Bruce Banner

I can afford to pay half a mil for a bag of crisps .

They do that .

Personally, I'm well over £100k better off due to renting for the last five years rather than buying .

They're at it again, same tactics as two or three years ago, scare the punters into buying a house..... See my sig. Actually, inflation is not a problem on big ticket items like houses, where deflation is the order of the day . 5% inflation relates to day to day living expenses, not what potential cash buyers, and those with large deposits will spend on a house in due course.

Really? I am retired and renting.

Shared ownership is a form of committee. Have you ever seen a committee that can negotiate a sensible price? Come to think of it, have you ever seen a committee that can negotiate anything? The first recorded committee was the one that God set-up to design a horse. It produced a camel.

Indeed, the £350K house I'm renting was a £400K house when I first moved in.

The next few years. Nearer 3.5% net interest in our case (retired with two tax allowances).

I pay what the landlord asks, he appreciates the security of having a long term, solvent, tenant.

Obviously my cash is depreciating due to inflation, but not by much. I can live with that for a few years, what I couldn't live with is buying a house and watching it depreciate 30% or 40% which is what I expect to happen.

Top area .

My UK cash is mostly in NS&I bonds or below £85K per bank. Cash is liquid and can be moved instantly into different banks or even currencies, you can't say that about a house.

My rent has increased by £20pcm during the last five years, same general area.

Is that so? . I'm happier with my cash in the bank rather than tied up in an illiquid, depreciating, asset.

I'm paying a little less than that, £900pcm on a £350K house, but it depends on area, of course. As a potential cash buyer my calculation is slightly different but the £350K that we'd have to draw out of the bank to buy the house we're renting is returning £13,650pa gross interest.

I noticed this, from YBS, yesterday. http://www.ybs.co.uk/investment/pca/pca-inflation-linked-2.html?int_cmp=hphero2_pca-il8-aug11

I declare foreign interest on my tax return, you just convert it into Sterling using their published "spot rate" for the tax year.

I've seen no mention of it on the television news channels yet. I may have missed the odd mention, but it's certainly not a main story .

So who was the worst, Blair or Brown? Personally, I blame it all on Blair as Brown was just a thuggish, unelectable, bullyboy...... "Big Clunking Fist".

Because it's not had other people farting on the seats?

Nationwide was up so Halifax down? They often take it in turns, obfuscation .

So who did save The World, Brown or Darling?

Seems it was a fake . http://www.mby.com/news/529277/the-3-billion-golden-superyacht-real-or-fake

The big fall are yet to come .

Conversely, when the Tories are in power they always have to spend years sorting out the economy after Labour's spendthrift policies. So it is true to say that even when the Tories are in power it's Labour's fault. Why do people ever vote Labour? I don't know as I never have!