Mortgage advice, empty post boxes, and my Share progress (or lack of!)

Saturday, 15th November 2008 11:49 - by Resident IFA

3 topics for the price of 1 today. We have added a Mortgage Advice area to the site, soon to be followed by a fuller Mortgage section. This has been written, now in the process of having web pages designed around it. Initially, the Mortgage Advice offered is to visitors residing in the London, Essex, and Kent areas, but we hope to be able to expand that to nation-wide over time. We have selected Clear Financial Advice as our trusted company in this instance. All it takes is the completion of the relevant form, taking approximately 1 minute, in the Personal Finance section. You will then be contacted for an initial discussion and need assessment, this providing the information necessary to search the whole marketplace for the most suitable and competitive mortgage product available to you. =========================================================================== It has become noticeable to me that, over the past 6 months or so, whenever I go to put letters in any of the 3 post boxes I use between my office and home, they are considerably emptier. Is this a sign of recession? Am I just visiting the boxes earlier in the day when they are not yet as full? Unfortunately, the answers appear to be ‘yes’ and ‘no’ respectively. I have made no cuts to my business expenditure as I tried to run a trim operation anyhow, with the Alan Partridge-like mantra of ‘think about the overhead’. This said, I am even more aware – and have made my colleagues so – about watching the pennies and pounds. Does that letter really need to be sent 1st class? Over the course of a year, this thinking will make a difference, however minimal. It seems that other people and businesses are taking it a step further by not sending as much marketing or non-essential mail full-stop. On the bright side, if I visit a post box in the half-hour before collection, at least now I do not have to wrestle like Steve Irwin (RIP) with a crocodile just to get my envelopes inside! ============================================ My 8 recently-bought Shares…mmm…not setting the world alight! In the time I have held them the FTSE100, by my research, has jumped from 3,846 to 4,233 (Almost 9.15%). I am being fair, taking the closing value on the day before I bought, as I got in early on a day that saw a decent increase in the FTSE100. At one point I was in the region of £350 in profit, but now my lse.co.uk Member Portfolio tracker tells me that I am £2.89 down, and before exit dealing costs! Of the 8, five shares are down in value. Perhaps I should have bought a FTSE100 Tracker fund instead! But seriously, I am happy to be around break-even after a fortnight, two of the shares that took a plunge now being back to parity or thereabouts, set fair for good growth, I hope. I set a 3-month timeframe, not wanting to day-trade or anything labour intensive like that, so I am content to go that distance…or more if I have to. In reflection, the share research criteria I used leant towards stocks that may ‘plod’ a little, but they seem to be in good, sound companies that can weather a recession and provide the required profit, if not spectacular intra-day growth, I set out to achieve. At least that’s what I keep telling myself! Until next time…