Rispon Avenue

It shouldn’t be a shock that the housing market is still unstable, but I suppose I had expected that by now it would be on firmer ground.

My last post on UK’s debt issues put me in mind of this. My SO told me the other day – after chatting with one of the neighbourhood’s friendly gossips – that two more houses in the nearby streets had been repossessed. We were shocked, as we live in a fairly well off area, so the idea of people in our situation losing their house is pretty surprising and a little scary.

We’re very comfortable in that sense, with no chance whatsoever of losing our house, but still, it pays to be cautious with how things are. Perhaps I”m just dour after talking about all this financial crap, but nonetheless, I’ll devote one more post to giving the small amount of advice I can for those out there possibly facing repossession.

There are some mind boggling mortgage deals out there at the moment, with up to 90% loans for houses, but those sorts of loans are what caused the financial crisis in the first place and shouldn’t be entered into without a heck of a lot of prior knowledge and a very, very stable income. But with housing prices still falling, they are very tempting for many, many Brits. I think those same people who are interested in these types of loans should perhaps do some investigation into repossession news, though those sorts of sites are great for anyone hoping to avoid or stop repossessions.

I’m not saying that for sure if you get a large mortgage loan you’re sure to lose your house, but what I am saying is that many Brits are looking at serious repossession problems at the moment, and that could be avoided with more insight into the current market, and more information on what to expect from the market in the coming months.

It’s not a situation for leaps of faith, but more a studied search over the edge of the cliff to see just how far you’ve got to go before you can land on solid ground again.

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Whenever one picks up a paper or watches the news there are still stories about people suffering because of the economic crisis, and it’d be nice if that wasn’t the case.

It’s frustrating to me that the selfish actions of a few are still having dramatic effect on so many, and on such an international scale. Many countries have suffered because of the sub-prime crisis, and many of those that were hit are still feeling the effects. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s noticed that everything in the supermarket still seems to be going up.

Many Brits got into debt over the last few months, probably just trying to stay afloat with personal loans, but it’s having quite an adverse effect now as people are being pinched more and more by debt repayments. I’m always surprised when I get letters in the post from my bank asking me if I’d like to take out any loans, or that this credit card would be just right for me. What worries me is that, if you’re not currently up to date on money advice from people who won’t profit off of you, then you might just think these offers from your bank are good ones.

But they’re not. My strong suggestion to those in debt is to get some good advice on how to get out of it taking into consideration the budget you’ve got to work with now, and after that, making sure you regularly check sites like ‘This is Money’ for news and information before you take out any more loans.

My SO and I both work, quite a bit, and we are both paid well, yet even for us things have gotten a lot tighter than they used to be. It’s alright for us, but we are also very proactive about looking into the current financial climes before doing anything with our money, be that saving with a different account or purchasing a game… Basically, I think we need to play for the long game, not just for right now like many banks and so forth are pushing us to do.

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I don’t mind paying for good insurance, but I don’t like paying extra fees for undue purposes.

I was wandering around the web viewing all sorts of finance news articles. It’s amazing how much you can learn by reading an article, following a link to a related article, then reading that, then following a link to a related article, and so on and so forth. Anyway, during one of these meanderings I came across this news article about why our car insurance premiums keep going up here in the UK.

Surprisingly it’s because of the greater amount of money each insurance company is having to spend in order to cover their clients against lawsuits. This surge in personal injury claims comes directly from insurance companies sending their clients onto lawyers who specialise in this field, who then try to extract money from the opposing insurance company representing the other person involved in the initial car accident. The reason the insurance companies are sending their clients onto the lawyers – and the same deal applies with car rental companies – is because then those companies will pay the insurance company a referral fee, which can be up to £900.

Ironically, what started out as yet another way for insurance companies to try to get more money for themselves has actually ended up costing them more per year than it nets them, because of all the injury claims made against them. What this does me, though, is that the clients of these insurance companies are paying more every year to try to cover the cost of how much insurance companies are spending on pay-outs each year. Daft, I know.

