Fishfinger

Yup totally agree - 5 mins walk to station & doctors, 20 mins tops from friends, High St, hospital, countryside and allotment. So I'll be alright for most of my food whilst all inner Londoners will be paying through the nose for theirs. So if its alright by the good doctor I'll think I'll slum it...

mmmm.. too much of the latter has affected the spelling of the former

There is only one god and his name is Cgnao. I pray at his temple of gold and whatever his edicts are, they're 100% correct, guaranteed

Yup totally agree, in that position but the wife insists on me still being a wage slave (afraid of change - been hypnotised by the consumer/advertising propaganda of keeping up with the Jones's) . However I do have my standards - I shop at Primark.. The book of course will be "I told you so" memories of the great crash of 2007/8 written in Serbo Croat whilst climbing Everest.

I didn't - I keep life simple. If it can't be explained in one sentence (with only 1 comma mind and none of this colon stuff) then I'm not interested. SVR mortgage, interest rate goes up/down = payment goes up/down. Shares, price goes up/price goes down and they may even pay you some money each year! Gold/Silver = price goes up/price goes down. Savings account = bank pays shite interest to you whilst blowing your money on sub primers/CDO's. Poker = play cards, sometimes wins but mostly loses! Everything else is to be treated with suspision.

Which one is Furby and which one is Rothschild?

Not too worried - survived AIDs, CJD,MRSA and any other diseases with intials so we'll get though this one.

Try Chards or Baird & Co (goldline.co.uk) both bullion dealers. You can pay by bank transfer, readies (if you turn up on their doorstep) or by cheq (10 days clearance) then you to can have lumps of shiney metal aound the house being used as a doorsteps, paperweights etc FOr CGT purposes try "Britannia" sovereigns which I believe may be exempt although I may be wrong.

Mortgage paid off in Jan(we reckon we've saved £70K in dead money), cc paid off each month, 10 year old car, holidays in this country, no kids. Our biggest expenses per month are train travel for work - £90 each, council tax £120, food £200 (and that will come down when the allotment comes online). My biggest "expense" is savings! I have no pension (I'm 41) but given we're low maintenance I can't see the point. I don't intend to "retire" rather fade out gracefully by working a few days a week into my '70's (probably gardening).

I've been through 3 recessions, the last one 17(ish) years ago. The laws of economic growth are the same as gravity, what goes up must come down. It is of course a very imprecise science hence why some posters might be saying it for years. We should have had a correction back in the dot com crash but didn't thus the longer it gets left the harder the crasher will be especially as there is a lot of very funny money around this time. IMHO you are doing the right thing by staying out of the market and sitting tight. The world should be your oyster in the next 12-18 months. "I'd appreciate some views from people who consider themselves well-balanced individualsI'm sure you all are, but I have read a couple of posters that, although very funny and perhaps hitting close to the truth, have a hint of the egomaniac about them" Egomaniacs or just passionate about their views?

I'm damaging the economy? 1992 - Finance Co relocated me to another part of the country in '89, move in with colleague to share mortgage made redundant in '92 as co going down under weight of defaults due to recession and shite lending. Signed over house to colleague (neg equity of £13K or 20% fall) left with redundancy money in pocket and bed and thats it. In 1990 I only took 5 days off out of my leave of 20. 1997 - Redundancy - Co taken over by mega yank corp and moved to another part of country. 2002 - Redundancy - dept moved to other end of the country. So forgive me if I have the odd day off unofficially...

Couldn't agree more Bull - 9 year old Corsa 1 Litre go kart, an allottment on the way, friends and family within walking distance, internet access, good health and I'm a happy fish. Got rid of the debt slavery - now I got to work as a favour to them not the other way round and make the management sweat on that. If it's a nice day outside, I may have a "migraine". To me thats success, only 2 people I know have "got" that! Mrs Fish is still stuck on this material crap and thus debt slavery. SHe wants us to have a bigger place in a "nicer area" and I should use my "potential" more (i.e more debt and work 60 hr weeks for more money to pay it off) but gradually she's coming round (it's a female thing she hates me being right!). Enough of that, let's make an obscene phone call to Ocean Finance (have you mortgage arrears sir? - NO, credit card debts? NO, want to consolidate your existing loans? - NO ).

Excellent post Mr Yogi! I've shown your post to Mrs Finger as on numerous occasions she has questioned my sanity/manhood on the basis that everyone else seems to be more "successful" than us. But I have kept the faith and will not deviate from the true path of rightousness and shall be rewarded on Earth with a debt free existance during the forthcoming WTSHTF. Are the more Steve & Debbie's out there? Too right. During the last recession I worked for a major consumer finance company. In '90 & '91 for every £1K I was being paid I was writing off £100K of debts! Grown men would phone up crying down the phone (i was a young finger then and it made a profound impression on me) as they and their famillies would lose everything. We used to send out income/expenditure forms for them to fill in to ascertain how much they they could pay and it was staggering the amount of debt these people had to pay for holidays/caravans/cars/high life etc. What makes it all the more fightening now is that at least then the mortgages were on 3/3.5 multiples on a repayment basis so there was a chance to protect the firm's debt with a second charge and thus people kept their homes. THis time round £180K IO mortgage and £64K credit cards? Unfortunately repo and bankruptcy maybe the only option. Sorry to be depressing but c'est la vie...

On a more lighter note, is that her real hair? Mrs F and I think that her hairline is a bit low.