Savings and Investments thread

golfaddick said:

hoof_it_up_to_benty said:

golfaddick said:

hoof_it_up_to_benty said:

golfaddick said:

£350m "black hole" in the Arcadia Pension fund. I'm glad I didn't mis-sell that one.

Give me a personal pension over a privare sector DC scheme anyday. 

Unless you went to Equitable Life. I went with them many years ago until their GARs destroyed the company - I have no idea what the actuaries were doing with this as it took no account that inflation/interest rates might fall.

Financial regulators are useless as this showed. One of the UK's oldest companies were effectively running a pyramid scheme. 

Anyone in the business (like me) knew Equitable Life couldn't keep it up. GAR's were old hat in the early 90's but Equitable kept on pushing them & people kept investing with them......mainly because their ads said that they didn't pay commission to (nasty smelly) salesmen. 🤔

GARs are obviously nonsensical so I'm not  really clear how this was allowed to happen? They had been going since 1762 which is perhaps why people thought they might be trustworthy?

There are also plenty of bad financial advisors out there as well - I obviously am not including you in this!

Financial products are a minefield and getting good advice is difficult. Make the wrong decision and you can lose a fortune.

Who can you trust?

Obviously I would say this but......always speak to a Financial Advisor, preferably a "whole of market" one (the term has now sadly superseded "Independent"). Either by referral from a friend or colleague or failing that by looking up the FCA register. 

The advisor market has really been cleaned up since the 1980's. No more dodgy ex-car salesmen (yes, I've worked with a few of them in the past) as the level of Compliance & testing that goes on now has weeded them out. 

I need a review of my pension arrangements from somebody in my local area, SE10 - hard to know who to go to as recommendations may not be objective. Difficult to know where to start.

Something I should have done a few years ago. 

Can't help on Bitcoin, I dabbled, made a decent bit and sold up, as I just can't understand what drives the many up's and down's!

On another note, Premium bond day tomorrow. Good luck everyone who holds some.

Rob7Lee said:

Can't help on Bitcoin, I dabbled, made a decent bit and sold up, as I just can't understand what drives the many up's and down's!

On another note, Premium bond day tomorrow. Good luck everyone who holds some.

The two big prizes have gone to people (both female) in South Manchester and Gloucestershire apparently. 

Chaz Hill said:

Rob7Lee said:

Can't help on Bitcoin, I dabbled, made a decent bit and sold up, as I just can't understand what drives the many up's and down's!

On another note, Premium bond day tomorrow. Good luck everyone who holds some.

The two big prizes have gone to people (both female) in South Manchester and Gloucestershire apparently. 

You just know that is going to be Mouthall's partner! 

Fortune 82nd Minute said:

Chaz Hill said:

Rob7Lee said:

Can't help on Bitcoin, I dabbled, made a decent bit and sold up, as I just can't understand what drives the many up's and down's!

On another note, Premium bond day tomorrow. Good luck everyone who holds some.

The two big prizes have gone to people (both female) in South Manchester and Gloucestershire apparently. 

You just know that is going to be Mouthall's partner! 

Don't think you can buy Premium Bonds with a credit card!

Daarrzzetbum said:

On a non pension note I see Bitcoin is now $19.4K  with a projection to double by 2030. Have to admit I just can’t get my head around Crypto Currencies & mining companies, anyone know a decent link that explains it a very simply logical way. I am not looking to invest directly into Bitcoin but am interested in the technical aspects of mining. 

I just want to expand my very limited understanding, I have a few shares in ARB (UK mining company) which are showing a healthy return but in all honesty bought these not through any research from myself but from a recommendation from an old mate. 

I think I've lost more money investing in miners than any other way, particularly small ones. 

Even if you avoid the charlatans and crooks, they are effectively an option on the commodity they mine due to high, more or less fixed costs.  Once the commodity goes above the cost of production, they can go up quickly.  If the price sinks below cost, they plummet.  

The explorers are even riskier - some of them are binary on finding sources and then require huge amount of capital to set up and often chew through early equity investors and end up getting owned by the banks.  

On top of that they operate in challenging environments and subject to all sorts of disruptions due to the weather, wars, strikes, accidents, disputes with local government, etc.  I'm going back to mining pooled funds ....

Bitcoin, you can think more of as a gold alternative.  Add in that the jury is still out on whether its a safe store of value, hence the wild gyrations.

WishIdStayedinthePub said:

Daarrzzetbum said:

On a non pension note I see Bitcoin is now $19.4K  with a projection to double by 2030. Have to admit I just can’t get my head around Crypto Currencies & mining companies, anyone know a decent link that explains it a very simply logical way. I am not looking to invest directly into Bitcoin but am interested in the technical aspects of mining. 

