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polymaff

Some risks are that you'll not select the best product - or that capital protection fails - or you die before receiving pro-rata income.

Inflation's only input is if your product list includes inflation-linked products.

dont_use_vistaprint

IanManc wrote: »

The risk isn't that there will be inflation - the risk is that you don't know in advance how high inflation might be, and it might be very high. The risk is the known unknown.

Here's a thought. If you are not renting, reducing energy and transport costs, generally consuming less, how relevant is CPI in this context?

Were told everything is getting more expensive, but for a large number of people that's just not true. New properties and water meters can cut utility bills in half, and the government will invest 20% to make them affordable. Food, clothes and other household items can be much, much cheaper if you cook and buy good quality clothes and use charity shops.

Data and Telcoms is now very cheap compared to 3 or 5 years ago

There are much cheaper ways to travel now with modern diesel and hybrid engines, Uber, Ryan Air, Liftshare sites, Cycle to Work.

£10 - £20 a month Gym is pretty standard is most cities. 5 years ago it was double.

So many books are 1pence (plus postage) on Amazon. I used to pay on average £10-30 per book.

Unlimited music for the whole family, £9.99. Netflix £7 per month, Blockbuster used to charge £4 per movie and CD's were £14 each at their peak

I guess its the people in high rented accom commuting into London and heavy consumers of brands that feel inflation, myself and many people I talk to feel like many things are becoming cheaper, although gas does feel like its just gone up a little :-)

eskbanker

^ I think most would heartily disagree with much of that - although in some isolated cases there may be savings to be achieved either by alternative sourcing or even like-for-like, there is plenty of data supporting published inflation figures.

MSE's own slant on household bill costs is quite helpful: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2018/08/the-rise-in-household-bills-has-grown-faster-than-inflation-over-the-last-year-mse-bills-tracker-shows/

And for many, food is a major constituent of cost, and there is little doubt that the trend here is upward too, as per https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/food-inflation

IanManc

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

Here's a thought. If you are not renting, reducing energy and transport costs, generally consuming less, how relevant is CPI in this context?

Were told everything is getting more expensive, but for a large number of people that's just not true. New properties and water meters can cut utility bills in half, and the government will invest 20% to make them affordable. Food, clothes and other household items can be much, much cheaper if you cook and buy good quality clothes and use charity shops.

Data and Telcoms is now very cheap compared to 3 or 5 years ago

There are much cheaper ways to travel now with modern diesel and hybrid engines, Uber, Ryan Air, Liftshare sites, Cycle to Work.

£10 - £20 a month Gym is pretty standard is most cities. 5 years ago it was double.

So many books are 1pence (plus postage) on Amazon. I used to pay on average £10-30 per book.

Unlimited music for the whole family, £9.99. Netflix £7 per month, Blockbuster used to charge £4 per movie and CD's were £14 each at their peak

I guess its the people in high rented accom commuting into London and heavy consumers of brands that feel inflation, myself and many people I talk to feel like many things are becoming cheaper, although gas does feel like its just gone up a little :-)

eskbanker wrote: »

^ I think most would heartily disagree with much of that

I'm not sure really, but the one bit I do heartily disagree with is the bit about "many books are one pence".

"Pence" is plural. The books cost one penny.

polymaff

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

Here's a thought . . . .

But what is the relevance?

The aim is to get the best return - not to beat any particular inflation index.

And, like with inflation, the definition of "best return" varies from person to person - but, surely, it will factor in the achievable income - not an arbitrary index.

polymaff

IanManc wrote: »

I'm not sure really, but the one bit I do heartily disagree with is the bit about "many books are one pence".

"Pence" is plural. The books cost one penny.

So is books.

"The books each cost one penny" or "The books cost one penny each"

Don't believe that the modern-day equivalent of a £30 book would sell for £0.01, anyway. :rotfl:

robotrobo

Premium Bonds.

7 small wins this month.

eskbanker

robotrobo wrote: »

Premium Bonds.

7 small wins this month.

Makes a change to have a post that's back on topic again, but seven prizes in one month is pretty impressive, even on a maximum holding (where the expectation would be two prizes), have you been on a fallow streak before this or are you just winning everyone else's prizes?

robotrobo

eskbanker wrote: »

Makes a change to have a post that's back on topic again, but seven prizes in one month is pretty impressive, even on a maximum holding (where the expectation would be two prizes), have you been on a fallow streak before this or are you just winning everyone else's prizes?

HI Eskbanker.
I failed to mention that my wife won as well !,
but it did sound good at the time:)

Alexland

dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »

So many books are 1pence (plus postage) on Amazon. I used to pay on average £10-30 per book.

Over the long term books have still been getting more expensive. I spent 3 years working as a volunteer in an Oxfam bookshop and lost count of the number of customers complaining we were selling second hand books at 50p which was more than the original new price of 12.5p around 25 years earlier.

We have hundreds of new and second hand books in our house (an entire wall in each of our offices) and have never paid 1p for anything we wanted to read.

Alex