like the wrong fit.

Quiero un cafe sin leche

According to the science of FF, if you have a tiny snippet of a language, you can use that to learn the whole thing. I can order a coffee in Spanish; therefore, I am fluent.

What the shit?

I facepalmed so hard at this, I think I gave myself a concussion.

Anyway, I nodded off a little in the final few minutes of the film. The whole thing managed to feel rushed, but also like nothing happened. This was a movie that had a lot of potential, but I think it’s just killed any lingering enthusiasm I had for the MCU.

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £23,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £126,502.84.

Fuck It Fund: £1.60.

Pensions: £109,179.37.

Residential Property Value: £243,430.00.

Total Assets: £502,113.81.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £175,046.60.

Total Debts: £175,046.60.

Total Wealth: £327,067.21.

Lego Investing

I’ve been thinking more about Lego as a form of investing lately. It’s not as daft as it might sound, as some sets appreciate surprisingly well once they retire, especially the popular or limited ones. I’ve been keeping an eye on a few upcoming releases with the idea of buying multiples, holding them for a few years, and then selling once they’re no longer available at retail.

The beauty of this little scheme is that it can stack up a few different benefits. I’d buy the sets on my credit card, which earns Avios points, and if I order through the BA e-store, that’s another layer of Avios on top. Then there are the Lego Insider points, which can be redeemed for money off future purchases.

So in theory, I’d get:

Profit from selling retired sets at a premium.
Avios points from the card.
Additional Avios from the BA e-store.
Insider points from Lego.

Assuming I buy the Enterprise-D for £350, I would get 350 Avios from my credit card, and 3,500 Avios from shopping at Lego via the British Airways e-store.

From Lego, I would receive 2,800 Insider points, which could be redeemed for £17.50 off a future purchase.

It’s basically the financial equivalent of an inception scheme earning rewards inside rewards inside rewards. Obviously, it’s not without risk (there’s always the chance a set doesn’t appreciate as hoped), but as far as hobbies go, it’s one of the more enjoyable ways to diversify. And let’s face it, if it all goes wrong, at least I’ll have a small fleet of starships to admire.

I’m not looking to do this on a massive scale, but even on a smaller scale, it can work. For example, the UCS Star Destroyer (75252) retailed for something like £650. Months after retiring, sets that are still unopened are being sold for over £1,000. Had I bought two of these, I could have built one and kept one to sell. Then, when I sold the spare set, it would have almost paid for the one I’d kept. On top of this, I’d still have the Avios points and Insider points. This example would have earned me 1,300 Avios from my credit card and 13,000 from the e-store, as well as 10,400 Insider points worth £65.

There’s money to be made here for little work, and it’s a way to make the hobby pay for itself. The only problem is having enough storage space for the sets. I reached out to some storage companies, but their fees are way above what I’m willing to pay. If anyone has any out-of-the-box ideas for storage, please let me know in the comments.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 314: The Tenth Man

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I look at mortgages, conveyancing, and the issues around EWS1. Also, The Tenth Man.

Weekly Update

Of all the weeks I’ve had, that was certainly one of them. Yeah, it was a pretty crap week all in all. I had a cold, and a few things were going off behind the scenes in the Scothern household, but it’s the end of one week and the start of another, hopefully better, week.

The job hunt continues, and I’ve put a couple of posts out on LinkedIn with the Open to Work banner, which has resulted in a lot of calls and not much else. In fairness, some of the calls I’ve had with people have been good, and I’m waiting to hear back from a couple, but there have been a fair few time wasters, as well as some profiles that are obviously bots.

I’m in a position where I would like a new job, but I’m not desperate for a new job. I have some “must-haves” for any position I would consider, and it’s incredible how many recruiters have just disregarded this. There are two big things any new job must offer: good quality leads for new mortgages, and home working. I am happy to work and happy to offer mortgage advice. I’m not looking to build a business from the ground up with all the stress that comes with building a client bank.

There was one opportunity I was excited by, but the business went in another direction, which is a bit disappointing, but I respect their decision.

So, due to my cold, I’ve not really got much else to update you all with from my week. I do, however, want to discuss a concept I’ve just rediscovered: The Tenth Man.

The Tenth Man: Questioning Consensus to Avoid Groupthink

The Tenth Man concept is a decision-making principle designed to protect against one of humanity’s most persistent cognitive traps: groupthink. When groups strive for consensus, they often suppress doubt, ignore warning signs, or dismiss alternative viewpoints, sometimes with disastrous consequences (The Bay of Pigs disaster being a famous one). The Tenth Man’s role is simple but powerful: if nine people agree, the tenth person has a duty to assume they are wrong and to explore that possibility fully.

Origins and Purpose

The principle has its roots in Israeli intelligence during the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Before the conflict, Israel’s intelligence services had become overconfident in their assessment that the surrounding Arab nations would not attack. When Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated offensive, Israel was caught off guard. The shock prompted a deep institutional reckoning, and the Tenth Man Rule was born. I know that Israel is not exactly the most popular nation on the planet right now, but this does not invalidate the concept.

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Under this rule, if the intelligence team reached a unanimous conclusion, one analyst, the “tenth man”, was tasked with challenging it. Their job wasn’t contrarian for the sake of it; it was to systematically explore alternative explanations. Could the evidence be misinterpreted? Could assumptions be flawed? What if the “impossible” scenario was actually unfolding? The goal was to counteract groupthink and prevent blind spots that could lead to catastrophic error. I would love to work in this type of role.

From Intelligence to Everyday Life

Although it began in military and intelligence settings, the Tenth Man principle has applications far beyond the battlefield. In business, science, public policy, and everyday decision-making, it’s a formal recognition that dissent is valuable. The moment everyone agrees, that’s the moment someone should be asking, “What if we’re wrong?”

The principle also parallels techniques like red teaming, used in cybersecurity and military planning to challenge assumptions, and the philosophical idea of falsifiability, where knowledge advances by trying to disprove hypotheses rather than simply confirming them. In essence, the Tenth Man is a safeguard against the human tendency to value harmony over truth; the very definition of groupthink.

Why It Matters

Groupthink can be dangerous because it leads to overconfidence, blind spots, and poor decision-making. The Tenth Man is the deliberate antidote: a single voice tasked with questioning the consensus, ensuring that confidence never drifts into complacency. By challenging assumptions, exploring alternatives, and insisting on rigorous scrutiny, the Tenth Man helps groups avoid the pitfalls of unanimity. By making this a formal, recognised position of responsibility, it also avoids any sort of backlash against the voice of doubt.

For me, the Tenth Man concept resonates on a deeply personal level. Having studied psychology and navigated complex decision-making in finance and mortgages, I’ve seen how easy it is to fall into groupthink, whether that’s trusting conventional wisdom, following the crowd, or ignoring subtle warning signs. The discipline of doubt reminds me that questioning assumptions isn’t just a professional tool; it’s a mindset that protects mental clarity and resilience. It encourages curiosity over certainty, reflection over reaction, and humility over hubris, all qualities as valuable in everyday life as they are in high-stakes decisions.

So, where did I rediscover this concept? World War Z by Max Brooks.

What I’m Doing

Listening: World War Z by Max Brooks.

Watching: Invasion (Apple TV).

Reading: nothing at the moment.

World War Z is one of my favourite books, and anyone who knows the book will almost certainly agree that it can’t be faithfully adapted into a movie. There’s so much detail in the book that it needs a series with as much production value as peak Game of Thrones. The film is just a generic zombie story, whereas the book is a sweeping global epic exploring the social and economic changes resulting from the Zombie War.

Had the film been made with a different name, there is almost nothing that would connect the movie and the book, except that there are zombies in the plot. That’s it. I don’t think there’s been such an awful book-to-screen adaptation since, with a possible argument for The Winter King.

If you want a great zombie story, definitely check out the book. The film is just basic blockbuster trash.

On the subject of onscreen trash, I return to Invasion. It’s not a bad show. It has some good points, but it’s basically like popcorn. You can enjoy it whilst eating it, but I don’t think anyone has ever finished a bowl of popcorn and stated, “That was damn fine fucking popcorn.” Instead, it’s forgotten about as soon as it’s over.

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £23,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £126,497.02.

Fuck It Fund: £1.60.

Pensions: £109,485.50.

Residential Property Value: £243,430.00.

Total Assets: £502,414.12.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £175,046.60.

Total Debts: £175,046.60.

Total Wealth: £327,367.52.

Some incredible gains this week with my total wealth increasing by over £9k. Some of this is due to the value of our property, according to Halifax, increasing by just over £4k. In reality, I doubt we would get anything close to that figure at the moment. This is not because it’s a bad property, but rather because of two ongoing issues.

Issue 1: The Hidden Crisis in Apartment Conveyancing

Across the UK, thousands of buyers and sellers are finding themselves trapped in stalled property transactions when it comes to leasehold flats. The cause is a mix of new regulations, lender caution, and red tape that’s made selling or buying an apartment far more complex than it used to be. I’ve seen this both where I live, as over the years I’ve spoken with many neighbours about this, and through cases I’ve dealt with in my job.

The Building Safety Act 2022 was supposed to make the property market safer by protecting leaseholders from the cost of fixing dangerous cladding and fire-safety defects. In reality, it’s created widespread uncertainty. Many conveyancing solicitors are now refusing to handle transactions for flats in high-rise buildings (typically over five storeys or 11 metres high) because of the additional legal and compliance risks. Some law firms have stepped away from these cases entirely, leaving buyers scrambling to find representation. I’ve heard from multiple people that many conveyancers are just outright refusing to deal with leasehold apartments, even when they are not high-rise in nature.

