It’s never too early to start a pension.

In principle, yes, totally agree. But:

I did this, and prioritised it over getting a mortgage and will now have to pay at least 100k more + interest to buy a house as a result (+ add in tens of thousands spent in rent)… so starting a pension young has turned out to be a less than optimum strategy… I’m worse off as a result.

More importantly, look at how low the salaries are for the younger workers now, the job insecurity and the rents they have to pay in order to be where those jobs are, and you’ll realise saving for a pension isn’t an option – there’s no money left at the end of the month… living costs have eaten it all up

As with others here the only thing I can see working for me is that we have a nice house in the South east and when we retire we can downsize and move to a cheaper part of the country.

Works quite nicely as a theoretical idea, or if you do it before everyone else does. However, there’s more than few people who, having seen their pension provision and the recent increase in divide in prices North to South will be thinking about doing this (look at how the bubble has expanded out of London into broader SE, all the way to Norwich, Bristol etc) will now be thinking about doing this as their ‘pension plan’

So suddenly, in about 10-15 years time, you’ll get a whole load of people trying to sell up in the SE and buy in the North, which will change the supply/demand equation somewhat in both areas. And unless there’s been a significant drop in SE prices in the meantime (20-30+%) then it’ll be interesting to see how many buyers there are for your super-expensive SE property.

Not having a pop at you personally but the assumptions people are making about property prices never crashing/falling/progressing ever upwards are heroic.

Essentially a lot of people are expecting the long-term future to be exactly the same as the recent past… which is generally not an effective investment strategy…

The problem with roadmaps is they’re so unfriendly.
But offroadmaps, are much cooler
:-)

You’ll be right hacked off if you go for a fixed and interest rates then go negative…

More seriously, things are incredibly uncertain right now so just find a deal that’s affordable within your budget and don’t agonise about what the future looks like… it’s all too unpredictable

Starting saving into my pension aged 24 (now 43) and am looking like I’ll have c£6k a year to live off so I’m screwed, despite doing the right thing and trying to make a provision for myself. IIRC I’ll need c£1m pot to get an income of £25k and I’m somewhat off that, not least because L&G managed to have less money in my pot last year than was in there the year before…!

Don’t expect state pension to exist by the time I retire. Will almost certainly work till past 70, although who’ll employ me and at what wage I’ve no idea. Hopefully the robots will have taken over by then and we’ll all be on a basic state income.

Stopped paying into my pension in 2011 in an attempt to save to buy a house, to find prices have gone from £250k to £450k in that time, which I’ve no way of keeping up with. Have moved out of London to try and resolve that one.

When the sub-Boomer generation (mine) realise to what degree housing ‘wealth’ is not real wealth and they can’t just ‘cash it in’ to fund their retirements and what their retirements are eally going to be like (having sunk everything into property and not saved properly for our retirements), well there’ll be plenty of jobs going for riot Police.

I’m only half joking about that – pension-wise we are so seriously up the creek, but funnily enough, subsequent governments have failed to tell us… and when the masses finally realise how dire their futures look, well…

Officially we have no inflation but looking at a few bits and bobs, there seems to have been some downsizing going on in recent years (Yazoo milkshake still £1 but 400ml instead of 500ml = 20% effective price increase.

In 2008 I bought a 3-year old Ford Focus for £3.5k, equivalent now is c £7 or 8k

So I’m slightly dubious about official figures – you may find even if you’re buying the same stuff in the weekly shop, downsizing would mean you go through it more quickly and have to replace it more quickly = higher overall monthly cost.

I was self-employed last year and cut my spending right down as a result as I didn’t know how long the money would keep coming in for. Now I’m back in a perm role, earning much less, I spend more – basically up to my salary (after savings)… we spend what we earn. Very difficult not to.

Recently started to ride to work most days and take my own lunch in. That’s saving me over £200/month, which is pretty significant…

We’ve got used to a very high level of material wealth and I reckon if we really challenged ourselves we could all easily live on 20% less by cutting out a lot of stuff that we don’t really need…

Mergers like this can often have a very negative impact on a market – it consolidates market power and comes closer to an oligopoly, duopoly or worse, monopoly – reducing consumer choice, increasing profits but reducing investment at the same time (no need to invest to grow market share or improve your service if you have so much market power).

