Reply With QuoteNot sure about the public sector, but private sector pensions will have an indexation cap. Anything is better than nothing, of course.Originally Posted by 100thmonkey
After Andy Burnhams U- turn on his proposed £10 per van per day going to work tax in Greater Manchester mine and many other businesses will now remain viable.
My low mortgage is fixed for 5 years and energy bills fixed from last July for 2 years nothing on the never never and I prefer holidays in Wales than abroad so other than an increase in food I’m ok on the household bills.
Not sure about the public sector, but private sector pensions will have an indexation cap. Anything is better than nothing, of course.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/luxury-...ng-11652777716
Sales of personal luxury goods—top-end handbags, watches and the like—have been booming in the U.S. Before the pandemic, the Chinese were the industry’s most important consumers globally, accounting for one-third of all spending on such items in 2019, according to Bain & Company. Americans were next with a little more than one-fifth of the market. To most people’s surprise, this flipped in 2021 when Americans bought 32% of luxury goods by value and the Chinese just 23%. Luxury brands are therefore counting on U.S. shoppers to offset some of the pain caused by the latest shutdowns in Beijing and Shanghai.
Data from the early weeks of the second quarter in the U.S. are mixed. Spending on luxury in April did increase by 8% compared with the same month of 2021, based on credit and debit card transactions tracked by Bank of America. But this is a slowdown from the 16% increase recorded in the first quarter of 2022.
Some of the shoppers that drove last year’s boom are paring back. Purchases by consumers that earn less than $50,000 a year fell 9% in April compared with the same month of 2021. These shoppers gave luxury brands a boost in 2021, doubling their spending on designer goods compared with 2019. Spending by wealthy consumers was up a more modest 30% from prepandemic levels. Government stimulus checks, individual investors’ stock-market gains and excess savings are drying up. Higher food and gasoline prices are forcing less affluent consumers to make cutbacks.
Wealthier shoppers still look flush. Card transactions for luxury goods among consumers earning more than $125,000 a year increased 21% in April compared with a year earlier, only a slight slowdown on the 28% rate recorded in the first quarter. The overall trend suggests that although appetite for luxury goods remains enormous in the U.S., only brands’ core customers can still afford to splurge.
Back in China, major luxury labels are confident that sales will bounce back as restrictions lift. But a weak second quarter could continue to weigh on share prices in the near term. Europe’s largest luxury stocks are already down 32% on average since the beginning of the year, compared with an 18% decline for the MSCI Europe index. Hermès InternationalRMS -1.97% and Kering have been hit particularly hard.
Wealthy Americans still offer some hope to luxury brands, but most U.S. consumers now have more important things to spend their money on than a $1,000 bag.
Last edited by David_D; 19th May 2022 at 01:02.
Personally I think we have to adopt a bit of "back to the future" mentality, stop worrying so much about green/renewable energy and focus on what we have here right now, at least until we can sort things out, we shouldn't forget about investing for the future, but just manage the "here and now", everyone keeps going on about future generations, what about the present generation, the ones that have put an awful lot of money into taxes etc, don't they deserve to be thought about.
I know it's not popular with the "green" squad, but everyone is suffering with prices/economy at he moment, even if you can afford it why should you waste your hard earned when you don't have to.
I've just driven by our local co-op garage and noticed diesel is £1.82p per litre, it's no going to be long before we hit £10 a gallon, ( that's just bloody crazy ).
Too many people in an over populated country using resources that are already stretched to the limit through bad management and dare I say, a government that seems to be afraid to upset anyone, is not helping, it would seem that the people who are targeted should be the ones that are rewarded for pumping millions into the governments pockets.
I for one can sleep comfortably knowing that I've done my bit, ( and still doing my bit ), to help others in this time of need, and for many years before it.
Growing a bit of your own fruit and veg if you´ve the space and inclination, probably not the worst idea.
Perhaps keep a few chucks if you´ve room...we´ve several friends in the village do this for fun, the eggs. Though we do have a village egg man.
Mrs P, our nipper and the others of the village kids group have just begun a veggie patch project down in our orchard, more for the fun of it BUT when they eventually get bored that´s a dozen square meters of turned and cleared ground I haven´t had to do myself.
