Opening Thoughts

Hi There,

To anyone who finds this blog let me start just by saying "Hello."

Not for the first time I have decided to let my thoughts float into the worldwide wiring system in the hope that perhaps someone, somewhere, might be interested. I have a history of bombarding friends around the world with rambling e-mails but here I want to try to create posts that are shorter and more frequent. I do not intend to write about my life day-to-day; it will be just too boring — even for me to write it, let alone anyone else to read it. I may comment on my experiences as I battle the bureaucrats and the call centres and the politcically correct and, of course, the credit crunch.

I am now semi-retired doing a little work with my old company to create a bit of extra cash to top up my declining income. Otherwise, I spend time looking after my gym - more about that later - and investigating my family history. I intend to write a book about the family and already have put together a few hundred pages. Once I have finished, the structure will need some serious editing if it is to avoid the length and gripping excitement of a telephone directory in several volumes.

Being a geriatric involves looking after pensions and things. When I decided to retire in 2007, I needed to set up a private pension using funds lying in a defunct company pension scheme. To do this I had to go via a financial adviser. He gave me lots of advice and did get the best deal on my pension. Since then I have been trying to look after my income via pensions funds, ISAs, PEPs, shares, and savings. It is complicated. I could never have done it if I had still been working full-time. I am trying to put my cash in a safe bank that will give me good interest. As I recover cash from Icelandic banks, Irish banks and UK banks that chop their interest payments, I see my Barclays shares become valueless. Confidence in this bank is now so high that the market values the company at about 9 months profits. Or is it just that nobody believes the directors anymore.

Eric's mum says that she keeps her money in a biscuit tin. The interest rate is low but at least she knows that her money will not be invested in a 125% loan to a sub-prime borrower who cannot pay it back and who needs it to buy a house falling in value at the rate of 20% per annum. She may not be a Master of the Universe or even a highly paid banker but her business model makes more sense than theirs.