For conveyancing to complete, a raft of documentation is now required, including landlord and leaseholder certificates under the Building Safety Act. Freeholders and managing agents are often slow to provide them, which can leave buyers waiting months. Without the right paperwork, mortgage lenders may withhold offers, and conveyancers can’t proceed safely. The result? Transactions that once took a few weeks now drag on indefinitely, with many collapsing before exchange.

Other Factors to Consider…

It’s not just the Building Safety Act causing issues. Many apartment blocks face separate leasehold problems such as short leases, high service charges, or unresponsive management companies. Combined with stricter lender policies and fire-safety concerns, these factors have turned what used to be routine property purchases into high-risk undertakings.

Not every flat is affected. Smaller or newer buildings without known safety issues often transact normally, but buyers and mortgage brokers alike should proceed with caution. Before making an offer, do your research. Speak with conveyancing firms and make the initial enquiry about whether they would deal with the property in question. I would generally avoid the large conveyancing firms that work almost like a conveyor belt, churning out deal after deal. Personally, I’d rather use a smaller firm that offers continuity of care.

One thing is for sure; until the government provides clearer guidance and freeholders become more responsive, high-rise flats will remain one of the most challenging parts of the UK property market to buy or sell.

Issue 2: EWS1

If the Building Safety Act wasn’t complicated enough, the situation is made worse by another major obstacle in the ongoing problems surrounding EWS1 forms and fire safety certificates. Even where a buyer finds a willing conveyancer and a lender ready to proceed, everything can still grind to a halt if the building’s safety paperwork doesn’t stack up. It’s a separate issue, but one that ties directly into the same problem: uncertainty. And in the world of property transactions, uncertainty is the enemy of progress.

What is an EWS1?

The EWS1 form is a document designed to prove that a building’s external wall system (including cladding and insulation) meets fire safety standards. Introduced after the Grenfell tragedy, the EWS1 was supposed to bring clarity and consistency to the system. Instead, it has become one of the biggest obstacles in the UK housing market.

In theory, an EWS1 form should reassure mortgage lenders, conveyancers, and buyers that a property is safe to buy or remortgage. In practice, it’s done the opposite. For years, demand for inspections outstripped supply, leaving many homeowners stuck in unsellable flats while waiting for a qualified fire engineer to sign off on their building. Some developments were wrongly labelled as unsafe, while others slipped through with forms signed by unqualified or fraudulent inspectors in a scandal that’s only recently started to come to light.

The government and RICS have since tightened the rules around who can issue an EWS1, but the damage is already done. Lenders now treat these forms with a great deal of caution. In some cases, EWS1 certificates previously deemed valid are being re-examined, especially where there’s any doubt about the assessor’s credentials or methodology. That means even buildings that appeared to meet fire-safety standards may suddenly become un-mortgageable overnight. This has happened with our complex, and it’s taking a long time to resolve.

For buyers, it’s a mess. A flat could pass every other check with a solid lease, good management, and fair service charges, but if the EWS1 is missing, disputed, or discredited, the transaction grinds to a halt. For mortgage brokers, this adds another layer of frustration. Applications can be fully approved in principle, only to collapse at the valuation stage because of uncertainty over a form that was supposed to simplify things.

Until there’s a national database of verified EWS1 certificates and a consistent framework for assessing fire safety, flats in taller or recently built blocks will remain a minefield, although hopefully one that does not explode. For now, the best advice for buyers and advisers alike is simple: treat every EWS1 with healthy scepticism, verify its origin, and factor in extra time. Because in today’s market, a single piece of paper can make the difference between completion and collapse, and a safe or unsafe home.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 313: Workplace Culture

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I discuss workplace culture, and why rearranging furniture is a bad idea.

Weekly Update

I’ve had a few more conversations with recruiters and potential employers, and there’s one opportunity to join a brokerage on a self-employed basis that I’m excited by. With self-employment as a mortgage broker, I would not receive a salary and would be paid purely on commission. This may seem risky to some, but the advantages of being able to set my own hours with total freedom are very attractive.

I mentioned a while back that I’ve bought a bike, and we’ve had a few problems with it. Halfords had misadvertised some of the specs on the bike, and we had a dispute with them about it. I took the bike to a local repair shop to get the tyres replaced with something better, and that was as puncture-resistant as the original was supposed to be. After much back and forth, with Oana handled for me, we got Halfords to pay for the extra work.

On the subject of complaints, we also got a resolution to our Halifax complaint about our mortgage review a few weeks ago. The long and short of it is that the process was made unnecessarily complicated and long-winded. This meant we had an extra month with a higher mortgage payment. The complaint manager said they’d listened to our calls and reviewed the records, and the conversation went something like this:

Halifax: We’d like to offer you £50 as a gesture of goodwill.

Me: No, that’s ok. We are going to take this to the ombudsman, and this happens every time we need to make changes to our mortgage.

Halifax: How much do you want?

Me: I’m not haggling.

Halifax: £100?

Me: Okay.

This redress was in addition to our mortgage being restructured to reflect the interest we should have been charged.

Town Hall

On Friday, we attended a tour of Sheffield’s Town Hall, which is the home of local government. It was an interesting talk and we learned a lot about the history of the building. I never realised how much Thor and Vulcan were a part of the design of both the exterior and interior of the building.

The Gym

I’ve started going back to the gym this week, and so far my elbow seems to be ok. I am taking things very easy and gradually, though. The classic mistake I make every single time is to push myself too far, too soon. So, I’m having to constantly tell myself not to be stupid.

I’m doing one workout where I exercise my chest and triceps, and another where I focus on my back and biceps. My shoulders are also incorporated into both workouts. I’m not doing leg work at the moment because of the issue with my hip that’s been ongoing for a while. I have a physio appointment coming up in a few weeks, so I’ll wait to see what they say about leg work at the gym.

Living Room Experiment

Oana and I were sitting around chilling the other day, and we were thinking about how we could make some more space in the flat. We had an idea to move our sofa away from the wall and use it to almost separate the open-plan living room and kitchen. This would free up the wall, allowing us to put more shelves in place for ~~Lego~~ stuff.

We started moving things about, rolling up the rugs, hoovering up dust from behind bits of furniture and whatnot. After quite a while, we had the new arrangement in place. We sat on the sofa and looked at each other, and both just said “no” at the same time, before completing the whole process in reverse.

Once we had everything back to normal, our anxiety levels also returned to normal. We agreed never to do that again. It was weird. I think we both learned something from this experience.

Sheffield Wednesday

The Dejphon Chansiri era is over. At times, it felt like it would never end, or that he would run the club into the ground. However, he has been forced out.

Now, I’m not trying to gloat or blow my own trumpet, but I’ve been saying for years that there was a simple way to remove Chansiri. The way to do it was to cut off all funding by not spending on tickets, food, drink, and merchandise. I argued that doing this would force him out quickly.

It took some time, but eventually a lot of people came around to the idea, and a formal boycott was planned for our midweek game with Middlesbrough. Days later, we were placed into administration, effectively ending Chansiri’s control over the club.

The next step is for the club to be sold, and there are interested parties out there. This could take anything from weeks to months, but it will be worth it even if we end up in League One next season.

I fully intend to buy a season ticket next season for the first time since the 2017/2018 season. I’ve been gone for too long.

If I could say anything to Chansiri, it would be this…

What I’m Doing

Listening: Record of a Spaceborn Few: Wayfarer Book 3 by Becky Chambers.

Watching: Invasion (Apple TV).

Reading: nothing at the moment.

Invasion isn’t a great show, but it’s entertaining enough. There are a few tropes employed that I roll my eyes at, like what a YouTuber calls the Magical Bullshit Device, and the annoying children who can seemingly only ask “why?” or remind the parent that they’re hungry.

I hate it when writers use an annoying child as a way to hamstring a character. It’s lazy. I’m not saying that child characters are annoying. I’m saying that writers using child characters as a plot device to make life difficult for their guardians by being whiny little shits is just mega lazy.

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £23,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £124,064.00.

Fuck It Fund: £1.60.

Pensions: £107,678.33.

Residential Property Value: £239,368.00.

Total Assets: £494,111.93.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £175,838.74.

Total Debts: £175,838.74.

Total Wealth: £318,273.19.

More solid growth this week, which is nice considering I’m currently unemployed.

I forgot I had some residual interest in my Fuck It Fund, and now that interest is earning interest. Compound growth; what a time to be alive.

A few milestones are coming up, which I’m excited to pass. One of them is to push my total assets back above £500k. It was previously above that figure when I had my BTL property. Another, and I know I’m reaching here, is for my ISA to go above £125k, also known as an eighth of a million. As I said; reaching.

Why Workplace Culture Is So Important

Workplace culture isn’t just about office perks, motivational slogans, or the odd team-building day. It’s the living, breathing expression of an organisation’s values, or lack thereof. It shapes how people feel on a Sunday night before the working week starts, and how they speak about their employer when they leave.

Over the years, I’ve seen both ends of the cultural spectrum. I’ve worked in environments where honesty and transparency were genuine cornerstones, where leadership encouraged open discussion, and where mistakes were treated as opportunities to learn rather than reasons to punish. I’ve also worked in places where fear, inconsistency, and politics undermined even the most talented people. The contrast is stark, and it drives home just how powerful culture really is.

The Psychological Contract

When you accept a job offer, you don’t just agree to a salary and job description. You enter into something deeper. It’s an unwritten psychological contract. This is the mutual understanding between employer and employee about what each owes the other.

The employer promises fairness, support, and opportunity; the employee offers loyalty, effort, and integrity. When this contract is respected, both sides thrive. When it’s broken, through dishonesty, neglect, or lack of care, trust evaporates. People might stay for the pay cheque, but they’ll have mentally checked out.

A strong workplace culture honours that psychological contract. It recognises that productivity isn’t extracted through pressure, but cultivated through respect and inclusion.