I just want to expand my very limited understanding, I have a few shares in ARB (UK mining company) which are showing a healthy return but in all honesty bought these not through any research from myself but from a recommendation from an old mate. 

I think I've lost more money investing in miners than any other way, particularly small ones. 

Even if you avoid the charlatans and crooks, they are effectively an option on the commodity they mine due to high, more or less fixed costs.  Once the commodity goes above the cost of production, they can go up quickly.  If the price sinks below cost, they plummet.  

The explorers are even riskier - some of them are binary on finding sources and then require huge amount of capital to set up and often chew through early equity investors and end up getting owned by the banks.  

On top of that they operate in challenging environments and subject to all sorts of disruptions due to the weather, wars, strikes, accidents, disputes with local government, etc.  I'm going back to mining pooled funds ....

Bitcoin, you can think more of as a gold alternative.  Add in that the jury is still out on whether its a safe store of value, hence the wild gyrations.

Appreciate the response #WishIdStayedinthePub  

golfaddick said:

hoof_it_up_to_benty said:

golfaddick said:

hoof_it_up_to_benty said:

golfaddick said:

hoof_it_up_to_benty said:

golfaddick said:

£350m "black hole" in the Arcadia Pension fund. I'm glad I didn't mis-sell that one.

Give me a personal pension over a privare sector DC scheme anyday. 

Unless you went to Equitable Life. I went with them many years ago until their GARs destroyed the company - I have no idea what the actuaries were doing with this as it took no account that inflation/interest rates might fall.

Financial regulators are useless as this showed. One of the UK's oldest companies were effectively running a pyramid scheme. 

Anyone in the business (like me) knew Equitable Life couldn't keep it up. GAR's were old hat in the early 90's but Equitable kept on pushing them & people kept investing with them......mainly because their ads said that they didn't pay commission to (nasty smelly) salesmen. 🤔

GARs are obviously nonsensical so I'm not  really clear how this was allowed to happen? They had been going since 1762 which is perhaps why people thought they might be trustworthy?

There are also plenty of bad financial advisors out there as well - I obviously am not including you in this!

Financial products are a minefield and getting good advice is difficult. Make the wrong decision and you can lose a fortune.

Who can you trust?

Obviously I would say this but......always speak to a Financial Advisor, preferably a "whole of market" one (the term has now sadly superseded "Independent"). Either by referral from a friend or colleague or failing that by looking up the FCA register. 

The advisor market has really been cleaned up since the 1980's. No more dodgy ex-car salesmen (yes, I've worked with a few of them in the past) as the level of Compliance & testing that goes on now has weeded them out. 

I need a review of my pension arrangements from somebody in my local area, SE10 - hard to know who to go to as recommendations may not be objective. Difficult to know where to start.

Something I should have done a few years ago. 

Are you suggesting that a financial advisor might recommend a course of action that is not in your best interests and merely trying to line his own pocket ?

Well it's not impossible.🤔

golfaddick said:

hoof_it_up_to_benty said:

golfaddick said:

hoof_it_up_to_benty said:

golfaddick said:

£350m "black hole" in the Arcadia Pension fund. I'm glad I didn't mis-sell that one.

Give me a personal pension over a privare sector DC scheme anyday. 

Unless you went to Equitable Life. I went with them many years ago until their GARs destroyed the company - I have no idea what the actuaries were doing with this as it took no account that inflation/interest rates might fall.

Financial regulators are useless as this showed. One of the UK's oldest companies were effectively running a pyramid scheme. 

Anyone in the business (like me) knew Equitable Life couldn't keep it up. GAR's were old hat in the early 90's but Equitable kept on pushing them & people kept investing with them......mainly because their ads said that they didn't pay commission to (nasty smelly) salesmen. 🤔

GARs are obviously nonsensical so I'm not  really clear how this was allowed to happen? They had been going since 1762 which is perhaps why people thought they might be trustworthy?

There are also plenty of bad financial advisors out there as well - I obviously am not including you in this!

Financial products are a minefield and getting good advice is difficult. Make the wrong decision and you can lose a fortune.

Who can you trust?

Obviously I would say this but......always speak to a Financial Advisor, preferably a "whole of market" one (the term has now sadly superseded "Independent"). Either by referral from a friend or colleague or failing that by looking up the FCA register. 

The advisor market has really been cleaned up since the 1980's. No more dodgy ex-car salesmen (yes, I've worked with a few of them in the past) as the level of Compliance & testing that goes on now has weeded them out. 

guinnessaddick said:

Diddly-squat for me this month.

And me, and the wife!

Maybe the system messed up! 

Bangkokaddick said:

I don't normally get an email until about the 4th of the month. Still hoping!!!

Just type your bond number in on the website.

£50.00 for me, not sure about wifey she’s lost her bond number, she awaits the email or non email, still we know it ain’t the biggy 🤨

Bugger all this month.