Last edited by Passenger; 19th May 2022 at 10:44.
A lot of pensions are index linked, but capped, my wife's is capped at 5%
Also with interest rates rising there should be some attractive buys for savers.
Cheers,
Neil.
Do you mean wealthy people taking advantage of poorer people in trouble?
Next time you buy your underpants at a good price in an average shop just remember that it was almost certainly made in a sweat shop.
2% is a good savings rate now but with inflation at 7% you’re losing massively in real terms.
Borrowers have benefited massively from artificially low interest rates for more than a decade.
Lolz, average shop.
Last edited by Passenger; 19th May 2022 at 14:57.
I know you think I am a heartless, self centred asshole but I do care about slave labour due to my anti counterfeiting days.
I know (or did know to be more precise) a member of the buying team at Selfridges and they impose more checks than anyone on the labour conditions of their suppliers.
I therefore buy nearly all of my clothes from Selfridges. It is not 100% perfect but it is a lot better than nearly all other retailers.
Thought this was an interesting article on inflation and the prognosis for what's next;
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/...mist-explains/
I nearly always wear Levi jeans but today i bought a pair of Tesco's jeans and to be honest they are pretty good.
Inflation is now at 9% so I expect another 0.25% or maybe 0.5% interest rate rise from BOE shortly, it’s like a Yin Yang of balance but at the moment it’s way way out, the BOE have acted far too slowly to tackle inflation.
Tough, very tough times ahead..
The trouble is that if the Bank of England had acted earlier there would have been a right old hooha from the usual moaners complaining it was all unnecessary. The Government just can't win no matter what they do.
You will survive and may even benefit from inflation, it's not all gloom and doom.
There are a great many who won’t.
Cheers..
Jase
Thats the truth and it wouldn't matter who was in power, they just can't please everyone all the time.
Yeah but he doesn't care about those. Proper Tory!
Let me just check your understanding here. You said the Bank of England could have acted earlier but then say the government can’t win.
Who do you think sets the rate?
The Bank of England, not the government.
Yes everyone knows that. The problem being that it's the government what takes the blame despite inflation being a worldwide problem. Some would blame the government for a batch of dodgy pineapples being sold by the local supermarket such is the will to blame them for everything.
Which is why I’ve pointed it out to Mick. Why would the government be blamed for the BoE setting rates?
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Luckily you’re around to defend the indefensible ay Mick.
Ah, no, I misunderstood your point apologies, definitely not defending him or anyone else.
Boiler is off now, and hot water only heating every couple of days on ‘boost’ function. Do laundry when able to avoid tumble-dryer.
ASDA’s own cream crackers, weetabix and olive-oil spread, but that is just normal ‘not seeing any difference between those and branded’.
Not going to save a bundle for sure
The author appears to suggest inflation will begin to go down in the second half of this year...I'd be surprised, pleased, if it is that swift a turnaround.
We are paying way too much for BT broadband. If I was to change provider, is the changeover and reconnection of devices relatively easy (SmartTV, Ring, Sonos, Devolo all that type of clutter) or should problems be expected? I guess providers rely on consumer inertia.
Otherwise, I need to look at all of the auto-renewals like insurances, warranties, rarely used subscriptions.
Having recently walked away from work for good and before my time, I might be on my way back (well after summer) with inflation, stock market falls and erosion of savings. I gather hundreds of thousands walked away from work during Covid. There's a severe labour shortage so hopefully rates are buoyant. I just need to avoid public sector and financial services for the sake of my sanity.
Lidl has been doing 1.2kg bags of coffee beans for £6.99. Seems alright to me. £3-£5 for 1/5 of that in Waitrose?
Last edited by BillyCasper; 23rd May 2022 at 10:38.
I think we'll see 10%+ before any drop then the fall off will take time, just human nature to ramp up prices quickly but take time to bring them down, a lot depends on Ukraine too, if the west are still heavily invested in war come the Autumn then prices could go anywhere..
We changed our Boiler from two heats a day too one,
I’m told by a proper expert that it is a bubble and it is going to go pop, the enthusiasm that the Dutch and the Belgiums have will end as quickly as it started, she warned me off buying anything at the moment, she says it won’t be as bad as 2009 but it’s coming
Daft question - but if inflation is the change between a point in time and 12 months prior. If inflation is currently at 8% today as an example, if 12 months later it is 2%, does that mean in the 2 years, it has gone up 8% and then a further 2%?
