SillyBilly
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Posts posted by SillyBilly
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I managed a skim read of about every fourth word before abandoning the article halfway through. It really saddens me that that is "aspirational", poor reflection on our society. It was too sad for me to see a load of debt monkeys on low incomes be paraded to the nation as high achievers and role model material. Raising cattle for the slaughter...They have demonstrated some prudence, granted, but unknowingly they are complicit in a lifetime of servitude to the banks. Most of them are "all in" on something which is hardly worth the risk.
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I don't think I'd worry too much about the bubble bursting in most parts of the country. You could get hit for a few tens of k (some people balls deep a bit more, granted) but you could recover. I would not, however, buy in the South-East now. There is simply too far to fall, get on the wrong end of that trade and for a lot of people that'd be difficult to ever recover from. A friend of mine has just put everything he has into a s**thole flat in London (off the back of his inflated salary) - I liken it to going all in on tech stocks in the late 90's. A couple of years of mad gains to come potentially but if it collapses when you're still holding you're finished. It is clearly a gamble now, a million miles away from a value investment. I don't think I'd want to risk everything for so little (a poxy flat).
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Just now, ChewingGrass said:
Don't forget that the French government via Renault has a huge 40% ish stake in Nissan, I suspect there is also a big dose of gallic politics involved as the French would love to remove more manufacturing from the UK.
Had no idea of that link. I picked a country at random as a general point. The French don't seem to have got over Napoleon's exile, they'll grow up one day.
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This is where we need to get a handle on globalism on a global level. Undoubtably Nissian is crucial to that part of the world but this is sort of corporate leverage seems to be spinning out of control. I wouldn't want a company in France doing this if threatening to leave France for the UK, we're all worse off in the long run - a zero sum game of paying them off today to find them back at the door tomorrow. Diminishing returns for all states in the long haul.
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19 hours ago, 999house said:
Ive just got a new job in home counties. Managed to get a slight pay increase compared to London job. Gonna rent a 2 bed for 1000pm. Which is steep, but bearing in mind I paid 900 quid a month for a room in London it seems a good deal.
There is also the added bonus that I can walk to work in 20-25 mins and there is a quick train to London if I need to go crazy on the weekend.
Congrats on the new job.
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7 hours ago, durhamborn said:
Good to hear.I bought URA (uranium) late November and GDX,GDXJ late December.Also bought Eldorado Gold Corp,Yamana Gold and Sibanye Gold week before xmas.I avoid the juniors apart from GDXJ.All of the above can be kept in ISAs/SIPPs,nice sterling/inflation hedges and GDX should be in any sterling investors portfolio at the present time for me.Just my opinion of course.
May have a look at Eldorado again now you mention it, I had a look at them a year or so ago but went for the safer Barrick choice. First Majestic Silver Corp is a company I fancy for silver exposure. Been a while since I invested so would need to look at them again though.
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+1 for value investing and The Intelligent Investor. I'd suggest for 95+% of people though they'd be better off just doing the "age in bonds" %, rest in low cost index trackers route. Leave the worry behind and keep on adding month and after month in a mechanical fashion. The stock market is a bit of a hobby to me so hours pouring over charts, scouring for companies, calculating intrinsic values, yields to maturity etc. is not a chore at all. Easy principles to follow but takes a bit of dedication to the cause nonetheless otherwise everyone would be millionaires! It remains to be even seen if I will do any better than passive funds. I am a commited convert to it though. Will report back in 30 years.
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1 hour ago, MattW said:
I have been having a think about this subject recently...
The baby boomers (all own their homes outright) are the loudest members in my workplace. They love to put their POV across quite forcibly at times. They tend not to listen to what I have to say - or the other Gen X ers or Millenials for that matter. The rest of us are a bit meeker in comparison.
Don't think that is anything other than what I'd expect. People generally give less of a stuff as they age, are more comfortable with who they are and have built up sufficient experience and knowledge in the workplace to be able to throw some of their weight around. I say that as someone not in that age category either. Younger people are the opposite of all those but I am sure will inherit the same traits as they grow older, only they'll be skint instead of property millionaires!
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We had some redundancies at one of our sites earlier on this year. A room full of middle managers (me included) deciding where the axe was to fall. Perhaps I should give the benefit of the doubt to my colleagues but I was genuinely questioning (but not vocalising) whether I was the only one in that room that knew a few of us could be thinned out somewhat with a larger saving with little to no productivity drop...
