(no subject)

[ewx]

When your house is on the line you assume that the guarantees on offer are copper bottomed.

...without actually having seen the T&Cs this man was shown, I'd suggest that the more you have to lose, the less you should be assuming. Certainly the notion that the stock market can fall as well as rise should not have been unfamiliar in 1987. When does a large number of people losing a bet stop being a reminder of caveat emptor and start being a scandal?

My wife and I are going to have to work until normal retirement age and perhaps even a little beyond.

I'm finding it a little hard to be very sympathetic about this. Retiring earlier than 'normal' is surely a bonus, not a right, and not one that I think my own generation are very likely to enjoy in large numbers, if current demographic trends continue.

Comments

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

So in 1996 he bought a house for £125,000, with a £65,000 mortgage. There will be a £20,000 shortfall. On house price inflation trends it's probably worth about £225,000 now, so he'll have £205,000 in equity at the end of the day.

Being retired, they won't need a big house, so he could have this (http://www.vebra.com/home/includes/vdetails.asp?src=vebra&fd=0&bd=1&db=1&cl=175&pid=8662502) lovely retirement bungalow down the road, with a spare £100k to invest in getting a better pension.

Some people...

[hsenag.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately their house suffers from subsidence and is worth less than they paid for it (mentioned at the bottom of the article).

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Ah, so they not only didn't read the terms of their endowment properly, but also not the terms of their insurance, or their surveyors' report?

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

But if they moved to a less valuable house, they wouldn't be able to boast whinge about their council tax.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Another advantage!