Member Info for Bonz1957

Hope you closed that short!! Good news on the housebuilding front today. That train now rapidly approaching 500p again. Full steam ahead. ATB.

Would have thought you would have been used to penny shares after your dealings in HMV lol!! Dont get me started on firms computer systems and their complete inability to get them to work - i've only got 3000 characters a post!!! Probably easier for you to get them a new card at the new address and just forget about any points left over from the old one. You can also go online and spend the vouchers to order something they want from the 16 digit online code that will be listed against each voucher that hasn't yet been spent, without having to physically have the vouchers in your hand. Recently orderd 3 BBC Mag subscriptions online before i had received the vouchers. Get them a day pass to Alton Towers, put them on Oblivion - my favourite ride - and give them a day out they won't forget for a while LOL!!! Have been trying for 18 months to get a Wickes reward card and have even exchanged emails with senior members of management, but no matter how hard we all try they have, to date, been completely unable to send me out my loyalty card. You will i'm sure understand my complete dread at the thought of trying to change addresses on over 100 financial holdings when i finally complete the move to Devon. It's almost worth keeping the London house just as a mail box. Either that or donate the ones that don't make it to charity!! Off to Yorks tomorrow for a meeting with social services at the hospital to decide on the fate of said M-I-L, wish me luck!! Perhaps i could take her on Oblivion??? Something tells me life will never be the same again. Still as it's her mother i can always take off if the going gets tough Ha Ha!! Or i can enjoy spending her pension on little treats for me - Bourbon, Scotch, Brandy, Rum, etc - to help drown out the snoring and loud marching music. Sometimes both at the same time!!! Keep an eye on the sp for me while away. ATB.

Buyer Beware!!! With the news that Spurs are to de-list todays fall is only the start. It will be like rats leaving a sinking ship the closer we get to 'D' day, no-one wants to hold a share that will at best be difficult to trade, and at worst would be virtually impossible. Deals would almost certainly be on a 'matched basis' through a tame broker of levy's choosing. If they are only prepared to pay you 5p who else will you be able to sell to?? If anyone is in any doubt look at Millwall's sp since they announced they were going to de-list. The big question is will this reach 10p before Millwall does?? IMHO this will now be taken private with ENIC snapping up the last few % of shares for pennies. If there are plans to raise money to build a new stadium then they won't want to share the profits with a bunch of pi's and fans. They have looked down the road, seen what Arsenal have achieved, have taken one look at their £850 million mcap valuation and want to keep it all for themselves. The Greedy B*****DS. ATB.

She's always had a mid Dec party and - touchwood - we've always had a good turnout. We have had a lot of picking up and returning to do, good job we've 12 seats in 2 cars between us, but other parents always seemed pleased to have a child free Sat or Sun that close to Xmas. Son is a different matter, mid Aug, so his was always a lonely B'day as all his mates would be away. So, just like the Queen he would have 2, one in June with his mates at school. and one with us. He spent his 18th up in the Andes in Peru on a World Challenge Expedition, so we had a cheap one there LOL!! B'days sound pretty grim affairs in your household, and i thought i was tight LOL!!! So it is true what they say about the Scots!! Agreed 21 bigger than 18, but think the real biggie is leaving home and setting up on your own. Trouble is these days and in the current climate the chances of kids getting a good job and being able to set themselves up in their own place are very difficult. Might be stuck with my 2 for a while yet. Come on THT i need some good divs to help me pay for the kids to leave home. ATB.

We have very similar investment strategies, i have always invested in companies that i use and it has served me well over the years. Hope it works well for you. ATB.

Even more expensive for me this year as it's her 21st!! Venue, DJ, doormen, dress, shoes, limo's, designer cup cakes, £££'s behind the bar, etc, etc. Only slightly cheaper than if she was getting married, as i don't have a honeymoon to fork out for as well lol!!! ATB.

Maybe there was no blue here yesterday looking at todays sp. Have noticed of late that LSE's sp's after close are a law unto themselves and can vary quite considerably from where the sp traded. Ho Hum!! ATB.

Never use sp's to compare shares. The sp is merely a function of how many shares are in circulation. Of much more relevance is the mcap figure. SGC has an mcap of £1.433 Billion, wheres Cineworld's is only £270 Million. So SGC is 6 times the size and has 6 times the debt, so they're very similar in that respect. SGC are very cash generative and have just returned £270 Million to investors, plus they offer a DRIP to help your investment grow. Why not split your money between the two, that way you have two bites at the cherry. I always bought small parcels in a lot of companies, and over the years have weeded out a lot of the losers. Currently know nothing about Cineworld, but will add it to a watchlist and keep an eye on it. Lets meet back here in a year and see which one has done best. ATB.

