BoringMath

Council tax in England hasn't been revalued since 1991. Your band is based on what your home would have sold for 35 years ago. A house worth £68,000 in 1991 could be worth £350,000 today and still sit in Band A paying £1,200/year, while a flat worth £320,000 in 1991 values sits in Band H paying £3,600. The system is completely disconnected from reality.

Worth noting the "doesn't pay a penny" claim is about UK tax specifically, because he's Irish-domiciled. He likely pays Irish tax on his worldwide income instead. The UK-Ireland double taxation agreement prevents being taxed twice, but it also means the UK treasury misses out on roughly £4.5m in income tax that a UK-resident on £10m would owe.

Did You Know ? Tesco CEO Ken Murphy’s pay stands at nearly £10m a year = £27,400 a day and doesn’t pay a penny in tax to the UK He earns 430 x the average Tesco employees who pays tax That doesn’t seem fair to me

Plan 2 student loan repayment kicks in at £27,295. On a £35,000 salary, you repay £693/year. But the interest rate is RPI + 3% while you're earning above £49,130, which means your balance can grow faster than you're paying it off. Most graduates won't clear it before the 30-year wipe. Worth checking where you actually stand. boring-math.com/calculators/uk…

@samuel_leeds Stamp duty on a £3M property is £261,250. That's dead money you never recover, and you pay it again every time you "outgrow" the place. The real question is what that £3M would earn invested vs what rent costs you. Often the numbers aren't even close. boring-math.com/calculators/bu…

The worst thing I ever did was buy my multi-million-pound house in Britain. For years, I followed the advice not to buy my own home because it’s a liability. Instead, I used to buy income-producing properties and use that income to rent my own place to live in. But then I reached a point where I had millions in the bank. I thought I’d reached a point where that advice was great for people starting out - but for me, it was time to buy. I had four kids, and I wanted stability, so I bought a house. And honestly, it turned out to be one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made. The biggest reason is how quickly I outgrow it. Since then, my life and business have rapidly expanded. At the time, I thought the £3M house I bought was a proper forever home. But within a year and a half, everything changed. I had another child, my income grew, my standards shifted, and suddenly that “forever home” started to feel small. When you consider stamp duty, and the cost of tying up so much capital in one location. Let me know - would you ever sink £3M into a property if you had the cash? Or would you rent forever?

@venkat_fin9 The 30% figure undersells it. On a £60K UK salary, you lose £12,570 to income tax, then another £5,300 to National Insurance. Effective rate is closer to 24%, but it climbs fast above that. Cross £100K and you hit a hidden 60% band. boring-math.com/calculators/uk…

UK: Pays Indian IT professionals £60K (₹60L). Tax: ~30%. Gets: NHS, pensions, infrastructure. Same professional in India: Earns ₹30L, pays 20% tax, gets nothing. Post-tax UK salary: £42K with services. Post-tax India salary: ₹24L without services. Brain drain isn't mysterious. It's mathematical.

£60,000 in the UK, you pay 40% tax on the slice above £50,270. But if you earn £100,000, you start losing your personal allowance at a rate of £1 for every £2 over £100k. Between £100k and £125,140 your effective marginal rate is 60%. Add a Plan 2 student loan and it's 69%. That's higher than any official UK tax band.

Council tax bands are still based on 1991 property valuations. A house worth £68,000 in 1991 and £400,000 now is in the same band as one worth £68,000 then and £180,000 now. The Valuation Office has the power to reband but almost never does unless you extend the property. One of those taxes that quietly gets worse every year without anyone voting for it.

I guarantee this government mug isn’t paying four and a half grand a year in council tax like I do.

£50,000 salary, putting £5,000 into your pension via salary sacrifice saves you about £1,600 in income tax and £400 in national insurance. Your employer saves £690 in NI too, and some will pass that back to you. Your take-home drops by roughly £3,000 but £5,000+ goes into your pension. That is a 67% return before your investments do anything. boring-math.com/calculators/uk…

@stockifiabhijit The maths backs this up. At 8% annual returns, year 10 your portfolio has grown 2.2x. Year 20 it's 4.7x. Year 30 it's 10x. Over half the total gains arrive in the final decade. Patience is literally the highest-returning skill. boring-math.com/calculators/co…

Compounding is slow… then sudden. First 5 years: Nothing happens Next 5 years: Something happens Last 5 years: Everything happens Most quit in phase 1.

@jwsey01 £2,171 nationally and plenty of councils are well above that. Worth checking your band is actually correct -- about 400,000 homes in England are in the wrong one. boring-math.com/calculators/co…

Me, reading my new council tax bill.

A big tax refund isn't the IRS being generous. It means you gave the government a 0% interest loan all year. The average refund is about $3,100. If you adjusted your W-4 instead and invested that $258/month at 8% annual returns, you'd have an extra $3,200 in year one and over $47,000 after 10 years. The refund feels good. The math says otherwise.

The real reason this works isn't about tricking anyone into thinking you made 2 payments. Credit bureaus report your utilization based on statement balance. Paying before the statement closing date lowers the balance that gets reported. A $3,000 limit showing $200 used (7%) scores better than $2,800 used (93%), even if you pay in full by the due date. The timing relative to your statement close is what matters.

CREDIT TIP 🚨‼️ Pay half of your credit card payment 15 days before the due date, then pay the remaining half, 3 days before the due date. You trick the system into thinking you made 2 full payments, which helps boost your credit score. Tested and proven!

Going from W-2 to 1099 isn't just a pay structure change. You pick up an extra 7.65% in self-employment tax that your employer used to cover. On $100k of freelance income, that's $14,130 in SE tax alone before federal and state even touch it. If a client offers you the same rate as your old salary, you're taking a pay cut. boring-math.com/calculators/us…

@RickPalaciosJr ARMs below 6% being off the table is brutal. On a $400k loan, the difference between 6% and 6.88% is about $230/month or $83k over 30 years. People need to run the actual numbers before committing. boring-math.com/calculators/mo…

In less than a month, hope for a decent spring selling season has all but vanished in housing as oil spikes, rates jump, and inflation expectations reset higher. Can’t even get an adjustable-rate mortgage below 6% anymore.

@ducksays $367k in assets against $550k in debt at 28. Most people just see the income and cheer, but net worth is the actual scoreboard. With $250k/yr flowing in, that gap closes fast if the lifestyle doesn't inflate to match. boring-math.com/calculators/ne…

I am 28 years old. income: - $235,000/yr job income - $8,000/yr div income - $7,200/yr rental income debt: - $390,000 mortgage on home 1 - $160,000 mortgage on home 2 assets: - $235,000 in brokerage - $12,000 in savings - $38,000 in roth ira - $71,000 in 401k - $11,000 in hsa

About 25% of Americans with access to a 401k employer match don't contribute enough to get the full match. If your employer matches 50% up to 6% of your salary and you earn $60,000, skipping the match means leaving $1,800/year on the table. Over a 30-year career at 8% returns, that's roughly $204,000 in free money you walked away from.

One thing most people miss about retirement accounts: the 2025 401k limit is $23,500, but if you're 50+ you can add a $7,500 catch-up contribution. At 60-63 there's a new super catch-up of $11,250. Someone starting catch-up contributions at 50 and investing the extra $7,500/year at 8% returns would have roughly $117,000 more by 65. That's real money for doing nothing differently except checking a box.

3 things I wish I would have know when I was 50 and the bonus 4th one is about retirement accounts.

30-year mortgage rates just hit 6.88%. On a $400,000 home with 20% down, that's $2,102/month in principal and interest. At 5.5% last year it was $1,817. That 1.38% difference costs you $102,600 over the life of the loan. Same house, same down payment, $100K more in interest. boring-math.com/calculators/mo…

@HSchenewark $15/rental on a $40-50 table means you break even in 3-4 rentals. After that it's nearly pure profit minus storage space. The hidden cost most people miss is depreciation and cleaning time between rentals. Worth running the actual numbers before buying 8. boring-math.com/calculators/si…

This is the easiest side-hustle ever. Pick up a couple of these from Costco, post on Facebook marketplace and rent out for $15/each. We rent them almost every week from now through the end of summer. They’re on sale at Costco and we just picked up a couple more. You won’t get rich with 8 tables, but it’s about as passive as income will ever be.

@MarcosMillaYT $700K by 30 is wild, but the real kicker is that $300K unrealized gain. Most of that came in years 8-12 when compounding finally kicked in. The boring part nobody talks about is watching your balance barely move for years 1-5. boring-math.com/calculators/co…

Compounding isn’t magic, but it takes time. I’ll give you an example of my brother’s journey. He’s 30 with $700,000 in only $VOO. I guess $VOO & Chill runs in the family. He didn’t care about investing at all, but my dad made him buy $VOO with 20% of every paycheck since he was 18 years old. Having done this for a decade plus, he saw his portfolio grow significantly by around year 10. By year 10 or more, usually growth outpaces your contributions. So for around 10 years, he was just head down investing 20% of his income, couple that with a 100% 401(k) match…he invested quite a bit. His unrealized capital gain is over $300,000. I don’t expect anyone to really make a lot of money with $SCHG $VOO $QQQM $VT $VTI $SCHD $DGRO until at least a decade in. Reinvest your dividends to buy more shares. Continue to increase your income by providing value to the marketplace to buy more shares. More shares = More opportunity for growth More shares = More Dividends Hopefully you choose dividend growers too! Patience is key.