Only freedom will do

Goldiegirl

We only have laminate flooring in the hall, for about the same length of time as Tilly, and it's been great and still looks good

Ed, you mentioned P2P lending in a recent post - do you get a reasonable rate of return? Also, are there risks involved, for example what if the borrower defaults on the loan?

This is probably not something I'd try at this stage in the game, but I was curious

edinburgher

Have you used loin medallions?

I'm not sure Tilly, I can check with the chef, but suspect he's sleeping off our rather boozy dinner last night :eek:

Ed, you mentioned P2P lending in a recent post - do you get a reasonable rate of return? Also, are there risks involved, for example what if the borrower defaults on the loan?

Goldie, I don't think that the return on p2p lending in the UK is significantly better than judicious use of high interest current accounts, it's currently not worthwhile in my opinion. This will change from next year if the legislation is put in place to allow p2p money to be held in an ISA. That said, anything that expands access to p2p lending tends to drive down yields. Still, saving 20% interest will mean the idea instantly becomes more attractive to investors.

I'm experimenting with a few hundred pounds into Bondor@, a European organisation I first read about it from a poster on the forums here. The headline rates are very high (c. 30%), but defaults are also far higher than the UK.

The risk of p2p lending is that of *total* loss of your capital, which is obviously massive. That said, the company does allow lenders to download a huge amount of data with which to build their own risk models for lending. I'm being very picky with my loans (borrowers must have high credit ratings, verified income, fairly high disposable income, low debt to income ratios and not be over 50 etc.) My main protection against risk is diversification, I'm not willing to lend more than 5 Euros to any one lender, no one default should make a big difference.

It's basically a bit of fun at this point.

Goldiegirl

That's interesting about the P2P, Ed. I didn't realise you could stretch your loan over so many borrowers. As you are cherry picking your borrowers and only taking on low risk individuals, you'd be very unlucky if several defaulted.


I like how you are willing to experiment with various schemes. You are quite adventurous in that respect!

Karmacat

And max 5 euros to one borrower means you spread your risk a looong way, thats a great idea.

abouttimetoo

Hi Ed

A good while ago you gave me a recipe for humus (sp?) I'm afraid my filing system has let me down could I trouble you to let me have the recipe again please?

Regards
ATT

edinburgher

could I trouble you to let me have the recipe again please?

PMed

A very hectic week at work, I am in the very busy part of my monthly schedule, glad it's the weekend.

This has been another weekend dedicated to DIY. We got our new carpet fitted yesterday and it's lovely. The shade (maize) works very well with the cheerful light yellow and gloss white colour combo in the room and it is so squishy and warm to walk across :T

That said, it was not without its problems. Firstly, we have a join in our bay window. Not an issue, because it's a very shallow bay window and the fitters did an excellent job (you can't really see it). On a more annoying note, we can't close the door! The new underlay/carpet combo is so deep that the door is physically impossible to move! :rotfl:

Now don't get me wrong, we fully expected that this might happen, but what sort of halfwit fits a carpet that renders a door redundant and doesn't even think to mention it?

After an afternoon trudging through the rain on industrial estates, we now know what laminate we need to purchase to match the rest of the house, planning to get this and fit it next weekend. Rather surprisingly, it's quite reasonable quality (a lot of jobs appear to have been scamped by the previous owner). The downside of this is cost, I couldn't find it cheaper than £15.60/square metre. That probably doesn't sound horrendous, but we'll need 15 boxes for the living room alone! :eek:

In money news, paid some money into S&S ISA and ended my embryonic social lending experiment. Apparently I can only withdraw money to a bank account (not an exchange etc.), meaning that I will get slaughtered on the exchange rate to return funds. I really can't be arsed with that, so selling up and will stick to the devils of finance that I know. Might work fine for someone with a Euro-denominated current account, but that's a level of complexity that I don't need at the moment.

Found some time to do the whole domestic goddess bit yesterday after laminate sourcing and inbetween rugby matches. Baked a tarte tatin (soggy, thanks for nothing Jamie Oliver), made a pot of HM chicken stock (delicious) and we had steak with HM patatas bravas for dinner. My stomach was very pleased

Today sees us going for brunch and reading the paper. It's a hard life.

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Sounds lovely. I had the same problem with a door and new carpet and foolishly asked my son to sort it. Now you could limbo in under the door.

Karmacat

There's good and bad in there, thats for sure - though I do like the sound of a nice warm colour combo and £15.60 is at the top end of what I'd want to pay - it *really* adds up. Flooring is one of the first things I saw to when I moved in here 4 years ago, and it was the wrong decision - I've realised that other walls (as well as the one I had repaired last year) have seepage problems, because of mortar that needs repointing, and the hardboard underneath the vinyl is buckling. Lots and lots (and lots) of repair and replacement needed, before I rent out or sell. Hey ho.

Enjoy your hard life today :beer::beer::beer:

in_need_of_direction

Find a local DIY shop, not a supermarket. Explain the door problem and ask if they have any rising butt hinges. You may still need to trim a bit but it's a lot less.

abouttimetoo

Hi Ed, many thanks for the PM/recipe

I'll be making that later today and another excuse to use my new blender :smileyhea so win win :rotfl:

Regards
ATT