Nice to see a bit of Blue here for a change, have you been out making the tills ring?? See someone bought Comet today for £2!! And they also got a £50 million sweetener to take it off the previous owners hands. If i'd known i'd have offered £2.50 lol!! Wonder how much i could get THT for?? But i'd want it written into the contract that i could help myself to unlimited freebies. And i'd make sure that my favourite Scottish Lassie was entitled to a big discount and free P+P lol!! ATB.

The wording on my vouchers - valid to 31/10/12 - definitely says "Against confectionery (including the purchase of gift vouchers)" and i also only received one sheet of 12 vouchers this year, 4 of each value. Don't have a single branch anywhere near any places i frequent in W London - i tend to avoid anywhere that charges for parking, so will be boycotting the west End if they continue with their ludicrous plans to introduce night-time and Sunday parking charges the Greedy Greedy Bar-stewards!!!!! Do still have a branch near me in Barnstaple, N Devon for when i'm down there, so just hope that one doesn't shut. May well be spending more time down there than i was planning as MIL is currently in hospital being assessed by social services with the outcome looking likely to be that she won't be allowed home on her own, even with 4 carer visits a day. This after her latest night time excursion where she was found by the police in a bus station 5 miles away not knowing which bus to catch home. Made all the more difficult by us being 200 miles away. After years of defiantly stating that she did NOT want to live with us but stay in her beloved Yorkshire, she told the misses last week that she now has "no choice but to come and live with us", thanks for the enthusiasm!!!! We are offering her her own granny annexe with en-suite wet room, seas views, large level garden and the chance to spend her remaining years with her only child - talk about ungrateful. Though with her rapidly declining mental powers she will probably not know who we are in 6 months time. Had we known this 6 months ago we would have had some conversion work done on the property, to say this has thrown us into a state of confusion would be somewhat of an understatement. Trying to get any sense out of Social Services or the hospital as to when she may be released or what the outcome of her review may be and what options we have is harder than pulling teeth. So much for our retirement plans, think they have been shelved indefinitely. Weather has been very nice here as well apart from Thurs afternoon when the clutch cable on my Espace snapped and the poor RAC man had to fit the new one in a torrential downpour!!! Hope you haven't been taking my name in vain, or setting me for a fall over on iii!!!

As you say you are in for the long term then companies that offer drips etc should IMHO be at the core of your portfolio. Unless you need the cash from a div then by taking new shares instead your holding grows exponentially, albeit slowly at first. ATB.

Most of the big boys and a lot of others offer a SCRIP, where they issue new shares in lieu of divs, or a DRIP, where they buy more shares for you in the market place with your div. They are basically the same thing but have different advantages for the company depending on how much of their profit come from foreign earnings, i think. The big advantage to the likes of you and i is that it is a great way to build a large holding over time at no extra cost. If a share has a yield of 5-6% then your shareholding can double in around 15 years. Have been investing since the mid 70's and have always taken divs as shares with the result that some of my holdings are way in excess of what i originally bought, namely BP, BT NG and all of the utilities. All of my holdings are certificated and having always read all of the reports that have been sent out so it was easy for me find out if they had any sort of dividend alternative. If you hold through a broker or nominee service then this should be available to you with a bit of research. My shares were also my retirement pot - i was fortunate enough to retire in my mid 40's - and i have certainly done a lot better than the small amounts i invested into personal pensions before i completely lost faith in them. Plus you have the advantage that you can cash in what you want when you want - always keeping one eye on CGT - unlike a pension where your only option is to eventually buy an annuity. My portfolio is now heavily into major companies who have a healthy div yield so, as i am not currently selling to fund my retirement, it continues to grow without having to invest any more cash. My only tip would be to diversify as much as possible, i hold over 60 shares directly, along with over 30 Unit Trusts invested in just about every region in the world. Unfortunately i not yet managed to get them all going up at the same time, lol, but overall i should have a fairly healthy retirement. Unless Greece defaults and brings the rest of europe down with it!!! ATB.

Have never been a fan of averaging down as so often the sp goes down to never recover, and it just becomes a case of throwing good money after bad. But then i know nothing about PFD so am sure you have your reasons. These days i am strictly a 'Blue Chip FTSE100' type of guy, never going to make any spectacular gains but then not likely to lose my shirt either. Obviously not sure of your investment strategy, are you the quick in and out type, or the lay it down and watch it mature type? I'm definitely the latter so always take my divs as new shares if the company offers a SCRIP or DRIP alternative. SGC do offer such a scheme, so if you do not need the cash from a div then it is a great way of increasing your stake without dealing costs. ATB.