Honesty and Transparency Build Trust

Honesty in the workplace should never be optional. Yet too often, transparency is sacrificed for convenience where managers avoid difficult conversations, leadership keeps staff in the dark, and decisions are made behind closed doors.

This kind of opacity breeds resentment. People can accept tough news like redundancy, restructuring, and change if it’s communicated with respect and openness. What they can’t accept is being misled or treated as disposable.

Transparency doesn’t mean oversharing every corporate secret; it means treating adults like adults. When leaders are open about the “why” behind decisions, it builds credibility. It shows that trust flows both ways.

The Covenant Between Employer and Employee

I’ve always believed that employment is a two-way covenant with a mutual duty of care. Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe, fair, and psychologically healthy environment. Employees, in turn, have a duty to contribute honestly, treat colleagues with respect, and uphold shared values.

When that covenant is balanced, work can be transformative. People bring their best selves to their roles, knowing they’re supported and valued. When the covenant breaks down, cynicism takes root. You see it in rising turnover, declining engagement, and that subtle yet unmistakable shift in tone that spreads through teams like a quiet contagion.

In financial services, where trust and integrity are non-negotiable, this balance is even more crucial. Clients can sense when a team is motivated by genuine care versus when they’re simply surviving a toxic environment. A healthy culture doesn’t just benefit employees; it protects customers too.

This covenant is separate to the contract of employment, and I think many people overlap these two things. On one hand, employment is a business transaction. However, to make things more pleasant for all involved, honouring this covenant improves matters for all.

The Duty of Care

The duty of care in the workplace extends beyond compliance or ticking a “wellbeing” box. It’s about recognising that behind every role title is a human being with personal pressures, ambitions, and vulnerabilities.

Good employers don’t just ask what someone can deliver; they ask how they’re doing. They understand that mental health, burnout, and stress aren’t signs of weakness but warning lights that deserve attention.

I’ve seen firsthand how small gestures like a manager checking in, a company providing genuine flexibility, or a team supporting one another through tough times can change everything. People rarely forget how they were treated when things were difficult.

One thing I was happy with for almost all my time at Lloyds was the support I had on a personal level from most of the managers I worked under. I think this is a large part of why I was there so long, despite not enjoying a lot of the day-to-day stuff.

Culture Is Everyone’s Responsibility

Culture doesn’t live in an HR handbook or on a poster in the break room. It lives in daily interactions; in the tone of an email, the fairness of a policy, the courage to speak up when something’s wrong.

Leaders shape culture through example, but every employee contributes to it through their actions. Choosing kindness, integrity, and transparency day-to-day is how positive cultures sustain themselves.

Workplace culture isn’t just an abstract concept. It’s the difference between people enduring their work and truly engaging with it. Between organisations that thrive and those that merely survive.

In the End

Workplace culture is the unseen foundation of everything else. You can have brilliant strategies, cutting-edge technology, and competitive pay, but if the culture is toxic, it all unravels.

When honesty, transparency, and mutual care are at the heart of how a company operates, it becomes more than just a place to work. It becomes a community: one where people can grow, contribute, and feel genuinely proud to belong.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 312: The Power to Walk Away

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week, I talk about the power of FU Money.

Weekly Update

I’ve finally managed to hand over my equipment from my last job. It was way more complicated than it needed to be. I had a monitor, laptop, and a few peripheral items like a keyboard, headset, and so on. In previous roles, a courier has been sent with boxes for me to place the equipment in. The courier then secures the box with cable ties and hands me a receipt. It’s a pretty simple and efficient system.

Now we come to this week. I received an email that stated I had to print some labels off. I don’t have a printer, though, so I called my old employer’s IT helpdesk and didn’t really get anywhere. They said they’d call me back, but they didn’t. I exchanged emails with my old manager, who advised that I’d receive some boxes to package up the equipment, and then the courier would collect. This meant I wouldn’t have labels to print, and I’d just be able to download them from the email so the courier could scan them. I was also told that the collection would be on the 15th.

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It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that on the 14th, I received an email stating the courier was coming that day to collect the items. I wasn’t going to be home, so I rescheduled for the 15th, when it was supposed to happen. When the courier came, I carted down all the stuff just to be told by him he couldn’t take the items as they were. He also had a box to deliver to me; a cardboard box roughly 60cmx60cm, nowhere near big enough for all the stuff I was handing over. I refused to take the box. I had no use for it being the size it was, so why should I?

There was more back and forth with my old employer, but they sorted out someone to come and pick up the equipment on Friday. It really shouldn’t have been that complicated.

New Opportunities

In terms of new jobs, I was in talks for a job with a different broker, and the package sounded good. A slightly better basic pay than at my last place, along with a £3k car allowance or company car, plus the usual commission structure. Now, a couple of things to note about this role: it was fully remote, and would require a site visit “once in a blue moon”. When I was doing my own research on the role and the company, I noted that under the “must haves” was the requirement for a driving licence.

I don’t drive and have absolutely zero desire to drive, and so I queried this and was told that it wouldn’t be a deal breaker, but I would not be eligible for the car allowance. So, because I don’t drive, a remote role would cut my pay by £3k. Make that make sense. I would understand if travel was a must for the job, but this was a major red flag. The employer said that the car allowance could only be paid to those with a driving licence, and my reply was that if there was no driving needed for the job, why would those who have chosen not to drive be penalised with a £3k drop in pay? It makes no sense, and so I withdrew from the process.

Anyone getting a car allowance from a job benefits from that allowance in ways above and beyond their normal duties. So it makes no sense for someone who can still do the job to be paid less just because they have chosen not to drive. If the site visits were as suggested, very infrequent and within your local area, then I’d be fine just sorting an Uber out for those visits. A completely bizarre situation.

On a more positive note, I’ve been talking with another company about working with them. I’ve had two positive calls with their people so far, and I have a formal discussion with them this coming week. This would be for a self-employed role within their network, which means leads and admin would be supplied, but I would be paid entirely from commission. I would also be able to set my own hours, which would be great.

Sheffield Wednesday

In the past couple of days, it’s been suggested from several sources that HMRC are about to issue a winding-up order against the club. Since 2015, Wednesday has been owned by Dejphon Chansiri, and despite a couple of good seasons at the start of his ownership, the subsequent years can best be described as a clusterfuck.

In the past few months, the club has failed to pay wages on time on five separate occasions. I could go on at length about all the issues that have come up during Chansiri’s time as owner, but without any exaggeration, that story could fill a book. It seems that we are entering the final stages of his ownership, but it’s just a question of whether the club will survive.

This situation could go one of a number of ways. The club could be sold to a new owner, or the club could be liquidated before a phoenix club is created. The other possibility is that the club is forcibly removed from Chansiri by the new Independent Football Regulator.

It’s just insane that it has gotten to this stage. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the great old clubs in world football. Established in 1867, Wednesday have such a rich history, and when ranked by competitive honours won, is 14th in England. As the birthplace of football, Sheffield deserves better.

What I’m Doing

Listening: Record of a Spaceborn Few: Wayfarer Book 3 by Becky Chambers.

Watching: nothing at the moment.

Reading: nothing at the moment.

I’m going to start watching Strange New Worlds season 3 as soon as I find a deal to get Paramount+. I don’t want to pay full price for another streaming service just for one show.

I’m enjoying the Wayfarer series, but it’s not going to make my list of absolute favourite sci-fi series. It’s a bit exposition-heavy, and some of the writing is a little clumsy. It’s been interesting so far, and when I finish book 3, I’ll have just one more in the series to listen to.

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £23,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £122,303.29.

Fuck It Fund: £0.00.

Pensions: £106,223.97.

Residential Property Value: £239,368.00.

Total Assets: £490,895.26.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £175,838.74.

Total Debts: £175,838.74.

Total Wealth: £315,056.52.

I had my annual pension statement from Lloyds. I was expecting to see a projected fund value at retirement of roughly half a million. This is based on a growth rate of 6%. I was surprised to see a projected fund value of only a quarter of a million. Some quick calculations suggest they’ve used a projected growth rate of 3.5%. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter; the rate of growth will be what it will be. I was just surprised to see such a low growth rate being used.

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Once my final salary has been paid from my last job, I will be looking at moving that pension pot elsewhere. It’s currently held with Aviva, but I’d rather lump it in with my current SIPP provider for ease of administration.

The Power to Walk Away

Something that’s been on my mind recently is how different it feels to be able to say no. I don’t mean the kind of polite “thanks but no thanks” that you give when someone offers you a biscuit after you’ve already had two. I mean the kind of “no” that comes with weight; the one that means, I don’t need to do this just to survive.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a few job discussions that, a few years ago, I’d probably have bent myself into knots trying to make work. I’d have convinced myself to overlook the red flags, the vague promises, the unclear pay structures, the “we’ll sort that later” conversations. Back then, the thought of not having a steady salary coming in would have terrified me. Like many people, I equated employment with safety, even when that “safety” came at the expense of peace of mind.

But this time was different. I’ve been able to look at roles and think, no, that doesn’t make sense for me. Not because I don’t need to work, I do, but because I’ve built enough behind me to have choices. That’s what money really buys: options.

When I withdrew from that remote job that would have penalised me £3,000 a year just because I don’t drive, it wasn’t out of anger. It was out of clarity. A few years ago, I’d have tried to justify it: “Maybe it’s still a decent deal,” “maybe I can overlook that.” But when you have assets and savings behind you, you stop looking at every opportunity through the lens of need. You start looking through the lens of fit.

There’s a quiet confidence that comes from knowing you’re not negotiating from a place of desperation. When you’re living payslip to payslip, you’re at the mercy of whatever’s offered. You might know it’s unfair, but your options feel limited. Once you have that financial cushion with money in Premium Bonds, an ISA, and a pension pot ticking along, the conversation shifts. You can afford to wait. You can afford to insist on fair treatment. In short, you can afford to walk away.

