aju
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Post by aju on Aug 8, 2019 22:59:51 GMT
Yes it was buzby but sadly I worked in HQ London for a long while when the bonus milarky was going on. I used to also work in MH but I lived about 60 miles west of there in a famous seat of learning and eventually worked with those bright young chaps and chapesses from the Indian continent mostly using fledgling internet phones and satelite tv links etc. I'm not sure I ever heard of my former employer being called "The Firm" but who knows with those boffin people over on the heath I guess anything is/was possible. I assume he just refers to them as The Firm to avoid explicitly naming them. A Google tells me MH = Martlesham Heath. Just to be clear, I've never worked for BT. I just thought SLIS's use of the pension scheme (perhaps the same one you're in) may be of interest because iirc he goes into details such as actuarial reduction and the like. His writing style appeals to my dry sense of humour although the depth and honesty of the US blog livingafi.com makes it my personal favourite (understandably no longer updated). You are right about MH and yes I was subjected to actuarial reduction for taking the pension a year early. I left on a redundancy package in 2007 at what many would call an early age of 53. The kings shilling as we called it was very useful for the first 6 years or so and the main banks willingness to spread money around for a little work well almost nothing in fact I was always looking for ways to make the money work. I'm reading through his blog to see if I know who he/she is although to be fair there were a lot of people on suffolk site and by the the time I departed many were startups and other unrelated companies trying to work together whilst also competing. I think they, the firm if that is, had designs on the A14 corridor and the CB connection being a platform for innovation. I wonder if they are in the union and being in Somerset, I'm in wiltshire these days, then the meetings are in Bath.
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p2pfan
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Full-Time Investor
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Post by p2pfan on Aug 8, 2019 23:32:02 GMT
No amount of regulation will stop "investors" from putting money into platforms that advertise the magical answer to all your investment problems. That problem lies in the types of platforms being ran; generally advertisement & presentation are very well thought though. Playing on the dreams of investors and novice lack of expierence to make investors put hard earned cash down for that seemingly elusive return. Peer to Peer: Simple/easy/high returns/steady/no fees (On the label basically, like a bank account!).Stock Market: Complex/hard/returns vary wildly/ fees, usally complex.
This is how it looks to the introductionary investor, with little to no knoledge of investments.I got into investment via Peer to peer first, then learnt about the stock market, not vice versa. It's hardly a surprise some of us have made mistakes, or been fooled dare I say. I was very lucky to have exited. To understand the basics of the market and fund investment on the market took me about 12 months of trial and error, reading & setting a portfilio. Peer to Peer took me a day. (To get set up, where my cash was earning money or in the que too) I think this puts into perspective the risks, and I don't think FCA can easily disable this mindset, or educate people on the stock market (could be equally as disastrous!) Yes, P2P is generally simpler than the stockmarket and can be a stepping-stone towards it. While I have stocks, I am shying away from buying many more for now as surely the longest bull run in history can't continue forever. When there is a dip in the equity markets, by which time P2P will probably become more admin-heavy, time consuming and less lucrative just as almost every nascent industry is eventually attacked by regulators on this continent with its anti-business sentiments, I'm then ploughing to switch funds from P2P to shares.
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hazellend
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Post by hazellend on Aug 9, 2019 8:07:48 GMT
No amount of regulation will stop "investors" from putting money into platforms that advertise the magical answer to all your investment problems. That problem lies in the types of platforms being ran; generally advertisement & presentation are very well thought though. Playing on the dreams of investors and novice lack of expierence to make investors put hard earned cash down for that seemingly elusive return. Peer to Peer: Simple/easy/high returns/steady/no fees (On the label basically, like a bank account!).Stock Market: Complex/hard/returns vary wildly/ fees, usally complex.
