scc
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Post by scc on Feb 23, 2020 8:48:26 GMT
Years ago, a Chinese student friend of mine figured out a fantastic wheeze with reusing stamps when exchanging letters with his brother at another UK university. They would smear prit stick over the top of the stamp prior to posting - and some careful dabbing with a wet warm sponge would remove it and postmark off once it had reached its destination.
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scc
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Post by scc on Jan 30, 2020 8:08:34 GMT
One thing I don't understand is why do these pandemics eventually peter out? I mean some of the diseases are pretty deadly for most infected such as bubonic plague and even ebola (I think). Without any real form of treatment what keeps them in check? Why don't they just keep going until 90% or more of us are wiped out? Simple answer, a disease that kills quickly naturally limits its spread so they often tend to disappear or mutate into something less harmful/noticeable. Also people/authorities may take precautions that help eg wars end, people get healthier, infection control is tightened up (procedures & enforcement). Some diseases are also seasonal. In some cases, the selection pressure is such that we evolve ways of protecting ourselves from it. i read a paper recently that suggested the reason why some people get Crohn's disease was that certain gene mutations that are correlated with incidence were selected for during European plague outbreaks.
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scc
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Post by scc on Jan 28, 2020 18:26:53 GMT
I got 4.4 on Access a little while ago. That'll do nicely.
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scc
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Post by scc on Jan 27, 2020 10:30:55 GMT
Some of those trades are massive! I don't know what thinking process would involve buying/selling £10,000+ chunks at those sort of prices. the proof of the pudding will be when it pays and reports later this year. I admit I'd be circumspect about buying £10K+, but there's potentially an opportunity cost keeping it locked up and so far the news has hardly been rosy. If you've done well overall from Abundance, then taking a 25% haircut on one debenture might be acceptable too.
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scc
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Post by scc on Jan 25, 2020 13:34:03 GMT
British pound pound could crash to $0.35 in 2020, my dog told me yesterday asking for secrecy. But I thought I tell you anyway. Unless you can provide certified evidence that said pooch has invested half of their dog biscuits in that position, I'm out.
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scc
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Post by scc on Jan 7, 2020 22:36:45 GMT
Minus inflation. Plus any winnings you might make. Minus any interest you might have made in the first month. Alright, I've had enough trying to spell it out. Yeah, and I'm a bit disappointed with your selective quoting, but we can't have everything. I think my posts make it pretty clear that I'm basically agreeing with you, but there are subtleties depending on how much you invest. If you invest £25 for 50 years, you're clearly only in it for the potential of winning the jackpot as it'll have lost almost all of its spending power and the chances of winning anything are low. £50K, yep - it's a safe haven if the brown stuff hits the fan. You don't use premium bonds if interest or maintaining spending power is your primary concern. But it's clear they offer the equivalent of some interest and that you are getting an entry to the equivalent of a £1m lottery each month. But that's OK, because as others have posted there's a bit of excitement associated with Premium Bonds, some tax advantages and as you have suggested, it's a pretty darn safe way of stashing cash.
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scc
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Post by scc on Jan 5, 2020 17:24:08 GMT
A more reasonable comparison might be with lotto. Essentially, all of your grandparents bought you was a monthly lottery ticket(s) for the last 50 years. At least you still have your four quid. Erm. No, no and no. Last time I checked, lotto tickets were not refundable. With NS&I Premium Bonds, if you put £50k in there, you can take your £50k out. Minus inflation. Plus any winnings you might make. Minus any interest you might have made in the first month. I agree the dynamic changes when you put more in, but if you've put a minimum or near minimum in (like this person's grandparents) - you are only buying the equivalent of a monthly lottery ticket with the interest/historical spending power you could have had. FWIW I do use Premium Bonds as a safe haven, but even for the ultra frugal £4/75 doesn't do that job. I reckon you need at least a couple of years worth of expenses in there. For many, that means putting the full £50K in there.
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scc
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Post by scc on Jan 5, 2020 14:05:45 GMT
A more reasonable comparison might be with lotto. Essentially, all of your grandparents bought you was a monthly lottery ticket(s) for the last 50 years. At least you still have your four quid.
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scc
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Post by scc on Dec 11, 2019 13:30:32 GMT
I don't remember any rigmarole with buying premium bonds personally. But it was a long time ago I bought my first.
I'm building my holding back up again as I reduce P2P. As investments go they are appalling (one step up from leaving it all in your current account) - especially the cash drag. But they are kind of fun, super safe and very liquid - if a rather better opportunity comes along. For a few years, that's been P2P where the risk/reward was worth it. Not sure it still is - especially with ratesetter.
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scc
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Post by scc on Dec 9, 2019 16:34:20 GMT
All going into Premium Bonds for now, then an ISA once that's full. My pension is enough exposure to S&S etc I figure. I want a few more years expenses in safe cash like investments with the low interest rates offset by my remaining P2P.
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scc
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Post by scc on Nov 30, 2019 7:16:19 GMT
I admit I've stayed out of the housing projects for a couple of reasons.
The per unit cost of each new build home doesn't seem that good value to me - especially for Liverpool. There are still parts of Liverpool where they are practically giving away terrace houses. It also bothers me that some of the money raised goes to paying debenture holders interest in the first couple of years.
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scc
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Post by scc on Nov 18, 2019 18:03:01 GMT
Cements my belief that withdrawing any interest and capital from Ratesetter as it becomes available is the right thing to do (about 75% so far) as the risk/reward isn't quite there for me. Appreciate it might be the right thing for RS though, and wish them good fortune.
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scc
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Post by scc on Nov 7, 2019 11:22:39 GMT
P2P companies providing loans to other P2P companies. What could possibly go wrong?
My slow exit from ratesetter continues.
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scc
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Post by scc on Oct 10, 2019 12:19:18 GMT
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scc
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Post by scc on Oct 9, 2019 22:29:22 GMT
I'm just suggesting another explanation based on my own experience of these things. Often they'll be a bunch of stuff which must be done, another that should etc down to could be done. During our GDPR work, we had a ton of different flags and options accumulated over the years - and simply ditched loads of them rather than do the work of fixing and testing. We lost some granularity, but it was simpler over all.
They might well have got to this and thought "Well, it's not really benefiting us and will take more work so we'll dump it". It's also not unknown for marketing to strongly lean on tech people re: defaulting to maintaining contact by any means possible (and regardless of whatever the official guidance says) which can explain inconsistencies.
I guess I tend to lean towards cockup rather than conspiracy.
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