NotAGuru

http://www.guardian....eist-of-century The insurance "industry" already pays limited amounts of tax by virtue of [legally] diverting their income via Bermuda. If these new tax regulations came to be, they would pay virtually no tax in the UK. I don't know how much of this (if any) is true. Can anyone shed any light?

Beautifully put! Experienced contractors earn more than most IT “manager†level bods because someone has to get the job done. Providing value for money is important for contractors, as a lot of us rely on word of month for our next gig.

fvkers, squeal! at some point sanity will prevail and anything that is not real will disappear! can't wait!

Can you explain why it should be either/or. Wouldn't it be better to have a balance of different skillsets?

You are 100% right from the working environments I'm familiar with. It is somewhat worrying (and distasteful in my opinion) that the most priced skill is presentation, rather than being able to do the job well.

The incredibly overpriced one in Rightmove? The only way to buy a reasonable property in La Gomera is to go there and ask around. I have never seen an estate agent there (quaint or what!), although I haven’t been for a few years.

Totally agree. The unemployment rate is almost always the worst in Spain. There is also a considerable amount of cash in hand work. The benefit system is very different to ours. It encourages people back to work after short periods of unemployment as other benefits (incapacity, income support,..) are very low, thus the figure is not as distorted by unemployed people claiming other benefits as it is in the UK. This is the same all over Spain, hence the scary percentages.

La Gomera is my plan B if/when it all goes pear in the UK (my grandparents have a house there that they hardly use anymore). Only 20 miles from Playa the las Americas, yet you feel like you are in a different era (let alone different country). The whistling is not a myth; in fact, some older people still converse from village to village.

Pancreas and kidney. She was type 1 diabetic and had some complications that eventually led to kidney failure. She waited around a year for a suitable match, but she now leads a pretty normal life. The local population suffer a lot from cardiovascular and diabetes related conditions (not sure why), so healthcare it’s pretty well geared towards its treatment. As a cautionary note, although many doctors speak English, it always helps if you can communicate in Spanish.

Because of your medical condition I would recommend Tenerife, as it has the best hospitals (my sister had a double transplant last year and I was really impressed with the level of care she received). If you want somewhere flat, by the sea, with enough life (shops, restaurant, etc.) and close to the airport I would recommend Las Galletas (south corner of the island) or nearby. It is mainly local, but with some brits (no ex-pat community as such)

Zimbawean dollar? I believe there a few trillion of those already printed.

A little bit of instinct perhaps, lots of luck certainly, but i don't think skill really comes into it. After all, what dictates whether prices go up or down it's outside your control. The goverment could put IRs up and crash the house market or carry on printing money with low IRs and cause massive inflation or something else altogether. p.s. It's slightly worrying that you think your job is 100% secure. Things canchange very quickly (particularly if you work in the public sector)

your life, your call. For what it's worth, I was in the same situation you are now in 1990. I rented until September 1995 when my second child was due. I eventually bought a 3 bed semi (in need of a little tlc) in the London/Essex borders for just under £40,000. Not saying that houses will become that affordable again, but a little patience should pay off.

Did you also notice that in 2010-2011, servicing the debt will cost more than Scotland and Wales put together?

The drop in prices [thus far] has been caused mainly by a lack of credit; unemployment has not been a factor yet. Unemployment will become a factor later in the cycle, as the economy (profits) will recover before the jobs market does. By this time next year credit will still be tight, there will be a lot more unemployed (3m+?), banking interest rates will be on their way up and the new government will be announcing savage cuts in public expenditure. HPC is still on.