I think people need to settle down a little here. If you are actually injured by the negligence of another driver, and you can’t work for a while, then sure, you’ve a right to be compensated. If it’s more serious than that, you’ve a right to be greatly compensated. But if you’ve got a bit of a sore neck and use it as an excuse to take three days off work, don’t try to take the person who gave you a tiny bump due to slippery conditions to court just because you checked some bloody personal injury calculator and figured out you might be able to get some cash.

That’s not what the legal profession is there for, so stop abusing the system and perhaps your next car insurance quote won’t turn quite as many of your hairs grey.

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I suppose that rainy day has already happened, but I wasn’t personally too affected by the whole thing, but I’m saving like a squirrel in Autumn just in case it does come closer to home.

It’s a good idea to have some sort of financial protection in place at the moment, because in spite of the initial onslaught of the financial crisis being past, the lingering effects will remain for quite some time. I’ve also made very, very sure that all my insurance premiums are up to date and the best that I can get in terms of cost and cover.

I hate investigating which premium would be best for my SO and I, but I did put in the effort whilst I was recovering from the swine flu – body was still weak but my mind was fine and very bored – to work it all out and I even picked up a mortgage life insurance cover plan, because being that sick just made me want to be safe rather than sorry if anything untoward should happen. Sure it’s morbid as hell, but I’d rather my SO not have to worry about losing our home should anything happen to me. Having what turned out to be a critical illness made me think heavily about all of this, and I’m glad it’s all taken care of now!

If you’re home insurance is coming up for renewal, it’s really not a bad idea to consider some reviews on the subject, because honestly the best way to figure out if any institution is a good one is to take it straight from the mouths who’ve bought from them/dealt with them, not who’ve worked for them! I found a good comparison site in the ‘money supermarket’ and though their name is quite silly, it’s nice to have that much information at hand on the same site.

I prefer to do all my financial planning myself, it seems somehow counter productive to have someone else do it, and pay them for it!

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It’s not a happy bustling market, it’s more a desolate ghost town of a market at the moment.

Basically, I’m still noticing a lot of bad news regarding the housing market. Property prices in 2010 still expected to fall further, somewhere between 10 and 40 per cent for the year, and that the little rays of sunshine in the market will die out as quickly as they came on.

House prices seem to be something that prospective buyers should look into on a daily basis. Small fluctuations in the market can make a pretty big difference for the average house buyer, because if you find a slump week – which could be a blip on the national financial radar – you could save yourself thousands of pounds. I also recommend looking into blogs these days, I’m not talking any old blogs, but there are some really comprehensive economy blogs around that can help you predict when you’ll be able to buy, and what sort of price is fair for what you’re looking at.

The market may have a bit of hope with the recent interest from property investors due to the poor results in the stock market last year, but there’s always the ubiquitous property and home buyers, those eternally searching for just the right house or property, but who never seem to find it.

I still see a lot of homes up for sale in my area, but every time I hear what one of those properties went for I’m a little surprised at just how much value has been lost from the housing market here. Mortgage rates are okay I suppose, but I’m shocked and irritated to see banks offering 90% mortgages again, so soon after the financial collapse brought on by 100% mortgage loans… what are they thinking? It’s such a shockingly stupid lack of hindsight in my opinion… shouldn’t they actually learn from the lessons at hand? It’d be nice, wouldn’t it.

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I’m feeling that certain lessons should have been taken from the financial crisis which have been completely and utterly missed by far too many.

You see, what really sparked this entire collapse was a few people in the U.S. deciding it would be a grand idea if they gave people large loans, we’re talking house loans here, with no down payment. That’s right, loaning the full 100% of the total amount for a house. This of course lead to many people being the horrible situation of having a home and a home loan, but loan repayments too hefty to keep up with. They are referred to as high-risk loans. What then happened is other financial establishment went and bought those loans from the banks and so forth who originally issued them. Now, on the books, this looks like the company has a certain amount of assets, but if the person defaults, if they can’t keep up with their payments, that company that thought they had a few hundred thousand in assets suddenly has to write that off. Completely.

