katchytitle

Excel has a nifty automated template that does this for you. Go to file --> New and then search for the "Loan Amortization" template. Most of the versions of Excel have it.

Ah but no politicans saw 2008 coming...whereas every central banker in town is controlling the stockmarket in 2012

It wasn't a bet - they were probably bookrunning "the biggest IPO in history" - soaking up shares ready to offload on to their clients and make money on the bid offer spread as well as any markup due to the IPO euphoria. Most banks charge a fee for this of upto 4-6% of the IPO value. This is then shared with all the bookrunners. As with all modern day banking, its a scam. What do the entrepeneurs get for their money? 1 A glossy brochure that lists all the risks in the world ("shares can go up as well as down"), 2 A load of client roadshows where they take the IPO and management team to talk to wealthy investors (our pension funds and hedge funds). Once they gauge the interest from this investor community they buy up a proportion of the IPO for their favourite clients (the ones that generate the most fees for them) and keep some for their trading desks to flog to the sheep who believe the media hype (e.g dotcom boom). 3. The only thing they want in the first place - access to capital to grow their business...provide jobs, expand to new markets - y'know stuff that actually makes the real world work as opposed to banking leeches. Its a genius wealth transfer mechanism from fools who believe everything they read to wealthy bankers who understand statistics, maths and probabilities of success. The best thing is its all totally legal...I mean they told you all the risks, they told you their fees.... and you still bought it so its your problem :-) When it all goes sour and banks can't flog the shares to a sheep-like public / pension fund they complain, say the losses weren't their fault e.g sue Nasdaq etc. Because we can't have the bankers losing any money can we? I mean how can they lose in this rigged system? Failed at understanding risk? Get a bailout. Failed at understanding investment banking? Sue the exchange. Failed in business? Become a banker!

You can short the House Price Index on IG Index - either regional or London index.

Any system based on future expectations is always gamed. Its been repeated in history time and time again If you look at the UK the ponzi scheme is unravelling because we made it too expensive for the middle classes to have children. Companies used immigration to fill the gap and increase their profits but could now run out of steam. If you look at the population, you can see that the economy was simply built on passing debt down to a larger younger generation. That has now stopped and the younger generation is getting smaller and smaller. http://katchytitle.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2011-10-22T09:06:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=14&by-date=false http://katchytitle.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2011-10-22T09:06:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=14&by-date=false

Good summary Sledgehead. In this environment most people are realising that capital preservation is more important than returns. In that case people are investing in government bonds as the "risk free" asset. As capital searches for places to go these types of assets will invevitably become asset bubbles and capital will flow to the next available source of income. Like a barrel rolling on the deck of a ship, the continued movement of capital in this way is de-stablising to countries (e.g Switerland) and economic unions (EU). Your choices really boil down to a couple of statements. If you believe that inflation is coming short bonds and go long commodities, metals, equities and real estate If you believe deflation is coming buy Goverment bonds and gold and short equities. To do this with the volatilty in the market is pretty difficult, it would require the purchase of Longer Term Options (LEAPs) although you do run credit risk from the issuer. At Lehman Brothers those in-the-money option claims were crystalised on 12-Sept 2008 as unsecured creditor claims. After having read a few publications and economists' theories, I believe that we will find out that governments will default (through money printing) as they have done through all of history. No country (except Hungary) has managed NOT to default on its debts. Why we call government bonds risk free is beyond me?? Maybe risk free in the short term? The printing will cause rampant inflation (as it always has) and a loss of wealth for the masses (transferred to the few). Prices will rise but money will be worth substantially less. Wait for the markets to fall substantially (to March 2009 lows) and then buy income producing equities which actually have productive assets behind them e.g Fertiliser production, land, agriculture, oil services, cigarettes. Alternatively if you're relatively well off its time to back ideas which generate productive benefits to society (e.g saving time, money, labor, material costs etc) So for HPCers house prices will continue to rise in nominal terms but £100,000 increase would be the equivelant of flat prices over 5/10 years. What's the point of the government guarantee of £85,000 on banking deposits when £85,000 is worth £45,000 of 2007 money. Why are Executives salary increases so high? 10-200%+? Probably because they realise that money is being devalued at an astonishing rate as M3 velocity takes off exponentially. The above is just an opinion. Its up to everyone who is worried to do their own research and decide where to place their bets on the great casino of the international fiat monetary system. Now more than ever, politics will decide the course of action and markets will react in a volatile manner in either direction.