I know nothing about the bike industry but seeing more venture capital in cycling concerns me somewhat – VC as mentioned above is concerned with making a profit, not long term sustainability or growth… look at the recent stories coming out about Boots for instance.

And on a side note, I do love the way the internet improves transparency :-)

Just thought this was worth throwing into the mix for those who think the current situation is either a) sustainable b) a positive for the wider population and wider economy. ITEM CLub generally well-respected.

E&Y ITEM Club

A couple of interesting highlights

‘Supply and demand’ or deliberate policy?

It seems clear that the low interest rates and high equity prices engineered by central banks in response to the financial crisis have encouraged households to invest in housing rather than low-yielding financial assets.

‘Note use of the term ‘social cohesion’ – do you think angry, skint, Millennials are going to ruin their lives with heroic amounts of debt to fund the retirements of the older generation or are they going to just refuse to play the game and refuse to pay your asking price?

And ‘financial stability’… can we actually afford another bust?

in our view the high level of house prices relative to income does pose a risk to financial stability. Affordability also poses a risk to social cohesion, threatening to lock younger generations out of the housing market.

This is also interesting, as I’ve not seen reference to it before. The banks and pension co.s are now complaining about superlow interest rates – for the banks it means they can’t cover their costs when they lend money out and for pension companies it means they can’t meet their liabilties ie: pay our pensions. But this reference to the banks wanting less money going into property is not something I’ve seen before. IIRC the banks got what they wanted in 2008…

The British love affair with property remains undimmed. Investing in homes was by far the most popular investment choice last year – perhaps unsurprising given the continuing low interest rate environment we’re living in. The financial services industry will be watching this flight to bricks and mortar with alarm given the negative knock on effect this has on their assets

In London I had a 13 mile commute, which was 16 for a while when I lived further out. Couldn’t face that more than twice a week though – it takes quite a while in heavy traffic.

Now have 6 miles each way on cycle paths which is a wonderful way to start the day, especially when it’s sunny so I do it 4 times a week, and I’m still happy to ride at the weekend

SKS Chromoplastics for the win

Good luck to them. They may or may not have noticed that Western consumers are not exactly rolling in it at the moment…

The petition has been shut – and had hardly any signatories, which suggests very few people supported it…

Thank goodness!

+1 for at least you were on your bike and creating deserved cake space in your stomach :-)

Worth putting new tyres on if they’re worn out

At work I go by the mantra ‘under-promise and over-deliver’

Our politicians generally do the opposite. Sometimes it’s because they’re just over-ambitious, sometimes it’s because they’re just dim, often it’s because it gets them votes – we all like a freebie and we all like to feel rich after all. We do like to get angry at our leaders but I think a little more reflection on our own expectations wouldn’t go amiss given the crisis we’re in.

There’s a balance between being grateful for what we have (one of the richest countries in the world and one of the free-est) and making the best of it through our own actions and they way we live our lives (don’t be a git and be nice to other people) and holding our politicians to account and show our anger when we think they’re making what we think are wrong decisions (not being angry about everything they do, and avoid blind partisan dogma).

Right now, I think we have incredibly high living standards but life is getting harder for a lot of the population and we’re in a very serious long-term debt crisis which is going to hold down living standards for at least a generation. Somewhere in there, there’s a balance of things to get angry about, things to demand of our politicians and things to shrug our shoulders about and be grateful for what we have…

Personally I don’t think roads are really that high in this hierarchy. Inequality of wealth, tax avoidance when the government debt is so high, £170bn of foreign money in UK property pricing out the younger generation and decreasing disposable incomes, obesity and education (inequality of outcomes across the income and class bands) are priorities…

As a client, if I find someone presenting themselves as a ‘we’ when they’re a one-man band or a one-man band ‘plus associates’ (ie: a gang of random one-man bands) I’m already concerned about their integrity and also ability to deliver.

Maybe I’m scarred from working in marketing but there’s a lot of ‘consultants’ in my experience who have lying as their new business strategy.

I was a contractor for 4 years and always made a point of honesty and integrity, knowing that it was a point of competitive advantage in a world of blaggers

If it comes with the politeness, the work ethic, the cleanliness and the quality of service, I’d be happy with that.