This is just one of the causes of the current financial instability – which seems to be somewhat on the mend – but it was a major factor in why so many companies lost so much money in such a short amount of time.

Anyway, what bothers me is that I feel people should have learned that quick credit, fast cash, short-term loan, all have a nasty way of coming back and biting you. I know it’s a pretty damn difficult time for most people, at the moment, but if they continue to buy into the cycle of loans, and then paying back at a minimum 20% – though you’d probably find it’s much more if you cared to check it on one of those loan calculator things – more than they borrowed, it’s going to be very difficult to break out of.

I suppose I also feel a sense of frustration with loan brokers, that they are so happy to cash in, in spite of how it effects people. Bah! Anyway, if you are considering one of those short-term loans, please don’t if you can avoid it in any way!

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ISA savings account, I’m going to get a new one, but now I have to find the best deal I can…

Lately I’ve mentioned that my SO is experiencing back pain, which means that she cannot sleep much longer each night than six or so hours. Sometimes this is more like four, and very rarely it’s been seven. I naturally like to sleep about eight hours a night, but can manage on a lot less. I don’t like sending my SO off to fend for herself with backpain, so each morning I get up with her, and do what I can. This means that for the last three weeks or so I’ve been getting not enough sleep each and every night.

Now, I’ve been unhappy with my cash ISA savings account for a little while now, and I want to get that sorted out ASAP. But it’s difficult to concentrate on banking figures and bonuses and extras when your brain capacity is that of a person who’s mildly intoxicated. Also, please don’t confuse the ISA with an ISA savings fund, the two are wildly different, and it’s just an odd coincidence that the acronyms are the same. An ISA account allows you to take a certain portion of your tax and put it into a savings account. You don’t get the money if you don’t have one of these accounts, that’s the way it is, so if you don’t have a specific ISA account to place to put it, each year you’re just throwing away thousands of pounds. You can also invest your ISA into fixed rates bonds, but I prefer the cash method.

There are services out there to help you find the best ISA, and that can make a huge difference. The internet is really a fantastic resource in banking, because there are so many unaffiliated sites, you get the real deal, so to speak. They aren’t – the honestly unaffiliated ones, anyway – trying to push one particular bank or account on you.

I’ve been thinking about one with Manchester, because at the moment there’s is the highest for interest rates, but still I’m not sure. These things need to be looked through thoroughly, not just a superficial inspection.

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That title there is in reference to something I mentioned a few posts back, which is the rather noticeable amount of companies now offering rather fast house sales. A nasty business if you ask me!

With the housing market not only taking a nose dive, but them trying to dig through the earth, people got very concerned about what would happen to them as a result. Most of us have felt some differences, even if it’s just noticing how much produce has gone up at markets. I think because this financial crisis started with houses, it’s been the housing markets and mortgage rates that people have paid the most avid attention, and that’s understandable.

What bothers me though, is the scaremongering going on from those who benefit from those stupid sell for cash quickly or ‘home buyer’ schemes and such. These companies are all over the place now, if you Google them you will find a smorgasbord of options, and most of them here in the UK. I feel like the common Brit really needs to arm themselves with better information, from actual mortgage news providers, because these companies are doing this because they are making a rather substantial profit from it, not to help people.

I know these companies aren’t evil, I’m not saying that, what I am saying is that these schemes are so very close to how this whole mess started in the first place, that it’s a little baffling how it’s happening this way now. I’m hoping to see a stronger upswing in the housing market, and hoping to see these companies slowly but surely move onto less exploitative endeavours!

