Big Decisions
Moving for a job: the costs that are not in the offer
A relocation is priced in salary and paid for in transaction costs, lost network and a partner's career.
Georgia Papadaki
Contributing writer, Money After Thirty
Georgia writes about big decisions and how to price a career break before taking it.
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14 articles
Big Decisions
What to do with a windfall before you decide anything
An inheritance or a bonus arrives with pressure attached. The first correct action is usually to do nothing.
Family Costs
The cost of a child is front-loaded, then it moves
The expensive years are not the ones people brace for, and the shape of the spending changes several times before the child is…
Family Costs
Two money histories, one household
People arrive in a partnership with habits formed decades earlier by circumstances the other person never saw. Most money arguments…
Family Costs
Joint, separate, or both: account structures that survive real life
There is no correct arrangement. There is one that matches how a particular household actually earns, spends and decides.
Family Costs
A second child does not cost twice as much
Some costs double, some are shared and some fall away entirely. Childcare is the exception that dominates the arithmetic.
Family Costs
When family lends you money, write it down
Informal family lending is common, generous and the most reliable way to damage a relationship. The fix is a page of paper.
Family Costs
Teenagers, further study and the costs that arrive at the wrong time
The bills of the late teenage years land in the decade parents most need to be building retirement provision and often supporting…
Big Decisions
Redundancy: the decisions that follow the payment
A lump sum arrives at the same moment as a loss of income, which is exactly the combination that produces bad decisions.
Big Decisions
When to stop researching and make the decision
Beyond a certain point, more analysis stops improving the choice and starts functioning as a way of avoiding it.
Family Costs
Clubs and activities become a fixed cost without a decision
Nobody sits down and commits to years of weekly payments, and that is exactly what a few enthusiastic sign-ups quietly turn into.
Big Decisions
A mortgage term that runs past the date you want to stop
Extending a loan to make the monthly payment work is the standard response to a stretched budget, and it quietly moves the…
Big Decisions
The decision you are making because you are exhausted
Tiredness does not just make decisions harder; it changes which option looks correct, and the change is consistent enough to…
Big Decisions
The year to make no big decisions at all
After a bereavement, a birth, a serious illness or a separation, the most valuable thing a household can often do is nothing…