Just because a minimum wage person is poor doesn’t make these people wealthy – but we all have our own definitions. Wealthy for me is not having to work whilst living in a nice house/area.

I don’t think they’re wealthy – potentially wealthy of course if they don’t mess things up.

a 725k home in SW London is pretty average

It’s not. Maybe ‘average’ for a very nice home in a very nice area[/quote]

Well I’m going by my old house which was a 2 bed terrace in a decent but not fab area which is now worth rather more than £725k – it is in zone 2 though so gets a premium for that.

They earn more than me but I have greater assets, I went to fee paying schools but not bothered about sending my son to one assuming I’m happy with the state school options. Their BTL annoys me most about this though, they’ll be benefiting from house price rises from their residence, having another is greedy in this instance and opens them up to a big hit of prices do fall back at some point.

I’d rather live in a nicer house than have another for income purposes – a 725k home in SW London is pretty average – but then they have large mortages so release the capital from the BTL, reduce the remaining mortgage and have a happier life.

This triangle would be far healthier if the OP’s friend finds someone else so adding another side.

Does Now That’s What I Call Music 5 count?

I mostly listen to CDs at the moment when on my turbo trainer but I only ever listen to complete CDs anyway, mostly rock but from AC/DC to Zappa. Listen to less now I have a family unfortunately.

It would have been better if he had been captured and brought to justice. Broadmoor would seem to have been the appropriate place for him to spend the rest of his life.

Nah, a waste of good money.

I’ve done very well out of my 20 years of working so far so should feel fine – nice house in a nice area and no mortgage plus investments. But Indians are taking over the work I do – both through offshoring and coming here. So no idea what my future holds.

Looking wider the economy is looking bad again after looking like things were going well early in the year – FTSE is well down having hit new highs.

People in many poorer countries are a lot better off than they have been so we’re paying the price, hard to complain about that part of it really.

My own investment figures show that I have easily outperformed the 1.49% my mortgage costs me

Me too but not every year, some years I’ve lost a load but overall up – my rate is 0.75% over base. So your borrowing rate is 1.49%, how much are you willing to borrow at that rate to invest? What if your rate was 3%? How much would have have invested as a ratio with the value of your property and salary? Would you only invest when benefiting from tax savings? How do you choose when to invest?

Depends on what your mortgage rate is and how much debt you have, borrowing to invest is a tricky decision plus upsetting if you lose money on your investments!

Mate bought an Ariel Atom a few years back, had an issue on delivery and was told to get it fixed at a garage. Whilst there someone decided to have some fun with it and smashed it up on a roundabout.

they’d have to sell the ugly ones more cheaply

Why? Unless the veg is bruised or damaged, the visual appearance means nothing. It’ll all end up chopped up anyway so what does it matter how they look?[/quote]

Because most people would choose the pretty ones given the choice – apparently.

I use a Castelli Confronto jacket for really cold/wet rides as completely water proof and has a roadie cut with a slightly stretchy material to fit nicely. Not that breathable I think think but I have a jacket for that on milder days and a Gabba too. The Confronto is a good price for Castelli gear too.

If supermarkets sold ugly ones as well as pretty ones then they’d have to sell the ugly ones more cheaply so they’d risk making less profit but they could agree to pay less for these to the suppliers. Thing is though, are we just producing too much so some will always be wasted? Hopefully this would result in less being produced and farmers using their land for other things? Or import less?

HL have been saying this for a few years now but it suited me to wack in a chunk of cash so I went with it. Got enough in there now so sticking to ISAs for flexibility for the moment.

You need the cumulative interest to get anything worth having and this only comes after years of being invested.

Yeah but paying off debt is good too – depends on the interest rate. At what rate would you be willing to borrow to put into a pension?

IMO when younger best to worry more about saving up/paying for a suitable property to live in then switch to paying into a pension – may as well wait until a higher rate tax payer anyway. Of course take full advantage of all contributions an employer is willing to make though.

Maybe one day the higher rate tax benefit will go from pension contributions? Makes sense to take advantage of it while its there for those that earn enough.

Just watched this – surprised the plush lipped woman who bought the boat got blamed as she was ordered to by Daffy – got to do what the boss orders you to do right?

Does this help?

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?28734-Transfer-DATA-to-SD-Card-without-a-computer

I live in a village close to Leatherhead, pretty happy there but know my money would go further in some very attractive parts of the country. Would prefer somewhere more rural so may move one day. Roads are often busy with cars and the locals can get fed up with all the cyclists – espcially those plodding up Box Hill!

Recondition unit is the standard response from Garmin for a broken unit out of warranty – My replacement 800 cost me £75 – this is the 2nd replacement and not sure I will want a 4th unit when the time comes, depends how long this one lasts I suppose. These units are not as waterproof as Garmin would have you believe – at least they are not good at dealing with water. When they get wet need to let them dry out completely before connecting a cable.

My rides are written to my SD card now so I should always be able to get at them if the cable connection becomes a problem.

Any corrosion in the port? I had this issue and eventually had to pay for a reconditioned unit.

Workers can sell themselves to the highest bidder.

Cap Profits? What criteria would be used for what a profit should be? Don’t get it.

I bought one of these for £42 on Ebay and very pleased with it (decent battery), still available I think.

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/accessories/lights/front/product/review-one23-ex-bright-1000-front-light-12-46582/

After 24 months though… it ends.

Hmm, IMO if it is expected that a place of work will be over 24 months then tax can’t be claimed back even before the 24 months is up. I’m a consultant with a London office and I could end up working at the same client location for over 24 months which will cause me problems – so my plan is to try to switch to a different project at that point.

What do you do if it’s a webex?

How vulgar.

Depends how big the room is.

A bank would take it if all else fails. There should be no problem in spending in England but people are confused.

My 95 year old Gran is still driving and would be a bit stuck if she couldn’t as lives in a rural spot though only a couple of miles from some shops. So she drives back and forth daily but also longer trips. Had a crash last year but apparently not her fault. Asked who says she’s ok to drive – suggested her doctor but apparently no comment made by him.

She’s better than my wife though.

who could forget the interview between Mark Lamarr and Shabba Ranks on the Word.

Me – will search it out.

Do we need The Tube now we have Jools’s show?

TFI Friday will be good – except for U2.

The flat earth thing seems easy to disprove: if the Earth is flat than tell me where the edges are so I can go and see them for myself.

It’s where the time zones change by 24 hours.

Is a gabba short sleeve jersey, plus nanoflex arm warmers better than a Gabba long sleeve

That’s what I do.

5’11” 71kg – large.

Wouldn’t want to see what happened to Combo.

Will take Milky longer to recover from that than he did from his beating.

Difference between a beating and disappearing.

But they’re stopping to pee too much?

It is easy to take in energy via drink but I can only stomach so much so use cereal bars and the odd high 5 gel – about 2 every 3 hours but could take more.

Never used arse cream, had a few problems when wet but mostly fine. Do pros always use?

Countryside Ups and Downs

minus quite a bit for having it all now so being able to invest it wisely

Well yes that’s the tricky bit.

But also assume living in a house with no mortgage so that saves expenditure.

I have in mind £500k capital would keep me going – mostly invested though so big stock market falls could feel uncomfortable.

So how much money does one need to not work again? Age matters here assuming burning up capital.

I was thinking somewhere near Biarritz but perhaps closer to the mountains – though if too close can get a lot of rain.

Capbreton looks pricey!