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Throughout July, the finance market seems to have been behaving rather strangely. By that I mean that inflation actually paused, and that has lead to banks fighting it out for the best savings account rates…

I’m not disappointed in that, to be honest, because I’m enjoying seeing the banks scramble to see who has the best interest rates on whichever of their account types. It’s enjoyable to see because banks pretty much got us into the global financial crisis – okay, mostly a few very selfish bastards associated with a couple of banks – and it’s nice to be aware that the common man isn’t the only one taking the fall out of those people’s choices.

I’ve often looked into savings rates, because it’s always important to ensure you’ve got the best deal you possibly can… a good savings account can be the difference in retiring a few years earlier or not… and I like to stay aware of the more relevant news, like this article here, for example, I really like the fact that they are listing which bank is offering what rate, currently. I’ve noticed that foreign currency bank accounts are still a good choice for interest, too, which is nice.

It seems to me that banks are trying really hard to bring in cash again, and that’s understandable given everything that has happened. They really seemed to have taken on at least a modicum of a lesson about what not to do in the future, and I hope that lesson really does become ingrained in the global banking system. It has been a shocking reminder of what can occur if people aren’t responsible with the power they’re given.

Personally, I’m in agreement with the international banking reforms which have been suggested, I think this event proves that such action is not without warrant, nor is it over the top. If a small handful of people can wreak this kind of damage, then it seems it is an industry which deserves closer monitoring.

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So when you find yourself talking with complete strangers, don’t talk about your mortgage!

Today I attended an IT conference, I know, really boring. It was alright, quite interesting, but there’s nothing like an IT lecture to put one in the mood for a nap, but I managed to force myself to stay awake through both the presentations in the morning, and then bolted out into the fresh air at lunch. I was sitting in the sun for about ten minutes when I realised I had nothing to do for the next hour. Presentations recommenced at that time, but it wasn’t long enough for me to go into the city and do anything, and my SO was at work, so I couldn’t talk to her, and I’d stupidly not brought anything to entertain myself during such a lull because I had driven to the conference instead of taking the bus like I normally did to work.

I saw a bunch of people sitting round a table having lunch, and I knew some of them from work, so I decided to go and sit and join them. With twelve people sitting round a table at an IT conference, it really was no surprise that they were talking of IT stuff. People’s choices in PHPBB themes for forums, other people’s intentions to update their websites with new Web 2.0 tech, and then there was one lady, the lady I was sitting next to, an innocuous, slightly older than you’d expect to still be working, especially in IT, she was talking about whatever and whenever. I could be following the conversation that the whole table was having, and then this little grandmotherly like lady would start talking to me about why her son remortgages his house every few years, and how mortgage news was very interesting, which it isn’t.

I’m sorry, but it’s not, and your a very uninteresting conversationalist, even though you seem like a nice person. You can’t say that, of course, unless you have some sort of disorder of the mind, but hey, it’s nice to imagine such things which would of course lead to an offended lady leaving the table, and I could get some relief of normal conversation before I go back in for another round of IT presentation… :lol: Or not.

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I’m so glad for a rest after what has felt like a very, very long week.

Most of this comes from the severe lack of sleep I’ve had, due in large part to my sympathy towards an ailment my SO is currently suffering from. She has a back issue, currently, so she can’t sleep properly, and keeps waking up with severe pain somewhere between four-and-a-half to six, very occasionally seven, hours after going to bed. Now, I like a good eight hours, but when I see her getting up, I can’t let her go off to deal with it by herself, I want to help, so I get up with her and help her any way that I can.

That’s fine, that’s part of a relationship, and I know she’d do the same for me. I’m happy to help her whenever I can. The issue arose this week, however, of a colleague from work asking for my help to open a bank account specifically for offshore finance investments and the like. He’s heard me talking about such things in the past, and thought of me when he decided to get into that sort of thing.

Normally I wouldn’t mind helping him out, but it would mean doing it on the weekend, and I think this weekend I want to do little apart from sleeping and playing Plants vs Zombies. So I set him on the right path, at least, and told him he can either go ahead with it whilst I’m finding the right time to help him out, or he can investigate banks by himself and go ahead on his own steam.

