How many got out of Property...and into Shares ;-(

hearts

I was just wondering how many smart people got out of property at the "right" time, only to then invest in the "safe" Banks (shares). Intending to leave their money till they could buy back into property at lower prices.
What now?
Money mostly gone, no hope for the future. ;-(

It's cruel world.

Leighthal

Are there any 'SAFE' banks?.With this 50 Billion Quid back-up fund someone does'nt think so.

chewmylegoff

hearts wrote: »

I was just wondering how many smart people got out of property at the "right" time, only to then invest in the "safe" Banks (shares). Intending to leave their money till they could buy back into property at lower prices.
What now?
Money mostly gone, no hope for the future. ;-(

It's cruel world.

i'm assuming that you have actually done this, rather than just wondering if anyone else has, so from that context: well i suppose you will at least learn not to put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. banks haven't been "safe" for at least 15 months, shares are never safe anyway; whatever you had done you would have lost around 25% over the last year as the FTSE steadily went down the pan. it's a lesson not to risk capital that you need for something i suppose.

if all your money came from house price inflation at least you have only lost the fictional increase in value of a house. with prices heading downwards rapidly you should be able to buy a house again in due course.

there was some guy on one of the recent tv programs about the crash who had invested all of his money in HBOS shares, not even spread across the banking sector. he was complaining about it, but anyone doing 5 minutes reading could work out that this was an excessively risky strategy.

PasturesNew

I'd have loved to buy/sell some shares. I thought about £2k's worth. But, to be honest, I've not worked out how to buy/sell them myself so never got round to it.

I was offered the chance to buy one of those shares ISA thingies in March, but I didn't want them to be choosing which sharesand I don't really have the spare money to be in it for the long-term for thousands.

I just fancied a bit of fun with about £2k, seeing if I could make a few bob. Sort of a hobby.

hearts

chewmylegoff wrote: »

i'm assuming that you have actually done this, rather than just wondering if anyone else has, so from that context: well i suppose you will at least learn not to put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. banks haven't been "safe" for at least 15 months, shares are never safe anyway; whatever you had done you would have lost around 25% over the last year as the FTSE steadily went down the pan. it's a lesson not to risk capital that you need for something i suppose.

if all your money came from house price inflation at least you have only lost the fictional increase in value of a house. with prices heading downwards rapidly you should be able to buy a house again in due course.

there was some guy on one of the recent tv programs about the crash who had invested all of his money in HBOS shares, not even spread across the banking sector. he was complaining about it, but anyone doing 5 minutes reading could work out that this was an excessively risky strategy.

I didn't invest in shares, no. I was merely offering my condolences to those who didn't have the crystal ball you had.
I'm assuming that you will now n
be a multi millionaire. Knowing as you did that a bank crash was iminent. You would have sold to buy.

I agree with you about they guy buying HBOS shares. But then he may have just been an average guy who went to his bank for advice on a long term low risk investment and been told the banks were "safe"

As for houses I think we might find, in fact already have found, that getting a house will be harder now than it's ever been. Finance for those with large deposits will be fine but first time buyers will need to find a great deal more before having any chance of buying.

turbobob

I think you'd have to be a bit of a plonker to invest the price of a house in bank shares (unless of course you were a multi-millionaire, and it was a small part of a large portfolio). Its certainly "putting all your eggs in one basket".

I think I saw the program with the man who had (presumably) his life savings tied up in HBOS shares. He was blaming short selling for the collapse of the share price IIRC. As cruel as it sounds to say it, but he only had himself to blame. Unless he did it on the advice of someone in which case his advisor should be shot!

chewmylegoff

well, if this is what you mean, i sold my property last august in anticipation of what then happened, and put the cash in the bank as i wanted to use it to buy another property in the future and didn't want the capital to be eroded in the short term by speculative investments.

chewmylegoff

turbobob wrote: »

Unless he did it on the advice of someone in which case his advisor should be shot!

and forced to pay compensation to his client for all the losses.

Jennifer_Jane

I assume you mean stockbroker not 'Advisor' as in Financial Advisor, as Financial Advisors don't deal in shares or advise on them (they do advise on Unit Trusts etc, but not on shares).

And everyone always knows that the 'price of (whatever) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the amount you paid in' Caveat Emptor (and this is from someone who lost some money on the dot.com bubble).

Jen
x

beingjdc

What, well. I sold up a few years ago. So far in the stock market crash I've lost £1,300. Assuming I had bought a house for £150,000 at the peak, I'd have lost about £20,000 so far. Not unhappy with my decision yet!

tomstickland

hearts wrote: »

As for houses I think we might find, in fact already have found, that getting a house will be harder now than it's ever been. Finance for those with large deposits will be fine but first time buyers will need to find a great deal more before having any chance of buying.

It won't be "harder than it's ever been".
Someone with a decent deposit who waits for prices to fall to the bottom is going to be able to buy a decent property and not be a total debt slave.