A Billion Quid For A Bj !

[Scarlet Pimple]

Canada is in a panic. Our Prime Minister has just decided to get rid of our annual surpluses of 13 Billion dollars , spend what we have in the Bank in the most gigantic bale-out package in history and run up our annual debts over the next five years to an astounding 85 BILLION DOLLARS. That lot will take our kids the res of their life to pay off and by that time the financuial situation will have changed..interest rates will be up and the interst on that amount will not only add to our huge national debt but will well-nigh ensure that all futire annual returns will be in deficit as well. Personally speaking I don't thain k that ikt will do the tricka nd is profligate and foolish.

Never trust Politicians or Real Estate Agents. They are blatant liars, opportunists and have little integrity. The next thing our younger readers should do is follow Canada Bob's advice; pay off your debts as quickly as possible and , if by some miracle, that you can make reasonable to substantial savings each month and want to get a mortgage then get a variable rate one and stuff every penny that you can save every month into that mortgage.That will at least save you some interest .

And since Stock Brokers are also little more than commission salesmen you can't trust them unduly either. They may think that they know what lies ahead but they don't so be cautious at this time as to where you invest your money. Right now I am keeping what savings I have in the local Bank where deposits are guaranteed up to $100,000 by the Feds and am satisfied with a monthly compounding of Credit interest of 2.5% per annum. Mutual Funds were a source of great loss and pain to me over many years and this is not the time to be taking risks..although I must admit with great reluctance that RBS shares at 12 pence per share (or less LOL) look like a very good buy if you are willing to take what I think is a minimal risk.... thinks,--I must talk to my stockbroker about this..... :thumb04:

I could go on and on but nowadays , apart from the pipe and slippers I am dedicated to risk avoidance and a new resolution to not making wordy posts on this illustrious Forum.... :018:

[Canada Bob]

Good post Bob. This is exactly what has been happening for the last 30-40 years. You have put it more elloquently than I could ever have managed!

Thanks for the above, I guess there's a lot of people realising where we went wrong, but it's too late now, we just have to make the best of it right now.

One of the concerns that I have is that folks will turn against middle of the road ideologies and turn to radical maybe even extremist groups. It's happened before, maybe not in the Untidy Kingdom, but it was stuff like this that brought Hitler and other despots to power. I hope we don't go down that route, but I fear that we may, folks who aren't able to think things through will again vote for the popular party, if that happens we'll sink even deeper into the shyte...

Edited February 12, 2009 by Canada Bob

[Canada Bob]

Hello Rod...

Canada is in a panic. Our Prime Minister has just decided to get rid of our annual surpluses of 13 Billion dollars , spend what we have in the Bank in the most gigantic bale-out package in history and run up our annual debts over the next five years to an astounding 85 BILLION DOLLARS.

Hmmm, dint know that was going on Rod, what do they do, wait until I've left the country and then go mad, grin...

That lot will take our kids the res of their life to pay off and by that time the financuial situation will have changed..interest rates will be up and the interest on that amount will not only add to our huge national debt but will well-nigh ensure that all futire annual returns will be in deficit as well.

That's where the danger lays Rod, if Governments loose control of interest rates {and they will, it just a matter of time}, then everyone in debt will be knackered...

I think the gobshytes in Government around the world don't know which way to turn so, it's down to "monkey see, monkey do" they are all betting on the same [low interest} horse, it's just a matter of which fence it will fall at.

Plan B "print more money" aint much better either, because when the low interest game ends and Plan B comes into play, the folks who are in control of the money won't want devalued money, so if you want to borrow off them then it'll be their turn to set the rates, that's when they'll want 15% if yer lucky, we could easily see 30% in the next 2-3 years...

pay off your debts as quickly as possible and , if by some miracle, that you can make reasonable to substantial savings each month and want to get a mortgage then get a variable rate one and stuff every penny that you can save every month into that mortgage.That will at least save you some interest.

