pppeter

Pensions are taxed on the way out rather than the way in so there's no tax efficiency in loading up on pensions to the extent that what you get out is taxed the same as it went in. Problem is, we don't know what the tax situation will be when we retire.

Since the removal of the tax credit, those people who choose not to pay into a pension no longer have to subsidise those who do pay in. If the end of the pension tax subsidy means that pensions are no longer worth while then you can compare your colleagues to people who only work because they looked into a life on benefits and the figures don't add up.

Good find but the link's a bit dodgy. http://www.houseprices.co.uk/e.php?q=30%2C...0LG%09&n=10

"Increasing payments strained the family budget and in December, Laura and Richard had to choose between a mortgage payment and buying Christmas presents for their children." Presumably they decided their toddlers should have a christmas to remember. They'll certainly remember living in a car, but the mortgage money spent on presents won't mean a thing to them 2 days after xmas.

If the story is true then we might have found the Gold Star STR winner. He's spent the last year making sure the landlord de-glooms the garden, de-wonkifies the boiler and raises the ceiling in the bedroom so the enourmous pile of cash can fit under the mattress!

The PTB will declare you protesters, illegal ones at that, and rendition you before you can say Indymac.

Who's that in th 80-90% bracket? I hope the other 10-20% is very large indeed. I don't think I was much above 20% when I bought (2002) and I did regret for a while that I could have got something more expensive and built up more equity in it. Not any more! Currently 0% but it needs a few k spending on it.

Historically yields for letters have been much higher than they are now. I think someone posted earlier on this thread to say that an 8% yield would encourage them to look to buy. This is a more likely long term average yield so if interest rates are less than 8% at the time it would be a good indicator that renting is more expensive than buying. But you're right that at the moment it's cheaper to rent.

After reading this thread I have decided... 1) Try to sell my house to a lesbian couple*. 2) If only hetero couples are available, ask the bloke if he's vegan. * and rig the bedroom with pinhole cameras obviously

If the mortgage is the same as the rent then you'll be rent free in 25 years if you buy. It's good to own unless prices are going down or rents are cheaper over ther long run. Never say never.

Didn't Goldfinger always say he'd buy when the average price was no more than 100oz of gold? I think 100oz traditionally marks the trough in the house:gold cycle and he thought it would be worse this time. Current average house: £169316, 100oz gold: £46000.

Because it'll all be over by christmas!

Check out the chart! http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/BORROW $678,000,000,000 since December, $616,000,000,000 in the previous 1067 months. Is this a carefully controlled injection of liquidity to offset the losses and prevent deflation of is it a case of throwing as much credit at the problem and hoping for the best?

Nice of you to announce yourself as a shape shifting reptillian illuminati 37-level master in your first post, Alan. Hey, now that the overpricing of housing is mainstream there's got to be something else to talk about. Perhaps come 2011-10-28 we'll all be looking pretty silly. Perhaps not.

Yes, with the E looks like the more common spelling http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=felching I learned that one from Mary Whitehouse, had no idea it was so popular.

Anyone with a high IQ can see right through Mensa and won't bother joining. You don't need to be so blessed to see right through Injin. If only he could have reconsidered his own preconceptions he might not have got in such a muddle with his "logic" that he had to go away. Hopefully if he ever comes back he'll have done some thinking in the mean time. That's if thinking exists, of course. And time. People say they learned from reading his posts. I don't think Injin learned anything in his time here. It's a shame because there's so much here for him.

I cheated http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index....amp;#entry46069

"It is prudent housekeeping" http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewA...s-1974-11-29-02 I wonder how many bags of sugar Gordon has.

It's about as useful as an en-suite in a 2 bed flat.

Sarah thinks that success is having her own place in London before age 25. Fortunately she's not stupid enough to load up on debt to do it. Well, not as much debt as she'd need anyway. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/art...e#StartComments She's arguably more successful than someone 2 years older who could qualify for the necessary debt at the time and is now stuck in NegEq, but Sarah is living with her parents. She doesn't look successful on the surface.

From the comments: Do these people not know when they're in a bubble and a bust? Past performance is not a guide to the future etc.

Average for England: £274700 My House: £75000 Average for England excluding my house: £474400 stands to reason, dunnit!

A psychologist and a...well I'm not sure what expertise the other one has...find a new mug each week who has spent far more than they earn, typically on clothes, going out, pimpin' their ride etc. They investigate the mug's life by going round their unaffordable but well located flat to discover a cornucopia of expensive tat...multiple flat screen tvs, shoes that have never been worn, 50 different purfumes (and that's just the men). After working out a budget of £15/month the mug says "I can't possibly - I'd have to shop in Lidl, take sandwiches to work and not have any lattes" but it all works out nicely in the end when they realise they're poor.

Just went to the MSE bankruptcy forums. Since when was walking away from your responsibility the same as dealing with it? In "The secret of my success" Michael J Fox's character went from post deparetment clerk to <something much better, can't remember it all now> through hard work, long hours, networking and charm. Does anyone still bother with that these days?

Sorry An episode of Spendaholics might illustrate the point a little better. The subjects therein all seem to be of a certain type (young, townies, etc) and appear to be proud to announce that when they find some overpriced handbag/gadget etc in a shop they don't think about the cost, they just buy it. But at the same time there is a slight sign of guilt in their faces - they know it's all a lie and it just can't go on any more and that 2-years-salary of debt is not going away on its own. However, to balance that there's the idea that being in debt is becoming/has become institutionalised, with graduates the most common example. I doubt we'll see a total collapse debt-fuelled spending because it's so ingrained now in certain parts of society that having the odd splurge isn't such a bad thing. I suspect people will think a bit harder about the size of house and car they get whilst debt is more expensive and jobs are less secure but it will take a lot of brainwashing to get us to treat debt the same way our parents or grandparents did.