hotblack42

This forum is not a good place for stock tips. NatWest has increased 14.7% since Christmas on top of the 1.7% divi in Sep. So.. when will these "..bank failures starting in the US" commence? 2025? 2035? After the first manned mission to Mars? 😆

Nobody's forcing anyone to pay these ridiculous asking prices. A lot of people on here are critical of SE prices, but actually prices away from hot spots are cheaper than anywhere desirable in the SW if you apply an adjustment for the availability of relatively well paid private sector jobs. Also roads - plenty of quiet roads in Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, Herts and Essex away from towns. In Cornwall you can get involved in traffic jams in the middle of nowhere, especially if there are clueless Sunday driver tourists in the mix. This is true all year round now since idiots started to think a long weekend in Devon in November is a good idea.

Its so weird to me. Being shown up / proved wrong over the decades has ultimately helped me mature, learn a bit of humility and avoid expensive mistakes or take opportunities. How will people develop and learn whilst sitting in gloomy rooms in their underpants looking for things to be offended by?

This budget will encourage older workers with valued skills and knowledge who've shifted to 3/4 day working on a hybrid basis for £40k or higher to keep working. £80-120 a month better off this since January is enough to notice, especially if your outgoings are similar to income. Is that good or bad, I'm unsure. Isn't there concern that too many people are retiring early? That said, retirement makes space for the young uns so its a hard one to call. The elimination of all tax breaks for holiday home owners is clearly natural justice. This will definitely increase the supply of homes to buy or rent for local families in tourist areas. Very slow to address non doms though. Is disappointing and frustrating that the Tories always give the wealthy time to re-arrange their affairs to mitigate detrimental tax changes.

It does seem very unlikely that you will use UK public services albeit not impossible as presumably you've remained a UK citizen. And to be fair why would you throw away free insurance. You are clearly not in the same category as many emigrants I've known who's potential to contribute in the new location was not at all obvious. A good sign is were the current employer in the source country had tried and failed to retain an individual, rather than helping them to pack🤣

Did you burn your bridges by selling all UK assets & giving up UK citizenship & the right to return & receive NHS treatment? Or did you just go away for a while? People talk of leaving & some do, but very few leave for ever, give up UK rights & privileges entirely & take their chances in a new land. This is based on many friends & relatives heading off to the USA, Canada & Australia. All left for “amazing opportunities”. Most of them come back either temporarily for treatment, or permanently when they become enfeebled 🫤 Not sure why this is allowed really, it means the cleverest, most creative & productive UK citizens have pretty much won the lottery of life, able to take risky global opportunities without the worry of potentially becoming stranded in poverty abroad if it doesn’t pay off.

20/40 is fine. All that’s needed is much higher thresholds for both, removal of the NI upper limit & a lower NI rate levied on all income - on particular UK rent, savings & private pensions, irrespective of nationality, country of domicile & payment of tax in another country. Similarly tax those in the UK on overseas earnings without regard to tax levied abroad. None of these arrangements affect ordinary people so get rid. Time to tell selfish, nasty people who defend low taxation of pensions that represent an upper quartile income, or in line for one, to lump it. Well off boomers are a great potential source of revenue. As their numbers decline the threat to use their vote to retaliate will decline also. Good. Just to be clear I am a late boomer. Just not a selfish one, or at least not one of the shameless c*nts downvoting comments about favouring poorer workers, or taxing well off pensioners more, on the Daily Mail site. I can’t believe they are not embarrassed to express such views. I guess they’re mostly borderline psychopaths..🤔

Putney & Black Heath are the only locations that hold a candle to the desirable northern manors. Even then you need to be on a quiet side street. That said you could buy 3 or 4 gorgeous houses in the best streets in Putters or BH for £9.6M. BMV my arse.

3rd line should be OK dealing with the knottier stuff & the buck stops there. It’s a brave firm that relies on Indian techies as their back stop for a high priority incident😳 Being a friendly helpful generalist at 1st / 2nd line has never been secure. Always, always have, & continuously acquire novel, niche knowledge. No guarantees in life but the maxim about not needing to outrun the tiger, just someone else is a solid one😁 Of course if enhanced redundancy is in the air it gets more complicated..🤔🙂

You know that isn't true. Stop trying to trigger people, its immature.