Thankfully he understood that I’m not intending to be rude or mean or such, but that I’m really just suffering, like my SO, after a week of very little sleep! Alright, now I’m off for a kip, then I’m going to play more of that addictive little game. I can’t get that song out of my head, either… I may be starting to lose it.

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Oh yes it is! Since I found out that I can start working from home as soon as I have the necessities set up, I have felt more invigorated about the job than I have in a long while!

Okay so I have been busily going through which of the leased line providers would be the right for working from home. I have checked, and I thankfully do have business SDSL availability in my area, so that is quite good to know. Now it is just a matter of deciding which of the broadband companies has a deal that is right for me, and right for my boss. :lol:

My current broadband connection is good, don’t get me wrong, but because I am a web designer, it would be better to have something with a bit more bite to it, especially when it comes to my upload rate, as my download rate is fine. Most standard net connections offer a certain download rate, with the upload rate being much, much reduced from that of the download. That’s find for most people, but it can become a pain for those who are posting, hosting, creating, big web documents or other hefty HTML files, as with websites.

On a side note, today I had one of those letters from banks where they offer you hefty amounts of credit? I got one today and had to think, what am I, stupid? As if I would be taking out any large credit lines at this point with the economy the way it is, nuh uh, no thank you! It’s just something banks do with people whose credit ratings are way up there, but I am not interested in just any bank account! I like my own bank account, thank you, and the only change I would consider would be one destined for investment purposes, which would be an offshore bank account.

Okay that is enough of a ramble from me! I’m off!

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I happened to find the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks video trailer again, and it got me thinking all about the train stuff again. I really liked the boat in Phantom Hourglass, but a train doesn’t really have… any appeal at all to me. I’m pleased to see good old regular dungeon play, though.

Link seems to be spinning a Deku leaf or something like it in some of the video, and Link also gets to control the Phantoms last seen in Phantom Hourglass. But still, this whole train thing seems overly steam-punk and not in the spirit of the Legend of Zelda games that came before it. It’s so gimmicky and unappealing. This image kind of exemplifies what I feel was the driving force behind the choice. In case you are interested in the train aspect, here is a big ol’ wallpaper that has been released for the game.

I think I need to stop panning the game now, because, quite frankly, I know I’m going to play it, and I’m probably going to love it too. Whilst I can’t see myself getting into the train thing, really, I can see the rest of the game being a heck of a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Phantom Hourglass, I like playing the Zelda games on the DS, I like using the stylus for much of it. The Wii Zelda was also a lot of fun, but I am pretty darn concerned about the lack of Mastersword – or any sword – rumours floating around about that one.

Anyway, I’m off now, I said I’d go to the movies with that estate agent friend I mentioned in my last post. See, if I go to the movies then I don’t have to spend two hours talking about UK property, or which property blogs actually reflect the market – yes, he spent twenty minutes one day talking about property blogs! I can’t fathom how he can talk so much about fast house sales… I don’t find it interesting… nearly at all. I mean, I find finance stuff interesting, but housing stuff is just… not compelling to me. That’s why I’m off to a film!

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A little while back, my mother moved into a retirement community, so she asked me to sell her home – if I didn’t want it – and then she wanted to split the money between her and I 50/50. I was pretty impressed with this, because she knows I am in a stable financial situation and don’t strictly need the extra cash, so I felt like it was a really lovely gesture to give my SO and I some extra nest-egg money.

We were lucky, because the house was in one of the few locations that was still selling well, so we got a good price and it was a really quick house sale too. In an effort to say thank you, my SO and I took the estate agent out to dinner.

It went alright, and it turned out we did have a few common interests. However, he’s one of these people that can’t leave work at work. Every time I run into him or get an email from him, he is always talking about the housing market, anything about property news, which areas are selling well at the moment, and what property prices are doing at the moment.

