Cheers mudshark :-)

Renton

Whilst she isnt paying the rent I have to pay the mortgage on the house aswell as pay rent for the house Im in now. Ive never missed a payment so why should she?

Sorry sunshine, but it sounds very much like you aren’t quite aware that it isn’t your God given right to be able to rent a house out and get your costs covered. You took the decision to rent your house instead of sell it, presumably you thought that it would get you out of negative equity and become a nice little earner. You also knew that there would be risks involved, such as periods where you get no income / have cash flow problems .If you don’t have some kind of buffer to deal with this kind of situation then that is your problem. You being unable to pay 2 mortgages is your fault, and not the fault of your tenant. From your periodic moaning on here, it sounds like you are a bit immature around the whole subject, and you would be better off getting rid of the house.

My synology NAS does exactly what you are looking for, with zero hassle.

Mine is the ds211j, I think there is a newer version out now. The ongoing support from synology is excellent.

Great stuff, some definite food for thought. The £200 budget is based on stuff that I can sell and therefore get a ‘free’ road bike. Maybe a little bit more would help out; I’ll give it all some thought and keep my eyes peeled for now.

Cheers

Cheers for the responses so far

The work notice board would be a good idea, but in a company of less than 30 people I might be waiting for a little while!

Ok, I’ll keep an eye on eBay for now and see what comes up

Anything in particular I should avoid / look for? I really don’t know much about road bikes at all…

bit of a bump….

Try here; clean, friendly, good breakfast, and central

Summer Hill [/url]

7 island surf in fuerteventura

I can’t wait until I get to go on September 5th! I might be the one unteachable person who Tony meets!!

With respect crikey, your response is basically to say ‘respect your elders’, and this doesn’t address the point that the young generation are being shafted by the older generation. One of the basic premises of a civilised society is to pass on the opportunities that you were afforded onto the next generation. The current younger generation certainly don’t get the same level of education, employment, or housing opportunities that the current older generation or ‘boomers’ were afforded. So I think that the youth have a right be be a bit annoyed. Your argument of respect your elders is a bit of a red rag to a bull IMHO.

Bwaarp +1.

Have you read ‘The Jilted Generation’?

Well hopefully the government will introduce taxes based on a persons age? So all of those under 25 will get a lower rate of tax to reflect what they are entitled to claim.

If the government wanted to tackle the housing benefit costs, they should reintroduce rent controls. This would stop the government paying billions of pounds each year into the pockets of buy to let landlords, reduce rents, and go some way to making this country a cheaper and more competitive place to do business. But then Cameron and his mates (plus the Labour lot to be fair) all have their noses in the property trough so they won’t do this.

My 32″ Samsung (5500model), has DLNA and it is excellent. It is great being able to access a song/picture/film on my NAS using my phone, and just sending it to the tv!

Try john lewis. They will price match other high street stores (richer sounds, currys, etc.), and you get a free 5 year warranty on all of their televisions.

Don Simon +1.

It may be that you pay little attention to your grammar when posting on STW, but if I was having to sort through a pile of applications, then poor use of grammar would be an easy filter to use. Your university should have a careers department who can help check your CV, covering letter etc, as a minimum. You are paying large amounts of money to go to university, you should make sure that you use the facilities available to your advantage!

Also try and think a bit beyond just sending a CV. Could you do voluntary work? It might not seem ideal, but if it gets you a job in the long term, then it could be seen as just as much of an investment as the money you are spending on your degree.

It was very wet yesterday (but fun!), but it generally drains very well so you may be in luck. I heard that the final section of follow the dog is going to reopen this month.

I’m looking forward to Alan posting on this thread but forgetting to change his user account back from drwato…..!

Better be careful what I say though, wouldn’t want to end up in court!

No reply to the johnny two houses comment then?

I wonder if the ban hammer will be wielded for excessive arguing from one of the big hitters here?

I think that combining NI and the lower rate of income tax into a single tax rate would be a good idea. A flat rate of tax for everybody (plus the personal allowance) seems like a good idea as long as it is watertight when it comes to avoiding paying tax. There is a big difference between percentages and absolute amounts…..

Butcher…. I find the same for my 50mm 1.8, especially focussing within a couple of meters

Thanks very much indeed for the offer don Simon but I’m in Warwick so that doesn’t work out well :-(

Some good advice, keep it coming!

