I’ve never believed in rising damp and when my last house came up as suffering from it in the survey I refused to get it treated – this meant the mortgage company held back a grand on my loan but I was OK with that. Once I moved in I didn’t ever notice any damp problems and a few years later I switched lender who surveyed my house finding no damp.

I took for family to Normandy in the summer to see some of the D-Day stuff, went to Pegasus Bridge and now hoping this film out next year will be good:

http://pegasusbridgethemovie.com/

Some people who called themselves Christians somehow managed to persuade themselves that slavery was OK – because they’re black and that’s their purpose in life or something.

Not sure how being a Christian helps guide on the Brexit thing though staying in must surely be better for people globally.

BTW, those that think following a religion implies some sort of lack of intelligence are deluding themselves to help justify their position.

I’d never been but chap I work with goes to a store every week looking for bargains, buys a lot of jewelry for his gf. He once bought an On-one bike that had a green frame and the RRP for the green one on the website. When I saw it I saw that the specs were different so RRP completely wrong – I pointed this out though said it was still a decent deal but he took it back.

He buys clothes there by checking their prices online, I have bought a few things if I think it’s what I want for a fair price – don’t care about brands really.

Suggesting we’re either upper class or working class is simplistic and unhelpful.

As others have said there are people who are are not defined by these two types – what are you if you don’t work and survive on benefits? Underclass I say.

Then there are people who don’t need to work – maybe they do to support the life style they want but they could move to a less expensive location and not work perhaps. Perhaps we should talk about the professional class as being the middle class – or perhaps upper middle class? So fully qualified doctors, accountants and lawyers for sure, some IT types too. There is a fundamental difference between people in these 4 groups so useful to say they are in different classes as they behave in different ways and want different things.

Language is considered an easier way of deciding class as wealth is not the point at all. Maybe I’m more aware of this having been brought up to use words that aren’t used by many around me – so do you eat pudding or dessert? Use a loo or a toilet? Table manners is another – do you use a knife to cut your bread roll or break it with your hands?

I’m sure we could put together a better list…

Maybe:

Juicer
coffee maker
BMW/Audi/Merc bought new
Wool carpets
SIPP & ISAs

I really thought that advanced fee thing I posted at the bottom of page 1 would have elicited more (any) reaction…

I see nothing wrong in it, all that’s happening is that by paying in advance the school can get a return on the money – the net present value of paying £30k for 5 years is a lot higher than paying £150k up front so the upfront figure should be reduced substantially. I’d still pay the annual figure though as would rather invest in something that would give me a better return than a guaranteed interest rate product.

Fee paying schools are brilliant! My son goes to state school but might switch him when he’s older.

I went to decent schools with the assisted places scheme that no longer exists, shame I say. Didn’t matter to me that most of the kids came from wealthy families. Of course these days kids come from all sorts of backgrounds – except the poorer ones who used to be able to get assisted places.

Schools are always short of money, seems like a good way to raise funds.

Never understood why people do it, so wasteful. I even turn my engine off at a traffic light on the way to work as it’s red for 4 minutes at a time.

We have separate accounts but as I had an offset mortgage current account when we got married it was tricky to change. But all our money is ours really as money just gets moved between accounts to suit, I earn twice as much as her, I pay all bills, I set up savings, investments, pension whilst she buys clothes … lots of clothes.

One issue I haven’t seen mentioned in this thread is how to deal with saving for the future and pensions. Do people sort that out jointly or just rely on each other to do the right things?

And the polls are never wrong!

Well 8% chance doesn’t mean no chance however the polls are far clearer on the likely result than, say, for Brexit. Trouble is the people do have to make it to the ballot box.

Mostly invest it but use some to get the house tarted up a bit.

I aint getting a superb before someone suggests that…. too utilitarian and looks awful. so to get a premium large estate i am forced to go diesel

Not really forced though is it? You choose your own criteria.

That’s what’s supposed to happen.

Similar thought processes resulted in me getting a Yeti which I am very happy with.

The foreign school trips at my fee paying schools were just for a few people so no sense of feeling left out, I never went on a skiiing trip but went to Greece in the lead up to my O’levels which was excellent.

At my son’s infant school in a mostly well off Surrey village we get asked for the odd tenner but they say if anyone feels they can’t afford it that’s ok and their kid can still go so that’s nice. If some schools are suggesting its the norm for parents to pay for theses expensive trips then no doubt some parents are putting themselves into financial difficulty so their kids doesn’t feel they’re missing out.

So what’s in it for the schools anyway? Do the kids benefit educationally or just have fun? An exchange trip for language purposes seems useful but exchange trips shouldn’t be too costly due to staying in family homes.