Stocks will tank in the short term but people will soon realise that governments cannot actually pay any of their bond money back. If interest rates rise Goverment bonds will be crucified as they can't afftord the interest payments. That's when people will realise they need to own productive assets like Apple, IBM, Intel, Shell etc...as they are the only way to protect against government profligation. I'd probably buy more stocks when the S&P 500 hits new lows in the next few months. People should question: 1. Why its ok for banks to suspend accounting rules and lie about their balance sheets when small businesses have to just make do 2. Why its ok to print money and erode each citizen's wealth through mass nflation 3. To lie directly to the electrate with either promises you can't keep (and have no realistic plans to show you can keep) or propoganda The answer to these questions are quite simple - Banks buy government debt. To keep the politicans with happy salaries and pensions they must keep the banks alive at all costs - no matter how failed their business models have become Welcome to Klepocracy. I await a bretton woods style summit to end all summits in the next 6 months

The Dow or S&P 500 will not be allowed to fall in an election year. Everytime it goes down it comes right back up. You can see that from all the volatility - before 2008 it was rare for a +/- 1% move in the FTSE and the S&P 500, now it happens every week. Unless the free market beats the central bank's ability to print money the S&P 500 will reach new highs as its the only place to put your money without getting burned by inflation.

As long as the bank approved surveyor values your property higher than the amount you paid for it. I'd get 3 quotes from local estate agents that are reputable and use that as evidence.

We will do what we always do. Innovation will provide new ways of doing things that we can't conceive of. Just like the 40s/50s brought mass car and white good manufacturing to the masses. The problem is that innovation requires self motivated people not interested in money. The exact opposite of the cultural propoganda pushed out in the West. The desire to "conquer" a problem or develop new products will always exist in small pockets of humanity and these people will bring the jobs of the future A few outlandish examples could be: Administrators of your online life and "brand" Managers of your second life estate Managing Grandparents - as the population gets older the richer middle classes can create specfic plans for their parents to gain exercise or entertainment without sending them to a home on mass. Drone pilot ancillary services & repairs Space exploration engineers & ancillary services Managing large scale data centers (much like we do with Nuclear power plans) Child development executive (since parents are increasingly cash rich & time poor) Management and editing of your online photo timeline Managing terra-forming simulations of new planets or uninhabited parts of Earth Robot Technican 3D instant part creator - (Google RepRap) I agree the system is broken as mass communication highlights how little work there is for the population (I see a lot of graduates spending time on Facebook & iphones at work) between building pointless proposals and reports. But that doesn't mean people didn't waste time in previous eras. As always civilisation will adapt and move on (with some bumps along the way). We had a few "Ages" - Agriculture, Industrial, Post Industrial ("Knowledge") and we'll have plenty more....e.g "Bio Mechanical"/ "Genetic", "Space", "Robotic"

If your company matches your contribution and you can choose your funds you can choose to invest your pension in commodity heavy funds anyway but you also get: The 22% or 40% tax benefit The "free" additional top up contribution from your employer. Its basically much more tax efficient using your pre-tax money to invest rather than giving it to the tax man. You do loose out on the fees charged by pension providers 1-2%+ but then if your provider offers Vanguard funds you can get down to as little as 0.1%.

If your company matches your contribution and you can choose your funds you can choose to invest your pension in commodity heavy funds anyway but you also get: The 22% or 40% tax benefit and the "free" contribution from your employer. Its basically much for effective. You do loose out on the fees charged but then if your provider offers vanguard funds you can get down to as little as 0.1% charges.

Yes, they doubled/tripled salaries for revenue generators in the last couple of years. The bankers thought that revenues would roar back after all the free money given out through QE and LTRO by the Fed and ECB. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened. They have now increased their fixed costs to a ridiculous level. Where other real businesses could move staff to part time work or reduce salaries across the population to stop redundancies banks cannot. There will now have to be mass redundancies to reduce labour costs in banking rather. All avoidable if management truly used descretionary bonuses properly. The rules should be: No bonuses when the firm loses money as a whole No bonuses when your sales caused revenue losses in the long term lower bonuses in the good times to gave a safety fund when times are bad. Higher bonuses over the long term when a generation of wealth and new industries have benefited society - real productive assets where IRR is high Average bonuses (paid by the safety fund) when the economy is in a trough through the usual business cycle to motivate staff and ensure less redundancies Banks are clearly not capitalist entites and I agree with Op Ed from Nigel Lawson. Banks should be governed differently to other businesses they allocate capital to the productive members of society they are the gatekeepers of the system and should be held to much higher standards. It should be considered a very sacrosant job, you shouldn't be allowed to move around for guaranteed bonuses. If bankers wanted to do that just setup a hedge fund - see how well you do with your risk adjusted returns when its your own money that you can lose! If we wanted a society not based on debt then we should tax debt interest. Instead in our society equity is always prohibitively expensive to raise and debt is much cheaper to obtain and service. Governments don't tax debt interest which is an instant 25% saving on equity. Additionally, no one slim lines the clear monopoly that investment banks have on equity formation. Our priorities have been screwed by a minority who got rich quick but produced no improvement in society. See the attachment for profit vs cost base and revenue growth for the large IBs - pay vs profit. At the end of the day: You hire someone to make a profit You hire more people if you can make more profit That system is about to collapse in banking and funnuly enough the shareholders (mainly insitutions) haven't seemed to care for ages. They were happy with the stunning return on equity from banks of 15-25% so they didn't care what employees were paid. That is now a different story and there will be significant pressure to reduce headcount on lower volumes.

