Statement of intent

taka

Lol you must be getting better... Beads must = beaded thongs! :rotfl: For the record we were discussing beads and leather thonging as in thin cord for bead stringing for jewellery making! :rotfl:

Oh those sweety beaded thongs/bras should be banned... they seemed to be one of the major secret santa pressies at my Xmas work party a year or 2 ago! :eek: I think I'm scarred for life... some things should never be seen! :eek: I think that was also the year of the nipple tassles... as displayed by a very drunk (male) professor :eek: :rolleyes: :rotfl:

ShelleyC_2

taka wrote: »

Oh those sweety beaded thongs/bras should be banned... they seemed to be one of the major secret santa pressies at my Xmas work party a year or 2 ago! :eek: I think I'm scarred for life... some things should never be seen! :eek: I think that was also the year of the nipple tassles... as displayed by a very drunk (male) professor :eek: :rolleyes: :rotfl:

Sounds like your Christmas parties are better than ours!

Those sweetie thongs are made of the same sweets as the pretend watches and necklaces you used to get as a kid. When given one as a gift I was more excited about the sweeties than idea of OH nibbling it off. I wonder why we're not together anymore :rotfl:

StuartGMC

I must do something to save this thread.....

Well actually I can; MIL has had a bond mature for a significant sum which she wants DD to have. We've looked into the options but I didn't want to fix more than 12months as I think saving rates will be increasing over that period. So after a bit of headscratching, agreed with MIL that another Post Office Growth Bond would be good (3.85% for 12 months) and I am assuming the Irish Government can maintain its guarantees....

Then we need to look at what to do to help educate DD in the management of money so we're looking at her remaining day-to-day savings being in an account with a cash card. With Norwich & Peterborough she can get 2% but no online access whereas with Nationwide it's only 0.75% but includes online access which I think DD needs to learn about for management if her finances in future and it makes transfer of funds into the account easier I think. That aspect may be "worth" more than the improved interest rate.

Lunar_Eclipse

Hello! Haven't been here for a while, sorry you've been unwell. DD2 has also had swine flu, just finished Tamiflu today; she has been very unwell with it. She managed to lose 2 inches off her (7 year old sized) waist since Friday. Her teacher said that sounded very tempting ....

Hope you all make your holiday.

Lunar_Eclipse

StuartGMC wrote: »

Then we need to look at what to do to help educate DD in the management of money so we're looking at her remaining day-to-day savings being in an account with a cash card. With Norwich & Peterborough she can get 2% but no online access whereas with Nationwide it's only 0.75% but includes online access which I think DD needs to learn about for management if her finances in future and it makes transfer of funds into the account easier I think. That aspect may be "worth" more than the improved interest rate.

Yes, it's all about balance. Good thinking; I agree with you.

On a related note, I'm guessing you give your DD pocket money. If so, does she earn it or not? And/or can she earn extra money by doing chores or for particular behaviours (such as proactive homework completion?) Just curious.

StuartGMC

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

On a related note, I'm guessing you give your DD pocket money. If so, does she earn it or not? And/or can she earn extra money by doing chores or for particular behaviours (such as proactive homework completion?) Just curious.

Yes DD gets pocket money as a baseline (with expectations of good behaviour, which she adopts anyway) with the chance to earn more via chores. With her moving up to secondary education in September, there will be need to focus more on proactively managing her time on homework and projects so we'll look at that in the context of pocket money as I am more concerned about her education than completing tasks to get a little more cash.

TallGirl

Glad to hear you are feeling better.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Good afternoon Stuart!

Man... I was just thinking back to the pocket money days... I used to get my age times 10 in pence (Age 9... 90p etc.) between the ages of 7 and 15. Then I got £10 a month straight into my post office account but my mum lost the cashing in book for over a year so I saved £120 without trying! Then as soon as I learnt how to drive I got a job and within a year I'd paid my parents back for my car!

Oh yeah and the focus was always education too. My parents wanted to treat me when I did well at school but I used to walk off in a huff exclaiming that I shouldn't be bribed to do well at school. That kind of attitude got me through a degree and a PhD!!!

How's the spread sheets?

I have a question for you... say if I was offered shares in a company but wanted to find out how they're doing at the moment, maybe even check their shares history, how would I go about this?

Daft_Pegasus

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

I have a question for you... say if I was offered shares in a company but wanted to find out how they're doing at the moment, maybe even check their shares history, how would I go about this?

You could start with the Stock Exchange website (assuming that it's listed in the UK) https://www.londonstockexchange.com

Also you should find the company's website because shareholder information should be listed there.

StuartGMC

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

My parents wanted to treat me when I did well at school but I used to walk off in a huff exclaiming that I shouldn't be bribed to do well at school. That kind of attitude got me through a degree and a PhD!!!

MRN glad to have brought that up then; personally I got the First when I graduated but the lure of money (pay rise between offer and starting) had me heading to British Gas R&D. When I wanted to get out, PhD was a possibility but still I went for the cash I now manage graduates and PhDs in my current job and am heavily involved in R&D. I think pursuit of a PhD is a very worthy aim and certainly opens avenues abroad.

How's the spread sheets?

Well I'm a little out presently, whilst ill didn''t update groceries etc and it is a bit skewed as there are costs there for OH running a Brownie camp (about £570) which need to come back to us. Car was serviced and MOT-ed yesterday which at £528 was what I expected from the dealer.

I have a question for you... say if I was offered shares in a company but wanted to find out how they're doing at the moment, maybe even check their shares history, how would I go about this?

Further to DP's reply I would also recommend you check places like:
Interactive Investor http://www.iii.co.uk
Hargreaves Lansdown http://www.h-l.co.uk

Remember if they are on AIM then you can't hold them in an ISA, but, I think you can hold for three years and get benefit?

We hold Funds in S&S ISA but iii have a different pricing structure if we want to have equities, ETFs etc in their Stocks & Shares ISA. I need to try again to understand what cost differences would arise if we moved the ISAs from one to the other; I didn't get a clear answer before. However, not sure I'll really get into individual equities (time limited) but you never know the AIM may just come into play in a few years time.

I'm finding Money Observer good for my learning (they cover the broad aspects of investing but not diluted by the day-to-day household things that Moneywise cover so I prefer it) - you can buy it in WH Smiths and if you like it, subscribe online 3 issues for £1 then I think £40 per year which is a bit of a saving plus you get it early and can see the online version a week before publication.

It's an "exciting" time presently if you are invested & investing in the markets to say the least; you've seen the graphs but to indicate the sort of swing we are seeing consider:

26 October 2008 Invested £8470 Funds value £4732
13 July 2009 Invested £10630 Funds value £8751
24 July 2009 Invested £10930 Funds value £9910

So are we mad to have continued to put £300 per month into the funds? Would you have done so?
We could have seen positive interest if we'd opted for the safety of a savings account; so, will these now out-pace the savings return we could have had? Obviously these are not make or break but if this had been a £100k savings fund for retirement I think I may be looking at it differently - hence the need to modify the risk profile as one approaches the time when you want to "access" the money.

I realise I do need to develop a strategy for 2012 onwards to start to reap some rewards from investments or at least move the profits into lower risk funds etc. One such approach could be to sell out to the original investment leaving the remaining units as "free" and then reinvest the sums in less risky areas? Much still to learn folks!