It might do, who knows. We may re-kindle our ‘Blitz spirit’ as we accept the reality that the state simply can’t afford to provide the services we’ve come to expect without a massive tax hike which we’re not prepared to take. We may find a model where people do more for themselves, or support community-based and charity-based provision of services instead of central government.

Currently, I’d say the Blitz spirit is in short supply, looking at how many people, in the midst of an environmental and housing crisis buy themselves bigger cars and second houses, knowing full well it makes others worse off…

I think you’ll see a polarisation – scared and selfish people will get more scared and selfish, nice, mature people will get nicer and more interdependent. Both will co-exist, but at times we’ll notice the former more than the latter as adults acting like children do tend to attract attention.

Getting angry with politicians is, IMO understandable, but it won’t make your immediate world any better, or help you deal with the crisis. That said, as a lifetime Tory voter, I can’t wait to get Osborne and Cameron out – they’re far too into the political game and buying the votes of their base than the country needs at the moment

I for one hold a view that the government will continue to under fund the NHS to an extent in the hope that more people will opt to go private so as to remove the burden off the NHS.

That’ll be interesting. I worked for Bupa a few years ago and they were really struggling – their costs were going up and up, which meant they had to put premiums up (it’s an insurance model).

As we have an ageing population and older people have higher levels of healthcare need, their customer base was also getting older, again putting up premiums.

Premiums are now at a level that their customers can’t afford… company in trouble.

Super low interest rates aren’t helping here. People like my parents who are living off pensions/fixed income are getting less from their investments than they expected and although they can afford to go private, they can afford it less easily than they had expected… so more likely to stick with the NHS.

So, back to square one!

Personally I’d like to see a politically neutral, technocratic government, like Italy had after 2008. This is unknown (and apparently unpredicted) territory and neither left nor right wing ideology are helpful here – a pragmatic mix of policies would be more appropriate. Best outcome from the next election will be a centrist party made up of a Labour/Tory coalition.

Meanwhile, I’m going to read up a little more about Japan and their 20-year ongoing slump… looks increasingly like our likely future.

My brother with a degree from a very fine establishment, PHd in something with lasers and an MBA declared last Christmas that he avoided tesco as they just were out to trick you with their pricing – that they may be but he should be able to work out if the 2 for 1 is good value or not…

He’s right. Supermarket pricing is all psychology and nothing to do with the cost of the thing.
All the different deals are designed to confuse, so it becomes more effort than most people are willing to expend to work out what’s best value , so they just use shortcuts like ‘the brand I like’ to make their decision. which rarely means the cheapest. But low-price items still exist so the ad campaign can boast about ‘everyday low prices compared to our competitors’

2 for 1 isn’t value – it’s designed to get you to buy 2 of something when you only needed 1. You then habituate using twice as much, they remove the deal 2 weeks later and you continue with your new-found habit…. hello to higher sales!

Trust me, I work in marketing :-)

I think Dunning Kruger may apply here ;-)

You’re wasting your time if you think this is all down to Tories, or Labour…

Go and have a chat to the Yanks and the Europeans and you’ll find a lot of the Western World thinking the same – look at the progress being made by Le Pen in France and Trump.

Postwar growth is over – was essentially over by late 60’s, hence 70’s being a bit ropey economically.

Liberalisation of finance in the mid-eighties saw growth again but by early 90s governments and banks were resorting to credit/debt growth to allow us to maintain living standards. They didn’t tell us that they were doing this even through in retrospect it’s obvious – most of the growth since then has been built on debt rather than real economic growth.

Globalisation has led to a level of competition we weren’t prepared to deal with.

2008 – we all realised there was too much debt in the system to be paid back, the banks panicked and it all crashed down. QE and super-low interest rates have kept us on life support since then as the central banks and governments can’t work out how to kick-start real economic growth when we have ageing populations, massive pensions and welfare liabilities and populations who’re rather used to being rich and have somewhat taken their eye off the ball when it comes to being innovative and entrepreneurial…

Personally I think this is it really – don’t expect much in the way of increased living standards, wage growth or economic growth for the next 20-30 years – nothing any government has done specifically, just the end of a long-term cycle of growth that was the natural result of the end of WW2 as we rebuilt our countries and the resultant baby boom and demographic dividend.