I'd be shy of taking a variable rate mortgage Rod, if you get stuck in a variable rate and they take a hike yer knackered... I'd be paying as much as I could off what I owe right now, if your bank will let you do that, don't just pocket the money that the lower interest rates have saved you, pay it off any debts you have that are carrying high interest rates, make hay while this {false} sun shines...

Right now I am keeping what savings I have in the local Bank where deposits are guaranteed up to $100,000 by the Feds and am satisfied with a monthly compounding of Credit interest of 2.5% per annum.

Have to admitt that I'm tempted by the 18% offered in Iceland, it's almost Hills odds that...

I must admit with great reluctance that RBS shares at 12 pence per share (or less LOL) look like a very good buy if you are willing to take what I think is a minimal risk.... thinks,--I must talk to my stockbroker about this.....

I guess if the worst came to the worst Rod at that price they are cheaper than Andrex, LOL...

[Scarlet Pimple]

Latviaman

Do you have British Bank account? NO?

Well I have my British pensions paid in to a Royal Bank of Scotland chequing account . There are no service charges unless you DARE to overdraw for one day when you will be hammeredwith a $46 charge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now after you open it, get a CHEQUE BOOK. Then have your pensions directed into this account automatically by EFT ..electronic funds transfer.The British Pension is delivered this way. Phone them and give them the account number details and instruct the EFT on the same time each month. This way the Brit. Gov will be very meticulous in ensuring that your pension is in that Bank account on that certain day.Make sure it is in pounds becausei f you agree with their request to send it to your Latvian bank it will be several days late and the rate of exchange will not be good (they lied to me about both of these things when I commenced the EFT and agreed to have it sent to Canada.) I wised up and now read on....

Then go into your Latvian bank and cash a cheque from your chequbook drawn on this Bank account. Maybe a small charge for this but you say the Latvian Bank will not charge you for this. They will cash the pounds cheque either into pounds notes ---which I doubt ----or they will cash it into latvian currency.in this latter case you should be keeping a track of exchange rates ---principally the rate at which you SELL the pounds to the Bank----to ensure that the rate at which they exchange your pound will be comparable with the average international exchange rate .

A good site to surf is XTrade.com, or maybe it is TradeX.com, but the first one I think. Read all of this site thoroughly since it is very interesting and you may even be able to use this company to transfer your pensions to ...wherever.

I cash my cheque in pounds about 9 days AHEAD of the expected date of receipt of the pensions into the Bank account (because the average time it takes to clear is 11 days) but you had better be sure that they will be delivered into the Bank account by that date otherwise the Bank may return your cheque if it clears to the Bank before this and may charge you a hefty price for being a bad boy!!.

Hope this helps.

S.P.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Bob

Aye ,you are right about the Prime plus variable rate mortgae.But Prime is practically off the lower rung of the ladde right now so how much of a risk is it anyway.I guess the net result is whether the "Plus " bit is 1% or 4% or 5%..... Smile.

This is only for those who can realistically save a good dollar per month and want to see a fast reduction in the mortgage accompanied by equally fast reduction in the interest they have to pay monthly. Most young couples will probably borrow as much as possible up front when they first get into the Real Estate market and at least taking a four or five year mortgage with fixed Principal and Interest payments fixes their monthly obligation and allows them to plan ahead. This is the safest route for starters and even seasoned home buyers and sellers if they have a lot of other debt hanging around their neck. Of course if you do have a lot of other debt hanging round your neck I suggest paying it all off as soon as possible BEFORE you contemplate buying a house.

OR.... get a Consolidation Loan from the Bank without paying an arm and a leg in terms of a high interest rate. i.e. get a new loan to pay-out all your debts and try to lower the monthly payment including getting a reduced interest rate---actually ,at this time when interest rates are historically low, this is an ideal time to make this switch. THEN pay it off as soon as possible.

Or, totally ignore what Bob and I write from the bitter experiences of 54 years of brutal toil and go on your merry way and end up bankrupt. I was there and done that in 1992 but I paid off all my business creditors BEFORE going bankrupt and now I am in a financially recovered state with a very nice townhouse, two cars and no debts.