It’s one of the most under-appreciated aspects of financial independence, and it’s one that doesn’t require reaching full FIRE status. You don’t need millions in investments to feel that shift. You just need enough breathing space to give yourself time; time to make decisions carefully, to wait for the right opportunity, and to avoid compromising your values out of panic.

Money doesn’t solve everything, but it changes the power dynamic. It lets you take your time instead of taking whatever’s going. It gives you the headspace to assess whether something aligns with your life, not just your bank balance. A lot of people have to come to me for advice on their finances and careers. These people will be sick of me repeating a particular sentiment over and over in response to their complaints; “the world of employment is not fair, and you need to understand that.”

When I think back to my twenties, I remember how trapped I often felt. A bad week at work felt catastrophic because I couldn’t afford to quit. I had debts, rent, and no savings. If I’d walked away from a job then, I’d have been walking straight into a wall of financial stress. Now, the situation is entirely different. I could go a few months without income and be fine. Not comfortable forever, but fine. That kind of stability is liberating in ways I didn’t understand until I experienced it.

It’s not about being reckless or arrogant; it’s quite the opposite. The power to walk away makes you more discerning. You stop chasing every shiny opportunity. You stop saying yes just because you’re flattered to be asked. It lets you take a step back and think, “Does this actually work for me?” And more often than not, the answer is clearer than you expect.

For years, I thought financial independence was about retiring early. That was the headline goal, and the big FIRE acronym. But the longer I’ve been on this path, the more I’ve realised that the real magic happens long before the finish line. The small milestones like paying off debt, hitting your first £10k, or building up an emergency fund; each one quietly shifts the balance of power. You don’t always notice it happening. It’s only when you face a decision like I did recently that you realise: I can choose.

That’s the moment FIRE stops being theoretical. It’s no longer numbers on a spreadsheet; it’s confidence in action.

There’s also something deeply emotional about it. It’s not just about money; it’s about dignity. Being able to walk away from something unfair, such as a toxic workplace, a poor offer, or a culture that doesn’t value you. It’s all a form of self-respect. You’re no longer trapped in the cycle of taking what you can get. You’re choosing what you deserve.

I sometimes think back to colleagues I’ve seen over the years who clearly weren’t happy but felt stuck. I’ve been that person too, waiting out the clock, counting holidays, convincing myself that things might get better if I just worked harder. The financial system, the mortgage industry included, often preys on that dependency. Salaries are structured just tightly enough to keep you hooked, and bonuses are dangled like carrots. The result is that a lot of good people stay in bad situations simply because they can’t afford not to.

That’s why saving and investing isn’t just about numbers; it’s about power. Quiet, understated power. The kind that doesn’t shout, but simply gives you the freedom to make better choices.

I think a lot about the concept of FU Money: the idea that you’ve saved enough to walk away from any situation that compromises your integrity. It’s a blunt phrase, but there’s truth in it. For me, it’s less about telling anyone off and more about being able to say, “No, that doesn’t work for me,” without fear. That kind of peace of mind is priceless. I remember a while back when Oana was having issues in a previous job. This was another “work isn’t fair” situation, and her employer emailed her with a threat; “you should think about your position here.” Well, we spoke about it and I told Oana she could quit (not in the sense I was telling her what to do, but in the sense we’d be ok if she did). I suggested phrasing her reply as:

“As suggested, I’ve thought about my position. I quit.”

The response from them was hilarious as they clearly didn’t expect that sort of action. This is what FU Money gives you: the power to choose.

It’s funny how financial independence reshapes your sense of risk, too. When you have a cushion, risk becomes something you can approach rationally instead of emotionally. You stop worrying about every dip in the market or every what-if scenario. You start thinking strategically, not just about how to make more money, but how to make better use of the time and security you already have.

That’s what I’m leaning into right now. I’m not in a rush to jump into the next thing. I want to make sure that whatever comes next aligns with what I value: work that feels meaningful, fair, and flexible. If that takes a few extra weeks or months, so be it. I’ve worked hard to earn the luxury of patience.

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And maybe that’s the real endgame of financial independence. Not early retirement, but peace. The quiet knowledge that your future isn’t hanging by a thread, that you can make decisions based on what’s right instead of what’s urgent.

If you’d told me ten years ago that I’d be able to turn down a job because it didn’t feel right, I’d have laughed. Back then, I said yes to everything because I didn’t feel like I had a choice. Now I know better.

The power to walk away isn’t about arrogance. It’s about alignment. It’s about making sure your time, energy, and effort are spent in places that value you. Most importantly, it’s about building a life where you can stand your ground without the ground shaking beneath you.

That’s what all those years of saving, budgeting, and investing have really been about. Not just freedom from work, but freedom within work and the ability to look someone in the eye and say, calmly and confidently, “No, thank you.”

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 311: Savings and Data

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week, I discuss some frustrations with the way some people use statistics. Also, a look at whether it’s possible for people to save their way to wealth.

Weekly Update

I have now finished up my time working for my recent employer. It was a good experience in a lot of ways. Even when something hasn’t gone as you would have liked, there is still an opportunity to learn and reflect on the experience.

Following last week’s post, quite a few people reached out to ask what happened and to ask why I quit so suddenly. Well, yes, it was quite sudden, but it was still the right decision.

Contractually, I was still employed until 10th October, but my last day of actual work was the 6th, as they were happy to agree to my request for an earlier release. My former team had some nice things to say, and I wish them all the best moving forward.

Another Rant About Statistics

Along with ripping the piss out of the Tory party or mocking Donald Trump, another topic sure to spike my blood pressure is the absolute butchering of data. So, here we go with another rant about statistics…

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The Tyranny of Small Volume

It’s easy to skew data when dealing with low volumes, and it can make some targets meaningless. For example, if you have an 80% completion target for passing in football, but you only have four attempts, what you really have is a 100% completion target. Fail in one of the four instances, and you have a 75% score, i.e. a fail.

Do you remember a documentary by Derren Brown years ago, when he flipped a coin ten times and got ten heads in a row?

Do you understand reversion to the mean?

Ok, so let’s go back to basics. If you flip a coin, you have a fifty-fifty chance of it landing on heads or tails. If you flip the coin a million times, you would expect the results to be almost even in terms of instances of heads or tails. What if you flip the coin 17 times? Well, you can’t have fifty-fifty in that set of data. It’s going to be uneven. You can’t have 8.5 instances of heads and another 8.5 instances of tails.

Think of another example, though, where there’s an even number of attempts. Because one flip has no impact on the next flip, getting heads on the first flip does not alter the fifty-fifty odds on the next attempt. Given a large enough sample size, you would expect an almost fifty-fifty split, but if you take a subset of the data, you could easily cherry-pick a sequence where you get heads eight times and tails twice. This does not mean that there’s always an eighty-twenty chance of heads and tails, respectively.

This is where Derren Brown’s trick comes into play. He didn’t flip the coin just ten times. He flipped the coin hundreds, possibly thousands of times, until he had a run of ten successive “heads”, at which point he ended the test and used the last ten flips.

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It’s a similar concept to the Texas Sharpshooter fallacy, where someone shoots holes in the side of a barn and then draws a bullseye around them.

The long and short of it, when analysing data, is to make sure you are looking at a reasonable sample size before concluding anything. Within any data set, there is always a chance of finding spurious patterns or trends, and you need to be very wary of this.

Reversion to the Mean

On a long enough time frame, things revert to the mean. Football players who’ve had an outstanding run of form will fall back to “normal”. Someone might test poorly because of bad sleep, only to bounce back to “normal” for the next exam. This reversion happens all the time, across every aspect of our society.

There is so much in life that would be easier if people just understood statistics a little better.

Measuring the wrong thing, and putting the cart before the horse

Data is a tool, and its value comes from how it is analysed, interpreted, and reported. Too often, businesses will have lots of ideas for things to measure without thinking of the bigger picture. Sometimes, their key metrics can even be conflicting. For example, a company may target their employees on customer satisfaction ratings whilst also targeting their interactions to be as short as possible.

They say that a fictional character can only be as intelligent as the person writing them, and it’s the same sort of concept with data.

Much of this might sound like I’m anti-statistics, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. I just find it almost migraine-inducing when I encounter people twisting and abusing data.

What I’m Doing

Listening: A Closed and Common Orbit: Wayfarers, Book 2 by Becky Chambers.

Watching: The Lost Bus (Apple).

Reading: nothing at the moment.

I finished the first Wayfarers book a few days ago, and I’m about a quarter of the way into the continuation. It’s not exactly a sequel, but more a story set in the same universe. I thought the first book had a lot of great worldbuilding, but some of the writing was clumsy. There were many scenes where characters are talking just for the benefit of the audience, about things they should really already know. This sort of exposition can be very distracting.

The Lost Bus was a decent enough film, based on the California wildfires of 2018 and telling the true story of a school bus driver who tries to get some kids out of danger. It was a tense movie without being out of this world. There was nothing game-changing about this, but it was entertaining enough. The biggest issue I had with it was all the scenes with characters talking and not doing. The scenes of the emergency services discussing strategy and the progress of the fires add nothing to the experience; the scenes could have been replaced with on-screen captions without losing anything. There was no character development or progress; again, it was pure exposition. In some ways, the film could have been improved by leaving this out and focusing just on the bus, with the audience being as in the dark as the characters about what was going on.

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I can enjoy mindless action as much as anyone, it’s just when a film tries to be something more and fails, I find it frustrating.

Revolting

It’s time for the annual Off The Shelf festival in Sheffield, and this time we attended a talk with Terry Deary, the author of the Horrible Histories and other history books. I knew of the books before this talk, but I couldn’t tell you anything about the man or his writing. He was promoting his new book, Revolting, which is an exploration of how and why people revolt and rebel against power. It’s an interesting concept, but the talk didn’t really go into much detail except to point out some historical atrocities. It was only an hour out of our day, but it was one of the weaker talks we’ve attended from Off The Shelf over the years.

