Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

michaels

vivatifosi wrote: »

Have they caught the people who burned down Batchwood yet?

Though it would be an achievement on a whole other level if we could also blame them for Buncefield.

When Buncefield exploded, I was living in my old house which was about a mile away. I was convinced a jumbo jet had just crashed in front of the house. All of the coathangers in my wardrobe started making a strange jiggling noise and then I was in an earthquake but with a sucking noise then a woosh then a bang. At least I think that was the order, this was all happening the same as I was waking up and shouting !!!!!!?

Woke me too - ?I thought the roof had collapsed on something but obviously?i had been asleep so missed the biggest bang but then heard a few of the secondary but they were obviously much smaller - at the time I thought a big freight train must have crashed onto the station (?I only lived about 400 yds from the rail line) but it seemed strange that he sirens weren't going mad so I went back to sleep. We were very much downwind for the cloud on that occasion

I was also thinking that recycling place didn't half pong. I have to admit to being very cynical each time one of the places burns down which have charged for taking waste and 'processing it'. These sort of places seem to burn much more often than coincidence would predict...

vivatifosi

michaels wrote: »

I was also thinking that recycling place didn't half pong. I have to admit to being very cynical each time one of the places burns down which have charged for taking waste and 'processing it'. These sort of places seem to burn much more often than coincidence would predict...

Thinking about it, there was the one at the end of the M1 that went up not that long ago too. Though we're going to have our mega incinerator in Hatfield soon, with the chimney that will be seen from miles around. Once that's open I don't know if it will have a voracious appetite and these places won't exist anymore.

For anyone not from round these parts, I'm talking about this one:
http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/huge_opposition_to_hatfield_incinerator_1_1662906

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

Of course - once your mortgage is paid off.... you're free. Free of The Man. You don't HAVE to keep your job/pay, you don't HAVE to stress every time there's talk of layoffs etc.

Mortgage paid off = sleep easy now.
More wealth in your pension = more Pimms later.... if you live long enough to collect and if your life stays on the current track and if the Govt haven't robbed the funds and if ... and if ...

Every £1 you pay off a mortgage is a bird in the hand.

Except you do need to keep your job if you have kids to feed, clothe and generally provide for. Obviously not having to pay for housing makes things more secure, but not to quite the same extent that it does for somebody without dependants.

lemonjelly wrote: »

I've only ever paid into mine because employers have.
My rationale is that in the same way employers will try & gain everything they can from me, I value my time & labour equally high. I'm therefore going to get the maximum wage possible. Therefore, I am going to pay into the pensions scheme, as are they. If they don't pay into the scheme, I'm selling myself short...

Same here. I've paid into pension schemes because employers have. And because I've had the opportunity to get into a final salary scheme (TPA). Don't know what I'd do if I was working in a job where the employer didn't contribute - I'd certainly be trying to make some kind of provision for retirement, but I'd need to look into things a lot more closely before deciding whether a pension scheme was the best way of doing that.

My current strategy is to carry on paying into the TPA (no-brainer decision) while making not-too-arduous attempts to overpay my "mortgage" - ie the loan from my dad (at interest) with which I bought my house. I am not going to cripple my current finances in order to overpay, though, because it's monumentally unlikely that I will get to the end of the loan in the normal way, with continuing gradual payments. The probability is that some time within the next few years I will get enough in compensation for "the accident" to be able to pay the whole thing off. And even if I didn't get any compensation at all, I'm still unlikely to get all the way to the end of the mortgage. I have 23 years to go on the loan, and my dad is now 86. Unless he lives to 109, then whatever I still owe when he dies will be deducted from my share of his estate. He might live to 109, though. I'm hoping he'll be good for a long time yet. His sisters are both still alive at 92 and 90, and they had 2 aunts, an uncle and a grandmother who all got into their 90s, and a mother who lived to 103.

Talking of "the accident" - it was 3 years ago tomorrow. We've all been out for a pub supper with LNE's parents. DS is coping well this year, but DD is decidedly fragile. Will have to make an extra effort to get her to school on time tomorrow so I can catch the teacher in the playground to warn her what the date is.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Lydia... somewhere (I'll see if I can find a link) in the past 30 minutes, there's a thread where somebody thinks their parents have been scammed over panels - and how much they'll get back. Not sure if you can help as you've got real figures for your house and know what you paid. They've just signed up (so new tariff) and paid £10k.

Here it is: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/57194471#Comment_57194471

Hmm. Doesn't sound like a good deal for the person's parents under the circumstances, but somebody's already referred them to a relevant thread with loads of info, so I've decided I'm too tired to look up all my stats and type them into a post. I paid before the prices came down, but I'm getting the max tariff, and in any case I'm likely to be living here for years and years, so no problem about sticking around long enough to reach the payback time.

zagubov

Before the day ends did anyone notice the (ironic) news item today that it's the 90th anniversary of the day when the BBC just played music on thier news spot because there was no news worth reporting that day.:beer:

Maybe, as in the Chinese curse, we just live in interesting times.

And welcome back Lydiaj!

chewmylegoff

PasturesNew wrote: »

People try to make people feel bad about not having a pension, but Ed Investor (ex MSE/deceased) told me that if you're not a higher rate tax payer and if you've not got an employer paying in, you might as well forget it as it's dead money.... so, that gave me the green light to not have to try to justify it. I've never earnt enough to even consider putting into a pension.

i agree with this by and large - because if you're not a higher rate tax payer then if you do want to invest you might as well put it in a stocks and shares ISA and retain the ability to spend it when you want to rather than wait until the govt tells you that you can spend it.

if your employer is paying in though it's a no-brainer as it's free money, as long as you don't have to pay such a ludicrous contribution yourself that you can't afford to eat.

lemonjelly

michaels wrote: »

This is why I don't like saving in pensions. They can and do change the rules to your detriment. Was it Romania or somewhere that they nationalised all private pensions? given the demographics I would not rule out it happening here!

Although I save into pensions, I doubt it will be anywhere near enough to give me an income if/when I retire.

My alternative, is the annual isa allowances. I save what I can in there as a retirement fund.

lemonjelly

zagubov wrote: »

Silvercar's earlier comment has sparked the thouight that maybe we don't need a housephone. We've all got mobiles. Nobody phones us on the landlines.

We've got fast internet - but it disappears from time to time, but I suppose that happens with all suppliers. It's like greased lightning when its working.

We've got cable TV but don't know what we're getting that's more than freeview.

Got some thinking to do.
Food for thought.

Anybody else here not using a landline?

My mum & dads landline was in regular use as a means of daily contact with my nan, till she passed away.

My mum still uses it for her sisters/brother, & my dad for arranging meeting his old workmates. That's about it I guess.

If I didn't have a landline at work, I doubt I'd be able to recall the last time I used a LL.

lemonjelly

Getting excited about going to see Alan Davies this friday...

lostinrates

Revenge is sweet. The puppy slept right through the night, so this morning I got to wake him up. Hahaha. He did not like that much!

Generali

lemonjelly wrote: »

Getting excited about going to see Alan Davies this friday...

He's a very funny bloke........for a Gooner.

Maybe better to stay home and watch a Peter 'Yid Army' Cook video, no?