Is it not time to have a separate Saving and investing forums?

1echidna

Maybe savings and investments do belong together, as apart from the confusion many people have as to the difference, a balanced portfolio means having both. As an adjunct some general economic discussion is relevant to the prospects for both savings and investments and I believe should be fostered either in this section or somewhere separate. Some have accused many people on this board have being unduly pessimistic about economic prospects but, over the past six months, they have been far more accurate than those in the public eye who generally try to talk the market up or at least present the least damaging picture.

jamesd

Crabman, do you think that advising consumers to take out energy futures contracts would be a risk-based decision? How about interest rate futures contracts? Credit default risk decisions?

Martin's answer, while appearing false based on editorial here, is still not an unreasonable line for a message board operator to take, since it allows great flexibility in what to reject.

It's still sad to see the discussion about investing scattered in many places when it could be concentrated so that those with a reasonably broad view could more easily exert moderating influence on the occasional excesses. That's where the danger lies: improperly characterised or denied risk without tempering comment.

Energy futures contracts: take fixed rate energy deals now (just as the world was going into a recession, an event that produces declining energy prices).

Interest rate futures contracts: fixed rate mortgages, fixed rate term deposit accounts.

Credit default risk decisions: trusting or not trusting various deposit guarantee schemes, mentioning them without providing tools to judge them.

Lansdowne

Paul_Herring wrote: »

General Public[tm] confuses savings with investments, and frequently say invest when they mean save.

With hindsight, I'm at a loss to see how different fora would mitigate this. You'd still get people who really want to save posting on an investment board.

Not, hopefully, if the fora were given foolproof titles, something like my suggestion:

Lansdowne wrote: »

If there is anyone with the job of tidying up the boards, my suggestion would be to keep "Savings and Investing" but have a sub- board called
Bank and building society savings accounts
and another called
Investing in the stock market.

john_s_2

Now I might not know the difference between investing and saving, but I do know that the stock market represents merely a slither of available investment options.

Or are you saying that posts about the stock market are so numerous that they warrant a sub board of their own?

And while I'm at it, I'm sure "fora" is not a valid plural of "forum" ;-) I'm with the Americans on plurals I'm afraid. (Although I have been known to use "formulae" to describe "formulas".)

Lansdowne

Although there has been no movement from Forum Towers about creating an Investment board, someone up there is half awake.
The various 'Sticky: Icesave/Kaupthing' threads have gone. But the banner that says

Icesave & Kaupthing News: In the Are your savings safe guide. Updated 3x a day

is still there. So as I say only half awake.