If you ring up Sky and say you're leaving - they reduce your bill by 30% instantly. No new contract tie-in. They just reduce the amount you pay straight away so you can keep Sky in the downturn and they can show their shareholders that they are "always" adding a net of additional new customers. If you are on Sky - give it a go - I did, and sure in enough when I got through to cancellations they just reduced my bill to keep me from cancelling. I was only on £20 odd/ mth imagine how much you Sky Sports fans can save!? just give them a call...without the costly 0870 number on 020 7126 7020...(thanks to saynoto0870.com). They try and wait you out but just call of your free mobile minutes and put it on speaker whilst you're on hold - its worth it for the saving.

The reason all the premiums were hiked up after 2008 is because of the shareholder requirement for growth regardless of market conditions. Insurers make the bulk of their money in two ways. 1. They invest your premiums in liquid market securities (£xxbn for 12 months is a nice return even at 3% government bonds) and pay out as and when insurance claims come in 2. They evaluate risk and make some money from those that do not claim. Around 90% of the money you pay in they give out to claims, indeed, that's considered a good ratio. When the market started failing they lost their income from No.1 and had to hike up premiums instead to cover their "loss of income" from their speculative investments in equity/bond markets. Its a rigged system, they pay the politicians party funds for election campaigns, the politicians tell the regulators when they can be lenient. We the taxpayer simply don't have the collective will to change the system. Remember divide and conquer...its the best way to win. Create a "left" and a "right" make them fight for "power" whilst actually you just distract them so the wealthy continue to eat from the trough. We live in a Kleptocracy and the last few years are beginning to show the public the proof http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy : where the government exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and the ruling class at the expense of the wider population, often without pretense of honest service. This type of government corruption is often achieved by the embezzlement of state funds.

Government backed mortgages didn't work out that well for the USA. Check out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac currently sucking at the government's teat at $4-7Bn a quarter. of losses. Whilst the chairman of the institution quit with a $4m severance package. It must be tough to come in every day and phone the government and ask them to fill your bank account - what a "business" - bravo! A government guarantee scheme will end in tears. When will governments learn that you can't grow without 1) giving entrepreneurship a chance and 2) bringing the bottom third of the population with you on the growth train through manufacturing jobs that keeps them happy, well fed and active. Ironically, the whole American mess started with Clinton telling all the banks to lend to the sub-prime market giving them incentives to do so. Clinton needed the black vote, and it was an easy way to get it. Ironic because he's hailed as the last US leader who left a surplus...they neglected to see the ticking time bomb! Ah Capitalism - its a great system with checks and balances - and you can never get away with too much debt for too long. The "bond vigilantes" that the media refer to are just the normal capital holders who are looking for good quality investments on a good adjusted risk return basis. It turns out everyone has been pricing risk wrong for about 15 years. Oops... It turns out we're all just monkeys in a cage, the scientists with the keys are the capital owners whose families got to the top of the tree first. Capital controls democracy it always has, and always will.

Agreed. Paying down your debt in your own long-term house is never a bad idea but keep some cash aside in case you need it for a rainy day. Equity release will no doubt become harder and more expensive in the future so getting cash out of your house will be harder than just sticking it in a few ISAs.

There's a US company called Vanguard which provides very cheap index funds with charges of 0.1 - 0.25 %. They're big in the states but very few companies offer the funds here as they would have to lower their prices too!. Alliance Trust (FTSE 100 investment managers) -www.alliancetrust.com are the only company I know of that offers them.

Slightly off topic... We keep borrowing money yet it keeps going to the short term speculators. Want to know why oil and gas are getting more expensive? See attached Lehman brothers employee claim. Remember socialise the losses but keep the short term profits! If this is how people were paid you can see how tiny fiefdoms within firms took excessive risks! The banksters are stealing in the name of creating liquidity but the reality is that they are the market makers and they only set the prices to benefit themselves! 00000114951.pdf 00000114951.pdf

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Zopa have to put your funds into an underlying bank at the end of the day? It can't possibly have all the payment systems and links to SWIFT etc. So all you'll do it take your money out of one part of the banking system and put it into another part. The reality seems to be that there are only a few banks including the Bank of International Settlements and the Central banks - as long as there is liquidity other banks can always borrow money from them!