Bank of Mum & Dad

I can't watch this type of stuff anymore. It seems that TV is just made up of programmes looking at complete twats for amusement. I expect the TV companies have forgotten how to make proper programmes.
Wife Swap: Let's get Fred and Rosemary West to swap partners with Donald and Ivana Trump and we can all have a good laugh.
I'd rather watch another series of Blake's 7 - and that was shite! But at least somebody went to the trouble.

Hi Rasher,

Rather ironically I find myself in complete agreement with you here. I too was dissapointed by the low quality and highly derivative nature of this programme. TV is truly shite these days I'm afraid.

Funny that you mention Blake's 7 - a favourite of mine. Some aspects of this 70's Sci Fi serial were dire (sets reputedly held together with packing tape etc) but it broke new ground and dealt with adult themes. Once had the pleasure of talking to the star of the series, actor Gareth Thomas (Roj Blake) and he was a true gentleman and great raconteur! I was with a small group of fans at a signing and he joined us for a drink afterwards and gave us two full hours of his time.

In fact, let's forget BOM&D altogether - I'm going to start a TV SCi Fi thread instead!

What Rasher and Mole said.

Apart from the bit about Blakes Seven.

Cheers

Harry

re: Blake's 7

One of my teachers at school looked exactly like Servelan (if that's how it was spelled).

In retrospect we could possibly have jumped to some very non p-c conclusions about her sexuality (wrongly, of course, but correctly all the same). In practice, she had no problems whatsoever maintaining discipline. We were shit scared of her.

Appearance in the programme did appear to offer the kiss of death to the careers of all the actors concerned, but I do wonder why it doesn't get repeated now that I have sixty channels, mainly of repeats...

Rod

The great thing about Blake's 7 was that it actually came to a conclusion, as did A for Andromeda, and if you can remember that you're an old sod like me!

Bob

As much as I loved Blake's 7 it was nowhere near as ground breaking as Thunderbirds......

Fantastic stuff and it seems to have held it's appeal over to later generations as well, quite remarkable.

What would Naim put in Pod 3?????

Andy

and I really enjoyed the Thunderbirds film even though it was slated.

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So who here (apart from me) has absolutely no debt? Nothing on credit cards, HP or mortgage?

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I'd guess there have to be a few. Apart from a mortgage (which we're working on with a vengeance) my wife and I are debt free, but if I go back to uni that might change.

Thing is, it'd be soooo easy to rack up huge debts if I gave in to whims all the time -"552/500 sir? Why certainly!" - but my own parents brought me up to only buy what I could afford to buy outright (house aside) - and by and large that's stood me in good stead.

Cut your cloth, etc....

John

Mortgages are not expensive money and therefore not worth paying off early, as the capital has far more earning power than the interest. I'd pay it off like a shot though. I could pay it off now, but I would lose my pension "fund".
I detest the nanny state blaming the lenders for individual debt. I've stretched myself a bit in the past and it was entirely my responsibility - where would the satisfaction and buzz be if there was a safety net?

"Mortgages are not expensive money and therefore not worth paying off early, as the capital has far more earning power than the interest"

Fantastic! I shall resign from my job later today and start taking out mortgages for a living.

I always knew free money was the way to go.

Matthew

You know what I mean Matthew. Why so sarcastic?

Mortgages are large loans at commercial (ie expensive) rates used to make purchases that would otherwise be beyond your means.

If you have the money, then paying them off early is a very good idea and an very prudent and sensible use of capital.

So no, actually, I don't know what you mean.

Matthew

Tom, did you used to sell endowments?

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Originally posted by Rasher:
Mortgages are not expensive money and therefore not worth paying off early, as the capital has far more earning power than the interest.

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Houseprices can go down as well as up you know...

I'm in debt up to my arse. It's all payment protected so I could care less.

I'll never be able to afford a mortgage in Exeter, even on £20k, so why bother saving?

Live fast, and spend it all.

OK OK, so I'm not quite THAT blase about it, but seriously, I expect to be dead before I retire (rare syndrome=problems in later life) so I'm not really bothered about trying to save and/or buy a house. I do regret some of the crap I've bought in my time, but such is life.