The next 25 years will not be like the last 25 years as that growth was debt-fuelled and not real growth. I’m not sure a lot of people will feel too happy about this so the mood will be sour at times. Keep your head down, avoid debt and keep a good group of friends and colleagues who can keep their head in a crisis… Oh and stay away from mainstream media – they all have their own biased political agenda at some level…

The reality of it may not be that bad… it’ll just be much worse than our expectations of ever-increasing living standards.

There may be some big technological breakthrough like AI or automation or solar/wind power which somehow drives big economic growth (bit like Moore’s law and computing have done) but the gains of anything like that don’t seem too likely to be shared evenly across the population…

Mixture.

Commuting is obviously solo.

Road with a club before I left London – so barely ever rode alone

Tried a new club where I’ve moved to but I’m not sure about them so have been doing some solo riding too, but much prefer a club run so going to try out another local club this weekend and hope they’re a little more sociable!

I can still get back into London to ride with my old club though. Last weekend’s Rapha Hell of the North would’ve been dire solo – needed some company to take my mind off the pain!

One of the great things about cycling is its versatility – solo/group/mix – do what you like

Overshoes/oversocks matter more on a roadbike than MTB as you’re out in the wind more and riding faster – your toes can get cold much more quickly than you’d expect.

I’ve recently started commuting almost every day so I’ve needed some extra kit and I’ve been very impressed with the quality and fit of Wiggle’s DHB. I would kit yourself out with a few different cheaper bits and pieces as suggested above and see how you get on. You’ll essentially learn from experience what it is you need – different people run hot or run cold or have different physiologies meaning different kit needs

My parents are both extremely stubborn and value their independence very highly so I’m expecting it to be difficult as and when the time comes to make a decision about moving them out of their home.

I’d like to have an adult to adult conversation with them now, to find out what their preferences are so I can support them in that, rather than impose something on them when we’re in a crisis. but my brother doesn’t want to have that conversation and I’m pretty sure they don’t want to either…

The main thing will be location. They’re in Cheshire, my brother’s in Ireland and never comes over and I’m in the SE so if they stay up North there’ll be precious little visiting going on so I’d probably try and move them down here, depending on how many of their friends are still around by then

Broess – I’m not sure how many years we have been reading your doom and gloom predictions regarding the housing market however supply (limited) and demand (high) means that in areas like the south east it’s unlikely there will be a price crash. The last recession merely flatlined house prices in the SE rather than seeing huge price drops.

Since 2013 when prices shot up 20% in about 6 months.
To be fair, I didn’t predict massive inflows of foreign money into London (£170bn according to the Panama Papers) or deliberate sustaining of emergency interest rates or deliberate stoking of supply of credit by the Chancellor (Help To Buy). And neither did you, I’ll wager. In 2012 there were no predictions of London prices going up 50% in 3 years that I saw – did you? It was a surprise to everyone…

I take my views on UK house prices from reading the articles and the comments on the FT, Economist and Investopedia primarily, rather than the peculiarly British blind faith that house prices will go up forever, whatever the economic fundamentals show and whatever similarity the market has to the 1929 US crash, Tulip Bulbs, Tech Bubble, 1989 crash etc

And if you read carefully I’m not predicting a crash. It’s interesting that you and others are suggesting that cos you’re basically making up what I said so you can counter it…

I’m pointing out that anyone who thinks house price inflation is real wealth and that prices will continue to go up forever and never crash ever again is being naive as it ignores all historical prededence and basically assumes the long term future will be like the recent past, which is pretty much the first thing any investor learns not to assume…

OP – ignore those with anecdotes about themselves or others who’ve made ‘thousands’ through property (or the gloaters) – it’s illusory wealth. You can’t eat bricks or exchange them for food in Tescos! There’s a huge amount of delusional willing suspension of disbelief around house prices and wealth in the UK…

Osborne knows this and has boosted house prices for precisely this reason – to try and get people spending again to prevent stagnation and deflation. So far it’s been effective to a degree in that the economy hasn’t collapsed, but it’s not worked in that we’re almost entirely reliant on consumer spending and house prices to make GDP look good… neither of which are sustainable in the long run.

