How does losing a fifth of your wealth feel?

Old_Slaphead

How does losing one fifth of you wealth feel - pretty crap!

My pension's down more than that in past year effectively wiping out my last 4 or 5 years contributions. When added to lower annuity rates the real reduction will be even greater.

Personal pensions.......the swizz of the decade!

nearlyrich

I don't understand how anyone can class the equity in their home as wealth, it's only wealth if you sell up and put the dosh in the bank. I have lost some of my actual wealth on the stock market, and some of what I thought I would be getting in interest on my savings for retirement but it's not the end of the world. I certainly don't think it's good to laugh at the misfortune of others and can't help thinking that one day those who are gloating will feel pain themselves.

Rochdale_Pioneers

Conrad wrote: »

Mortgage criteria is getting tougher by the week. Lenders are routinely requesting income proof even after completion now.

Lenders routinely request income proof BEFORE completion and always have done - what do you think the ration of self cert to normal mortgages is?

ukcarper

Rollerball wrote: »

Wouldn't it be better if they requested proof before agreeing to lend hundreds of thousands of pounds?

I haven’t had to get a mortgage for over twenty years but when I last did the Building Society wrote to my employer to check my salary is that not the case now.

alared

Maybe I`m odd but I bought my house to LIVE IN.
Where did I go wrong?

Cannon_Fodder

nearlyrich wrote: »

I don't understand how anyone can class the equity in their home as wealth, it's only wealth if you sell up and put the dosh in the bank..

Its quite simple really, its called "equity withdrawal".

According to the BBC article; http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7976111.stm
"More than £300bn has been borrowed through equity withdrawal since 2000."

And as; "This hit a peak in late 2003 when the extra borrowing increased household incomes by 8.5%.", it could be argued to be pretty significant in underpinning recent history's annual growth in GDP of around 3%.

And the Bank of England consider it sufficiently significant to have a section dedicated to it on their Statistics section http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/hew/2008.htm

ukcarper

alared wrote: »

Maybe I`m odd but I bought my house to LIVE IN.
Where did I go wrong?

I don't think you have I did the same and am just about to finish paying for it.
It's value has gone up and down and for most of the time my mortgage repayments have been less than rent and will soon be zero

System

alared wrote: »

Maybe I`m odd but I bought my house to LIVE IN.
Where did I go wrong?

I'm afraid anyone who bought a house in the last 10 years is scum who only want to sell the house on again for massive profit.

Apparently.

Dithering_Dad

Cannon_Fodder wrote: »

Its quite simple really, its called "equity withdrawal".

According to the BBC article; http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7976111.stm
"More than £300bn has been borrowed through equity withdrawal since 2000."

And as; "This hit a peak in late 2003 when the extra borrowing increased household incomes by 8.5%.", it could be argued to be pretty significant in underpinning recent history's annual growth in GDP of around 3%.

And the Bank of England consider it sufficiently significant to have a section dedicated to it on their Statistics section http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/hew/2008.htm

It'll be interesting to see how that chart pans out from 2009 onward. Apparently people are pouring money into their mortgages like never before in order to maintain their LTV's. I MEWed £50k from our equity back in 2006 to build an extension, get a new fitted kitchen and generally update most of the house and we'll have repaid that back onto our equity within a couple of month's time, while enjoying a larger home and having an increase on the value of our home due to the extension.

I know some people are supposed to have MEWed to fund a lifestyle, but I suspect that a lot of those reports came from tabloid journo's and that most people have MEWed to invest elsewhere (BTL, etc) and to carry out building work on their homes.

We worked out that it was cheaper to extend than to move to a larger home, plus we ended up with a house improved to our requirements.

sandiep

I bought my house in Dec 2006. New build.
House over the road has just sold for more than I paid in Dec 2006.
i'm happy.