#115

Nov 29, 2020

Work

This week I did a little bit of accounts work, implementing a little A/B testing framework which stores the variant a user should see against their account (so if you change devices you don’t change variant, which is currently the case on GOV.UK), and reviewing all the flash & error messages to make them match our designs. I’ve also been working with our lead dev to figure out what our out-of-hours tech support will be like, and with our privacy expert to work out what sorts of aggregate analyses we can implement without compromising privacy.

Then I went on support, covering someone else’s shift. It’s been mostly quiet so far, but I seem to have a knack for ending up on support in the same week something gets launched, and indeed the covid restriction postcode checker came back on Thursday!

Books

This week I’ve been reading Midnight Tides, and should finish it some time next week. It’s been good getting back to Malazan: sci-fi is nice, but it doesn’t scratch the same itch as high fantasy.

Miscellaneous

I’ve been thinking about my finances quite a bit this week.

After the March payday next year I’ll have met all my current financial goals: several months expenses and a small generic emergency fund in cash in my bank account, and a larger emergency fund in premium bonds.

It’s taken quite a few years to get to this point because I’ve also been investing into my S&S ISA to build up long-term savings; my discretionary spending has been quite high; and I had to spend a big chunk of my savings on furniture last year. But the end is, finally, near.

So I need new financial goals.

I don’t really have any long-term plans, so I’ve decided to prioritise investing. I’ve decided to invest £900/month in a combination of my S&S ISA, premium bonds, and a new LISA (to save up for a house deposit), and to also overpay on my student loan by £100/month. My income is high enough that I will pay off the loan in the next few years, so I’d prefer to get it done sooner rather than later (and it’ll be nice not having a chunk taken out of every payslip). The rest of my income will go to maintaining my bank balances, and having a sizeable discretionary spending budget (£100/month). I’m not expecting any significant pay increases next year, but if that does happen, I’ll probably allocate more to investing.