If you need a job to keep the roof over your head and feed your kids, delude yourself with whatever job title your position warrants, you’re working class

Not a common definition though is it.

6 weeks is the shortest possible time from having an offer accepted to moving in

Not true, e.g. cash buyers can sort things out in a few days.

Not building up any kind of savings is pretty crazy and most people would hopefully have some idea of how property prices are going for them. No increase in price over that period seems unusual but in undesirable areas I suppose isn’t unusual.

It does feel like the period of large house price rises is over but there are pockets that are still going well, so can be lucky. I guess things will be subdued whilst the Brexit thing is sorted out but hard to imagine prices not steadily rising in the long-term overall. As a side point I think it a good thing that people might have to downsize their property later in life as reduces this unfortunate situation of old couples living in family houses whilst we have families struggling to find decent homes.

Yes got to have a repayment plan – that’s what got me to start creating my mortgage spreadsheet as wanted an interest only mortgage and to use the capital part for investments rather than repay, tracking the amount of capital that I needed to have paid off helped me know if I was on track or not.

Some have this idea that can just realise the capital in the property at some later point and move into a cheaper place – a smaller one or in a cheaper area perhaps. This kinda works but is a little risky as relies in decent capital growth over the mortgage period.

I see those quite a bit in England, guide price seems annoying – aren’t they all guide prices really?

I had one move that took a month from seeing it to moving in, would have been even quicker but my old solicitor had kept my deeds so took time to send them back to the lender then get them to the new one.

There is such a thing as a good solicitor but cost rather more than a cheap convenyencor, the ones I talked to charge a %age of property value.

My mortgage calculator says you’re paying about 4.2% if interest only which does seem high.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cLH5NU8s4ghbiB7wlc_a1obAcjXdY59TZuW5jhStqjc/edit?usp=sharing

Hopefully won’t damage the vinyl.

I used to take mid-week days off for a long road ride when had days to use up but a long weekend away is the best option if want to do something more.

Not tried the front seats but don’t think so. The back seats fold flat and the also the whole lot can then fold up and forward so more floor space. Mine lives without its rear seats as mostly it’s just me in it and I just add one when my son needs to come along – just takes a minute.

At least one item of clothing per outfit that is not a boring dull colour

Realised I was lacking colourful trousers so I bought some tight red ones this week.

There’s a market for used suits? Don’t wear mine much but need one sometimes.

A Dacia is a cheap Renault

Would anyone recommend a Renault?! V happy with my Yeti.

Yeti is better than a similarly sized estate car due to higher ceilings and easily removable rear seats. Great when taking my bike in a bike bag on holiday with son in back and 2 seats removed.

Blue shirt? For the love of god! When we aspire to be blue collar, it’s a bad day.

What colours are ok? I’ve found a love for pink that I didn’t think would ever happen.

Related, I am firmly of the believe that you should never wear a short sleeved short in any kind of formal setting and shouldn’t wear a tie without a jacket. So a suit, shirt and no tie is fine, trousers, shirt, tie and no jacket doesn’t look good at all.

So you’d arrive at work in a suit/tie then not take off your jacket when you sit down?

How I look means nothing if my code is shite.

True, you don’t meet clients? I need to look professional initially but once settled in at a client site I lower my standards to fit in with them – rarely work anywhere where suit/tie is needed these days.

I had an interview recently, was told it was more an informal chat so went smart casual and think that was the best thing to do.

I don’t think you quite understood what I said.

Presumably your monthly mortgage payment is somewhat less than £3k so seems a shame the lender won’t let you pay the mortgage up to the date in Dec so they still get the same amount. ‘Computer says no’ perhaps.

What would we do with all the farm animals? Cows for milk, hens for eggs, but what are the boys going to do?

So is the reason we shouldn’t eat animals because we’re intelligent enough to understand it’s not a nice thing to do?

You don’t think one way is quicker/more humane than the other?

Its not part of my life and its quite clearly a choice. a lion makes no [moral]choice. DO you really only have the moral awareness and moral code of a wild animal?Its just not equivalent as we have awareness and they dont- well some of us do,

So you’re saying all non-veggies are immoral? Presumably people most disagree.

I do think a mostly veggie diet is beneficial to society as meat production is a very inefficient use of land compared to crops.

Us eating animals is no different to animals eating animals – it’s part of life. It’s the way we treat animals whilst they are alive that’s important – including their final hours.

Most of us feel empathy towards another being in distress so could never be cruel to an animal, those that don’t feel this empathy are capable of other crimes, you can’t beat this empathy into people though so what to do?

Yes so no need to sacrifice your integrity – for those that care about such things.

Employers have to give you time for interviews so just ask if only option though I’d try to arrange it so I could make up the time later.