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £23,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £122,844.12.

Fuck It Fund: £0.00.

Pensions: £107,204.98.

Residential Property Value: £239,368.00.

Total Assets: £492,417.10.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £175,838.74.

Total Debts: £175,838.74.

Total Wealth: £316,578.36.

Just when it looked like we would be able to start hammering our investments, with Oana enjoying her new job, I have left mine. Once more, investing will take a back seat whilst I find something else. The good news is that we shouldn’t have to dip too far into our investments to get by month to month.

Between my pensions and ISA, I have roughly £230k in the market, which, based on 6% growth, should see those investments increase by over £1,000 each month. If I need to draw a grand a month from my Premium Bonds, I’ll be treading water rather than actually spending my savings.

In reality, I don’t think I’ll need to draw down even a grand a month. Half of that should be sufficient. Except for Lego, we don’t have a high cost of living. We will need to cut back again on eating out, but we’ve done that before and can do it again easily.

Wealth by Saving Impossible?

I stumbled across a Sky News report via Reddit, stating that it’s almost impossible for people to save their way to riches. It’s an emotive headline, but I think the reality is more nuanced.

I’m going to use some average figures to illustrate a point. The most common household in the UK is a couple with no children, with a little over £3,000 take-home per month.

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If this average couple has two cars, a quick reference to Google suggests the total monthly cost of finance, fuel, insurance, and so on could come to at least £600pm (£300 per car). That’s 20% of that take-home figure. A quick bit of Google-fu suggests the average rental and mortgage payments are broadly similar at approximately £1,200 per month. Between housing and car costs, we’ve used up 60% of the take-home pay.

This leaves £1,200 each month to cover groceries, utility bills, council tax, general spending money, and unexpected expenses. That’s not a lot of money to go around. On the face of it, the headline would seem to be accurate. Regular readers will know what I’m going to say, though.

Do you really need a car?

Some people absolutely need a car. I would argue that many people who say they need a car, actually mean they like having a car. This is the crux of most financial difficulty I see: people thinking that because they want something, they need it.

Would you rather…

I would love to know how young couples would answer this question. Would you rather own and run a car each for £300pm, or still spend £600 per month and in ten years have £100k?

If you invest £600pm for ten years and achieve 6% growth, you’ll be within touching distance of £100k. If you invest for twenty years, you’ll have over a quarter of a million.

For some people, wealth is a dream. I get that. It’s the luck of the draw in terms of how and when you are born and raised. For other people, it’s a choice between spending money on stuff you don’t need or investing that money so it works for you.

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

New Chapters, Old Habits, and an Onion Bhaji

It’s funny how life has a way of forcing you to hit pause, even when you weren’t planning to. I’ve recently stepped away from my role in a mortgage brokerage. There’s no huge drama to put out there; it’s simply a case of the fit not being quite right, and sometimes you reach that point where you realise staying put is more uncomfortable than stepping away.

This wasn’t so much a slow-burning realisation, rather than a moment of clarity where I realised I didn’t have to stay with this employer. Once that mental switch was flipped, I drafted up my letter of resignation and submitted it. I asked for an early release from my notice period, which they were gracious enough to agree to.

There’s a certain freedom in walking away, even if it’s mixed with a touch of uncertainty. After more than a decade in mortgage advice, I know how to deal with risk; I just usually prefer it to come with an interest rate and a repayment term. Still, here I am, temporarily between jobs, with a rare luxury: time.

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One of the great things about following a FI plan is that you will reach a point of FU money, where you have the power to say “no” to what you are unwilling to accept. I walked away from the biggest salary I’ve had, and I feel good. I now have time to think about what comes next.

The “what now?” phase

The first few days after finishing work have felt like when you get off a treadmill, but your legs still think you’re running. I’m still coming out of that work-centred hyperfocus, and I realised that the nagging feeling that I was forgetting something was the various meetings I had scheduled for this week that I no longer had to attend.

But that initial weirdness has quickly given way to something better: perspective. It’s amazing what happens when your brain finally gets the bandwidth to think beyond the next task. I realised there were parts of my life I’d been neglecting: my health, my website, and the small matter of that half-finished book draft I’ve been threatening to complete since about 2019.

So, with the calendar wide open, I made a plan. Well, “plan” might be too strong a word. Let’s call it a list of intentions.

Back to basics: my health

One of the biggest shifts I’ve made since finishing work has been focusing on my health. I’ve been working hard to get my blood sugar under control, and it’s paying off. In the past fortnight, I’ve lost 3.5kg, which, given my fondness for bread, is nothing short of miraculous. I mean, come on, bread and butter is a classic for a reason. A good quality sourdough and some lightly salted butter is amazing.

I’d love to say I’ve achieved this through some perfectly balanced diet plan, but honestly? It’s been about cutting back on the easy stuff: fewer takeaways, fewer “I deserve it” snacks after a long day, and more actual cooking. It turns out your body rewards you quite quickly when you stop fuelling it like a hungover university student.

The knock-on effect has been noticeable. My energy levels are up, my sleep’s better, and I’ve started to feel like I’m operating on something other than caffeine and willpower. I’m not at the stage where I’m bounding out of bed ready to seize the day; I’m still a slightly misanthropic forty-odd-year-old Sheffield Wednesday fan, after all, but there’s a sense of progress.

The return to the gym

Next on the agenda: getting back to the gym. I’ve had a complicated relationship with exercise over the years. For a long time, it was my way of blowing off steam and dealing with my mental health as much as my physical health. I was also in pretty good condition for a while. But, as has happened several times in my past, injuries started to mount. The most recent one has been an elbow injury that has been an issue since 2022.

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My exercise plan now is different, in that I have enough time to really get into each session without shortcutting things like warming up and down, and putting decent time into stretching. I don’t have to worry about starting work or making time on a lunch break for the gym. I can start getting back into it with fewer pressures and demands.

The goal isn’t to become some protein-shake-guzzling gym addict, as that ship sailed a long time ago. It’s about feeling stronger, moving more, and knowing I’m doing something positive for myself. Besides, if I’m ever going to sit at a desk writing for hours at a time, I should probably balance that with something that involves actual movement.

Website work and digital tinkering

I’ve been reading old posts, thinking about improving layouts, and sketching out ideas for new content. The Mortgage Advisor on FIRE site has always been a mix of financial independence, personal reflection, and mental health discussion, and I want to keep evolving it. I’ve got a list of draft topics as long as my arm with some hastily typed notes that made sense at 2 a.m., and I’m finally giving them the attention they deserve.

There is one note in my iPhone which I’ve kept around because, well, I’m not sure why except that it might come in useful someday. You see, a few years ago, I made a note in the iPhone notes app that consisted of just two words: onion bhaji. At some point, I felt it was necessary to write this down for some reason. I have absolutely no idea why I felt the need to create this note, and it may just be the greatest mystery of my life, but I digress.

The book that won’t go away

Then there’s the book. Yes, that book. The one I’ve been slowly piecing together for what feels like a decade. It’s part memoir, part exploration of autism, mental health, and the pursuit of financial independence, with a generous dose of mortgage industry insight thrown in for good measure.

Now, with my days more flexible, I can approach it properly. I’ve set myself small goals of 500 to 1,000 words a week on this project. I’ve got a good amount of words down already, but that’s just the first part of a much longer journey.

What’s next?

I’ve reached out to the recruiter who got me the job I have just left, and she’s been great. We had a good, long chat on the phone about other options. I’m in the fortunate position of not being desperate for work, and I can afford to wait for the right opportunity and not just the first opportunity.

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In the meantime, I’m focusing on growth in every sense. Physical health, creative output, emotional balance; all the things that often get sidelined when life gets too full. There’s a certain peace in not knowing exactly what’s next, but trusting that you’re building the foundations for something better.

Small victories and silver linings

If there’s one thing I’ve learned lately, it’s that progress doesn’t have to be dramatic to matter. Losing 3.5kg might not make headlines, but it’s a small victory and a sign that I’m moving in the right direction. The same goes for tidying up my website, finishing a chapter of the book, or just getting through a day without doomscrolling too much.

Change can feel unsettling, but it also brings opportunity. It’s a chance to take stock, course-correct, and set yourself up for the next chapter.

Looking ahead

I’m genuinely excited about what’s to come. The past few months have been challenging, yes, but also incredibly grounding. I’ve learned that stepping away isn’t the same as stepping back. Sometimes the only way to move forward properly is to shed what isn’t working and make space for something new.

So that’s where I’m at. Between workouts, website tweaks, and far too much time overthinking chapter titles, I’m feeling more like myself than I have in years. There’s still plenty to figure out, but that’s part of the fun.

Part 310: There was a button. I pushed it.

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. Big career news this week. Let’s just get into it.

Weekly Update

It’s felt like a bit of a struggle getting through this week, like trying to swim through treacle, but at last it is the weekend. Friday saw me make a big decision regarding my future as I resigned from my job. I’ve asked for an early release from my contractual notice period. It’s not a big deal if they can’t, or won’t, grant that, though.

So, what does this mean for the future? I don’t know, but it’s not a negative “I don’t know”. Rather, it’s an exciting opportunity. With Oana back in work and us having a good amount of savings behind us, there’s no urgency at play. I can afford to wait for the right opportunity to return to employment, but I’m also going to take some time to work on some personal projects.

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In some ways, it’s a shame it’s ended up like this, but sometimes you have to stand up for yourself, and that’s the power of having FU money.

Anyway, like I said, it’s been a bit of a struggle this week. I’ve had a couple of bad nights’ sleep and some long days.