This is how it looks to the introductionary investor, with little to no knoledge of investments.I got into investment via Peer to peer first, then learnt about the stock market, not vice versa. It's hardly a surprise some of us have made mistakes, or been fooled dare I say. I was very lucky to have exited. To understand the basics of the market and fund investment on the market took me about 12 months of trial and error, reading & setting a portfilio. Peer to Peer took me a day. (To get set up, where my cash was earning money or in the que too) I think this puts into perspective the risks, and I don't think FCA can easily disable this mindset, or educate people on the stock market (could be equally as disastrous!) Yes, P2P is generally simpler than the stockmarket and can be a stepping-stone towards it. While I have stocks, I am shying away from buying many more for now as surely the longest bull run in history can't continue forever. When there is a dip in the equity markets, by which time P2P will probably become more admin-heavy, time consuming and less lucrative just as almost every nascent industry is eventually attacked by regulators on this continent with its anti-business sentiments, I'm then ploughing to switch funds from P2P to shares. Bull run ended in December last year with a bear market. This current bull is just a baby bull. Shares are easy. Just buy the whole market. In the long term almost no investor will beat the market.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2019 8:19:18 GMT
Yes, P2P is generally simpler than the stockmarket and can be a stepping-stone towards it. kidding right?
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Post by Harland Kearney on Aug 9, 2019 14:18:57 GMT
Yes, P2P is generally simpler than the stockmarket and can be a stepping-stone towards it. kidding right? When viewing though the eyes of a introductionary person to investing, I think for some people yes (it was for me). When you take the advertisement P2P sites give at face value. This is exactly the problem with P2P, it really shouldn't be easier at face value. But clearly alot of people got burnt along the way now. Now I've been investing for a little while, I fully understand it not to be the case. You cannot compare the two asset classes anyway, not in-depth.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2019 11:53:03 GMT
You can, of course, compare the two asset classes. You cannot "equate" the two.
An advert is just what it is, normally as close to a lie as you can get without breaking the law.
I suspect the real problem education has is that most teachers lack experience of the financial world and those teachers who have the experience know that legally they cannot offer advice. So "those who don't know, don't teach and those who do know, can't teach."
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registerme
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Post by registerme on Aug 11, 2019 0:21:35 GMT
And yet here, on this very forum, there were people who did know, with vast experience, who repeatedly offered cogent advice.
It was not well received.
Simply put, people were unwilling to listen.
Note: whilst I have more, and more varied experience, than some, I do not consider myself part of the set of people "with vast experience". Maybe put me down as a "good listener".
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ceejay
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Post by ceejay on Aug 11, 2019 8:23:38 GMT
And yet here, on this very forum, there were people who did know, with vast experience, who repeatedly offered cogent advice. It was not well received. Simply put, people were unwilling to listen.Note: whilst I have more, and more varied experience, than some, I do not consider myself part of the set of people "with vast experience". Maybe put me down as a "good listener". Perhaps. That might be something we're all guilty of from time to time, especially when we're reaching out in hope to something (in this case, high returns for low risk). Alternatively, if you don't know very much about something, it's often not at all obvious whom you should be listening to. There are any number of experts on any topic you could think of (vaccinations, perhaps?) but when there are strident voices confidently stating the opposite, who is telling the truth? In such a case, it's very tempting to listen to the voice that is telling you what you want to hear.
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hazellend
Member of DD Central
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Post by hazellend on Aug 11, 2019 8:50:57 GMT
And yet here, on this very forum, there were people who did know, with vast experience, who repeatedly offered cogent advice. It was not well received. Simply put, people were unwilling to listen.Note: whilst I have more, and more varied experience, than some, I do not consider myself part of the set of people "with vast experience". Maybe put me down as a "good listener". Perhaps. That might be something we're all guilty of from time to time, especially when we're reaching out in hope to something (in this case, high returns for low risk). Alternatively, if you don't know very much about something, it's often not at all obvious whom you should be listening to. There are any number of experts on any topic you could think of (vaccinations, perhaps?) but when there are strident voices confidently stating the opposite, who is telling the truth? In such a case, it's very tempting to listen to the voice that is telling you what you want to hear. You also need to be careful who you take advice from, Lots of people giving advice on forums are merely giving a biased opinion and most financial advisors are primarily interested in extracting cash from you rather than looking out for your best interests. Bogleheads (us forum with some U.K. posters), monevator and www.kroijer.com/ are the best for advice
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Nomad
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Post by Nomad on Aug 11, 2019 9:23:11 GMT
Lots of people giving advice on forums are merely giving a biased opinion and most financial advisors are primarily interested in extracting cash from you rather than looking out for your best interests. Bogleheads (us forum with some U.K. posters), monevator and www.kroijer.com/ are the best for advice I find the Citywire Funds Insider Forums useful also.