Bob is a millionaire (I think--had to put that in LOL) and a very savvy and smart investor who is going to lend me 5 quid any day now .....................he has lived in many countries and knows his way around a dollar., even if I am a bit sceptical about his statement that he lights his Cuban cigars with them.

My dear young'uns -this is a time to be very careful; BUT IT IS ALSO A TIME OF OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU to take advantage of the incredibly low interest rates currently available.One final admonishent though--if I may--when and if you get a loan(s) be meticulous about making your paymets on time and do not \mis a payment witout consulting with the Bank.

Your CHARACTER (keeping your word) and your CREDIT RATING (making your payments on the nail and keeping your obligations to the letter ) are two very important attributes that will enhance your image in the community and the view of the Bank as to your future attractiveness as a customer to whom they can lend in the future.

Kind regards

S.P.

[absent friend]

'Never trust Politicians or Real Estate Agents' or Bankers etc

'So in my book Gordon was either asleep at the switch, or he hoped that it would all go away, or wasn't up to the job'

Either were all the gambling men - the stock market was circa 6500 a year ago, so the professional punters did not expect this! The RBS top brass took their bonus in RBS shares so they look pretty stupid right now as well.

'The blame lays more on us'

We all borrowed too much, the cry goes up 'we were allowed to' - we are also allowed to drink too much but must accept the hangover!

Last night on TV we had the wee celebrity chef complaining he has lost his two pubs and four eating houses, due to the Prime Minister. It then transpires he had a cashflow problem of ?200000 and the bank refused to cover this shortfall, surprise, surprise!

The blame is his, if he has a shortfall after the Festive Season, what is going to happen to his trading in the hungry months? However he is not alone - many will look for a scapegoat at this time to cover their own situation, it is only human to so do, and I suspect that any one in power will be targeted.

Does the political colour matter at this time? Not a JOT!!

Here am I clever after the event, not so, I have been consistent with my opinion from the start. If all governments underwrote the contaminated money at the outset, we may have had little loss of confidence, lending would have carried on, albeit to a lesser extent but the current international stagnation would not have prevailed.

.

[Canada Bob]

I think the Government and the Banks would like us to think that the "credit crunch" was brought about by the average guy getting into too much debt, be great if they could make us believe that hey, they could wash their hands clean if we did swallow it, but...

I don't think the average bloke was carrying too much debt, fair enough they were in debt, but that debt was actually good for the economy, we were all doing well {in employemt} when we were all spending. I don't think that we were over burdened with debt, most folks/families held more in assetts than they did in debt, but...

The problem came when Banks began trading "debt" as though it was a commodity, the more they traded in debts the more money they seemed to be making. This greed drove the Banks to encourage "debt" so they'd have more of it to wallow in. All of a sudden every one of us was finding "Pre Approved Plastic" dropping through the letterbox, are there any of you that haven't had these "free money" cards from Banks you've never even traded with, drop through your door...

Promoting debt has lead hundreds of thousands of folks in the UK into waters deeper than they could cope with, it was just a matter of time before they got into trouble.

Folks were tempted into debt, that's easily done, what's a bigger temptation than "easy money", but the blame really is down to Government when they failed to restrain {by the Regulations already in place} the feeding frenzy of the Banks and speculators.

Even though there was a head long gallop into debt by Millions of folks, at the end of the day 95% of them had more assetts than debt, the Banks had the opposite, they held more debts than assetts !

So it aint YOUR fault at all, it's down to the greedy b*stards and the Government who stood by while all this was happening.

Here's the worst part, if these b*stards had pulled it off, they'd all be richer, we'd all be poorer, but now that it's ended in tears, they are all richer, while the nation is facing insolvency, a classic scam on a massive scale of, heads we win, tails you lose.

I was talking to an owd bloke in the pub this afternoon, he said that not all that long ago what the Bankers have done would have been thought of as Treason, and looking at what they have done to the Nation, I have to agree with him...

So, I'll no be taking the blame for this fiasco, neither should you...

PS: Like Blackpool's written through rock...

Edited February 13, 2009 by Canada Bob