Only insecure idiots or people spending their employers money ever did this. Iphone 14 was £720 TCO with unlimited data back in Dec. over 24 payments. Probably even cheaper now. It will be supported until at least 2029 so combined with the relentlessly increasing cost of living upgrades will slow drastically.

Based on my experience in financial services, any metric reaching a 50 year low is highly exceptional and warrants careful analysis - root causes and likely effects.

Its clear enough the difficulties those whose capacity to earn is overwhelmed by the cost of shelter and living in general. Us people do have a clue. Mobile workers with in demand skills often create new support networks when they move away from family as an alternative to expensive nursery provision. If that's not an option then buying a house and raising children will be unaffordable for same sadly. Lower house prices or free childcare from birth could resolve that on a societal level. There isn't much political appetite for either at present.

A civil war is a way to re-balance.

Yes, lots of cabins too. Some posher & better equipped than your average house😄

My wife became a childminder when ours were pre school. Our 2 boys, close friend’s 2 girls. The girls became like daughters in our eyes & remain so. Grandparents are not the only carers over & above nursery.

Yup. We were somewhere in between. Decent area, decent state schools, decent incomes, estate house but kids free to roam nearby countryside. Pushing for the best paid job you don’t like, trophy house & struggling to pay school fees just stresses parents & kids out & worries the grandparents & wider family. Not worth it. Fine, Do all that stuff but only if you have at least 125% of the necessary wealth & income.

Our builder is booked up until March 2025. He can’t recommend an electrician because he can’t find a good one himself who is available on any kind of reasonable timescale. West Sussex coastal / South Downs. Lovely place to live but a PITA to get tradesmen to do anything for the foreseeable. No idea why they don’t come across from Pompey, S’ton or Kent. Rich pickings here..

Why do you use such hyperbolic language? Yes we’re probably going to see a correction but you know it’s not going to be wiped out. How could it be wiped out? How would live applications & existing infrastructure be supported if everyone was sacked? Anecdotally both myself (60!) & my son, analyst & dev respectively have been approached about real jobs in the last 3 weeks. It’s a very individual experience even in a shrinking market. Opportunities arise for systems integrators, managers with downsizing experience etc. even when thousands are losing their jobs. Everyone I’ve ever known made redundant in IT with a strong aptitude & work ethic has found new work after redundancy. That’s 1990-present. Every single one. Those who worked in manual jobs eliminated by IT do struggle though.

It doesn’t matter, there’s a fault line in America that will resolve out at some point into a new equilibrium, regardless of whether there is a self absorbed tit in charge or not.

Germany has delivered good quality services and products recently - 1950s on. But that's not really that long in terms of socio-economic history. They are a collection of humans. Its not that shocking if they stumble and fall eventually.

Is that the case if you have to rely on public charging? If not then this is another divisive issue in an already divided society. One of the biggest issues with EVs is the current bias towards households with private frontages. Manufacturers should focus on solving this, not finessing the upper quartile market with bells and whistles to make their EV experience even more pleasant. We don't need innovation that benefits those already better off than average, we need innovation that materially boosts the fortune of the disadvantaged, that either benefits the best off the same in absolute terms (ie proportionally less) or not at all. There's big trouble ahead if we don't start approaching the governance of society, including private enterprise, with this mindset, ranging from random lawlessness to revolution.

Are they really middle class, in the historic sense, if they have so much debt it risks overwhelming their finances? Don’t recall any worries about debt burden in any of the fiction or nonfiction books I’ve read referencing people with good jobs in finance or medicine 1850-1950. We probably need to accept that middle class in London / SE is now a household income pushing £200k so need to be senior medics, top tier civil servants or c suite.

Oh well rellies had a good 10 year plus run letting their small holiday home. I expect they’ll sell up now as in mid 60s with better things to do on Saturdays than clean it. Very high occupancy, it’s rarely empty, but I it’s more ethical for a person / couple to live in it.

I predict a confusing combination of tweaks driven by a rising sense of panic none of which will be enough to trigger anything useful, make anyone feel any better off, or be something that will help right the economic ship. Ie like Labour budgets when they know they will lose the next election.