The grumpy thread

[messerschmitt owner]

I agree. Never believe estate agents. Also don't start looking at houses until you have a buyer for yours. Better still, consider going into rented...The housing market is so fucked that I'm glad I sold in late 2006, even if any 'profits' I made have been long wiped out by the subsequent financial meltdown.

you know, a house is somewhere to live/park the cars, not an investment! Rent and lose all the money, buy and at least have something to show for it!

[autofive]

I agree. Never believe estate agents. Also don't start looking at houses until you have a buyer for yours. Better still, consider going into rented...The housing market is so fucked that I'm glad I sold in late 2006, even if any 'profits' I made have been long wiped out by the subsequent financial meltdown.

you know, a house is somewhere to live/park the cars, not an investment! Rent and lose all the money, buy and at least have something to show for it!

 

yes, a 25 year millstone round your neck

[dollywobbler]

It might be worth getting yourself down to the doctor's for a course of antibiotics. Make sure you get the type that are not affected by alcohol consumption.

 

Sorry but this advice annoys me. Antibiotics are rarely if ever actually needed for a cold, even the nasty bastard colds that seem to be doing the rounds at the moment (four days of sore throat, 2 weeks of being flemmed up just before Christmas for me. Nice). Beechams cold and flu is good stuff, and Sudofed can batter down some of the symptoms. Colds happen. Unpleasant but rarely serious.

 

Oh, and anything negative about estate agents is entirely accurate. Rarely, other than on a football pitch, is so little talent and ability rewarded with such huge financial clout. They make an absolute fortune by lying and doing the square root of f*ck all. They're almost as bad as politicians.

[Felly Magic]

Paracetomol is what my GP advises for colds.

[messerschmitt owner]

 

yes, a 25 year millstone round your neck

sell at any point!

 

I find the advantages of being able to stick a picture on the wall, decorate to my taste, park a car outside and have a pet do rather outweight the advantages of renting! Not least the fact that my mortgage is £540 a month and to rent in my street is £750-800 a month!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

For colds, I have a miracle powder called salep. It's some sort of ground orchid blended with spices...Particularly popular in Turkey, can also be found (but not easily) in Greece. Makes a sticky hot drink that soothes your throat like nothing else. Even better if you can put a bit of Krupnik inside (Polish liqueur from honey and spices).

 

yes, a 25 year millstone round your neck

 

sell at any point

 

As long as you have the thousands required to cover the negative equity!

 

When long-term growth prospects are so bleak, it's just not worth bothering with...If buying is not an investment, it's a bloody gamble for those who need a mortgage - betting borrowed money on house price inflation...Personally, I am too much of a coward to use borrowed money for gambling.

[dollywobbler]

With luck and thrifty living, it's possible to pay off a mortgage a lot more quickly than 25 years. As my wife knows...

 

Problem is, everyone gets locked into the debt circle. Have house, can get massive loan secured on it, flashy motor, flashy telly, flashy holidays and an enormous debt mountain that'll take a lifetime to pay off. Far better to knock expenditure on the head, tell loans companies to piss off and get the mortgage paid off, though I readily concede that this is an awful lot easier if you don't have children...

[DSdriver]

It might be worth getting yourself down to the doctor's for a course of antibiotics. Make sure you get the type that are not affected by alcohol consumption.

 

Sorry but this advice annoys me. Antibiotics are rarely if ever actually needed for a cold, even the nasty bastard colds that seem to be doing the rounds at the moment (four days of sore throat, 2 weeks of being flemmed up just before Christmas for me. Nice). Beechams cold and flu is good stuff, and Sudofed can batter down some of the symptoms. Colds happen. Unpleasant but rarely serious.

 

Actually it would be the Doctor who decides what is needed, I just thought he should go and get some proper advice rather than relying on us lot.

[Cavcraft]

 

yes, a 25 year millstone round your neck

sell at any point!

 

I find the advantages of being able to stick a picture on the wall, decorate to my taste, park a car outside and have a pet do rather outweight the advantages of renting! Not least the fact that my mortgage is £540 a month and to rent in my street is £750-800 a month!

 

You can do all that and more on a council estate!

[Craig the Princess]

With luck and thrifty living, it's possible to pay off a mortgage a lot more quickly than 25 years. As my wife knows...

 

/\ This, if you are sensible with the mortgage (allows early payment penalty free/ensure the payments are nowhere near the limit of your income) and make early payments when you can it's a good idea, no-house without structual failing will lose money over 25 years, even if you break even you will have saved all that rent money.

 

That said borrowing money for depreciating assets (cars, tvs, sofas etc) is far more dangerous and doesn't have the reward.

[warren t claim]

With luck and thrifty living, it's possible to pay off a mortgage a lot more quickly than 25 years. As my wife knows...

 

/\ This, if you are sensible with the mortgage (allows early payment penalty free/ensure the payments are nowhere near the limit of your income) and make early payments when you can it's a good idea, no-house without structual failing will lose money over 25 years, even if you break even you will have saved all that rent money.

 

That said borrowing money for depreciating assets (cars, tvs, sofas etc) is far more dangerous and doesn't have the reward.

 

I think we should all scamper out and buy property financed with Kensington Mortgages at 14%. Truly the shiters financier of choice!

[TimothyClaypole]

My mortgage is £105.00 a month.

[Craig the Princess]

 

I think we should all scamper out and buy property financed with Kensington Mortgages at 14%. Truly the shiters financier of choice!

 

Mine is 1.49%

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

no-house without structual failing will lose money over 25 years, even if you break even you will have saved all that rent money.

That said borrowing money for depreciating assets (cars, tvs, sofas etc) is far more dangerous and doesn't have the reward.

