Moneysavingexpert campaign to help savers

Sibley

Isn't it about time this was launched?

Savers are being mercilessly hung out to dry by monetary policy. Anyone who "did the right thing" is being rewarded by huge losses in the current high inflation & almost zero IR environment.

And all in order to bail out the profligate - all those people who did precisely the thing that's put economies in so much trouble - i.e. borrowed money they couldn't afford to pay back.

It's heinous treatment of savers & especially callous since in lots of cases people with savings are OAPs trying to live off them.

So come on. Since this is MoneySAVINGexpert how about a campaign on behalf of people who do/did just that? A chunky raise in the ISA allowance might be a start. Or some other concession like reduced income tax on any savings.


Otherwise you may as well just rename the site Moneyspendingexpert & be done with it.

I think you will only have one member. Everyone is happy with the low rates. Long may they continue. The brave have been rewarded. The people who did not have the guts to buy into housing should lose out.

Bullfighter

Since we are clearly heading into a global deflationary depression, cash is king.

Leverage works in both directions. For the past 30 years the monetary escalator has been going in one direction, leading to normalcy bias. The red emergency button has been hit and the stairs are about to start going down.

kabayiri

PasturesNew wrote: »

Many old people's concept of saving is under the mattress, having come from a generation where you put your pennies into jars to save towards bills that'd come. How do you explain to somebody of 80-95 about investments when they can't even understand how to turn the telly on, or work the heating, or remember where they left their teeth?

I'm younger and have no idea about investments ... it's a big fat mystery with slimy greaseball salesmen as gatekeepers... and fat cats taking big fees to spend on champers.

Just after the last credit crunch there was a Financial Adviser type in my home town who was finally jailed for defrauding clients. I think the final fraud figure was estimated at £3m.

I know about it because my father's friend felt he got off lightly when he lost £30K.

The adviser was not some fly by night, many of his clients had known him for years.

The credit crunch spooked a lot of people and when people are worried they look around for comforting solutions.

We can all proclaim on here that older people should have diversified, balanced investments, but when you are older and you don't feel you have time on your side it's understandable to view a turbulent stockmarket with some pessimism.

hallmark

Sibley wrote: »

I think you will only have one member. Everyone is happy with the low rates. Long may they continue. The brave have been rewarded. The people who did not have the guts to buy into housing should lose out.

Sorry old chap, what a shame for you that you're obviously laden down with debt. Only the miserably debt-ridden are happy with low rates.

Thrugelmir

PasturesNew wrote: »

Many old people's concept of saving is under the mattress, having come from a generation where you put your pennies into jars to save towards bills that'd come.

Times have moved on since the 60's.

Even my elderly mother has enough financial common sense to find a reasonable savings rate.

ILW

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Times have moved on since the 60's.

Even my elderly mother has enough financial common sense to find a reasonable savings rate.

Unlikely to even be above inflation though.

Cleaver

Sibley wrote: »

I think you will only have one member. Everyone is happy with the low rates. Long may they continue. The brave have been rewarded. The people who did not have the guts to buy into housing should lose out.

hallmark wrote: »

Sorry old chap, what a shame for you that you're obviously laden down with debt. Only the miserably debt-ridden are happy with low rates.

You're both falling in to the trap that a lot of people on here do, which is thinking that this forum is somehow representative of the real world. One of you is saying that the whole world is celebrating due to the stupidly low interest rates, and the other is saying that the ‘miserable debt-ridden’ (very emotive term) are the only ones benefiting and that savers are being shafted. Neither is true.

Again, we need to remember that life isn’t this simple. The vast majority of people will have a mortgage that they can afford (not miserably debt-ridden), money in savings and probably investments either directly or through a pension. The value of all of these things will go up and down over the years, and the proportion of them will fluctuate over time. For example, in five years I hopefully plan that my mortgage will be a lot lower and my savings and investments will be a lot higher. For most people low interest rates are a complete mixed-blessing, a complicated aspect of their lives. For me it means my savings are low, but my mortgage is also quite low. However, I’ve always had my mortgage at 4% since 2003 and it’s fixed at that rate until 2014, so actually I’m not really benefiting from lower rates compared to what I’ve had in the past. Interest rates are low because our economy is f*cked, and this has certainly had an effect on my investments lately that have been battered.

So have I benefited or suffered through low interest rates? Well, like most people out there in the real world it just is what it is and it affects me in loads of different ways, good and bad. The overall theme is that the reason our interest rate is so low is that our economy is well and truly screwed. So in that respect, low interest rates is a sign that we’re all completely and utterly worse off. Anyone crowing that low interest rates are great as it’s great for their mortgage has completely missed the bigger picture, in my opinion.

pqrdef

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Even my elderly mother has enough financial common sense to find a reasonable savings rate.

Reasonable rates are only available because most people aren't taking advantage of them. Most of them are very limited offers. If they don't limit take-up by having awkward strings attached, they tend to disappear off the market quickly.

wotsthat

Cleaver wrote: »

You're both falling in to the trap that a lot of people on here do, which is thinking that this forum is somehow representative of the real world. One of you is saying that the whole world is celebrating due to the stupidly low interest rates, and the other is saying that the ‘miserable debt-ridden’ (very emotive term) are the only ones benefiting and that savers are being shafted. Neither is true.

You're wrong. It's all about polar opposites, bulls vs bears, thrifty savers vs debt junkies.

Don't go dragging the real world into this!

Torry_Quine

Cleaver wrote: »

Haven't investors been given a rawer deal lately? Do they deserve more support? Kind of a devil's advocate type of question, but probably worth asking.

When I say savings that includes investments as I see them as part of the same thing. The rates of return are appalling

Sibley wrote: »

I think you will only have one member. Everyone is happy with the low rates. Long may they continue. The brave have been rewarded. The people who did not have the guts to buy into housing should lose out.

Here's member two. I am in no way happy with low rates which don't even keep up with inflation which is getting worse. Very selfish of you to say that you should loose out unless you get into housing. I have a home so I don't need another