If thats the case to get back to normal levels either the inflation levels have to go to negative to balance it out?
Is my understanding correct?
Prices don’t need to fall for inflation to start dropping, just stop increasing so fast. Inflation is likely to keep going up until after the next revision of the energy price cap but is likely to moderate after that as we probably won’t see increases of the same magnitude again.
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Yep, that’s why when MickP says some people can benefit from inflation I can’t see it, if everything goes up, it means everything, whatever interest rate or house price inflation you get.
Inflation is great if you have debts as they go down in real terms. Asset increases like homes are a bit irrelevant as of course all the other homes have also increased in price. But having big debts and high inflation, assuming the debts are on fixed interest rates is actually pretty handy.
So when the BoE say they want it to keep to approx 2%, even if it reaches the 2% target next year, it means nothing if wages dont increase. Does that mean the standard of living will always be worse than the previous year forever going forward?
Sounds like a world of pain for many people for a long time!
only if your wages increase in line with inflation if i understand it correctly.
Sonos you simply tell to connect to a new network, very easy. The same with Ring etc so should not be an issue.
Regarding the previous Asda weetabix comment, they used to be the exact same product from the same factory and line. They simply changed the packaging as was more cost effective.
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They aren't quite the same now, and contain less salt and sugar than the branded ones. No bad thing really.
Even the shops are getting into savings. Iceland on Tuesdays give you 10% off if your over 60 on everything. Asda give you 10% off if you’ve a blue light card or defence discount card on most of your shopping, not fuel though.
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In Menorca it's been mainly French/Italians with cash buying properties for remote working, which has pushed prices up over Covid - this in a market which never really dropped once the intial 2008 shock was over, just stagnated.
Main problem is that asking prices bear no relevance to actual deal prices and there's no accessible land registry where you can reliably find sold prices. It's a guessing game and sellers are usually wildly optmistic on values especially if it's a family who've had the place for years. Criticise UK market yes, but at least there is some certainty about what you can afford and a decent supply of it.
Land for self build is no better as there's 20% tax on sale/transfer but annual taxes on building land held is ridiulously low (a couple of hundred Euro for an average plot). You can keep a plot in the family for years unless you NEED the cash - it's costing you very little - so a sellers market.
If you change the new router’s name and password to match the old router, your devices will connect as if nothing has happened.
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BT broadband is something I need to look at, and possibly Netflix too.
Not worried about the router - as I only use the BT wifi in the garage. I think I even have a spare straight router ready.
Check the other own brand vs the originals, there was only other factory able to make that shaped biscuit but was not popular in the day. Some will likely be from the original brand factory if you prefer the original taste.
Also for price conscious folk, check the PL code on medicines. These are identical to the brand if the PL code is the same - rennie liquid is 100% the same as the private label ones - same factory etc. medicines is very much marketing and branding.
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I can't see how Free Charging can carry on. Plus with the cost of electricity pretty much tripling by the time we get to 2023 just how cost effective can electric motoring be?
It's been said by many that EVs are not the way to go for climate change too. They seem a lost cause
It's not a decision that I made lightly, I did loads of research and decided that the balance now tipped in the favour of EVs for us and that it was time to replace a 15 year old uneconomical car. They are probably not the end game but fossil fuels are a finite resource, something has to happen to reduce reliance, and this is a step. I doubt whether they are a lost cause judging from the way that the technology is developing, and demand is off the scale. As more energy for charging moves to renewables we can hope that costs and climate impact will at least level out. It doesn't half shift as well, and I love being able to listen to music properly on those long drives. This is a fairly subjective take on them: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00162yr
In the context of this thread, I expect that free top-up charging will last for a couple of years which will get us through a particularly high mileage period of daily college commutes. We are currently saving over £200 a month on vehicle fuel, which helps cover increases elsewhere.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
We have very limited free charging at work to encourage people to get evs now more people have got them they are going to charge for it
I noticed that petrol jumped last week, and guess what, its gone up again this week
Wholesale gas prices have collapsed. Yet the energy cap has increased. Time to buy Centrica shares.....
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