Anyone withdrawing savings due to 1% base rate?

oldagetraveller

soulsaver wrote: »

And was poo pooed by Mendleson on C4 news...!

That must have echoed around Fingal's Cave from the grave?

moggylover

gozomark wrote: »

except prices have been falling for the last 4 months....

Not on basic groceries and such like they haven't! I seriously wonder what they use to say "prices are falling" because I don't want to buy a (imported)42" plasma, I just want to feed my family and pets!

muvvahen

Hi everyone

Been lurking for a while, but this is my first post. Please be gentle with me!

As yet another disgruntled follower of the great goddess Prudence, I've been pondering this question with my beloved.

We've paid of the mortgage and don't owe anything to anyone, but have also seen our savings rates heading South. We're seriously considering investing in our long-term futures by installing some green technologies. Started in a modest way last year with a small, self-contained solar PhotoVoltaic (PV) system which powers all our outside lighting, battery chargers etc and a wood-burner in my office to replace the electric/gas heaters. Now we're investigating a bigger Solar PV array (possibly enough to sell some back to the grid - hurray!) and other sustainable stuff. The payback periods may look long at the moment (10-12 years at current energy prices), but:

a) The broad trend with electricity and gas prices is going to be upwards over the long term

b) We'll be less dependent on those great big faceless corporates

c) We might even get a tiny bit of all our money and hard-earned taxes back from the Mighty Leader in the form of a grant

and d) We won't be such a drain on the earth's resources

I don't normally feel smug about the prospect of actually spending money :eek:, but in this case it might be justifiable in the long term...

What do you wise people think?

Muvvahen

Paulee

poppysarah wrote: »

For those without a mortgage - the option is to invest either in shares/gold/baked beans/property.
But property is very illiquid as people are finding out. If you need your money - if you have "saved for a rainy day" - you don't want to be tieing it up - you need easy access to it - and perhaps to start spending it earlier than we intended.

The problem is for people who've recently retired - their savings have to last until they're dead (Or they reach the limits for benefits - but there are rules on how quick you can spend your own cash without it being deprivation) and people have to estimate that they might live another 30 years. To be told now they're getting nowt on their savings as income and have to start spending it now must be terrifying.

What was the point of going without when you can see the spenders having their luxurious lifestyle paid for by hard working taxpayers?

My wife and I decided to slip into semi-retirement last summer - a bit premature in hindsight! The future for ourselves and our children looks very uncertain and it certainly is very worrying. I have little idea on the best course of action, but we are all in the same boat and I guess (hope) that in time it will all improve. Certainly, having worked extremely hard and saved very carefully during our lives, it is extremely gauling to witness the actions of the bank bosses and the like. Like many people on this forum, I consider such people to be no better than common criminals - very wealthy common criminals!

Interestingly, I had a phone call yesterday from an executive in American Precious Metals LLC, Florida suggesting that I invest in gold and silver. I have absolutely no idea about investing in metals, it looks pretty useful and I note that traditionally gold has been used as a safe haven in times of turmoil, but I will not be tempted - too frightening for me!

Maybe I should ask our last "great" leader, Tony. He doesn't seem to have done too bad on the personal wealth stakes over the past few years and I see that it hasn't taken him long to get an audience with Barrack; although I would be loath to take much notice of his advice if I were you Mr. Obama!

Reaper

muvvahen wrote: »

We're seriously considering investing in our long-term futures by installing some green technologies.

An excellent suggestion. I like it a lot.

You do have to be aware that the paybacks on some green improvements are very long. PV in particular is questionable on purely economic grounds and you shouldn't believe the figures the salesmen come up with. However there are many other options worth looking into - insulation, residential windmills, heat exchangers etc

As you say while the oil price may be low now the long term trend has to be ever increasing power prices which will make the payback time shrink.

tradetime

Oh I'm sure Mr Obama is more than capable of messing things up for himself, he does after all have the necessary qualification, in that he is a politician. As to your American Precious Metals, I would avoid doing business with anyone cold calling me.

muvvahen

Reaper wrote: »

An excellent suggestion. I like it a lot.

You do have to be aware that the paybacks on some green improvements are very long. PV in particular is questionable on purely economic grounds and you shouldn't believe the figures the salesmen come up with. However there are many other options worth looking into - insulation, residential windmills, heat exchangers etc

Thanks Reaper - I agree, there are lots of possible avenues to explore - it's quite exciting (indeed, much more exciting than receiving letters notifying us that our interest rate on the Gullible Savers Account from the Bank of Useless has just fallen to 0.003% pa)

I have my beloved on the case at the moment with the figures... He's an engineer/scientist by training and does like to work with the facts :rolleyes:.

We've already done the insulation stuff and use our wood-burners as the main source of our heating now - even in this cold weather we've hardly turned on the Gas CH.

Perhaps we should just burn some of our savings to keep warm??? (Sorry!) :wall:

Muvvahen

altojack

I've just had my Guaranteed Reserve mature at Halifax yesterday and they had to put the cash into my liquid gold account. I had decided to buy £30,000 block of Premium Bonds, so needed to transfer the money first into my LLoyds jint account. The palaver it has caused. First off the want to charge me £25 to transfer, or I can have a cheque, pay into LLoyds today and wait 3 - 5 working days for it to clear.
Not content that I had my LLoyds debit card with me ad my Halifax debit card the girlwaned passport and/or driving licence. So I went home, got passport, as my licence is old paper type, and I have closed my liquid gold down completely. I am fuming at them hence the rant.
I do have a cash isa with them but couldn't close that now as it is a phone one. I'm closing that today, and as for my debit account, once I open new account else were, I'm off, never going back to Halifax.

Agent_C

jamtart6 wrote: »

ok we're not making money on savings, but if its just for a few months, what is the problem? (I would be grateful if this was answered seriously, as I don't know what the issue is?)

It's also a particular problem for those of us living off our savings interest, as the monthly return has plummeted. I put as much of my cash as possible into fixed rate savings, but as I currently have little income other than from my savings (made the perhaps foolish move to go back to University last year) I have to keep a good amount of cash in easy access accounts, as I need that money to live on.

ffacoffipawb

iltisman wrote: »

What we need to find is a well run country to place our savings, any suggestions.

Zimbabwe? :rotfl: