are you saying you wouldn’t have had kids if the benefit didn’t exist (if so I feel sorry for your kids…).

So aren’t we supposed to make this sort of decision based on our ability to afford?

Dividends are only taxed at 20%, aren’t they? Capital Gains?

No, dividends must be declared on your tax return and will attract extra tax.

The my kids will pay for your state pension is a bit of a weak argument imo. I expect there won’t be a state pension or retirement age will be much higher by the time I reach 65

Brilliant! If we have enough people of a working age we won’t have this problem you tool!

How can you avoid higher rate? I mean you can avoid some NI but if you take dividends you still have income so have to pay tax – so there’s something else you can do?

Anyway, we’ll now have a system a bit like stamp duty – someone who earns just over the higher rate level will lose the whole lot so will end up with a lower income than someone just under it – ‘please don’t give me a payrise’ some might ask.

I don’t think that any tax is fair as such, it’s about what works. The closest I can think of a fair tax is some sort of variation on tax on expenditure so that basics are free of tax but luxuries get a lot whatever that amount might be.

I used to do this and parked near Stamford Brook tube.

I have the book and live in the Surrey Hills where a few climbs are included as noted above. I can sort of see why some have been included as it’s not the 100 hardest climbs – more iconic or whatever. Anyway, Boxhill Zig Zag is rated 3/10 which is fair enough I suppose but not sure why White Down gets 8/10. The Burway (no.39) is the toughest I’ve done and rated at 9/10 which seems more appropriate than White Down’s rating.

Trouble is those that can’t speak in any other way are going to struggle to get on well in the business world…. What grade GCSE can they get with that language? It’s a problem as it broadens the class divide or whatever.

I tried to tell this story to someone else but it didn’t really work – this bloke who works for the brother-in-law of a bloke who posts on a forum I read was out in Manchester….

I started doing them a few years ago as was in the 40% bracket then they told me I could stop doing them – you can still claim back tax by writing a letter which I did for mileage. I’ve had to start doing them again and reckon it’s OK as not much of a chore to do online.

There’s something unsettling about seeing that those lithe, nubile hotties that you used to cop off with have turned into haggered old dogs.

Yeah, the guys from my boys public school aren’t what they used to be.

Put it all on red…I mean black….

My mate set his air bag off when he took off in his Scooby. Never bothered re-setting it as didn’t find the air bag very comfortable…!

Illogical to buy from here? Well to you but to others it helps the buyer and seller so everyone wins – if all goes well anyway.

As to the OP – well I had a few questions about my house when I put it on the market but I still took the 1st offer that was acceptable – I’m funny like that.

Yeah, what’s the maximum capacity of a floppy disc? 250mb?

Well 1.4mb roughly…I still have hundreds and had a search to see what I might use them for; some sort of storage maybe or

Not me and not recently but I used to smile at people who insisted on using phones from the early 90s just because they had to pay so much for them back then; bricks for sure.

Would be funny if the Government was telling us to live within our means whilst borrowing heavily, you see Labour were happy with us all borrowing; it fuelled the boom that they were so proud of.

Double dip is the (almost) inevitable result of dealing with the debt we have. Some say we shouldn’t deal with it because of this but the Tories are grabbing the bull by the horns…not always a sensible action!

OK well another way is to multiply your monthly payment by the right amount – 50% for you? Then there’s also all the other costs to consider that the landlord is responsible for such as maintenance. You will probably be paying more but that’s fine as there’s a premium that many of us are happy to pay in order to live in our own property with the freedom it brings.

But what %age do you own? Need to compare the monthly rent of a property with the same value as your mortgage to what your monthly payment is.

Put very simply an ‘asset’ is something which puts money in your pocket. A ‘liability’ is something that takes money out of your pocket.

Well not in accounting terms as I said but I did speculate that this was what the book was getting at. You mention that gold has performed better than house prices in recent times, very true but how many saw that coming? Most people would spread their money and much would have gone into the stock market – well that’s performed very badly over the last 10 years – down about 10%. The great thing about property is the ability to borrow against it – i.e. get a mortgage. Most people are quite highly geared in their early years of house ownership which means in a rising market profits are significant. So say prices have doubled in the last 10 years then someone who bought a £100k house with £10k deposit and interest only mortgage would now have a property worth £200k and their £10k would now be worth £110k – that even beats gold right? But yes its higher risk as it only takes a fall of 10% at the start to wipe out your asset so timing is a big deal and someone buying a property now might surely wonder if they’ll lose money – in the short-term anyway. But how many would put a lot of money in gold now? Maybe it’ll rise for now but maybe it’ll drop back significantly sometime too – and you can’t live in your gold. In many ways gold is a terrible investment as it only gives capital growth. But then your house does too? Well no because you live in it so that’s a benefit – if you don’t live in it you’ll have to pay rent somewhere. Or live in a box.

NorthernStar – anyone who still thinks that owning a house is an ‘asset’ well you’re wrong

Well I’m not sure I agree but then I haven’t read of the book. I guess the point is that it’s an asset that needs maintaining – i.e. it’s a cost? Well we all need to live somewhere so we all have a cost; it just might be rent or mortgage or maintenance or…. So a house doesn’t give an income but does that really mean it isn’t an asset? It’s not a very liquid asset, especially at the moment, but it can be sold therefore it is an asset surely? Well in accountancy terms anyway. And if you’ve paid off the mortgage it’s an asset in that it minimizes your living costs – i.e. no rent – though there is the opportunity cost of course.

Would you like to comment based on what the book says?

There is an opportunity cost with buying – the capital can be used for other investments. Oh I already said that really.

Add up the interest paid on the life of a mortgage and you have spent an extra house buying a place.

Sort of – you have to consider the NPV of all the payments. Over the longer term mortgage rates are very reasonable – and that’s one reason people have gone for interest only mortgages in the past; they invested the extra in the stock market assuming that their return will be better than the cost of the mortgage. I’m talking about ISA or even endowment mortgages but of course the latter are really a bit of a rip-off due to the costs associated with them.

Surf-Mat – oh I see but that must take ages? Unless you earn a lot I suppose. I have no problems with debt if the rates are right, the payments affordable and the benefit worth the cost. Anyway, when it comes down to it your cash is getting a return – though not much now if in a low-risk place – so if that outweighs house price growth after tax then you’ve done well; maybe there will be a crash! I was lucky to be ready to buy a house in the mid-90s so have surfed a decent wave since then; now in a house that I would never have been able to afford if I hadn’t taken that approach.

odannyboy – how have you not got any savings? I suppose you paid rent to your ex?

Surf-Mat – so you’re saving up for a cheap house but run an expensive car? You really love cars! BTW, not sure it’s sensible saving up to buy a house outright as you’re paying rent which could be paying mortgage interest – same thing really. Unless you’re convinced prices will fall significantly.

‘Capitalism will destroy itself’ – well I think that the US will tumble one day as we see the wealth gap widen to the point that the nation can’t hold itself together. Whether the more moderate capitalist societies will be OK is a different matter but socialism has little of appeal for me.

I’ve owned a house since the mid 90s and always borrowed as much as I could – worked out well for me as my current house is worth about 10x my salary. Always lived sensibly/boringly and the more I earnt the more I saved rather than the more I spent – as such I could put over 2/3 of my take home into the mortgage though it was 1/4 when I bought the house.

Tomorrow Never Dies was the one I really didn’t get – the story didn’t appeal at all. Not suggesting that the story is the point of James Bond films but still.

If you can’t afford a new bike then upgrade the wheels – I like Ksyrium Elites – then get a new bike next year, swap the wheels over and use this one as a winter bike. That’s more or less what I did anyway.

Try one of these for value:

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/bikes/q/drop-bar-road-bikes/sl-pro-carbon

Happy with my Garmin nüvi 265WT

gmaps pedometer doesn’t total up the amount of ascent does it?

Can't beat a bit of Civilization 4.

Yeah you can

http://www.civilization5.com/

Stupid people get mocked too – it's an equal opportunities thing.

A bloke I work with says 'and so on and so forth' when discussing most things.

On a project last year we worked with some guys based out in India. At our weekly update meetings when asked how far through their current pieces of work they'd give nice %age increases each week and discuss some issues. I started to think I was looking bad as my %age didn't increase as nicely as there's. When it came to delivering work mine was done and there's was so far off the UK guys had to work all weekend to sort the Indian guys' stuff out. But they are cheaper than us so that's OK then.

Yourself/myself instead of you/me – even some supposedly bright people do that such as my boss.

Lets hope the man above doesn't step on your hands; how do you get down if you get hurt?

Abramovich could offer me one of his yachts and I still wouldn't try that.

BTW, how do those things get built?

Watched it a while ago and can't remember too well but see from IMDB that I gave it 8/10 against an ave score of 6.7/10.

With a bit of effort yourself think you can co better than most fund managers

Well some funds perform appallingly and I don't know why people choose those over funds from the likes of Fidelity, Jupiter, Schroder, BlackRock…. I studied investment at Uni and I came out of that thinking I should leave it to the pros as I ain't got the time or access to the info they have anyway. Most of the money I have invested now went in during the last decade, I have a compound return of 6.85% compared to a FTSE 100 return of 2.4%. Actually my biggest return (not included in that) is from an investment into the company I work for that got bought out last year so kinda agree with andylaightscat but mostly say leave it to the experts.

What fees do H-L add? Surely they just get their share of the annual mgt fee?

Trackers ain't great in bad times and the market is down over the last decade – is that 2.19% return compounded? If so better than I'd have thought.