One thing that I certainly never intend to do is have kids. That'd make my debt problem far FAR worse.

__________________________
Don't wanna be cremated or buried in a grave
Just dump me in a plastic bag and leave me on the pavement
A tribute to your modern world, your great society
I'm just another victim of your highrise fantasy!

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Debt So who here (apart from me) has absolutely no debt? Nothing on credit cards, HP or mortgage?

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Errm, me! but I don't own a 552 or 500. Does that count?

Tom,

When your typical financial institution pays you interest on your savings, they (obvisouly) still make a profit. They make this profit by taking your money and investing it. One of their favourite ways to do this is to provide large, long term, interest bearing loans secured on high value, stable, physical assests like houses. I.e. a mortgage.

Ergo, whatever you get on your savings is the amount you pay in interest on your mortgage minus a healthy profit.

Matthew

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whatever you get on your savings is the amount you pay in interest on your mortgage minus a healthy profit.

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And then the Revenue tax you on whatever's left. That's life.

I'm with Matthew in the 'Mortgage=Bad, No Debt=Good' camp, and that's where my own financial plans are headed. Hence the "downgrade" to Nait 2. The £5K realised by selling on 52, SC and 250 will, over the next eight to ten years, double in terms of savings - perhaps better than that.

Also, there's a liberating feeling when you're living well within your means. I am working on getting there once again...

Some of the happiest people I know are my in-laws, who retired young (at 50) and live frugally but without any debts. Cash for everything, simple and wholesome living, no financial concerns (due to frugal living)...

There's a lot to be said for it.

Now if only I could get rid of that bloody mortgage...

John

John

I was implying that you could use capital to start a business that would make money - not find an investment somewhere that would give you a better return than the mortgage interest, which would be ridiculous.
The return on just buying an empty plot of land somewhere and leaving it for say 15 years before selling it would beat any interest payment on the mortgage - provided you chose well of course - without any effort whatsoever. Stuff like that. I have a significant mortgage because I've used it in that sort of way, and if I sold what I bought now, 2 years later, I could pay off the whole mortgage and still have enough to buy a second house for cash. I didn't buy a house, but it was along those lines. I couldn't have done it without borrowing on the mortgage, and the additional monthly interest payments will seem like peanuts in say 5-6 years time.
18 years ago I had an endowment for a mortgage , which I left running. It is still there costing me £3.18 a month. Do you think I worry about being able to pay it? But think what it bought me.

Chaps

Matthew is half right and half wrong.

It is difficult to attract a higher savings rate than what you would pay on a mortgage. It can be done but is not easy. Therefore it does make sense to clear a mortgage on a house purchased for your own occupation. I have cleared my mortage.

However, if you rent property, it pays to borrow because you offset 40% of the intrest charges, therefore a 5% mortgage effectively becomes only 3% and that is easy to beat. I do that on the two properties that I rent out.

Also if house prices are rocketing, as they have been doing, then once again, it makes sense to borrow.

However, I suspect house prices will drop and it makes no sense to borrow against a devaluing asset.

Regards

Mick

Alex

We are agreeing. It is theretically possible to do it, say with Isas but the risk / reward ratio is far to low to make it worth bothering.

Regards

Mick

Alex

I am agreeing with you 100%.

You are 100% right.

You are not wrong.

You speak words of wisedom

You speak the same as me.

You are King Solomon.

We agree with each other. It does not pay to borrow money on a mortgage in order to invest it in another BS account.

We agree we agree

Agreeably yours

Agreeing Mick

Alex

I have not disagreed with you.

We are going in circles. I agree with you.

If you are like this with someone who agrees with you, what are you like with someone who disagrees with you.

Regards

Mick

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Originally posted by Tom Alves:
To make my original idea clearer. My PA had a company mortgage paying at 1% below the BoE base rate. I believe at the time she found an investment that was 4% above that. It was a few years ago.

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Tom,

the suspicion has to be that either there was an element of risk in the investment, or it was another perk of the job.

cheers,Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

Mick - I do wish that just for once, you would agree with Alex!

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Originally posted by Rasher:
Mick - I do wish that just for once, you would agree with Alex!

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Naaahh - then they'd be going around in circles!