Today he sent me an email, and gave me a link to real estate forums… I am surprised that a forum like this would be out there, and that it would have enough activity to keep going… Anyway, I am trying to be a nice friend, so I told him it looked interesting and that I might join, and then I tried to guide the conversation to a shared interest.

It’s an uncomfortable situation to be in, when you don’t know someone very well, and their primary topic of conversation is one that most people, myself included, have no more than a passing interest in. It makes me want to drop any attempts to be the guys friend, just sort of let the new friendship run it’s short course with no more momentum put in from me, even maybe some brakes put on from my side. It’s really simple, how can you expect a person to continue to communicate with you when you are so fixated on one area of interest, almost to the exclusion of all else?

I don’t know exactly what I am going to do here… I’ve been so busy of late that I don’t have a lot of time for friends anyway, especially not ones that I don’t really know and who are fixated on something so boring! Yeah that decides it, I don’t have the time or the patience to coax a reasonable conversation from this dude. Alright, back to work now.

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After sharing my rather boring interest that is financial news ( 8O ) I got to think about making a serious longterm investment. I have long thought about it, written about it, joked about it, and looked into it in a half-hearted sort of way, but I never really decided to go ahead with it. I used to just save all my money to high-interest savings accounts, and before the financial collapse, that was working for me. But now the interest rates just aren’t matching up, and it seems as though it would be time to think on this a little more.

Not sure though, because I really don’t have a lot of faith in any financial market, right now. It’s hard to get over the fact that a small handful of greedy men managed to collapse the entire world economy, and I think that has left me – along with a billion other people – pretty shaken.

My current account okay, but it isn’t anything to be excited about, and I know that talking to a money broker is probably the next logical setp to take, but again, trust has been badly shaken, and I don’t think I trust strangers with my money at this point, perhaps at any point.

So if I want to do this myself, I am going to have to really sit down and go through a heck of a lot of brouhaha documentation to find exactly what is right for me… and that is a little unappealing, even with my fascination with financial issues. There are others out there, who look into this stuff themselves, there are finance forums… I’m sorry, but I just bet they’re the life of the party… :lol: I remember reading, but can’t find the article now – of course! :roll: – , that the two markets to keep an eye on are the Australian dollar – but only if investors feel like being a little risky – or the Japanese Yen – if investors decide to be cautious – but that still seems risky. I like that my own bank provides foreign currency bank accounts, which makes me feel a little safer, because I could always whip the money back to my normal account if things turn sour…. but yeah… I think I am just going to sit on this for a while and think more.

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I have found myself investigating financial matters, more and more of late. It’s sort of a complex interest, that doesn’t really serve a purpose, but I have found it enjoyable nonetheless. Not to mention, people think you’re really smart when you can explain to them what caused the current financial crisis. :D

I like to check the BBC News website for current financial articles, and also Finance Markets for news specifically related to investments. Financial Times is a really good site for finance news, because they are so in depth in their articles; I really like the way they present their news. For news about stocks, bonds, and equities, Investment Markets is alright, but their stories can be a little brief, sometimes.

I even find it enjoyable, in a way, to compare rates on savings accounts, but that is only when I have a heck of a lot of time to fill in. I have also had fun considering offshore banking and investment accounts, I think purely because I want to be able to say ‘Sure, just let me move some money in from my offshore accounts’. :lol: I also like to consider investing in things I can be proud of, as with environmentally friendly investments, seriously, how awesome is the idea of investing in oxygen. :D I have also looked into investing in agriculture, so long as it is sustainable.

I haven’t been overly bold in investing just yet, not with the current market. I am interested to see where it is going, though. I have been keeping an eye on the housing market, but that has to be another post, otherwise this one will be too huge! I suppose that’s the interesting thing about going through an economic crisis, especially when you paid attention to what happened right from the start. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out in the end, how and when the market comes back to a stable state. It’s like living through history, and that is kind of exciting, even if it is tough for everyone right now.

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