Everybody at my place (office end) is a manager anyway. Even an administrator (e.g. somebody who raises the purchase orders to suppliers) is a "Supply Chain Manager". Some people are easily placated, being given £25k and being called the "customer services manager" (complaint handler) means they've made it!
Like Steel says I see my job as mainly to protect my small team from the BS from above. It can be a totally thankless task though. I heard that one of the biggest contributors to stress is not having power or control over an outcome (or not as much as you'd like). That helplessness or disengagement (however it manifests) causes stress. That is middle management for you. All the responsbility but no authority. You get your orders from above (no matter how stupid, counter-productive or morale sapping) and you have to implement. All the while you must continue to meet their determined performance criteria (often when senior management have no idea of the job being undertaken or the effects of their decisions).
I can't decide whether I like the fact my boss is completely useless and clueless (I am not saying this lightly, my last boss I hugely respected and looked up to). This week I have convinced him to send me on an expensive traning course to "renew" a qualification I don't need (or indeed actually have) but makes me more employable elsewhere! I could tell him whatever I want; he doesn't know his **** from his elbow. On the flipside it is disenfranchising to be controlled by someone you don't respect and don't feel you can learn anything from, it is no way to spend a life, pulling the wool over someones' eyes gets old quickly...
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Even a massive drop in in the SE from this point isn't enough. Likely it will serve to kill the newer entrants to the market who were desperate not to be left behind.
A person who blindly sees property as the root-to-all-riches is about as credible (to my mind) as someone who went balls deep in an AIM stock and came out as a millionaire. Neither of those persons would I want to take any instruction or advice of in any financial matters, they simply threw the dice at the right time. You only need to talk to your average amateur landlord about yield, legal changes, monetary policy (interest rates) etc. and you'll be rewarded with a blank face. Literally, clueless.
It is blatantly obvious many of these people could never, ever be expected to return these HPI gains through earned income, management of their own investment portfolio or a credible business etc. Obviously some landlords are a cut above the rest but the casual types who seemed to have fell on half a million or so in equity...I reserve a special scepticism for their talents!
I had a couple of conversations with old friends/future brother-in-law about going into BTL over xmas so the mindset is as strong as ever. You simply can't lose on property! I did have to give my sister's boyfriend a basic lesson in determination of yield though as he was struggling...
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Having a work phone (and laptop) is considered a company benefit at my place, I would give them both back with glee if I could. After almost 2 weeks down time with everything switched off for once (I bolt annual leave onto Xmas holiday) I am dreading the constant barrage of calls and e-mails again for another whole year.
On one of the sites I work at, I am the only senior manager to use up their full annual holiday entitlement (for me this is 20 days, it increases with service). I am sure this gets comments. The main man there took about 5 days I think and is on call seemingly 24 hours a day (I'd get an e-mail response almost immediately if I mailed now). It is very difficult to be a ballast when the prevailing culture is dominated by people that literally have nothing in their lives apart from the company. I can understand this for people that have equity in the business and stand to gain an awful lot (maybe 10 years at that pace giving them an average lifetime's earnings for the average Joe) but middle managers giving their lives away in the £25-60k range, I am baffled by it? Very uninspirational for me. I'd like more time to work on monetising other skills outside of my paid job (potentially to do away with the Man altogether), to do this I need to limit my working hours to as close to 40 as possible. With 10-15 hours commuting per week and 5-10 hours consistent overtime then removing the constant being on-call element would be very welcome.
In my job it is just not necessary to be on call yet I am, years ago people were doing my job without it so its BS it can't be done. The problem is that technology has changed expectations and employers have to compete in a market place where rapid response time is expected (and this is passed onto the employee). I can't see it changing. I work in regulatory affairs so I know first hand the sort of lip service most companies give to regulations. Nice policies, mission statements etc. but on-the-ground is a different matter.
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20 hours ago, wonderpup said:
.The problem really is that Capitalism is in danger of becoming obsolete. We need production and we need consumption to make a world. But we don't actually need Capitalism- Capitalism is at root a facilitator of the production/consumption paradigm- it is not in itself an essential component of that paradigm.
Keep the posts up wonderpup, nothing to contribute apart from very much enjoy reading your contributions, I agree fully.
