House ownership - Selling yourself into a lifetime of servitude

twadge_face

Kohoutek wrote: »

If you are convinced property is such a uniquely terrible investment, what do you think people should invest in instead?

LOL.

Such a simple question.

DYOR!

Or possibly hire an IFA...

Kohoutek

twadge_face wrote: »

LOL.

Such a simple question.

DYOR!

Or possibly hire an IFA...

I wasn't trying to solicit financial advice from an anonymous person with a childish username on an internet forum....I'm interested in what asset classes debtistheft thinks are better than property, since he goes so far out of his way to warn people of the dangers of investing in property.

Londonsu

debtistheft wrote: »

Home owners waste theuir money on 10 gallon drums of magnolia paint and willow sticks in order to convince themselves that their house is worth £100k more than it is. Idiots.

nah just put it on the market and waited for a someone to make an offer - they did - 4 days after it went on the market a FTB offered full asking. And not a willow stick in sight.

chucknorris

twadge_face wrote: »

LOL.

Such a simple question.

DYOR!

Or possibly hire an IFA...

It's a simple question but the answer isn't simple. The first thing you have to consider is what are you trying to achieve? I have made my money so I am merely trying to avoid capital depreciation rather than seek growth (and take on the associated risk).

I wouldn't really be inclined to consult an IFA because it would inevitably end up with advice of investing into some sort of fund, might be ok for some but not my style at all. If I am going to put my cash into stocks I would rather keep it simple and go for a low fees tracker.

I have looked at a few things:

Freehold (ground rent) investments (still property related of course but without the day to day management):

Advantage is that if you buy ones that are rising they will both increase in value and yield over time

Disadvantage is that they are not very liquid and you have to be patient with leaseholders dragging their heels to pay the service charge/ground rent
There is also the danger that there may be afuture change in legislation that seriously effects the value.

Individual corporate bonds
Safer ones do not pay much over 5% so not much better than savings bonds, although if they have more than 5 years to run you can put them in an ISA wrapper so that 5% can become 8.33%. So I only see these as somewhere to eventually transfer my stocks and shares Isa investments to.

Buying a business
Not really ideal for (true) retirement but more my style, we may buy a few holiday cottages if we retire to another area (Devon for instance). We wouldn’t buy more than a few so still leaves quite a lot to put elsewhere which after dismissing the above alternatives comes back to just having quite a bit in savings accounts and also possibly NOT selling all our investment properties, perhaps hanging onto 2 or 3.

twadge_face

Kohoutek wrote: »

I wasn't trying to solicit financial advice from an anonymous person with a childish username on an internet forum....I'm interested in what asset classes debtistheft thinks are better than property, since he goes so far out of his way to warn people of the dangers of investing in property.

And you are yet another delight, you charming thing!

It's not really as simple as you're making out though is it?

The fact is that as an investment, property is showing anything but a glowing outlook.

As somewhere to live with a reasonable deposit and a mortgage you can afford (along with job security), then that's pretty awesome and you should count your blessings.

Similarly, I would never give my investment "tips" to anonymous people with unpronouncable, meaningless and pseudointellectual usernames.

My, such a person might just "shoot me down in flames" regardless of the merit of my viewpoints...

Thrugelmir

chucknorris wrote: »

[
Individual corporate bonds
Safer ones do not pay much over 5% so not much better than savings bonds, although if they have more than 5 years to run you can put them in an ISA wrapper so that 5% can become 8.33%. So I only see these as somewhere to eventually transfer my stocks and shares Isa investments to.

Gross yields on corporate bonds are on the whole well below 8%. Companies such as Tesco, Vodaphone, GSK trade in 5% to 6% range. This doesn't allow for the capital loss either on redemption.

So often better to own the shares.

chucky

Kohoutek wrote: »

I wasn't trying to solicit financial advice from an anonymous person with a childish username on an internet forum....I'm interested in what asset classes debtistheft thinks are better than property, since he goes so far out of his way to warn people of the dangers of investing in property.

oooooofff, great put down

twadge_face

chucknorris wrote: »

It's a simple question but the answer isn't simple.

*snip*

Good post (all of it), and thanks. Just the sort of point I was trying to make to genius astrophyscist poster Comet Kohoutek, above.

I like your point about style. I concur that you have to do something you're comfortable with and meets your requirements.

purch

Individual Corporate Bonds would probably be just up debtisthefts street, as the hypocrite clearly has no problems with the kind of debt he can profit from.

twadge_face

chucky wrote: »

oooooofff, great put down

Thanks for your contribution. It's very helpful.

Always. Very. Helpful.