Preparedness for when

pineapple

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Has anyone seen this?
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/18/hmrc-to-sell-taxpayers-data

Is there anything this corporate grubbyment won't sell?

But our data will of course be completely anonymised.
Watches Trikerchick's pig flying overhead...

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

A couple of years ago I got what I thought was a £2 coin in my change from Tosspots but later examination revealed to be from a Middle Eastern country. I spent it back in the same store a few days later. Since then, I've always given coins a scrutiny. After all, one might get one of those rare Kew Gardens 50p pieces which are worth well above face value.

Years ago I kept falling foul of the Irish coins, pre euro. They were identical in size to ours but worth a lot less.

jk0

Interesting video about gold recommended on Zerohedge today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt7hTCeoXUM

jk0

Frugalsod wrote: »

Years ago I kept falling foul of the Irish coins, pre euro. They were identical in size to ours but worth a lot less.

This raised an interesting thought this afternoon regarding the Pound & Scottish Independence. According to Wikipedia, the Irish currency was tied to sterling for 60 years after independence. It was even made at the Royal mint.

Now, was the Irish Central Bank able to print Irish pound notes, or did they have to lodge a similar amount with the Bank of England, as Scotland, Jersey etc, do at the moment?

Possession

I know I'm a bit behind,but re. talk of earthquakes, I wouldn't read too much into anything. When I lived in Japan, an area near me (the Izu Peninsula) had multiple earthquakes a day in 1992. The schoolchildren spent more time under their desks than at them. Our region had been expecting a large earthquake for about 10 years at that point, but when a big earthquake did happen 2 years later it was far to the west in Kobe. I had only left about 2 weeks earlier and watching the news footage was so painful. Japan has certainly been dealt a rough hand of cards in the last 20 years or so.

I've been having a slightly frustrating conversation with my dad over Easter weekend. He gets finance magazines and is generally quite clued up (and bless him, has started ISAs for our children as we had to spend all our savings when DH was out of work twice). I mentioned that I was frustrated with the rulings on pension-raiding and how it might not be worth paying into my private pension anymore. He won't agree that savings can go the same way and wants me to start an ISA instead. He thinks this can't be touched. Is he right? (Even at the moment - obviously they can move the goalposts at any point.)

jk0

I do think that ISA's are less likely to be raided than pensions, for what it's worth.

I think if the government tried to steal ISA's, there would be a revolution the next day. However, stealing pensions is an easier 'sell' as they can tell people they will be entitled to enhanced benefits when the time comes.

nuatha

Possession wrote: »

I've been having a slightly frustrating conversation with my dad over Easter weekend. He gets finance magazines and is generally quite clued up (and bless him, has started ISAs for our children as we had to spend all our savings when DH was out of work twice). I mentioned that I was frustrated with the rulings on pension-raiding and how it might not be worth paying into my private pension anymore. He won't agree that savings can go the same way and wants me to start an ISA instead. He thinks this can't be touched. Is he right? (Even at the moment - obviously they can move the goalposts at any point.)

An ISA allows you a lot more flexibility (and access to the money in an emergency). Above £85K you are certainly in haircut territory but below that I'd regard ISAs as safer than pensions.

jk0 wrote: »

I do think that ISA's are less likely to be raided than pensions, for what it's worth.

I think if the government tried to steal ISA's, there would be a revolution the next day. However, stealing pensions is an easier 'sell' as they can tell people they will be entitled to enhanced benefits when the time comes.

Stealing pensions is fairly old hat - the Government has been telling lies and stealing pensions since they introduced the state pension. They extended the right to do this to corporations a while back - leaving most pensions seriously underfunded.

Possession

I have no need to worry about having £85K in ISAs sadly. As I can't touch what I already have in a pension I'll be starting from scratch. However we also have an offset mortgage so there's so many swings and roundabouts involved in this decision I have been floundering. I (probably) have another 25-30 years until retirement so it's something worth getting right. I wish I could withdraw what I've paid into a pension and get a buy to let property but that isn't going to happen.

Frugalsod

jk0 wrote: »

I do think that ISA's are less likely to be raided than pensions, for what it's worth.

I think if the government tried to steal ISA's, there would be a revolution the next day. However, stealing pensions is an easier 'sell' as they can tell people they will be entitled to enhanced benefits when the time comes.

I think that that the real problem will come when a bank becomes insolvent. (Though I think that they already are insolvent but the flood of liquidity from the bank of England is masking that right now.) The rules now are that you are just another creditor of the bank and so can expect to find any ISA at risk especially if you have been rolling the sums over and over and could have a sizeable ISA now. So if you had a sum over £85000 then the bank could seize a share of it to bail the bank out. That could happen even if it were within a pension wrapper.

Dippypud

Saw this and thought of all the archery and crossbow enthusiasts on here :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWetjmi01XQ