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We obviously need to import more Somalians or Bangladeshis to keep the pyramid scheme up, the rest of us can just abstain from natural processes while we prop the whole thing up with tax and rent.
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14 hours ago, spyguy said:
Missed this.
I can guess.
When I worked in Bracknel, I found the locals were pretty unemployable. In the main they were 2nd generation London slum clearance. Most were still totally lost - they could not cope with the move.
There were a scattering of builders and people who commuted into London to do what not but even 20 years ago, a very percetnage were single parents/crap dope dealers.
Everyone I worked with, including me, travelledin from elsewhere.
Today, computers are cheaper, companies are smaller and the traffic is a lot worse.
Companies that used to set up in the Thames valley no longer do it as
1) Other companies dont do it.
2) They need a lot less space - I worked in a converted warehouse when an office would have been a lot better.
3) Trying to get a young skilled person anywhere near Bracknell is a no go.
I guess Wokingham will survive - all areas need a twee middleclass area.
Bracknell will turn into a massive, jobless social sh1thole.
Reading - new Bradford.
All palces will slump when the benefits reform kick in.
Agreed, I work in Reading 2 days a week and Binfield 3 days a week. Binfield seems to have French Riviera prices, perhaps because it isn't Bracknell. It is a thoroughly depressing part of the world and one I shall very much look forward to leaving. I am not sure what the Thames Valley is offering these days, it is increasingly London cost of living without the premium and without the culture.
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Looks like I "win" on this one or lose as it were. I had a 5.5 - 6 hour commute (approx 3 hours each way depending on buses running on time), I did that for 16 months. I'd be out the house before 6am and often not back much before 9pm. I think I'd be hanging from a tree by now if I kept that up. Now about 2 hours on average which is manageable but even pinching an extra half an hour a day (45 mins each way) is something I am eyeing up. We can "tolerate" a lot as humans but I am (gradually) beginning to learn there are some games where I am not interested in winning anymore, particularly if the prize is a bucket load of stress, hours of commuting and an early grave.
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2 hours ago, CunningPlan said:
Well said. You do need to live a little if you can.
After every family holiday I create a montage of photos and get a canvas print made up. They adorn the walls of one room and whenever the stress of the grind is getting me down I just stand in front of them for a while and it all becomes worthwhile.
Nice idea actually, you do sometimes have to remember what you work hard for. I am a bit of a scrimper in virtually every category bar "experiences"; that can be holidays or days out at the football or whatever. I don't budget for these at all, it costs what it costs. I could probably knock a few years off the retirement age by going the full hog but 30+ years of eating lentils, staring out the window is no life. I admire the sacifice of extreme savers but it is not for me.
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16 minutes ago, Frugal Git said:
Whenever someone says to me 'can't wait till pay day' or similar, I'm bemused, and then worry for society. Many of these people earn good money and are in their late twenties to 40's.
I can genuinely say I haven't taken notice of 'pay day' since I had a paper round, except when starting a new job and making sure they got the bank details right. Ever since then there's always been enough money in the bank to cover anything going on in my life.
There are definite exceptions as always for people right on the breadline, but for most people there is no excuse.
Must admit, I can't relate either, for weeks on end I can have no idea what is in my bank account, the minimum I'd have in there would buy me a decent used car (and I am not rich by any stretch). I log in and siphon off into the S&S ISA/SIP every now and again, check I am not being robbed and that is it. Even as a student I wasn't skint - I worked PT jobs and always had enough for a night out if I wanted to. I had mates who were on a diet of pasta only after 8 weeks! I have never been given a penny piece by my parents or anyone else either so not like I have had a head start on anyone else. I started working on a crap "graduate" salary too and never struggled then.
The people who live on the breadline though, I can't imagine how awful that must be, a big bill potentially not allowing you to fill your car up with petrol to get to work or something...
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The Tories forgetting who their voters are? Its okay for May talking about opportunity for everybody and helping low earners but at least these people can make a life for themselves by dossing on tax credits in low stress low hours work, how about the people who are caught in the middle paying for the 16 hr brigade/fibromyalgia sufferers and for the retirements of the landlord class? State won't look twice at them and landlords looking up their next cruise in glossy brochures. Pay a load of tax yet find the lowest priced s**tholes at 5+ times their salary. A bedroom big enough to put a single duvet in for these folk on a 40 year mortgage at 5 times salary? Taking the p*ss out of the people who are keeping the plates spinning...
