micawber

It's a great idea if that's what they want. I just wish that they'd stop whining and playing victim all the time. They need to negotiate with Westminster the mechanism by which consideration of a referendum could be started. It should be based on continuous independent polling demonstrating a minimum of 55% in favour of independence. This stuff is so easy I can't understand why they make it so hard.

Was it really THAT much stronger? Discuss.

It's time to increase the top prize to £5M and reduce/eliminate the £25. I mean, I can't buy much of a house with £1M especially after buying costs, council tax and utilities are added in.

Stop you being able to afford one?

A lot of folk will have forgotten about that tiresome nonsense. Incoming complaints in 3,2,1....

I think that Charlie and Stig have trashed this index. It only includes fresh to market properties - not reductions.

Are you THE Housing Stig, Alex? If so, keep telling Charlie to stop waffling. The mums on mums net can't stand it.

Up from 3.3% to 3.7%. Now they just need to increase the amount that can be saved from 50K

I thought new borrowers were supposed to be stress-tested and warned about potential increases. Anyhow, even some unnamed brains on here scoffed at my suggestion that people should fix for 10 years a couple of years ago. It's a shame that I was never as good at that game myself (fixed at 5% for 7 years back in 2008)!

I was at a fayre the other day. It had a couple of car dealers' stalls. A rather average looking Ford was priced at 39K. I joked with the salesman that I'd buy it when it reduced to 20K. He laughed (sarcastically) and said that no one buys cars with cash. It's all on PCP now. QED?

Idiots and their money are easily parted. Same as housing.

Unfortunately, Charlie waffles so much that folks with short attention spans will never get to the end of his videos. It made me laugh the other day when Alex gave him the proverbial kick under the table.

Please. Just stop. One dipstick on here posting in alternate mixed case is enough.

I think the author meant price or cost rather than value.

Also consider payments to charities and enjoy the fact that you are directing the causes to which the UK gov must support.

That's the real story. A greedy f*cker who wanted to get rich quickly rather than get rich slowly.

As if they have a choice.

Just use houseprice.io. Much easier. Mid-feb https://houseprices.io/?q=bn41

Crikey you two. Humour is dead!

It's Alex Salmond you heathen.

I do like the fact that the more you can save for retirement, the less you get used to living on while working, the easier it is to retire early. Get used to living off a retirement level income in the 2/3 years before you pull the trigger.

It's so personal. I only needed half that in order to retire at 51. We're comfortable but don't discretionary spend to excess. The more easily you're pleased - the less you need. Don't forget to factor in any additional sums from downsizing and inheritance.

Other odd costs to budget/save for include grandchildren (expensive little buggers), beds (replace every 10 years), weddings, furniture,....

I retired at 51 (and not dead yet!). Not really by choice but dickhead employer changed from DB to DC and wouldn't guarantee the very generous conversion rates on my AVC pot. I couldn't risk them halving the rates with no notice. Always thought I might get a nice job pushing trolleys around the car park but never needed to. My "required income" for couple and dependent adult is £3300 pm. That does mean I'm drawing down faster than sustainable, but I expect to draw less as I get older and as state pension kicks in. Around half of that drawdown goes into savings for all those expenses other have listed. For me, I try to save 1% of the house value p.a for future maintenance. Other odd costs to save for include passports (every ten years), solicitors costs (for wills, trusts, etc), potential moving expenses (solictors, stamp duty, keys, removals, etc), computer consumables (paper, ink ,software, etc), memberships (bowling, fitness, golf, etc), days out, kitchen equipment (more cooking), garden equipment (more gardening). A lot of the current generation are getting shafted in their NEST pensions (and elsewhere) as a result of this ESG nonsense. They are losing valuable contributions from oil companies. I operate a Golden Butterfly portfolio, rebalanced as necessary. https://portfoliocharts.com/portfolio/golden-butterfly/

Spot on. Voting should be compulsory, with the option of selecting "none of the above".