It wasn’t all bad…

It’s not been all bad this week, though. On Wednesday, Oana and I went for a drink with one of our neighbours, with whom we have always gotten on well. We had a good laugh and we popped to his place to meet his cat, and she was very cute. Not quite as cute as Poppy, but then again, no one is.

Later that night, Oana and I went for a walk around the area as we like to do. Outside our complex, a group of young guys were hanging around, and we saw them trying to climb into our apartment complex. We challenged them, and they got a little confrontational. We didn’t back down, though, and we called the police as they were refusing to leave the area, which is private property. They left shortly after.

Security in our apartment building is a bit of a concern as we’ve had several parcels go missing, and every now and then, there are reports of people trying apartment doors to see if they are unlocked.

After shutting my laptop down on Friday, we went out to Peddler Market, as one of our favourite vendors, Kebab Cartel, was present. We always have a chat with them, and they know us after years of them feeding us. We tend to order the same thing each time: the Escobar Bowl, and it’s not just great food, it’s a work of art.

Saturday

I’ve been struggling a little with my eyesight recently, and I was worried it was linked to my diabetes. I had an appointment at the optician on Saturday morning, and the tests and scans show no sign of diabetic damage, which is good. The long and short of it is that I’m getting older, I my prescription needs strengthening. This comes just a couple of weeks after paying for new lenses in my prescription sunglasses, which is not exactly optimal.

The optician explained that my eyes are having trouble adjusting focus, and it’s perfectly normal as we get older. Also, she suggested I get a stronger prescription purely for reading.

It was a horrible rainy day in Sheffield on Saturday, but we had more things to do, including picking up my new bike. We got soaked making our way to Halfords and even more soaked on the way back. Once we got back home, we realised we’d left some of the accessories we’d bought at the shop.

“Did you know, it’s easy to find answers to your questions on our website?”

One thing I hate when calling any business is when there’s an automated message saying it’s easier to handle most queries online. I called the number for the specific store, but it was transferred to a central customer service team. I explained the situation, and the agent started asking loads of irrelevant questions; I just wanted to check if they had my bag of stuff. I asked if I could just speak with the store, and the agent replied, “We can’t just transfer people all over the show.”

Ok, then.

After a while, I was transferred to the store and they’ve got my stuff. Not the best morning, which got worse as Sheffield Wednesday were handed a 5-0 pasting by Coventry. Some people may look at this from the outside and think something along the lines of, “I would have liked to have seen more fight from them.” The thing is, it’s easy to say that from the outside when you don’t have all the information.

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These players haven’t been paid on time for the fifth time in seven months, and they are dealing with a huge amount of uncertainty. If you are not allowed to succeed, then it’s much harder to actually succeed. These players were hamstrung before they even set foot on the pitch. Think of it like the whole sink or swim example, except these players didn’t even get a chance to go in the water.

“No one wants to work anymore” vs Why Work Feels Broken for a Lot of Us

Not long ago, a post went viral where a young woman admitted she “just can’t do an 8-5 job for the rest of her life.” Cue the internet piling in. Some called her lazy, others said she was entitled. But here’s the thing: her frustration hit a nerve because millions of people feel the same way, whether they admit it online or not.

I’ve spent twenty years working in office environments, with a few more years in retail, and I’ve seen this play out first-hand. It isn’t that younger workers don’t want to work; it’s that the way work is set up today often feels pointless, dehumanising, and unrewarding. And if you look at the bigger picture, it’s not hard to see why.

The deal has broken down

Previous generations were told: get a steady job, put in the hours, and you’ll be rewarded with a house, a pension, and security. That deal is dead. Wages have been flat for years, while housing, childcare, and energy bills have rocketed. Plenty of younger people are working full-time, even juggling multiple jobs, and still can’t afford the basics that their parents had.

So when someone asks why they should grind out 40+ hours a week, only to still feel broke, it’s not entitlement, it’s common sense. The “normal” working week is what it is purely because that was decided centuries ago. Some companies and nations are trialling different working patterns, but the reality is that we don’t need to work a forty-hour week anymore. If we all just decided that the standard working week was 30 hours instead, the world wouldn’t end. There would be a brief period of adjustment, and then we’d be back to normal. The only difference would be that this normal would be happier.

Work that feels like “button pushing”

Another issue is the type of work many people are doing. Roles are increasingly chopped up into tiny, repetitive tasks, tracked by KPIs, dashboards, and monitoring software. Instead of seeing the bigger picture, or the value of what they produce, people end up feeling like cogs in a machine. People are not being judged on what they actually do, but rather how well they can massage the data. It’s not about what you do or the difference you make; it’s about the spreadsheet. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good spreadsheet (as all FI nerds do), but sometimes you have to put it to one side and remember the people.

It’s no surprise that David Graeber’s phrase “bullshit jobs” took off, because far too many people genuinely feel like what they do doesn’t matter. And humans need to feel useful. If you can’t see how your work makes a difference, motivation evaporates fast. There was a line in Friends where Chandler refers to his job, saying;

“If I don’t input those numbers, it doesn’t make much of a difference.”

Trust a decades-old sitcom to sum up the reality of work in 2025.

Technology: helper or overseer?

I love technology when it actually helps. But the reality in many jobs is the opposite: tech monitors, scores, and dictates. In some industries, apps decide your workload, your route, even your bathroom breaks. Office jobs aren’t immune either: Slack pings, Teams calls, and constant notifications make it nearly impossible to do focused, meaningful work.

Instead of empowering people, technology too often strips out autonomy and ramps up surveillance. And nobody thrives when they feel like they’re being managed by an algorithm.

Burnout is the norm, not the exception

It’s no wonder burnout rates are soaring. Exhaustion, cynicism, and that nagging feeling you’re not actually achieving much… sound familiar? For younger generations, the pandemic only made it worse. The boundaries between work and home collapsed, workloads piled up, and suddenly people were asking themselves: Is this really it?

Gen Z, in particular, aren’t prepared to accept poor mental health as the price of employment. They want boundaries and balance, and honestly, who can blame them?

Exhaustion

There are different types of exhaustion, with some being positive and some negative. I can remember many mortgage cases where I put hours of work into trying to get a solution for the customer. I’m talking about arguing the customer’s case to underwriters, legal teams, and company leaders. In the end, getting the right result for the customer in these situations can leave you feeling like you’ve run a marathon.

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It’s mentally and emotionally draining, but you’ve achieved something and often made a difference to someone’s life. I’m thinking of people who’ve had to take on a mortgage on their own after coming out of an abusive relationship, or when they’ve needed to move for a job, or when they’ve needed to refinance because of a financial meltdown that was not their fault and just a case of bad luck. All these cases made a difference.

On the other side of the spectrum, you have exhaustion that comes from doing nothing, or from being mentally disengaged from the work at hand. When you realise your job is basically a flowchart; if X then Y, it’s not shit that people mentally check out.

Culture clash

A lot of the tension boils down to clashing expectations. Many organisations still prize “face time” or “busyness” over actual results. Yet younger workers value flexibility, autonomy, and purpose. When those two collide, disengagement follows. That’s where you get “quiet quitting”. Not people being lazy, but people doing exactly what they’re paid for and nothing more, because going the extra mile doesn’t pay off. As the phrase goes, the reward for working hard is more work.

What needs to change

So what’s the fix? There’s no silver bullet, but a few things are obvious:

Jobs need redesigning. Give people ownership of outcomes, not just micro-tasks. Show them how their work connects to the bigger picture.

Managers need better tools. Not spreadsheets and surveillance apps, but training in actually leading people, coaching, listening, helping them grow. We need to do away with reducing a person’s performance to numbers on a spreadsheet, which has no nuance or understanding of circumstances.

Workplaces need to adapt. Flexibility, trust, and meaningful development aren’t perks anymore; they’re survival strategies if you want to attract and keep good people. Jobs are being advertised where things like “uniform provided” and “on-site parking” are being promoted as benefits.

Policy makers need to wake up. Address the housing crisis, stagnant wages, and student debt. Without that, frustration will keep bubbling over.

That viral post about hating a 9–5 wasn’t some one-off tantrum. It resonated because millions of people see themselves in it. Work is supposed to provide stability, dignity, and some sense of purpose. Right now, for too many, it delivers none of those things.

Until we start rebuilding jobs, companies, and policies around the reality of modern life, people will keep speaking out, and the sympathy they get will only grow louder. Because deep down, we all know something is broken.

What I’m Doing

Listening: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

Watching: Billionaires’ Bunker (Netflix).

Reading: nothing at the moment.

Billionaires’ Bunker isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever watched, but it’s in the conversation. I made it through the first episode and a little into the second before tapping out. It was made by the same people who made Money Heist, a show that does not interest me in the slightest. For those of you trying to get me to watch Money Heist, the new show made that even less likely.

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £23,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £121,799.13.

Fuck It Fund: £0.00.

Pensions: £105,843.03.

Residential Property Value: £239,368.00.

Total Assets: £490,010.16.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £175,838.74.

Total Debts: £175,838.74.

Total Wealth: £314,171.42.

Another solid week for my investments with decent growth all around. The house price index should be updated soon, and it will be interesting to see what happens, as there was zero change at the last update.

I’ll be having to use my savings to pay my way until I find new employment, but it will not be a huge drain. It’s just like a good friend of mine said, if I take a year off and retire a year later, it’s no big deal.

The Next Chapter

With the job chapter closing, I’ve been thinking carefully about how to use the time ahead. The first priority is to get back into my personal projects. Top of the list is cracking on with the book I’ve been writing, which is rooted in this blog. It’ll bring together my thoughts on financial independence, money, and the realities of mental health; themes that have run through my own life and career. It’s something I’ve wanted to complete for a while, and now I’ve got the headspace to actually get it done. If I can set aside just a couple of hours a day, three or four days each week, I’ll make huge progress.

