Doom Lord

Compared to what currencies? Pound, US Dollar, Yen. With Oil moving to the Euro perhaps it could hold it's value?

With stocks, every stock in the market could collapse at the same time. However currency is more like Ying and Yang in that when one currency looses value against another currency the other currency gains that exact amount. Trends can take a long time to play out and I think what we are seeing now is the start of a new trend and that is the decline of sterling against other currencies. The pound has been overvalued for some time so this in not unexpected (Esspecially by members of this board). So although some are saying the "end is nigh", other currencies will be in fact appreciating as fast as we are depreciating. Obviously anyone holding sterling will be getting poorer during the decline. The ways you can avoid loosing money is to buy assets that hold their value in such times. I.e Go........ No I wont say it or by shorting the pound against other currencies. The best way to do this is with Forex imo but be warned it could be a quick way of looseing money.

Yes there will be a lot of property going on the Market in the spring............................Only there wont be many buyers imo. I think it's going to be very messy.

The moral of this story is don't do drugs and has nothing to do with earning a big bonus. There are plenty of people that have lost their lives due to drug abuse and I can Gaurentee that 90% of them were not rich!!

If you have a wife or children I would advise against it.

My opinion is that these people are paid loads because the compaines they work for have too. If they were not paid well then the traderes would just set up there own brokerage\trading firms and earn the money that way. I will also add the with the internet, literature and tools available today any one of you could set yourself up trading and make more than a decent living. Everything you need it out there in the public domain, it's not some kind of voodoo magic. I try and think of the City as being the Gulf Stream for our economy. If it fails then we are all in for trouble....but to quote Nat King Cole "There may be trouble ahead"..........

I learnt that: You can make loads of money from other peoples money. A home is for living in because there are better ways to invest your money. The FX Market is beautifully flawed. *****Edited so that there are only positives

I did profit from the boom, mainly due to advise from this site. I am also now looking forward to profiting from the bust. This site has taught me that there is always a profit to be made boom or bust.

No Way, look at where we are today compared to last time. A rate cut will have no effect on the housing market, it's going down this time. If fact a rate cut with a market that continues to fall will just make it more obvious to Joe Bloggs.

You know what, I want to see a cut tomorrow because it's the only way to see how robust the housing market is. If we are right then the cut will do nothing to stop the crash and can only speed the whole process when the Sheeple realise this. If we are wrong then it's time to get on with plan "B" for me. By this logic alone I think is will be a Hold

So you manage to get through to your old age, your forced to buy an anuity which gives you 5% a year Is it me or does anyone else think they are taking all your money making a load of cash with it, paying a percentage of that profit back to you and then just keeping the initial lump sum when you die to feather their own nests at the expense of your children?

Im' not saying there isn't going to be a crash, i'm not saying property is not overvalued but give me a good reason why cant this be a suitable alternative in the long run? Its pretty inflation proof and genrates a decent income stream. Are people going to stop renting in the future?. It's not the pension Tax breaks I have a problem with, it's the annuities. You have one chance to make the right decission.......No going back....Talk about Russian Roulette. There are a lot of people who get ripped off...Sorry mis-sold at this point. Anyway the ISA is Tax free on the way out so it's not such a big deal. My retirment fund will purchase money generating assets which will fund my retirement so it won't run out and these I will leave to my children. Your quite right though it is a gamble, not a no brainer and everyones siutation is different. If I get a pension it would definately be a SIPP, in fact If I did work for someone then I would get my company pension transfered into a SIPP and go from there. A lot of these company funds give poor returns combined with high management charges wiping out the tax break you get. Let me also point out that the pension funds are still in deficit. If we are heading for a recession or even a depression then I think any gains may well be lost again. I worked for a pension company, they had a department that dealt with people who's pensions had gone wrong for whatever reason, this department filled up a four storey building. I just want to make sure that I am not one of the people on the other end of the phone to this department and the only way I can do this is by taking matters into my own hands. On a side note my wifes parents own an old peoples home which we will inherit so I think I have all the bases covered IMO The key to retirement is planning from an early age as possible. This plan may or may not include a pension but you need a plan.

Not Long, I use the appearance of these shows as a sign the housing market is making a recovery

I with you on this one Crown. I'm not paying into something that my Kids do not get to inherit. Fill your Isas and your National Savings. No point paying into something where there is a risk of loosing everything you have worked your whole life for. If someone said I could put money either into a pension or into property but not both I would choose property everytime!!

My rule of thumb is that if property is rising more than 3-4% a year then it's not worth STR-ing as you will loose money.

With House Prices falling accross the country it's not going to cost you anything by sitting back and watching for a few months, in fact it could save you a packet.

Didn't we have this discussion last year and the year before? I don’t know who's worse them or us

Whilst Japan keeps such low interest rates the Yen Carry trade will exist. Surely once a currency pair settles to a new level people will just start buying back in only at a lower price and the whole bubble will start to inflate again?

I have a One account mortgage with all my cash savings in said account. This means I am effectivley getting tax free 6.9% on my savings. I have a sainsburys credit card that I buy all my shopping with which attracts 0 % interest for the first year. This means that all the money I would spend on shopping in a year is still sat in my bank account offsetting my mortage. I buy everything else with a credit cards on interest free deals and keep moving them around when the deal is up. Although there are charges (and it's getting harder) it's still cheaper than my mortgate rate. All this time the extra money is offsetting my mortgage saving me even more money. I also take advantage of any interest free credit (Loan Companies) on any other large Item I buy and pay them all back before the deal runs out again this offsets againts my mortgage. I am saving a lot of money by doing this. Also because I am overpaying into my mortgage buy doing this, If I lost my job (Contractor) in a downturn I wouldn't have to make any mortage payments for a long time. Also because I don't have any savings as they are infact debt in my mortgage then the 9 month wait for mortage relief benfit starts ticking from the day I am unemployed. Credit can be good if used wisely

There is plenty of water in the world as as you rightly say Desalination technology would be a good bet. Personally I find it shocking that we are able to bottle spring water, turn yet more of it into soft drinks and freight all this stuff around the world yet there are people dying because of lack of water.

Yes Ikea have successfully called the top imo.

I think the person in question would have to pay capital gains tax on the amount recieved and then pay interest on the subsequent interest

I would look at number 3 if I was you. Main reasons are: Option 1: Is a dream at which only the best will suceed in. It's risky and may not pay of in the long term or if you get injured in the short term!! Option 2: Sure pay of some of the loan, but if you are earning under a certain threshhold you dont have to pay? Option 3: Apart from fliping houses people can also make money from being "In Business". A lot less risky than option 1 and still involved with sport. Research it well first to make sure it stands a chance. Good Luck.