Property is an illiquid asset so the idea you can sell it, just like that, for a huge amount of cash as and when you find yourself in trouble is delusional. You need to find a willing and able buyer and they’ll be thin on the ground when prices begin to fall as they’ll all be waiting a little longer (no-one wants to buy into a falling market)

Most of all, ignore any random on the internet who says ‘fill your boots, I did and I made it’ – you have no idea of their real personal circumstances and certainly how informed they are about wider economic and financial matters and the anatomy of financial bubbles. One of the main signs of a bubble is when the majority of people believe that prices will go up forever – especially following a recent rise…

The biggest lie we’ve been told about the bust was that it was purely the banks’ fault – consumers and householders have taken on more debt that they could manage on the assumption that economic growth and wages would continue to rise over the long term – which was clearly wrong. Super low interest rates are there to prevent massive default on consumer debt and mortgages, which would send the system crashing again…

The Millenials are smaller in number than the Boomers, are earning less and have less job security. If you think they’re going to be willing or able to pay house prices higher than they are today in 10 years time, then you’re being naive – as a lot of people are…

You don’t ever really own the flat if it’s leasehold. Even after you’ve paid off the mortgage. A very good reason to get a house if you can

Personally unless it was a ground floor flat with easy access for the cat to go in and out, I wouldn’t have a cat anyway – pretty unpleasant for the cat to be stuck indoors all day!

Interest rates will not stay at this low level for the course of a mortgage . I would check what the repayments would be if they went up to 10% or more and see if I could still service the mortgage at that rate.

This. Absolutely.

Rates are at historically low levels, put there to stop total collapse of the system. They WILL go up during the term of your mortgage, esp if you go for a 35 year term…

I really would wait until after the referendum before making any decision about getting a tonne of debt to buy a house in London or SE. BTL changes are kicking in, prime London appears to actually be falling in price and inflation has begun to pick up (slightly)…

If you’re being advised to take a 35 year term mortgage at that % of take home pay at current interest rates, I’d personally take advice from someone else – that’s tantamount to mis-selling IMO – it’s a staggering debt burden to take on…

S/S steel commuter used most days in the week. No beard though. And I wear my own jeans

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be!

The whole article is just full of conservative confirmation bias IMO… I’m an ex SE London rider and the idea that SE London riders are all unfriendly, Strava-obsessed ‘non-proper’ cyclists is just a construct in the writer’s head, in my deep experience.

It’s full of the same kind of negative stereotyping and sweeping generalisations as your average newspaper article going on about RLJing and ‘lycra louts’

Funnily enough, the club I’ve been riding with in Buckinghamshire over the last few weeks since I moved from London are less friendly and more likely to disappear off the front, unannounced because ‘it’s a segment’ than either of the two SE London clubs I rode with… If anything, the London clubs go out of their way to be inclusive and friendly – to counter all the prejudice they have to deal with… (incl some of the commenters on here I might add!)

Silly clickbait article IMO.

Cycling is growing in popularity – by definition that means an increasing proportion will be new to the sport, and will bring over the consumerism from the rest of their lives. But who cares, really? Cycling is what you make of it, irrespective of other peoples’ behaviour. Personally, whilst I don’t use Strava or buy Rapha, I’m very, very happy to see so many people out on bikes – it’s fantastic…

Sounds like a dodgy driving manoeuvre to me andt also, from your description that he put himself in front of you beforehand (rather than wait until you were past?)

Either way, from your description it sounds like he drove with poor skill but that you hadn’t allowed for that..

Personally I assume for 100% of drivers at the moment that they’ll do the stupidest thing possible (whether I’m riding or driving) and I move accordingly ie: keep my distance, drive at a steady speed to give myself time to stop/avoid as necessary.

Sounds to me like you were going full chat to catch up with the group, he made a daft move and you’d given yourself no allowance to go anywhere as and when he pulled the inevitable daft move

I’ve always found FD service very good.
It’s very easy to switch these days though…

The banks are having a far more difficult time of it than is widely publicised – superlow interest rates are making it very hard for them to make any money – charging interest on lending is a massive part of their income, hence throwing out so much in mortgages and BLT at the moment – one of the few places they can make some income.

A lot of job cuts to come in the retail businesses – branch networks will go, and probably call centres too as we all continue to go online and mobile

With a bit of tweaking, they will do 0-62 in 2.8s.