 

How can you guarantee that "a house won't lose money over 25 years"? The economy won't be going into a post-war type of long-term boom anytime in the foreseeable future- indeed wages are falling in real terms and set to fall further, and we all know what that does to house prices...Even if you break even in the end, what's the opportunity cost of being trapped in a particular house and being unable to move even if it cripples your career prospects or is completely inappropriate for your lifestyle (e.g. children, mobility issues)? "Past performance does not guarantee future returns" and all that...

[Cheggers]

Make a claim under ESC A19 - there's advice on the HMRC website and also more useful practical info on the Martin Lewis Money Saving Expert site.

 

I had a similar letter last year advising that I owed £2,200 from the 2007/08 tax year - which just so happened to coincide with a switch of job when I gave back a company car. Thanks to Tayne, who gave me the heads-up on the above, I fought it on the basis that (a) I believed at the time my tax affairs were in order and ( they should have spotted the error within 12 months. A couple of weeks later I got a letter saying they accepted my response and the amount was written off. Worth a try.

 

Cheers Welf, I'll give it a go and let you know what happens

[Craig the Princess]

no-house without structual failing will lose money over 25 years, even if you break even you will have saved all that rent money.

That said borrowing money for depreciating assets (cars, tvs, sofas etc) is far more dangerous and doesn't have the reward.

 

How can you guarantee that "a house won't lose money over 25 years"? The economy won't be going into a post-war type of long-term boom anytime in the foreseeable future- indeed wages are falling in real terms and set to fall further, and we all know what that does to house prices...Even if you break even in the end, what's the opportunity cost of being trapped in a particular house and being unable to move even if it cripples your career prospects or is completely inappropriate for your lifestyle (e.g. children, mobility issues)? "Past performance does not guarantee future returns" and all that...

 

Wages are failling in real terms, but still rising. Inflation is at 4.8% and isn't set to drop anytime soon. While I can't guarentee it I'd be astounded if the value of houses didn't rise in 25 years.

 

You are right with "being unable to move even if it cripples your career prospects or is completely inappropriate for your lifestyle (e.g. children, mobility issues)?" but not many people need that level of flexability, if you do then rent. This thing is that rent will rise when mortgage payments are far more stable (and reduce in real terms every year) and you get nothing at all back.

[Cavcraft]

Trouble is these days getting a mortgage 1) isn't easy and 2) is crippling. Faced with a choice of owning a house because that's what people did or whatever and not having a social life I'd prefer to rent.

[trigger]

My mortgage is £769 a month but at least i only have 23 years left to pay it...

[Craig the Princess]

Trouble is these days getting a mortgage 1) isn't easy and 2) is crippling. Faced with a choice of owning a house because that's what people did or whatever and not having a social life I'd prefer to rent.

 

1) Yes, espically raising the deposit.

2) No, generally cheaper than rent and fairly stable options to fix rates.

 

That said if renting works for you fine, my previous landlords were all pretty good and getting boiler fixed for you is a massive bonus.

[wuvvum]

I sometimes think I should buy a house, but I always end up deciding I'm better off renting. If I sold some of the fleet and emptied my savings account I could come up with a 5% deposit for something reasonably decent, but the monthly payments would be WAY higher than what I'm paying in rent, and I'd have to knock shite-buying on the head completely (and probably a lot of other things too, like eating). I really don't think it's feasible at the moment for a single person on a mediocre salary to buy a decent house in this country.

[Pete-M]

This forum seems best for 'pub experts' commenting on the values of cars they know nothing about.

 

Lately, this seems to be true. It's pissing me off.

[Lankytim]

Just typed out a huge GOM post and lost internet connection. Bollocks!

 

Anyway, what I was trying to say is that our house and the house we want is being sold by the same estate agent. We know the sellers and put an offer in before it went on the market. They said they would market it for 6 weeks and probably accept our offer if it didn't sell. The estate agent know this so I suspect they are trying their best to sell this house before we sell ours so they can guarantee 2x selling fees.

 

Our offer was pretty fair, but if the seller want to take £1500 odd and spunk it over an estate agents tits then thats up to them.

 

It's not the end of the world if we donlt buy this house. Looking around there are loads of bargains out there to be had, its definately a buyers market.

[Autoplas]

Apologies for bringing something over here from the blue forum but I just stumbled on this, It's one of the reasons i don't bother going on the general forum on RR anymore, It's almost like it's ran by Nazi's.

 

 

The poster isnt wrong is he ?

 

Bizarre ice cream flavours, middle aged men going out with schoolgirls,invading China, torturing and murdering prisoners of war........

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Excellent! Looks like I'm going to spend the NYE on my own. The friends I was planning to stay with (rather far away from here) have dodgy heating and a lack of duvets, and the back-up plan, a Pakistani mate who works for a bank in the smoke, will be going to a club in Mayfair that charges SEVENTY QUID for entrance, without drinks. I guess that's a fitting end to a rather crap year!

[Cavcraft]

Tell you what Luxo, you come to mine and take my bird out for the night and I'll go to London, pay £70 to get into a club, thirty sheets for a pint of lager and then sleep under a railway bridge. Deal?

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

bloody hell, that sounds scary!

[trigger]

I made a offer on a car last night and they still haven't accepted or rejected it! ARGH!

[sporty-shite]

I made a offer on a car last night and they still haven't accepted or rejected it! ARGH!

 

SPILL THE BEENZ, Trig. Making a statement like that is just like Jim Bowen showing the losers what Bully's Star Prize was.

 

"Oooh, I'll show you what you could've won."

[trigger]

SPILL THE BEENZ

 

 

 

My cryptic clues are rubbish.

[outlaw118]

Especially rubbish when the only one of the links work.....but I've got it.....