Millions have saving of less than £100

[Ari]

NRS said:

Saving say £3000 now will mean you have the equivalent of £6500 after 20 years with 4% interest.

There's that mythical Pistonheads 4% safe investment cropping up again. It does from time to time, but whenever anyone tries to find out where they can earn it, it's like nailing smoke to the ceiling...

It's just... out there somewhere...

[NRS]

Ari said:

There's that mythical Pistonheads 4% safe investment cropping up again. It does from time to time, but whenever anyone tries to find out where they can earn it, it's like nailing smoke to the ceiling...

It's just... out there somewhere...

You missed the sentence before?

NRS said:

...but you can make bigger gains with some risk. Saving say £3000 now will mean you have the equivalent of £6500 after 20 years with 4% interest.

I never said it was safe, but over the long term it is relatively safe since if you don't need it for something as you can wait out any lows. Which is what I was addressing - if you say live for a decade spending everything like some do then it means you will need to be saving a larger sum later in life to "catch up".

[paranoid airbag]

GT03ROB said:

.... I will refer my learned mathematician friend to my subsequent point....

Don't care. What you said is just wrong. Not "reality vs statistics", just by the basic definition wrong. Your subsequent point was also nonsense, nobody here ever said that a low Gini is inherently good (FTR, the first three papers I've found relating it to growth have three different answers) or that two countries with equivalent Ginis are expected to be the same.

I really do wonder: how do you convince yourself, in any argument about numbers, that your objectively terrible grasp of them is not somehow a handicap? I'm really trying not to be sarcastic here, I do not understand. Or do you think you do?

Edited by paranoid airbag on Saturday 8th October 00:15

[GT03ROB]

paranoid airbag said:

GT03ROB said:

.... I will refer my learned mathematician friend to my subsequent point....

Don't care. What you said is just wrong. Not "reality vs statistics", just by the basic definition wrong. Your subsequent point was also nonsense, nobody here ever said that a low Gini is inherently good (FTR, the first three papers I've found relating it to growth have three different answers) or that two countries with equivalent Ginis are expected to be the same.

I really do wonder: how do you convince yourself, in any argument about numbers, that your objectively terrible grasp of them is not somehow a handicap? I'm really trying not to be sarcastic here, I do not understand. Or do you think you do?

Edited by paranoid airbag on Saturday 8th October 00:15

You really are a pleasant chap aren't you!

Since I'd agreed my maths in that case was wrong before your 1st & subsequent statement I'm not sure why you feel the need to continue with that line.

I really do wonder how you convince yourself, in any argument, that your terrible lack of social skills is not somehow a handicap. I'm really not trying to be sarcastic here, I just don't understand.

[paranoid airbag]

GT03ROB said:

You really are a pleasant chap aren't you!

Since I'd agreed my maths in that case was wrong before your 1st & subsequent statement I'm not sure why you feel the need to continue with that line.

I really do wonder how you convince yourself, in any argument, that your terrible lack of social skills is not somehow a handicap. I'm really not trying to be sarcastic here, I just don't understand.

Honestly? I like seeing a good argument, winning it usually secondary. I don't feel good if I've convinced you of something by being nice and using logic I secretly know is crap. In fact I feel worse, the whole bloody point of arguing is that if shaky logic is being used, someone calls it. If I know I have little to add but horsehit because I'm not an expert in the field, I lean towards listening to (relative to me) experts argue instead. If someone is spouting horsest, I'll shout at them, because best case they've diverted energy away from a good debate into unpaid education for entitled morons, at worst someone might actually mistake them for someone smart.

You?

[MG CHRIS]

V8mate said:

RYH64E said:

V8mate said:

MG CHRIS said:

Im pretty fortunate im 24 and ...

Proper bizarre revelation! Reading your posts over the years I'd always assumed you were retired!

Carry on!

MGJohn?

Ah! Could well be! The BTCC fanatic.

MGjohn used to be the f1 guy always posting about betting on the f1 threads. I on the other hand comment regular in the btcc threads. I had a mg when I joined this forum now since gone so should change my name to what I use on other forums but its already taken so have just kept this one.

[Kermit power]

Has anyone defined what constitutes "savings" yet?

I don't personally have any immediate liquid savings, as they'd pay bugger all, and I'm far better off stuffing everything I can into my pension with matched employer contributions and tax relief.

If the worst happened and I lost my job tomorrow, I've got an MBNA credit card kicking around with available credit roughly equivalent to the GDP of Barnsley on it, and once back in a job, I could stick it onto an interest free balance transfer and suspend pension contributions for a few months to pay it off. What's the value of liquid savings?

[turbobloke]

Kermit power said:

Has anyone defined what constitutes "savings" yet?

I don't personally have any immediate liquid savings, as they'd pay bugger all, and I'm far better off stuffing everything I can into my pension with matched employer contributions and tax relief.

If the worst happened and I lost my job tomorrow, I've got an MBNA credit card kicking around with available credit roughly equivalent to the GDP of Barnsley on it, and once back in a job, I could stick it onto an interest free balance transfer and suspend pension contributions for a few months to pay it off. What's the value of liquid savings?

Possibly psychological only at this stage? Differenet folks have different levels of risk tolerance and a cash cushion may well help some people sleep easily.

[Maxf]

Kermit power said:

Has anyone defined what constitutes "savings" yet?

I've got a lot of 'stuff' - vintage watches, some art and other 'stuff' - some of which has quite a following. If I had to sell up, I'd be fine - BUT if the world went to crap and I needed the money, I suspect the market for my stuff would be pretty thin too. Hence the need for some ready cash as well.