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Absolutely disgraceful, nothing much shocks me when it comes to housing in the UK but I didn't expect a genuine proposal to go smaller than the current rabbit hutches we have. Complete disgrace.
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Right, first attempt at calculating tax credits.
Current income ~£58k (as a couple - 46 + 12)
Tax and NI = ~ £10.5k
Net Income = £47.5k
Add £5.5k tax free rent-a-room = £53k
Doing the tax credit shuffle:
Make a £32,250 gross (£25,800 net) pension contribution
Wife makes a £10,000 gross (£8000 net) pension contribution.
Net income for tax credits = £15,750
Tax credits award for 3 children = £8885
Actual net pay = £16,825 (this is different due to not getting NI back on pension contributions but you do get tax relief)
Net income including TCs = £~ £25,700
Add the rent a room £5,500
Total net income = £31,200
So £21,800 less in our pockets BUT we would have a total of £42,250 in our pensions.
Total 'income' = ~ £73,500
Thus we would be ~ £20,000 better off (though the pension money would not be accessible for 8-10 years)
If we did this for the next 5 years we could have over £200,000 in our pensions not including any possible investment gains.
Granted that would be only about a £7,000 annuity (if we went that route - almost certainly not but drawdown might yield similar) but it would only have cost us about half of that.
Jesus, it really is shocking to have the figures laid out like that. Just been on the UK gov site, I put in a range of circumstances, it really does make you wonder what the "benefit" of being a "middle earner" is. I live quite frugally (I could live off NMW) so doing what you've laid out I could quite easily do, would be no hardship to me.
As another poster said the social contract is broken on that evidence so now I would think nothing of people protesting in this way. If the income gap between a 16 hour worker with several kids against a childless high earner doing 50-60hr/week is being eroded courtesy of handouts (which it is) then I don't see the problem at all.
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Comes back to the central theme that the cost of shelter is the major issue, not wages. If you didn't have such ridiculous prices (affecting both OOs in mortgages and renters in passed on costs) then people could work for less with the largest monthly expense reduced.
£20k does sound a lot but equally £14k is not exactly a lot to live on in either (ignoring TC's etc. - they should not be modelled into private sector pay).
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BoE need to bring out a calendar with different shots of Carney for each month. Sure that would be like soft porn for the BTL brigade.
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I see Emily Thornberry was pushing Davis today to put the submission of Article 50 to parliamentary vote. So...return the vote to our overwhemingly pro-EU parliament after the nation has voted...and politicians wonder why so many people have so little faith in them? She ought to recognise if parliament blocked Article 50 it would be the biggest stitch-up in the history of this country and there would be one hell of a march on Westminster. Me included.
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I once met somebody in an NHS management job, after about 15 minutes chatting to her about her job I was still none the wiser about what she actually did. Admitedly, the same could be said for when talking about my own job (quite a complex role) but as I'm in the private sector I do at least have to justify my position in pounds and pence of added value.
It is a catch 22 for me on NHS funding. It does provide great value and needs to be adequately funded but when I hear of the latest £X billion going into it, one immediately wonders how much of that is not going to find its way to frontline services but line the pockets of pen pushers, contractors and guru consultants. You do hear some ridiculous accounts of waste which you could only truly associate with a layered public sector management structure. Prime example recently being of a hospital director (or whatever her fancy title was) being sacked for not investigating dozens of mortalities appropiately, only then to get appointed in a consultancy role on the exact same salary (something like £160k) for another Trust. Must be a cosy world for these guys. That is like me being sacked by my employer and not being able to return to head office but then re-employing me into another job on another company site a few miles down the road.
Budget 2017 - No spending sprees
in House prices and the economy
Posted
So the only thing of note is clobbering self-employed persons, contractors & small business owners? There are big tax rises coming for a lot of that group, particularly if they are reasonably successful. As if we needed more evidence that those who are carry most of the burden already are expected to take on more and more. Priorities are back to front in this country. Big corporations, wealthy pensioners, the army of full-time dossers/professionally crippled/16hr brigade...all untouched. Is the goal to disincentivise people to do anything but leech of the state? I am pretty disgusted (and I am PAYE) that the low-hanging fruit is picking the pockets of the small people who by enlarge graft week-in-week-out. The other groups are clearly too politically toxic to touch.