mhifoe

Surely all he is asking is for new investors to share their experiences. If you are thinking about investing in a sector, information from others can be invaluable. For example, how easy is it to open an allocated account and put money into it?

It's worth noting that the installation wasn't solar panels, but rather solar water heating. I assume this is rather more efficient than solar panels.

They are using the average capital gain for the last 20 years. Remember kids, past performance does not guarantee future results. Having said that, some of the figures are quite interesting, especially the shockingly poor rental yields.

Adding up income tax and NI gives some scary figures. For the following example, the NI limit is assumed to be the same as the higher rate threshold. Employer NI is the figure that people often forget. Lower rate: Income Tax: 22% Employee NI: 11% Employer NI: 12.8% Higher rate: Income tax: 40% Employee NI: 1% Employer NI: 12.8% 1000 net pay at the lower rate will cost an employer £1684 (40.6%). 1000 net pay at the higher rate will cost an employer £1912 (47.7%).

A couple of months ago I saw an articulated lorry with that poster down the side. It must have caused a few accidents.

I thought they did a pretty good job with Ed Balls by preceeding his platitudes with information that directly contradicted what he said. For example, when he said that there was plenty of investment, they preceeded it with information about how private sector investment has fallen since '97, only made up for by rampant public sector spending.

Windsave do domestic wind turbines.

The increase in rental property in amazing. When I wanted to rent a flat about five years ago I had to take the day off work and get the local paper as soon as it was published. Typically all the 1 bed flats would be let by 3pm. If I visit rightmove today I can choose from over a hundred one bed properties in my area. They even cost the same as they did then, but are of far better quality.

It's not just the seaside towns though. In Cornwall for example, seaside property has always been too expensive for locals. However, now almost all properties regardless of location are outrageously expensive.

That was the law until recently. It meant that you could legally sell fresh magic mushrooms. The law has now been changed to make this illegal as well.

A friend of mine runs a small shop selling hippy clothes. Until recently she also sold magic mushrooms, which were legal to sell due to a loophole in the law. Last month the law was changed to make them class A drugs. Now instead of them being sold by a reputable shop which is paying taxes, they are sold by drug dealers and the government gets nothing.

Oil is priced in dollars. If the pound fell to $1 it would increase the cost of oil by 80%.

The poster in question was spamming. A comparable situation would be if you were sitting in a pub which had a big sign in the window saying 'Soliciting for business in prohibited'. If someone came in and tried to sell you double glazing telling them to ****** off would not be unreasonable.

In what way is someone spamming a website comparable to a meeting in real life? When you receive spam e-mail do you carefully consider the fine offers? Do you reply and ask the nice people not to send you anything else? Spammers are scum and deserve no courtesy.

Like this? (May not work).

If you want to avoid sending GoldMoney all the paperwork they require, you can buy GoldMoney via http://www.londongoldexchange.com/. They allow you to pay in cash at the Post Office.

I'm cutting up my 6.9% MBNA card right now!

A few cards will allow you to transfer money directly into your bank account at 0% with no fee! I have a virgin card at 0% which allows this. I have had a revolving balance on 0% for over 3 years. Then I phoned them up to transfer a balance to the card they asked me whether I would like to do this, the woman on the phone said 'It's like free money" . I'm giving up this year though. Lots of the companies are starting to crack down on it. Most now charge a balance transfer fee of 2%.

I agree that bringing more railway routes would be useful, as would encouraging more freight onto the railways. I don't really understand the point in trying to ban lorries during the day though. Do you have any idea how much that would cost? As an example, consider a medium sized supermarket. If deliveries are banned during the day, who is going to pay for all the staff to unload lorries in the middle of the night?

It would clearly cost less to the taxpayer if most of the people who collect tax were made redundant. Most of them would get productive jobs instead. The tax system is absurdly complicated. How much does it cost to organise NI contributions separately to income tax? Of course Brown wouldn't combine them because then people would realise just how much they are paying.

If a couple are finding it tough to raise two children on £176 a week, they could consider gainful employment like the rest of us.

In other news, turkeys warn against eating Christmas dinner.

I will accept higher fuel duty if appropriate public transport is available. I live in town, because of this I go shopping on foot and my wife walks to work. However, I commute 15 miles to work. This takes 30 minutes by car and 1 hour 45 minutes by bus. I would travel by train but the line was closed by Beeching.

Are you suggesting that old bangers are driven more dangerously? That certainly isn't my experience.

It's the Northern Rock together mortgage. With their 125% mortgages and salary multiples of over 5 I'm concerned about their prospects in the coming crash.