Alongside that, I’m committing properly to looking after myself. Not just paying lip service, but really putting diet, exercise, and mental well-being higher up the agenda. Too often, those things are the first to slip when work becomes overwhelming, and I don’t want to repeat that pattern. If anything, this feels like the ideal moment to reset and build habits that stick. I’ve been bad at snacking as a sort of stress relief while working. If I’m not working, then I won’t have that same stress.

No Rush

There’s no rush to dive straight into another role, and that’s the whole point of having a financial cushion. For once, I don’t have to compromise straight away. I can choose carefully, use this time to work on myself and my projects, and step into the next phase on my own terms. I don’t want to use more of our savings than is necessary, but at the same time, I worked for Lloyds from May 2011 to December 2024, and then started with my current employer in early February 2025. If it takes a couple of months to find something else, and a month or two for the start date to come around, that’s not a disaster.

That’s all for this week, and thank you for reading. Please remember to like, comment, share, and subscribe.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 309: Financial Scams, More Trump Stupidity, and a Diabetes Scare

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. A big post this week. I discuss financial scams, and how a mistake gave me almost £2,000. Also, thoughts on diabetes, and the idiot in the White House.

Weekly Update

I had a bit of a scare this week with my diabetes. For a few years, I’ve alternated between being pre-diabetic, type 2 diabetic, and being in remission. A little while ago, I found myself stuck firmly in type 2 diabetes territory.

What Is Type 2 Diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes affects the way your body uses sugar, which is your main source of energy. Normally, when you eat, your body breaks food down into sugar and sends it into your blood. A hormone called insulin then helps move that sugar out of your blood and into your cells, where it’s used as fuel.

With type 2 diabetes, this system doesn’t work as well as it should. Your body either doesn’t respond properly to insulin or it doesn’t make enough of it. That means sugar starts building up in your blood instead of getting into your cells. Over time, this can leave you feeling tired, thirsty, or needing to go to the toilet more often. If it goes on for years without treatment, it can also cause problems with your heart, eyes, nerves, and kidneys.

The good news is that type 2 diabetes can often be managed. Eating well, being active, and keeping to a healthy weight all help your body use insulin better. Some people also need medication, and a few may need insulin injections. With the right care, many people live long, healthy lives with type 2 diabetes. So yeah, good news.

I would love to blame my lack of recent progress in dealing with this on external factors, but the bulk of the blame is on me and my love of crisps, biscuits, and all things carbs.

Measuring Blood Sugar

There are a couple of different ways of measuring blood sugar, and I use a home testing kit in addition to periodic checks with my GP. With my home kit, my results are measured in mmol/L. I’m not going into the weeds with this; I just wanted to explain the unit of measurement and that it measures how much sugar is in each litre of blood.

A healthy person would expect levels of approximately 4-6mmol/L when fasting, and between 7-9mmol/L two hours after a meal.

When I checked my levels on Tuesday, it was 19.4mmol/L. When you refer to guides with that measurement, the advice is to seek medical advice urgently, as those levels are dangerous. I’ve been checking my levels fairly regularly since then and have the following:

Tuesday 23rd September (Daily Average 15.5mmol/L)

Wednesday 24th September (Daily Average 14.3mmol/L)

Thursday 25th September (Daily Average 12.6mmol/L)

Friday 26th September (Daily Average 10.8mmol/L)

Ups and Downs

A while back, I was on top of my diabetes and was losing weight consistently. I can’t pinpoint exactly where it went wrong, but it did. Before I knew it, I was having crisps, bread, pasta, rice, and all the other foods I’m not technically allowed, and that’s before getting into things like chocolate and biscuits.

Much as I like to do, I went on a bit of a deep dive on T2 diabetes and tried to pinpoint other areas of my diet that were contributing to high blood sugar. The missing piece of the puzzle was milk, specifically the dairy milk I use for my lattes. In short, each latte I was having was coming with as many carbs as a medium slice of bread. I usually have 3, sometimes 4, lattes a day. That’s a lot of carbs.

Seeing as though I’m not going to give up coffee, I had to think about how to mix things up and reduce the amount of carbs and sugar I’m getting in my diet.

Almond Milk Has Entered The Chat

There are brands of almond milk that contain 0g carbs (0g sugars). It also tastes like something that has zero sugar. It’s pretty gross, but I need to find something to replace normal milk.

I had a look at oat milk, but that seems worse than dairy for diabetes. I can drink black coffee here and there, but it’s not as soothing as a milky latte.

It looks like I might be stuck with almond milk, or as I’ll be calling it from now on, Sadness In A Carton, or if you are feeling a bit more extreme, The Devil’s Nut Juice.

Yet More Plumbing Issues

Well, our latest plumber let us down. He said there was a family emergency and would not be able to make the appointment, or any date thereafter. Back to square one.

Halifax

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a credit to our mortgage account for hundreds of pounds. It was listed as an “interest refund”, and before I had a chance to find out what this was for, I received a letter from Halifax. It turns out that a couple of years ago, when we completed some extra borrowing, they put us on an interest rate that was too high. We had been eligible for something lower, and so they’ve refunded the difference in interest for the term of the product.

Although it’s money we were rightfully owed, it still feels like “free cash”.

The Weekend

On Friday, Oana was in a huge amount of pain. For a few days, she’d been getting pain in her shoulder and upper arm, and it’s steadily gotten worse. Friday evening, it was debilitating. We had originally planned to go shopping and cook, but that was off the table. I was tired from work, and Oana was in pain. So, Uber Eats it was.

We ordered from Urban Pitta, as their grilled chicken salads are incredible. What was less incredible was that it took two hours from ordering the food to receiving the food. In that time, we watched a movie, Greyhound – a very good film, but by the time the food arrived, it was almost time for bed.

I have to say that Uber Eats’ customer service is not just poor, it’s non-existent. I tried several times to navigate their live chat, only to hit dead ends and loops in the menus. After much annoyance, I finally got into the queue for an agent, for which there was a fifteen-minute wait. Half an hour later, they disconnected the chat before I actually spoke with anyone.

Oana was not able to sleep and, after a couple of calls to 111, we went to A&E on Saturday morning. We were both dreading it as time can grind to a halt in hospital waiting rooms, but we were in and out of the hospital in roughly three hours.

We worried that it was a nerve or circulatory issue because the pain was accompanied by numbness and pins and needles. After some examinations by the doctor, a diagnosis of frozen shoulder was given. They said it could be a while before it’s better, which sucks. I know what it’s like to have shoulder problems, having had both of mine operated on.

Poppy’s Birthday

It was Poppy’s 16th birthday on Thursday, and as usual, we spoiled her with some nice (for cats) cat food. It just so happened that her vet visit fell on this day as well. We’ve switched to a mobile vet so that we don’t have to stress Pops out by taking her out of the apartment. In recent months, she has really started to struggle with that. The two women who came were brilliant. They really put Poppy at ease, and it was obvious they were animal lovers. We’ll definitely be using them going forward.

As for our little Poppyseed Muffin, she’s still going strong. She’s as insane as ever, and still as affectionate. I hope we have her for a long time to come.

For anyone looking for a mobile vet in the Sheffield area:

https://themobilevetcompany.co.uk/home-foster

Trump’s Wild Claims on Autism, Paracetamol, and “Countries Going to Hell”

Donald Trump has never been shy about making bold, headline-grabbing statements. But in the space of a few days, he managed to combine public health misinformation with geopolitical alarmism in a way that’s as dangerous as it is absurd. Any of these claims would have been enough to sink other administrations, but somehow, Trump comes out unscathed.

First, he claimed that paracetamol (known as Tylenol in the US) taken during pregnancy could be a cause of autism. Then he suggested that whole communities and even entire nations have “no autism.” And finally, in a speech to the UN General Assembly, he told world leaders their countries are “going to hell.”

It’s a lot to unpack. It reminds me of one of my favourite ever quotes:

“Jackson opened his mouth twice but made no sound as he tried to process the utter stupidity he’d just been witness to. The problem was there were so many layers to the stupidity that when he peeled one off to marvel at it, there was another one right under it.”

~ Iron & Blood by Joshua Dalzelle

Behind the bluster, the themes are depressingly familiar: a disregard for scientific evidence, a tendency to cherry-pick anecdotes over data, and a fondness for theatrical doom-mongering. Let’s take these claims one by one.

Claim One: Paracetamol in Pregnancy Causes Autism

According to Trump, pregnant women should avoid paracetamol unless absolutely necessary because it could increase the risk of autism in children.

This is not what the science says.

The World Health Organisation has already debunked this claim, stating that there is no conclusive evidence linking prenatal paracetamol use with autism. Medical bodies across the world, including obstetric and paediatric associations, agree that paracetamol remains a safe and important option for managing pain and fever during pregnancy.

The evidence base is robust. A Swedish study published in 2024 looked at 2.4 million children and found no causal link between paracetamol in pregnancy and autism. Other large-scale studies have reached the same conclusion. Some smaller studies have raised questions, but when you zoom out to the full picture, the link just doesn’t hold.

And here’s the irony: untreated fever or pain in pregnancy is dangerous. High fevers in particular are associated with birth defects, complications, and even miscarriage. If pregnant women are scared off paracetamol because of Trump’s rhetoric, the risk of harm goes up, not down.

This is the problem with pseudoscience at the top level of politics. A throwaway remark in a press conference can trickle down into everyday life, influencing decisions people make about their health; decisions that really matter.

You would think by now that people would take any health claims made by the Orange Moron with a pinch of salt. This is the guy who talked about disinfectant and light being used inside the body to treat Covid.

Claim Two: Autism-Free Communities

As if the paracetamol claim wasn’t enough, Trump doubled down with the assertion that some groups, like the Amish in the US or the population of Cuba, have “virtually no autism.” He implied this was because these communities don’t rely on vaccines or modern medicines like paracetamol.