I don’t think I will do too much low light shooting, mostly landscapes/holiday shots. I’m going to NZ later this year and want a nice lens for landscape / general use. I’m just a bit worried that 40mm might be shallow, but then I don’t use the 55mm end of my kit lens much.

Do you find that 40mm is too shallow? Are you using a full frame sensor camera?

Hmmm I guess I need to figure out exactly what I want.

I would like a wide angle lens, and the 10-22 sigma is attractive, but I’m wondering if I would be better off getting a good quality general purpose lens to replace my kit lens. I could get a 17-40 L series canon, but for quite a lot less I could get a 17-50 f2.8 sigma.

Nope that’s still not the one! Nice t shirts though!

Thanks, but that isn’t the one I was thinking of!

The web address was something like http://www.’xxx’canvas.com but I can’t remember what the ‘xxx’ was! There were 3 canvas prints above a door in the cafe (just by where you pick your tea/coffee up).

Canon eBay outlet had a 7d with 15-85 lens for £1200 earlier this week

This one is true; our receptionist at work used to have a problem making tannoy announcements…..

Dick Spray!

Excellent, Cannock it is then!

But 810,000 sales doesn’t equal 810,000 first time buyers though, and it is ftbers that are those likely to be at risk of negative equity…. Others will have years of built up equity from monthly mortgage payments, and house price inflation.

I understand your point about mobility and that is fair enough. What about the mobility of the younger generation/ lower paid, who can’t afford prohibitively high housing costs (house prices and rental rates). Should this ever increasingly large group of people pay the price to protect people in negative equity?!

Junkyard….. In reality though, how many ‘homeowners’ would be in negative equity if prices dropped by 30%?

Only people who bought during the boom and who over extended themselves would really end up in negative equity. Many who moved during this time will have lots of equity from their previous house.

People have a mindset of not wanting to sell that for ‘less than it is worth’, but their idea of ‘what it is worth’ is based on a 2007 valuation. Somebody who bought in 96 (for arguments sake), wouldn’t lose anything now if they sold for 30% off 2007 price; paper gains don’t exist until you sell and have the money in your hand.

So we can either worry about those in neg equity and maintain the status quo, or bring in legislation to regulate the market for the greater good. Have your legs broken, or break the legs of your children?

Mudshark…. Fair enough you disagree with my points. But you don’t say why you disagree with my points. I would be interested to know why you disagree…..

Btw, I’m not looking to argue, this thread is very interesting so I’m looking to try and understand your viewpoint.

I’m not sure that reducing house prices does increase demand though…. It just means that they come down. Assuming they fell to 3x one salary (and ignoring any deposit for the sake of argument), then somebody earning 20k will have a house that costs 60k, and somebody earning 40k can have a house up to 120k. If the person on 20k wants the 120k, then tough luck. They would have to either save a bigger deposit or get a job earning more money.

You would potentially need to restrict the btl market too (maybe bring back rent controls, I’m not sure) but is that a bad thing? Why should people be priced out of basic necessities such as housing, just for the purpose of a pension? If the pension market was reformed, then btl wouldn’t be so attractive.

Mudshark…. Fair play, maybe I misinterpreted your comments.

Sorry omitn, I didn’t read your post before I posted! Great minds eh?

Of course it would help…. If people aren’t forced to spend such large amounts of money on accommodation, then you can either pay them less (making our businesses more competitive), or they have more money to spend in the wider economy (which will help growth), or we don’t need to send both parents in a family out to work to pay the mortgage (which has social benefits). Ideally, you would see a combination of these three benefits.

If the FSA grew some balls and limited banks to lending a maximum of 3x one salary, then overnight this would put a cap on house prices…. It is supply and demand of credit which drives house prices.

Mudshark…. Your comments seem to imply that you want house prices to be high… Is that the case or have I misunderstood you? If you are in favour of high prices, can I ask why?

This is an excellent thread and very refreshing to see a conversation whereby people realise that high house prices are a bad thing. To me, house prices are the elephant in the room that politicians daren’t speak of, because the generation who have the most voting power don’t want to see their houses (or pensions as they see them) fall. Until mortgage lending is regulated to force house prices to fall, this country will remain uncompetitive. I read an analogy the other day, that said it is like being told that to fix a problem, you will have to have your legs broken. The alternative is that we will break the legs of all of your children. Currently we are opting to break the legs of our children….

Edit, spelling

I’ve got the 2010 team fs in large and I’m 6’4, fits me perfect, but the frame design has changed since the 2010 model