Don’t mind me…
… goes and cries in the corner…
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Ha! No LISA either although I do remember some pretty decent interest rates on the years running up to it.
I seem to remember one year an ISA at Halifax was paying either 8 or 10%, which topped it up nicely.
Had to put down 12k at the bottom of the market (2012). Best thing I’ve ever done.
6 years later, flat added 100k in value.
That’s effectively whats happened to us.
As the price has increased so has our LTV, meaning we’ve been able to shave years off our mortgage whilst paying what we always paid.
I’m under no illusions I’ve been lucky, but I feel I at least somewhat earned it!
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Always have said to the wife, we should have bought a house at the time… instead done it now (It’s a new build, the price is already inflated)
The LISA sure is nice, and is a welcome vehicle to help savings considering such poor interest rates - but when you start capping it in a year (not that I have) I think at some point a high(er) interest ISA would do a better job.
Who knows, with Brexit it may bring a crash (I doubt it) and I’ll get lucky!
a man can dream… 
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Just make sure you’re ready to pounce if it does!
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At this rate, Brexit will happen in 2030 so I’ve got some time 
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Slightly off topic but dont forget to vote today
(Not wanting to start a debate just reminding people whichever way they are voting to vote)
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CEOs to do not make companies. The people below them do. For example although Tom is the CEO Monzo and is a lovely person etc.(@tom would be curious to see what you think about this) He doesn’t make Monzo have the value that is does it is down to the
Marketing Department
Programmers
COps
Developers
Social Media people
This forum to name but a few
They don’t a lot of them have the mechanics and resources to investigate loopholes for tax purposes,in which case they are tax compliant and don’t count as tax evasion. I believe the PC term is “Tax efficient”.
Everything, by the CEO taking such a high salary that means you’re left with
As they take a large slice of the available pie. This means that because the salary is low, you cannot afford a standard of living that you would like with out debt capabilities such as loans. This also puts strain on the housing market as people use “Buy to let” to supplement their income due to low incomes and low interest rates for savings(Driven by the eye gouging amount of debt).Meaning house prices increase. If a CEO was not taking a HUGE salary.they could spread the monetary gain more and people’s wages would go up.(in the case below it was shares but some employees are set to make like 5k)
Completely disagree. A good CEO will help a company progress. A bad one will tank it. We only need to look at Mike Ashley and Jamie Oliver for examples close to home. A contrived example, but a CEO is the captain of a ship. Without a captain, you have crew and no sense of direction. Sure, things will function, but where is the ship heading? 
Tax avoidance is the technical term, not to be confused with evasion, but also it’s an extremely unfair and unfounded view to hold, thinking that anyone who earns over X must be screwing over the taxman.
That is just not founded in reality. There’s plenty of companies where CEO’s are paid vast amounts, and so are their employees. Just take any large tech company such as Apple, Google, Facebook etc. Due to market competition, if employees are not given a fair deal, they will walk away.
Beyond that, wages have nothing to do with housing prices. Asking companies to increase salaries by up to x13 times over the wages of the 80’s is unrealistic.
Just not true. A lot of buy-to-let is used as a way to increase already sizeable incomes with, essentially, a brick and mortar savings account where someone else pays the mortgage and the owner can sell it off in 10 yrs for a significant gain. The issue is a lack of housing legislation that doesn’t favour first time buyers.
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This. In my career… I’ve worked for 4 directors. 3 at the same company.
First one (founder of the company) retired after I started - fair play.
2nd one… bled the company dry
3rd one - corporate nickname is known as the axe - trims the fat of companies and sells them on (which is pretty much what he did)
4th one - friendly guy, has excellent rep amongst staff and customers, very approachable and is not afraid of criticism
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Mike Ashley is the Chairman and in Jamie Oliver’s case the CEO wasn’t him it was his brother. A bad CEO can survive even if the company is founded on lies.for example the CEO of Theranos founded the company on lies and still survived for years before she was finally done for wire fraud. A bad CEO will always survive off the good graces of their staff. A good CEO makes the company excel and thrive
In the vast majority of cases there’s a reason bonuses are so high and why there is always a controversy every 5 years about a shell company somewhere.
How many people work for a top company compared to those that don’t. There are many companies especially in fast fashion and the gig economy where people’s real wages compared to the person working is several magnitudes lower than the CEO.
Check out the rate of their salary growth compared to others
I don’t think it is if you’re making high profits then you can afford to least increase the salary. For example private vs state healthcare. NHS nurse gets paid probably £18K a year a private nurse gets paid in the states for example £100K(in fact the lowest is still $34K). Another way to improve it would be to provide housing for your employees so that they can afford to save for a house of their own.(Bourneville by the Cadbury Family.)(George Peabody did a similar thing)or many of the Quaker industrialists).
Because interest rates are not going to rise with such terrible debt issues.
At the end of the day a lot of this comes down to morals and ethics and how you view your employees and whether you see them as just a unit or a cost. Or whether you view them as a person and will pay them a good salary and them improve thereby buying employee loyalty etc.
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So then, as you admit, a good CEO can bring value to a company. If they bring value to a company, surely they deserve a big salary? Not everyone can, or is willing, to take on the burden of thousands of workers and criticism of shareholders, and then make that company thrive.
Bonuses are taxed as part of regular income. If a bonus pushes you into a different tax band, it’ll be taxed accordingly.
And those jobs tend to be unskilled, so completely incomparable with the CEO. Let’s look at Uber. The latest CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi has:
- Saved a company whose reputation was in tatters
- Reworked the entire working policy of uber as a company
- Improved international and national relations with cities and local governments
- Had to handle some major
decisions made by his predecessor over privacy breaches - Floated the company on the stock market
An Uber driver drives people from point A to B, something which requires so little skill it’s likely to be automated in the next 10 years. If you slash a CEO’s salary significantly, who on earth would want that job? Massive stress, a job that is truly 24/7 for low pay? No thanks.
That’s a different matter entirely comparing the incompetence of the UK state to the private sector. As for housing etc, nothing is free, therefore the cost would have to come from somewhere, and no, a CEO’s salary isn’t that big to cover it all while still offering a salary that compensates the person for the skill and stress requirements of the role.
Doesn’t matter. While housing is in short supply in the UK, the value will always increase, making it a good savings opportunity for anyone who can afford a second/third/forth etc house.
A good CEO will ensure loyalty, but that’s not to say they should be paid less.
Might be worth refocusing this on using Monzo to help save for a deposit or cost of housing
- What would people look for when buying their first property?
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A swimming pool 
More seriously. You shouldn’t be looking for anything more than a kitchen diner, living room and 1 bedroom (unless you have kids). It’s all about getting your foot on the ladder.
Spare bedrooms, garages, separate dining rooms, conservatories and all that stuff are not essential. Get some of those ticked off the list when you shop for your next house in 5 or 6 years 
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Bought my first property recently, 2 bed flat for a bit over £300K.
Outskirts of London, so it’s the location that makes it worth it, but amazing to see how much house you can get in other parts of the country for that much!
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Something that has 4 walls, a roof, a toilet, kitchen and a bed - all for less than selling my soul insert any form of devil here but that sounds quite pie in the sky.
I saw Homes Under the Hammer 
yesterday. There was a house in Fulham without a roof. Sold for over £1m.
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Well… looks like I need to re-think my view of a “first property” was clearly being too optimistic in my endeavours!
£1m for a house with NO ROOF… I need a minute
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