Too right, some of these people will have to support us in old age

 

Yes

 

Coming back to the question of a bond bubble, this is a link to a different view to the bubble warnings.

http://www.trustnet.com/News/444865/...nd-bubble/1/1/

Might be a bit ""Everything's fine" says captain of Titanic"

 

gave you lot the bigest hint i could without getting told off, they are £4.15 today

 

You should have bought more then.

 

i did but sadly at £2.38 after our md announced £100 million investors money was available for purchasing more companies and general investment in the company

 

You've still done well even at that price

Did you ever tell us the the name of the company or just hint at it?

 

http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/ifaonline...m_medium=Email

Seems to imply interest rates won't move for a couple of years?

 

i may of posted up where i work in the past, however a quick look in the times at share prices highs and lows will tell you who it is, look under b

 

Why not just tell us?

 

i didn't think we where allowed, insider trading and all that

 

If your a director then no you cant, but if your just an ordinary employee then no problem.

 

As Chip says it not insider trading as you don't actually have any real inside information. You will know what hundreds of others in your company know and will be told this usually after statement releases to 'the city'.

I understand you being cautious though

 

Was definitely just having a whinge here. The amount the stock market has gone up is making me wary. I'm a year and a half away from the savings target I've been aiming at for 5 years. The stock market is better suited to long-term investment. Obviously in a year and a half prices could be anywhere anyway, but the fact they've risen so much on the back of such a small recovery makes me want to just stick to saving cash for the next year or so. I'll keep the stocks I already have though. They've done really well over the last few years and are paying good dividends.

One thing I am finding now is that I have a slight attachment to some of my stocks because of the price I got in at and what they've done for me. Not a good thing. I probably won't want to sell them when I reach my target, which was for a house/flat or going out on my own with a business.

 

Well just to update, there are some more current accounts around now which pay good rates of interest. Clydesdale/Yorkshire Bank and Nationwide. As well as my Santander 123 I now also have a Clydesdale one. The Clydesdale pays 4% gross on balances up to £3000 until sometime in 2015.

The Nationwide FlexDirect pays 5% on balances up to £2500 for 12 months from opening.

These figures of 4 and 5% are quite good considering your money is guaranteed. When weighed against riskier assets yielding not very much more it's a no-brainer for the short-term. Even 3% with Santander isn't too bad. Better than bonds.

I hope this trend with current account trying to attract new customers continues. Can only be a good thing. Should carry us through to (hopefully) higher interest rates in savings accounts in a few years.

 

But only up to £3k isn't that useful for some. But better than a poke in the eye.

My ISAs are getting 2.7% which isn't too awful. The rest is getting so little it's almost funny. Hence thinking "f**k it, let's buy a new car - much more fun."

If anywhere does anything over 3% on bigger balances please shout!

 

Just Santander at 3% which I take it you know about. Up to £20K. 2.4% net.

That 2.7% isn't bad but is it something like a 5-year lock-in?

 

BTL? Lol.

 

NO.

 

4% monthly income from the Leeds .....

Small snag, fixed for 10 years!

 

Nope, just HSBC Premier (which we get free) but the deal has run out now! New accounts are under 2%. I think one of my accounts is getting 0.3%...

 

I recently had to cash in all of ns and i index linked certificates. The first ones I took out about 5 years
ago gave rpi + 1.75% tax free, so these were at many times yielding almost 7% net of all taxes!!

Even when the 3 year fix for these came to and end they rolled me over onto 0.85% + rpi, so they've been yielding 4% tax free up to very recently.

I was gutted to have to cash these in as these deals are no longer available but I needed the cash. They are the only savings product I've had in recent years that have actually yielded anything meaningful.

Sadly it does not pay to save anymore, it seems to pay to borrow.

 

Some joker of a "financial adviser" tried to tell my parents in an informal capacity that holding inflation-linked certificates was pretty much a waste of time at the moment (????!!!).

I would love to have been there to ask him where else you could beat the rate of inflation with total safety. No doubt he would have recommended high-yield 7-10 year bonds or something which can surely only go down in that period, if they don't go bust.

 

Interest used to pay many of our annual bills.
It now barely buys a Snickers bar.

 

Ummm
Now theres an idea!!!

 

We were advised to take out MIPs a couple of years ago - that all went t*ts up (QP tax issues) and the money is tied up for another 8 years. Our pensions are not doing *that* well, not as bad as in the past but still not well. Shares are up and down, and our savings are not doing a jot.

So the only option that leaves us with is to blat off the mortgage to save the interest - so that's what we have been doing the last few years. If it were not for this I think I would just give up!

 

They seem to have got worse recently. Last year I was getting 2.25% IIRC with Halifax, now it's 1.00%

 

Yes, ISAs and the like have all come down a fair bit recently. The only positive thing is the prospect of them going back up again in a year or two. Can't imagine how it's going to happen but supposedly it is (?).