poddy

Biggest miss-selling scandal ever. These kids have been sold a dream. The reality is most of them would have been better off leaving school at 16 and finding a job. My daughter is about to go to Uni to study law-hope that's not a waste of time and money, I have a terrible feeling it will be. You should hear what her friends are studying, for example 'Adventure courses' degree-what on earth, a degree to run kids adventure courses, come on! But of course don't dare try and suggest that they shouldn't go, you'll get told things like-'it is a life experience', 'everyone should go to uni' etc etc. Reality of course hits when they look for a job and spend the rest of their lives with a chip on their shoulder because of course they should all be the bosses because they have degrees, why should they do the real work? Rant over.

I really do feel like a complete plonker. I started work at 16, so didn't even benefit from what was then a free Uni education. 30 years on, have worked bloody hard and am now in a stressful management role, so I guess I get paid well but hate my job. House paid for, saved up £150k mainly to help the kids. We don't live lavishly, haven't had a holiday for 2 years and my newest car is 6 years old. But what we have is ours and we have no debts-that's how I was brought up, if you can't pay for it now you can't afford it. But everyone around me seems to have prospered gambling with free money. No it's all gone pear shaped I'm picking up the cost. Now I'm nervous that eventually UK will impose some sort of charge on assets, like Cyprus. What would you do in my position with the money I've saved? Thought of buying a house but my view on that is they are still well over-valued. Want to keep as little as possible in a bank, don't even trust NSandI as after all it's Gov't run. Nice problem to have I guess but I'd do anything to make sure not one penny of my cash goes towards saving the idiots that got us into this mess!

I cannot believe how stupid this lot are (cons/lib dems and labour - they're all just as bad). They've spent years taking apart one of the best pension systems in the world, and they're still at it with lower and lower tax relief limits. So, now, hardly anyone outside the public sector stands a cat in hells chance of building up a decent enough pension to live on let alone give any away. And anyone that has got a decent scheme is now less and less inclined to save extra into it! Of course MPs have the best pension scheme in the country, probably the world! As soon as I had kids I've saved what I can to try and help them in whatever way they need, and they are going to need it. I am lucky and will have a decent pension, even though I don't work in the public sector, so my kids will get a share because they'll never stand a chance of getting the same deal. Do they not know how much money you need to save to get a pension and what poor value it is (defined contribution that is)? £100K would currently get you an income of around £5.5k per year, you'd need to live to roughly 83, assuming you'd retired at 65 to get back what you'd paid to buy the bloody annuity. My advice would be to save your money somewhere else, forget the tax relief, you'll pay the price eventually! Spend it or give it to the kids, then when you are 83 and probably too infirm to enjoy the money fall onto what's left of the state. Oh and by the way sell your bloody house and rent somewhere and give some of that to the kids and spend the rest, otherwise the sods will rob that off your kids as well! I could go on but what's the point!

Absolutely spot-on. I'm married, and if I could afford to give all my assets to my wife I'd go and live on my own too! I have a son and a daughter. I would advise my son to never get married. I would advise my daughter to marry the richest nice person she can find! A couple of my friends have divorced and got fleeced, they now live alone, with their kids visiting and are in relationships, but they both have said they will never share their home again-they've learned the hard way.

Isn't part of the reason for the so-called housing shortage that most of these flats (especially new-build) are empty as they've been bought by speculators who are/were simply looking to profit on the capital increase rather than have the fuss of pesky tennants? They therefore are'nt willing to sell as they think they'll just hang on as prices will never fall will they! I work in Liverpool and the amount of empty new-build here is terrible and they're still building! And anyway, how many people really want to live in flats, whether or not they've been designed by Conran or whichever other so called designer is being paid a fortune to have their name promoting the flats. They are right for some but not that many people. I don't feel sorry at all for these speculators, did they/do they feel sorry for all the people they've effectively priced out of housing or for those who've had to pay over the odds to buy a house that will shortly be worth a lot less than their mortgage, I think not. I'm one of the lucky ones by the way as I'm lucky enough to own my own home having bought it in 93 but I think what's happened to this generation of would-be homeowners is absolutely disgusting. These speculators took a risk, just like buying shares-tough luck! Homes shouldn't be treated as an investment, they are what they say-a home. Sorry, rant over now.

Yep, quite true, but I guess if they jump on the next ferry/flight back home we'll treat them for free just like the rest of the world (and assuming they'd paid NI in the UK all their working lives then why not?) -assuming that it's an illness rather than an accident. In the UK we'd probably be accused of discrimination or abusing someone's human rites by doing this but of course France as usual do more or less what they like-and good on 'em. Bring it in here as well I say for all the immigrants moving to the UK, but no, what plan do we come up with? Oh yes, max state pension for anyone with 10 years citizenship-fantastic!! :angry: