Bear Hug

What's next - ban for ageist kid's clothes?

Double digit growth across the board: looks like rapists and robbers solved the productivity puzzle.

Today marks the return to a profitable position (probably with about 5% gain) since I started to follow ToS deflation thread. I am impressed how BT held up in all the turmoil this week and regret a not piling up another couple of thousands into the gold miners over the last couple of months.

Probably a bit more than £400k. With recent very warm summers, going North seems like a good idea.

Agree with VOD: I am 20% down on that! And it was probably meant to be FirstGroup rather than First Direct? The important thing for me (as someone who also has only a few thousand to play with) was to find the lowest fees. As an example, spend £300 on UK shares with 0.5% stamp duty and £10 fee and there is an immediate 4% loss. Sell with another £10 fee; total roundtrip cost of 7%. Add more if transaction is in foreign currency. I have therefore been mainly using regular investment option (£1.50 fee) for my ISA with AJ Bell. However, there can't be all that much CGT and dividend tax on the small amounts I am planning to invest, so may as well pick the cheapest overseas broker (Degiro for example: £1.75 per trade + stamp duty in UK; 0.5 EUR per trade + 0.1% FX charge for US!) and go through them. Of course, my money could be safer in a mainstream provider.

@Banned Overall, this is still positive for renters. Even without looking at details, this can be concluded from the BTL reaction on the announcement: https://www.property118.com/potential-budget-cgt-relief-profit-split-selling-long-term-tenants/ I particularly like the last bullet point in the quote below.

My initial feeling was that it's another gift for landlords but on reflection I see that overall this could be a positive thing for tenants. + may encourage landlords to keep tenants for longer to enable such sale, instead of shopping around for higher rents or allowing estate agents to keep tenants flowing to maximize agents' fees + will encourage keeping larger houses as they are, instead of splitting them into HMO hell holes + will add some power for tenants to get a better service from landlords. Of course this should be as given but we all know landlords treat tenants like shit normally, not as paying customers who expect to receive a service in return + will help reasonably well off tenants (who have higher potential of buying a house) to find accommodation as landlords will prefer them to professional benefits recipients who have little chance of buying a house - will make it harder for people on benefits (and who genuinely deserve to be on benefits) to find private accommodation

I answered 21 (as that's the setting I have it on) but I have no idea if it's actually 21. I suspect the thermostat is a bit off and actual temperature is between 19 and 20.

That looks like you don't necessarily expect a significant drop on 11th (from £3.45 currently). If anyone can think of any examples of what happens when a very large section of shareholders get an option to cash out (share sale by employees would have taken a tax hit if sold before 11 October 2018), please share. I expect a fall but that could be already priced in by now. No arbitrage and all that.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/05/slump-in-royal-mail-shares-hits-workers-planning-to-cash-in Does anyone have any guesses / strategies for 11 October? A bloodbath when they all rush for exit? Or is the full extent of the fall already priced in? Worth setting up a limit buy order? At £2?

My guess is it's somewhere between these two extreme views. I know people who definitely fall into the 95% quoted by spy. The best example is probably the very famous on ToS "academic portfolio landlord" from Poverty118 site. I also know some who did get the jobs they couldn't otherwise get, however these mainly stayed in academia. Others did end up in reasonable jobs, but nothing that couldn't have been achieved with a better career guidance and a bit of planning, instead of the PhD. The subset of those who got a job (not at university) and needed the PhD to get it was quite small, but I guess it varies by subject and individual ability. I definitely would advise anyone considering PhD just because they like a few more years of student life not to do it, or at least be very picky about the exact subject, rather than just look at grant available and whether they will qualify for it. Kind of similar to deciding whether to do any degree in the first place as well.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Barrick+and+Randgold+in+talks+on+%2418bn+tie-up&rlz=1C1AWFC_enGB792GB792&oq=Barrick+and+Randgold+in+talks+on+%2418bn+tie-up&aqs=chrome..69i57.873543j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

What? You just give up on milk once it goes sour? Although to be fair, supermarket milk doesn't seem to turn into youghurt like raw milk does when it goes off. One of my better savings is black printer ink top up kit I bought from Wilko. Paid couple of pounds about 8 years ago - still printing on the same cheap Canon printer.

Googled another iShares switching fees in general and got the answer!: Source: https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/2011/11/11/ishares-etf-offers-cheap-japan-exposure-GeO7GnmoTUCXHIvCh2zq4O/article.html So, it looks like general buying/selling is not affected by the 3%.

I just thought I'll double check the iShares on AJBell website, rather than in app: Investment Fees (estimated)Fund % Ongoing Cost 0.55 Transaction Fee -0.07 A discount! However, there is also this: Investment Fees (one off) Switching Fee 3.00% AJ Bell: iShares fees I have no idea what the switching fee is and I don't see it contributing to fees in AJ Bell's example. If anyone knows what it is and when it applies, please let me know. Thanks!