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registerme
Member of DD Central
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Post by registerme on Aug 11, 2019 10:58:46 GMT
And yet here, on this very forum, there were people who did know, with vast experience, who repeatedly offered cogent advice. It was not well received. Simply put, people were unwilling to listen.Note: whilst I have more, and more varied experience, than some, I do not consider myself part of the set of people "with vast experience". Maybe put me down as a "good listener". Perhaps. That might be something we're all guilty of from time to time, especially when we're reaching out in hope to something (in this case, high returns for low risk). Alternatively, if you don't know very much about something, it's often not at all obvious whom you should be listening to. There are any number of experts on any topic you could think of (vaccinations, perhaps?) but when there are strident voices confidently stating the opposite, who is telling the truth? In such a case, it's very tempting to listen to the voice that is telling you what you want to hear. That's a fair point well made.
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Post by Harland Kearney on Aug 11, 2019 12:46:57 GMT
The advice on this forum saved me losing the greater part of my wealth in Lendy. At the time I left Lendy (2017 early-Mid), there was a big divide on this website between Lendy becoming a concerning mess, and those destined on upholding its good value and shooting anybody who dared to point out some serious red flags.
I owe this forum alot, a expensive lesson I learnt for free.
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ozboy
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Mine's a Large One! (Snigger, snigger .......)
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Post by ozboy on Aug 11, 2019 14:28:33 GMT
The advice on this forum saved me losing the greater part of my wealth in Lendy. At the time I left Lendy (2017 early-Mid), there was a big divide on this website between Lendy becoming a concerning mess, and those destined on upholding its good value and shooting anybody who dared to point out some serious red flags.I owe this forum alot, a expensive lesson I learnt for free. And why would The Evangelists Of The Dodgy Platforms do that I wonder, in the face of overwhelming opposing views?  
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Aug 13, 2019 16:35:30 GMT
Your Thomas Cook thread was dated Sunday 19th May.
So, let's have a quick look at Google Finance shall we ?
Assuming you put your trade on the Friday, it closed at 11.80 on the 17th.
By early July it was down to 5.80 which is where any sensible valuation puts the share.
I wouldn't pay much attention to the August funny-money pushing it back up to 9.11 in recent days.
But whichever way you look at it, at no point since 19th May 2019 did Thomas cook "double". At least not in a positive sense ! 
Your original thread on Thomas Cook made it clear you had no idea what you were doing on that trade, and frankly my opinion is unchanged on your stockmarket capabilities.
It's back to £11.30 now. So even if I did keep it the whole time I'd have broke even 11.3 pence, not pounds. And that was a brief blip. It's currently 6.75p. Which, it has to be said, is an improvement on the ~5p for roughly a fortnight last month.
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Post by befuddled on Aug 15, 2019 10:57:24 GMT
Lots of people giving advice on forums are merely giving a biased opinion and most financial advisors are primarily interested in extracting cash from you rather than looking out for your best interests. Bogleheads (us forum with some U.K. posters), monevator and www.kroijer.com/ are the best for advice I find the Citywire Funds Insider Forums useful also. "Pensioncraft" on Youtube also puts up some very good and informative videos.... (Including a recent gloomy one on P2P where he surmises the higher risk bank lending was passed onto P2P (and bonds) after the 2008 crash, when banks were forced to "clean up their asset sheets" by the regulators...
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