It’d be doing well to keep up with me on my steel singlespeed then :-)

That’s a very big ‘oh dear’ for Osborne. Especially since he’s been very very quiet all week, hoping no-one would ask him any awkward questions about his own tax affairs. I suspect that he’s got such a bad reputation for being a game-player that we realise his absence is a tactic… hence his polling is worse than Cameron who’s deeply in the spotlight.

We do, however, need to re-direct the debate back to focus on the fact that tax-avoidance is causing a real problem to UK government and needs to be solved asap before NHS, social care, schools etc suffer too much from cuts and lack of funding (and housing because of the distortions from £170bn of foreign cash which UK wage earners simply can’t compete with) – and the big question around both Cameron and GO is whether they have personal conflicts of interest in properly dealing with tax avoidance in order to fund our public services.
If they do have conflicts of interest then are they suitable to push for the required legislation?
This is more important IMO than the simple facts about whether they have offshore finances or not

I’ve just moved from Conti Grand Prix 25mm to Conti 4000 4 seasons 28mm and noticed a lot more comfort and grip for very little, if any, more drag or slowness to accelerate

Sadly OP, I think the Dunning Kruger effect will apply here. You gave the driver the opportunity to understand the impact of his behaviour on you and to apologise, and he bailed on it.

Therefore you’re clearly not dealing with a grown adult who understands that when people are upset by their aggression, the upset is reasonable and it’s their aggression which is not, so he’ll learn nothing, either from your original comment to him, or the door thing you did.

Which is a shame, cos i reckon if cyclists were able to respond there and then in the moment with an equal level of force, applied to the driver or their vehicle, then the lousy behaviour would stop. ie: if I get close passed and I’m legally therefore allowed to smash the car window in retribution, then I’d get a lot fewer close passes :-)

Someone go and tell Iggy to put his top back on :-)

I’m not sure whether girls using their bodies sell themselves is a feminist statement or undermining feminism tbh. The whole affair has been captured by all sides for their own agendas… we’re full of double standards and making judgments on how women dress. I’ve not heard anyone tell Iggy to dress more appropriately for his age :-)

If I had a daughter I’d be doing my damndest to make sure she dressed how she wanted to dress and for her own objectives, and not to feel pressured to dress up OR down according to what someone else thought she should do… ie: if you’re going to use your body then be ready to deal with the judgement and attention that will come with it

You would think if your carbon wheel is going to shatter into a million pieces by riding on the road you maybe should be out on tougher wheels

Don’t be stupid – that’s just setting up an argument for the sake of it, and not in the slightest bit helpful to the OP!

Oh, and FunkyDunc, unless you’re a trained cycling instructor, please can you give over on passing judgment on the OP! The guy just got hurt from riding in the provided infrastructure!

Sorry to hear you’re hurt OP. As mentioned above – CTC and BC best people to contact.

Problem with UK cycling infrastructure is it frequently puts cyclists in danger – as you’ve found out. Riding primary or filtering to avoid this risk, brings it’s own downsides e.g. abuse.

Maybe once you’ve made contact with the legal people, you can also explore options to make the council accountable for putting in infrastructure which put you at risk?

Personally I’ve given up assuming anything when cycling – whether it’s carelessness or deliberate, I just assume something’s going to happen which is going to put me at risk, and ride accordingly.

Given the scale of the issue and the negative impact it’s having on people who aren’t involved (and the broader economy at a time of real crisis), having an argument on points of detail with strangers on the internet isn’t the best place to be expending our energy.

Pushing for the story to remain in the headlines and pushing for full and proper investigation of anyone suspected of breaking the law, and pushing for proper legislation to stop UK economy being stripped of desperately needed tax (NHS, social care, old-age care, roads, flood defences etc) are where we need to focus our energy…

This thread is increasingly like a scene from Life of Brian :-)

A Cornish pirate’s favourite cheese would be….
….Yarrrrrrg.

It is tax avoidance, why do you think people do it ?

Sometimes going Ltd is the only way to get the work. I don’t know to be fair what extent of contractors are doing it for this reason but going PAYE on a fixed term contract isn’t always an option…

PAYE also means you’re stuck with one client at a time, Ltd allows you to work for one client 4 days a week, say, and another client on the 5th (or 6th and 7th if you want)