Reply to: Money - advice!

[andy]

Watch what I do SA and do the opposite. I am the chap who converted my pension fund into cash when the FT was at 5830 in case of a crash and it went up to about 6700.

can you draw out of your pension fund before the age of 56 ?

[Euro-commuter]

1. ALWAYS pay off credit cards every month. If you can't afford too then you are living beyond your financial ability. Cut back.

2. Pay off mortgage. Use a Bank account linked to your mortgage.
Mine is at 4.99% until 2008 and linked to my main bank account.
I pay off £1K per month using a month wage of 1K. Then add lump sums via dividends four times a year.

Once complete...

3. ISA's. Use the full £7k allowance.

4. Save up for another property and either buy now or wait for the crash. You decide.

5. While all above is going on, have company pension from company bank account.

6. Don't spend money on tat. Do you realy need a bigger TV?

7. Have a small flutter on Premium Bonds (only after point 3 is fully used)

8. Retire.

Jobs a good un

Superb.

If you can't do it all at once, the more you can do, the closer your retirement gets.

Just 1 modification: I'd say, especially if you're getting old like me, fill the ISA quota every year even if it means putting off repaying debt for a short time. And never take out of the ISA. Once you have missed a year's ISA, that's free govt money that you can never get back.

[Gonzo]

1. ALWAYS pay off credit cards every month. If you can't afford too then you are living beyond your financial ability. Cut back.

2. Pay off mortgage. Use a Bank account linked to your mortgage.
Mine is at 4.99% until 2008 and linked to my main bank account.
I pay off £1K per month using a month wage of 1K. Then add lump sums via dividends four times a year.

Once complete...

3. ISA's. Use the full £7k allowance.

4. Save up for another property and either buy now or wait for the crash. You decide.

5. While all above is going on, have company pension from company bank account.

6. Don't spend money on tat. Do you realy need a bigger TV?

7. Have a small flutter on Premium Bonds (only after point 3 is fully used)

8. Retire.

Jobs a good un

There is no place on this forum for sensible advice.

I suggest that you move to http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

[s2budd]

Money Advice

1. ALWAYS pay off credit cards every month. If you can't afford too then you are living beyond your financial ability. Cut back.

2. Pay off mortgage. Use a Bank account linked to your mortgage.
Mine is at 4.99% until 2008 and linked to my main bank account.
I pay off £1K per month using a month wage of 1K. Then add lump sums via dividends four times a year.

Once complete...

3. ISA's. Use the full £7k allowance.

4. Save up for another property and either buy now or wait for the crash. You decide.

5. While all above is going on, have company pension from company bank account.

6. Don't spend money on tat. Do you realy need a bigger TV?

7. Have a small flutter on Premium Bonds (only after point 3 is fully used)

8. Retire.

Jobs a good un

[Euro-commuter]

Latin American dot com startups.

That's the future - send me some cash and I'll invest it for you!

Dunno, http://www.trustnet.com has a list of top 10 fund risers. 4 out of 10 are Latin America (and 1 is BRIC - Brazil Russia India & China).

All had a dip about 4-5 years ago. but all have risen hugely since then (like, all of the top 10 are up >50% in 1 year).

[Gonzo]

Watch what I do SA and do the opposite. I am the chap who converted my pension fund into cash when the FT was at 5830 in case of a crash and it went up to about 6700.

Yeah, my financial advice needs to be taken with caution - I am the person that took all the cash out of his defined benefit pension and moved it into a defined contribution pension at the top of the market in 2000.

I broke the champagne out last month because it had finally got back up to what it was worth seven years ago.

[xoggoth]

Watch what I do SA and do the opposite. I am the chap who converted my pension fund into cash when the FT was at 5830 in case of a crash and it went up to about 6700.

[TheFaQQer]

Latin American dot com startups.

That's the future - send me some cash and I'll invest it for you!

[Gonzo]

That's not the point. Having a paid-up property gives you all kinds of lifestyle options and even if the property falls drastically in value, in the long term this is going to be temporary.

I do agree, I just couldn't resist the opportunity to be sarcastic

[NoddY]

How do you do that?

Well if I told everyone I would be shooting myself in the foot wouldn't I?

[sasguru]

An alternative strategy might be to position yourself so that the value of your labour holds steady while that of those around you does not. This is usually during a recession/depression when the value of money (and labour) increases - thus allowing you to transcend to the capitalist class with greater ease.

How do you do that?

[NoddY]

I agree with most on here with regards to the payment of mortgage debt first. More savings can be made with overpayments up to the limit permitted by the creditor without penalty.

However, most asset classes are 'overvalued' in the sense that the purchasing power of all major global currencies is depreciating. This is a major problem for people who work for money as their labour value is rapidly reducing. I think the days of such people making the transition into the capitalist class are nearly over. So whatever you do - make it quick.

An alternative strategy might be to position yourself so that the value of your labour holds steady while that of those around you does not. This is usually during a recession/depression when the value of money (and labour) increases - thus allowing you to transcend to the capitalist class with greater ease.

[sasguru]

Obviously you already have an investment in the property market through your house, but the way to get really rich is to put all your eggs in the one basket that is going to rocket in value

That's not the point. Having a paid-up property gives you all kinds of lifestyle options and even if the property falls drastically in value, in the long term this is going to be temporary.

[Gonzo]

We dont have masses of cash right now (else we'd probably invest in property)

Don't forget, you can also invest in property through a property fund, you can hold hold these through an ISA aswell.

Obviously you already have an investment in the property market through your house, but the way to get really rich is to put all your eggs in the one basket that is going to rocket in value

[Euro-commuter]

FOr 30k it's worth a punt, minimum return is greater than 3.5% of memory (which if you are sneaking into higher rate is Ok) plus realistically you will beat that, due to the many small denomination bonds in the system which are unlikely to win.

"realistically you will beat that, due to the many small denomination bonds in the system which are unlikely to win"? What does that mean?

Min return = 0.
Mean return = 3.5%
realistically you can expect the mean. Small denomination bonds are no more or less likely to win than any other.