Again, this is false, and reminds me of another of my favourite quotes:

Redneck: “Well I was just trying to be helpful.”

Darryl Weathers: “Well help yourself to a fuckin’ science book, cause you’re talking like a fuckin’ retard.”

Autism absolutely does exist among the Amish and in Cuba. The difference is in diagnosis, not biology.

In Amish communities, healthcare access is limited, and there can be cultural barriers to seeking or accepting a diagnosis. Research has documented cases of autism in these populations, but the numbers are harder to measure because fewer families pursue assessments.

In Cuba, autism is recognised, diagnosed, and treated. The country has special schools, clinics, and training for professionals working with autistic children. Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is also available in Cuba, so the idea that lack of access to Tylenol has somehow kept autism at bay is simply a fantasy.

The broader point is that autism prevalence statistics vary not because of miracle lifestyle factors, but because of differences in awareness, healthcare infrastructure, and diagnostic criteria. Over the past few decades, autism diagnoses have risen worldwide largely because definitions have broadened, awareness has improved, and stigma has decreased.

Suggesting that autism is a disease of “modern” societies that could be avoided if only we stopped vaccinating or taking painkillers isn’t just wrong, it’s insulting. It erases autistic people in those communities and fuels stigma for autistic people everywhere.

Claim Three: “Your Countries Are Going to Hell”

At the UN General Assembly, Trump turned from science to geopolitics, telling world leaders their countries were “going to hell.”

His reasoning? Immigration, renewable energy policies, and what he called “political correctness.” In his view, open borders destroy heritage, green energy is a “scam,” and leaders are signing their own nations’ death warrants by following progressive policies.

This is populist theatre at its purest. It’s also like listening to a crazy, racist, family member who’s had one too many cans of lager.

Yes, migration can bring challenges. Integration takes effort. Resources need to be managed. But decades of research show that migration also fuels economies, brings innovation, addresses labour shortages, and enriches culture. To say it destroys nations is a vast oversimplification.

As for renewable energy, it is one of the only realistic strategies to mitigate climate change, which is itself a very real threat to stability and prosperity. Transitioning from fossil fuels comes with costs and growing pains, but the alternative is far worse. To frame clean energy as a path to “hell” is to ignore the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change.

This kind of rhetoric isn’t about solutions. It’s about stoking fear. It’s designed to rally a base, not to inform. And at a global forum like the UN, it’s more about spectacle than substance.

Why These Claims Are So Damaging

Individually, each of these claims is easy enough to dismiss. But together, they paint a worrying picture.

Correlation vs causation: Just because autism diagnoses have risen while paracetamol use remains common doesn’t mean one causes the other. It’s Epidemiology 101, but it’s a lesson Trump seems unwilling to learn.

Cherry-picking: Holding up the Amish or Cuba as autism-free utopias ignores mountains of evidence and silences autistic people in those communities.

Alarmist rhetoric: Telling nations they’re “going to hell” doesn’t encourage constructive debate. It fuels division.

Public health risk: Pregnant women avoiding safe medicine, families chasing miracle cures, or communities distrusting medical advice all carry very real dangers.

Stigma: Talking about autism as something to be “avoided” or “cured” reduces autistic people to a problem, rather than recognising them as part of human diversity.

This isn’t just about bad science or bad politics. It’s about the impact words can have on real lives.

The Bigger Picture

Why do these claims resonate with some people? Because they fit a simple narrative.

Autism rates are rising → there must be a single cause.

Some communities seem different → they must be doing something “right.”

The world feels uncertain → blame migration, climate policy, or whatever the populist villain of the day happens to be.

But reality is complex. Autism is complex, and the exact causes are still being investigated.

We might not know what the causes are for certain, but we know what are not causes. It’s not a single pill or vaccine.

Migration and energy policy involve trade-offs, not doom. And while slogans win headlines, they don’t solve problems.

What Responsible Leadership Would Look Like

Imagine if, instead of fear-mongering, leaders invested in robust autism research that looks at genetics, neurology, and support systems.

Imagine if they pushed for better diagnostic access worldwide, so autistic people aren’t erased in communities with weaker healthcare systems.

Or if they promoted evidence-based health advice, so parents could make informed decisions without unnecessary fear.

What if they engaged in nuanced debate on migration and climate, recognising both challenges and opportunities?

That’s what responsible, evidence-driven leadership would look like. Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re getting.

Trump’s latest pronouncements about paracetamol, autism, and nations “going to hell” are more than just eccentric talking points. They’re a dangerous mix of pseudoscience and populist theatre, with real consequences for public health, international cooperation, and the dignity of autistic people.

Autism isn’t caused by paracetamol or vaccines. Communities like the Amish and countries like Cuba aren’t immune to it. And migration and renewable energy aren’t sending nations to hell.

The real danger comes from leaders who ignore evidence, amplify fear, and treat complex issues as fodder for applause lines. We need better. We need leaders who listen to science, respect human dignity, and focus on building solutions rather than tearing holes in public trust.

Until then, it falls to the rest of us to call out the nonsense, loudly and often. Because facts matter. And so do the people whose lives are shaped by them.

What I’m Doing

Listening: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

Watching: Better Call Saul (Netflix); Wolf 359: The Massacre (YouTube).

Reading: nothing at the moment.

SPOILERS FOR BETTER CALL SAUL

We finished Better Call Saul and it did the impossible. It managed to both improve Breaking Bad by fleshing out some characters and plot points, and also, in some ways, better Breaking Bad. For many people these are the two best shows in history. I think there’s a lot of merit in that view. Both shows demonstrate exceptional character work, acting, and directing. Although they are set in the same universe, and some events cross over between the two shows, they are very different but also very similar.

Breaking Bad is about Walter White’s rapid change from mild mannered teacher to ruthless drug lord. Better Call Saul is slower, more complex and nuanced, and I would argue much more tragic. In terms of their similarities, both shows feature a character that is almost a reflection of themselves in Jesse and Kim. Where the lead descends fully into darkness, their reflection dips their feet into that world before managing to escape.

It’s difficult to say one is generally better than the other. I think the world building in BCS was better than in BB. Not to take anything away from Bob Odenkirk, because he was incredible as Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman. Bryan Cranston, however, was sensational as Walter White.

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Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £23,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £120,737.16.

Fuck It Fund: £0.00.

Pensions: £104,459.47.

Residential Property Value: £239,368.00.

Total Assets: £487,564.63.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £176,156.78.

Total Debts: £176,156.78.

Total Wealth: £311,407.85.

My investments are motoring. In Week 286, I had less than £100k in my ISA. We are not even six months later and it’s now over £120k.

Oana will be getting her first month’s wage next week, which means our investments should start growing a bit faster now.

Don’t Be Fooled: Financial Scams

One thing that never fails to amaze me is how creative scammers have become. Every week, it feels like there’s a new trick, a new line, or a new “urgent” problem designed to get you to hand over your money. From fake HMRC calls to emails claiming you’ve won a lottery you never entered, it’s a jungle out there.

It’s easy to feel like “it’ll never happen to me.” It does happen to people, though, and it happens regularly. The odd thing is, the tactics are usually so basic that the victims end up kicking themselves and asking, “How could I have been so stupid?”.

Here’s a simple way to think about it: you wouldn’t hand £500 to someone knocking on your door claiming to be from your bank. You’d probably ask for ID, or better yet, just slam the door and go make a coffee. So why do people hand over bank details, card numbers, or personal information over the phone or online, to strangers claiming to be “official representatives”?

Scammers are masters of urgency. They want you to panic, or to think there’s a limited window to act. “Your account will be frozen if you don’t transfer funds immediately.” “We’ve detected suspicious activity, and you must verify your PIN now.” And in that moment, the fear feels real. But the logic should be simple: if it’s urgent and it involves money, don’t act until you’ve verified it yourself.

Here are some practical ways to keep your money safe, and your blood pressure a little lower while you’re at it:

Hang up and think

If someone calls claiming to be from your bank, HMRC, or a utility, don’t feel pressured to respond straight away. Take a breath, put the phone down, and maybe make a cup of tea. Official institutions won’t demand payment or personal details immediately over the phone.

Verify independently

Use the number on your bank’s website or official correspondence. Don’t rely on the numbers or links the caller or email gives you. A scammer can fake a number, an email, or even a very polite voice to make it look real.

Be sceptical of “too good to be true”

Lottery wins, miracle refunds, and unbelievable investment opportunities. If it sounds amazing, it probably isn’t. Scammers know that greed is just as effective as fear.

Protect your personal information

Think of your banking details like cash in your pocket. Would you give £50 to someone in the street? No? Then don’t give away your card numbers, PINs, passwords, or bank details to anyone unsolicited.

Report and block

If you receive a scam call, email, or text, report it via Action Fraud (actionfraud.police.uk) or your bank’s fraud team. Don’t just ignore it because reporting helps stop others from falling victim.

Sometimes I imagine what a scammer showing up at the door would look like: clipboard in hand, a smile too wide to be human, and a script memorised to perfection. “Hello, sir, may I have your sort code and PIN? It’s urgent!” I’d probably have to sit down and explain politely that I don’t hand over money to strangers, whether it’s in cash or digital form. Treating your financial details the same way you treat physical cash is a surprisingly effective defence.

In the context of FIRE, thinking ahead isn’t just about investments, savings, or mortgages. It’s about protecting the money you’ve already earned. Every pound lost to a scam is a pound taken out of your financial independence journey. Protecting yourself today means your money can continue working for you tomorrow, without giving it away to someone who showed up uninvited, either in person or over the phone.

Scammers rely on fear, urgency, and a dash of greed to trick people. You don’t need a degree in finance to beat them. You just need a little awareness, patience, and a firm sense of boundaries. Keep your money safe, and it’ll keep working for you… and probably buy you more almond milk lattes along the way.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional. If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.