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livewithinmeans

Listed below are comments made by livewithinmeans between Tuesday, 29th July 2008 and Friday, 24th April 2009.

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Why tax the rich? 1:05pm on 24 Apr 2009 I've figured this one out!

Labour want a "top" tax rate of 50% so they can increase the basic rate to 30% and the numbers will look nice and consistent.

Therefore the three tax bands will 30% / 40% / 50%. Probably just after the next election.

However, judging by the scale of the problem I don't think that the Tories could avoid a 30% basic rate. Maybe they could raise the tax free allowance a bit, but that'll be all.

Help!
M&S: no ordinary downturn 10:05am on 07 Jan 2009 #27 supercalmdown

Ah, a swipe at graduates - that's me!

Of course fresh graduates will initially know less about the "grass roots" of a business than someone who has been slogging it out in a customer-facing role since they were 18.

The point is that we are supposed to have developed the transferable and technical skills to be able to absorb such information quickly to make up this lost ground.

In theory at least, a well structured graduate scheme should enable a good graduate to quickly plug the basic gaps in their business experience (e.g. through diverse graduate placements and rotations and the core business areas).

A BADLY structured graduate scheme is a real lose/lose for all involved.
M&S: no ordinary downturn 08:43am on 07 Jan 2009 I would expect the situation at Marks to be a fair reflection of what's happening on the high street.

I see Marks as a mature organisation that has recently transformed itself to be competitve again. They have a good line of new quality products (The 2 person Dine For 10 Pounds deal is excellent I think) and are not afraid to take tough business decisions to do what is needed.

They are no longer the clunking dinosaur they were a few years ago.

Their actions sound like a sensible post-xmas move and they have now battened down the hatches to make the best of 2009.

So basically, I think they look as well-positioned as could be expected!
Sterling challenge for UK shops 10:10pm on 06 Jan 2009 #142 SpareACopperGuv

Thanks for the encouraging words! Can't remember the last time a complete stranger did that - clearly there is hope for UK society after all :) Good luck to your daughter and her partner too.

Answering your question - yes, I am trying to market myself "globally" and am even attempting to learn Mandarin Chinese!(currently struggling through Chapter 2 with my speak-along CD...). I've just got to find out how to make all my lovely "fresh ideas" actually pay the rent! Maybe graduates can get an edge by offering global flexibility?

I think my generation (or at least the people I know!) are so crippled with debt that we won't actually have many kids for the subsequent generation. Which will compound the problem of course.

Honestly, the most realistic future for the majority of graduates is one where the best we can hope for is to break even, with no kids, no mortgage and no retirement. However you add up the numbers, it is impossible to draw any other conclusion that makes financial sense.

Is there anybody out there who can offer long-term financial hope to the current 18-30 demographic?

Someone inspire us GODDAMMIT!!!!!!
Sterling challenge for UK shops 4:07pm on 06 Jan 2009 #88

I am tempted to go even further and postulate that a whole generation of "bright young things" are having their potential, or even their ambition crushed by the fact that they will never get out of debt. Perhaps I am too close to the issue to really be objective though.

However, I feel I am on solid ground when I say that a lot of graduates will certainly have to "rent for life" and that home-ownership and retirement will become a luxury to be purchased by a minority.

By way of an anecdotal example, I have tried for many years to save for a mortgage while paying rent, council tax, travel costs, student loan repayments etc. etc. I held down two jobs simultaneously (one "graduate", another self-employed). Even with two jobs I manage to save barely 1k per year in my mini-cash ISA...

Whoops, that sounds a bit like I'm seeking sympathy - I just trying to illustrate that we are at a tipping point in university education where the financial advantages of having a degree are increasingly marginal when compared with entering the full-time workforce at 18.

And for lower-quartile graduates, their time at university will earn them no real return across their entire lifespan.
Sterling challenge for UK shops 2:35pm on 06 Jan 2009 I agree 100% with Watty2000 (#71).

On a personal note, I was actually looking forward to some serious UK deflation to reduce my Student Loan repayments as it is linked to RPI......but no! There is a get-out clause which means the Student Loan Company can charge either RPI or another (rather LIBOR-esque) figure, WHICHEVER IS THE HIGHER!!!!

Should have read the small print. I wonder how many 18 year old Freshers actually do? I wish Bobby P had been around 10 years ago to tell me to consider PRINCIPAL as well as INTEREST repayment :(

Seriously, I firmly believe that there is an emerging demographic crippled by "graduate" debt, but with no "graduate" job to compensate.

If I could ask Gordon Brown 2 questions they would be:
1) How many graduates are there?
2) How many graduate jobs are there?

...actually let's say a final open question;
3) Any thoughts??!?!?!
Bull in a china shop 6:24pm on 05 Jan 2009 The central banks need to operate with surgical accuracy.

There is a tiny window of opportunity in which interest rates can be raised towards the end of 2009/early 2010 that will enable them to avoid the worst of deflation or high inflation. They will have to raise rates in unison and in a co-ordinated fashion though.

IMHO the best moment for the authorities in this whole crisis was that day when c.8 central banks together across the world and all cut their rates simultaneously.

We need more co-ordinated global central bank action not retrenchment and parochial domestic banking!!!! (sulk....dolls expelled from pram).

Anyway, someone give the ECB a kick and tell them to get with the program.

BTW I hereby officially claim that I have invented a new term to describe sub-prime mortgages; "poorgages" :)

It's mine, I thought of it first!
RBS takes silver medal 8:48pm on 08 Aug 2008 #8 Play nicely, now ;)

I wonder what the implications are for RBS employees' "profit sharing" scheme this year as it is the only way the majority of employees recieve any sort of annual bonus?

Pardon my semantic pedantry Robert, but I would describe the ABN deal as the RIGHT deal at the WRONG time.

There is a great strategic fit with RBS's global ambitions, they just bought (their bits of it) right at the top of the market and have seen value evaporate before their eyes.

Shareholders should keep the faith; the RBS share price is grossly undervalued. In 3 years time I dare say things will look very different with ABN fully integrated and a shiny new CEO. My personal tip to succeed Sir Fred is Mark Fisher, the head of the ABN managing/acquisition board.

(BTW I don't work for RBS)
Treasury's mortgage rescue plan 7:26pm on 29 Jul 2008 Several bloggers have mentioned the complicated system by which many benefits are taxable income.

I've just had an out-of-the-box, blue-sky, free-thinking random idea.

I'll throw it out there:

Make it legally compulsory for ALL receipiants of state money (pensions, JSA etc. etc.) to be SELF-EMPLOYED ("pensioners", "job seekers" etc. etc.)

Then they'd have to net everything off themselves in their tax returns (on-line of course, thus freeing up loooooads of state resources).

Hey, at least it's an idea! I bet it's better than what the QUANGO's are coming up with... :)
Treasury's mortgage rescue plan 7:12pm on 29 Jul 2008 I heard on Bloomberg today that 500 MILLION people in India have to live off less than $2 a day. THAT is a collossal human tragedy.

What we are facing in this country is a significant decline in our privileged (globally speaking) lifestyles.

I have looked on various websites, but I can't find out if the government or BoE has a legal obligation to provide liquidity to financial markets.

Can anybody advise?

I would interpret any "non-legally-obligated" market intervention as a de facto "bail-out" of essentially zero-value MBS assets (which BTW are looking increasingly like liabilities).

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