just a rant

ruggedtoast

CLAPTON wrote: »

no real idea of what you are saying

it what way is anyone, other than yourself, responsible for whatever predicament you are in?

Why do you always have to be so mean to people? Here is a boomer just as yourself who has worked and toiled and who has just found out that unlike you and most of your boomer compatriots, he is only going to get out what he has put in. He may have even contributed something.

Can't you try and put yourself in that situation and think how you'd feel?

Generali

LydiaJ wrote: »

Indeed Generali. knightstyle's assertion that no-one takes this prudent path is an exaggeration. There's a whole board of them on this forum, over on MFW, together with countless others whose focus is on the most effective way to invest in the current low interest rate climate, rather than how many consumer goods they can accumulate in the short term.

The norm in Australia as interest rates fall is to keep payments at the same level. If you overpay your mortgage you can later stop paying entirely until your debts catch up with your repayments.

lisyloo

Perhaps if the risks had been explain at the time fewer people would have taken them out.

If there is a genuine case of mis-selling then that can be taken through the right channels.
We won a mis-seilling case, but we did take action a long time ago (about 20 years ago) when the letters started coming through (whenever it was they changed the 6%,9% and 12% to lower figures).
The fact that nothing has been done about this does appear as though there is a lack of financial planning.

I'm not saying we were perfect. We were naive when we were mis-sold, but we did read our post and act accordingly when we realised it wasn't right.

Loughton_Monkey

purch wrote: »

There seems to be some confusion between Endowments, and what were marketed as Low Cost Endowments from the mid 1980's onwards.

I'm pretty certain they were called Low Cost Endowments well before that.

My first was taken out in 1973. In all, I had 8 such policies, having taken out a 'top-up' every time I moved house. The last one matured in 2009, and between them all, they collectively produced an average annual return of a staggering 12.2%. The best one actually produced 14.6%. The maturity value was £24K with a premium of <£9 a month.

Whilst every policy paid far more than the original target amount, I didn't actually use a penny of the proceeds to pay off the mortgage. Instead, they went into home improvements - on my current home [which I bought quite cheap owing to its run-down condition]. By changing the mortgage to an 'offset' and extending the term to my 65th birthday, I was easily able to pay the full mortage amount off using petty cash. The mortgage largely inflated away.

Low Cost Endowment policies - as such - are pretty much on their death bed. However, anyone with the sense to (a) buy offset mortgages, (b) use them primarily as 'interest only', and (c) invest all their cash in Equities [at 7% average return as against, say, 2%/4% mortgage rate] can do similarly as well. It just takes a watchful eye on the figures over the 40 year period.

In those days, we were canny enough to know that the economy goes in cycles. Good bad and indifferent. So it will over the next 40 years. My first 10 years of working life was crippled by (up to) 27% inflation, and unemployment rising to double digits. Today's 28/30 year olds have seen 10 years of recession, recovery, and low inflation, with falling unemployment.

CLAPTON

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Why do you always have to be so mean to people? Here is a boomer just as yourself who has worked and toiled and who has just found out that unlike you and most of your boomer compatriots, he is only going to get out what he has put in. He may have even contributed something.

Can't you try and put yourself in that situation and think how you'd feel?

there is insufficient evidence for his situation and his actions: not that something as trivial as that would influence your ranting.

purch

CLAPTON wrote: »

there is insufficient evidence for his situation and his actions

At some stage in the future one of Clappers descendants will be the human part of Spock :eek:

purch

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

I'm pretty certain they were called Low Cost Endowments well before that.

Sorry,the impetuosity of my youth caused me not to check the facts

Generali

purch wrote: »

Sorry,the impetuosity of my youth caused me not to check the facts

F... it. It's only one of the biggest financial decisions you're going to make.

Parrrrrrr......tay.

ukcarper

In the early 80s the risks were not clear and if you are told by your mortgage advisor that the endowment will cover mortgage you tend to believe them. I agree warnings were given later and you had the opportunity to eliminate the shortfall or make a claim for miss selling. Even though it was annoying at the time anyone ignoring those warning was foolish.

CLAPTON

ukcarper wrote: »

In the early 80s the risks were not clear and if you are told by your mortgage advisor that the endowment will cover mortgage you tend to believe them. I agree warnings were given later and you had the opportunity to eliminate the shortfall or make a claim for miss selling. Even though it was annoying at the time anyone ignoring those warning was foolish.

whilst the whole principle of endowments mortgages was a typical financial services fraud (why ever would any rational person want to start a mortgage for the most expensive thing they will ever buy and a savings scheme at the same time?), nevertheless there were plenty of warnings about the 'low cost' endowment mortgages.

However it was a time when people 'trusted' their bank manager and other financial institutions.