Stagecoach made a payment of 47p per share on 21/10 as a way of returning £340 million to shareholders, with co-founders Sir Brian Souter and his sister Ann Gloag respectively pocketing £51m and £37m. We were given the choice of receiving the payment as either income or a dividend depending on our individual tax situation. As the £340 million roughly equated to about one-fifth of the stock market value they also underwent a 4-for-5 share consolidation in order that the sp was the same both before and after the payment - otherwise it would have fallen by roughly 47p as is normally the case when a div is paid. As you were not a holder you would not have seen any great change in the sp at the time of the payment, and indeed were probably not even aware of it. Had you been a holder you would have ended up with approx 80% of your original shareholding and 20% in cash, exactly the same situation as if you had decided to sell a 20% stake. IMHO both SGC and NEX are worth adding to any portfolio. Both benefitted from increased travellers due to the harsh winter and have continued to increase numbers as people have been forced to seek alternative transport solutions due to the high cost of petrol. Hope this answers yoyur question. ATB.

Still think buying a gift card with the vouchers and then using that to make all purchases, even taking advantage of special offers, is the best way to go. Don't see why you couldn't use the credit on a gift card to buy online, then the next time you shop online or instore the reduced balance would show up. Sorted. Petrol is petrol as far as i'm concerned, so i buy wherever is cheapest. Reckon the savings i make at the pump far outweigh any increase in the BP sp and div would be worth if i added an extra £200 a month to their turnover lol!! Yep, good song shame it got hi-jacked by Labour. 'Cos as we all now know things only got better for them with their snouts in the trough, for the voters it all got decidedly worse. Listen to me getting all political. It's my understanding that her placement year - doing Business Studies at Uni - is worth 10% of her final mark. If for any reason she can't complete then her remaining 90% would be scaled up, so there is a slight advantage in seeing it through to the end. She is on an absolute pittance working for a Non Profit making co - and has to pay £1000 pa for her travelling - so in reality it is more like an internship. But, it does get her out of bed at 6.30am, a real wake up call for someone who used to lie in bed until 3pm!!! Perhaps you could give away some of your coffee mountain as a prize in your next fund raising event. If ever we need to spend up to £50 for that 5p off voucher it tends to be on wine. beer or spirits. Reckon we have enough stockpiled to last a good couple of years. Liver failure here i come lol!!! ATVB.

don't have. ATB. It did say i still had 1 character left, but it was wrong!! Did try for a while - when you were away metamorphosising - to do shorter posts, but it didn't last for long. If there was a league table for average no of characters used per post then i guess we'ld be very close to the top. Off to update all my excel spreadsheets - i've got some brilliant graphs!! ATB.

Discount Vouchers: The front states "Against confectionery (including the purchase of gift vouchers) - although could they wriggle out of this when they issue gift cards and not vouchers?? The back states in condition 4: "May not be used in conjunction with any other discount offers". But have never had a 3-for-2 offer refused before. So a way around this would be for you to use say three of your '£5 off £20 spend' vouchers to buy a £60 gift card, then use it yourself to buy any offers you want in the future. Simples!! there's always a way around these things lol!! Hope your decision to not sell your 'food' share pans out for you in the long term, although if my portfolio is anything to go by, then yours is also a sea of red today. Did comment to another poster last week that IMHO the euphoria over last weeks 'Greek Debt' solution could well be short lived when all the details were worked out. Can't remember a similar period in all my years of investing when the FTSE and other markets have swung so wildly over such a long period. Very tempted to put it all back into the bankers box and not look for a few years!! It's been a long time since i was asked for proof of age, but did you hear about that 92 year old lady who was refused service at her offie as she had no proof?? Think the idiot behind the counter should have gone to Specsavers lol!! And yes in Tesco's on Sun saw an Asian loading 6 cases of Bourbon (36 bottles) into his trolley despite the sign saying only 2 bottles per customer, unfortunately was in a hurry and didn't have time to wait for him to go to the check-outs!! It is a regular sight in W London to see corner shop owners stocking up on the latest offers in the supermarkets. Not sure what powers they have to stop someone buying say 50 boxes of Daz or Shreddies!! MIL currently being kept in hospital for a week while social services carry out a full review. Not sure exactly what they are reviewing as it is very difficult to get them to tell us anything, despite the wife being her daughter. Yet they are perfectly happy to discuss her case with non-related people who visit, who then pass on the information to us. What with that, a daughter who looks likely to lose her placement job after 2 months as the company is in financial problems, and trying to get work done on 2 houses over 200 miles apart, retirement isn't exactly going to plan. I saw us spending our time between 'motorhoming' aroung the more scenic parts of the UK in our summers and 'cruising' around the warmer parts of the world in our winters. If we don't get things resolved soon we'll be holidaying in places with wheel chair access and widened doors to accomodate zimmers lol!! Great choice of song, brilliant band. And the answer to the question is 'Yes i would', kindred spirit and all that. My take on things at the moment is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIj-6fr2SlI it's just a question of how long we have to wait. And time is one thing i

A nice little rise here today - considering most my portfolio is in the red - news must have got out that you have been spending in your local stores lol!!! Can only think it must have been a error on the part of the assistant that served you to not allow the use of a voucher against the 3-for-2 offers, i have never had any problems. Agree that moving to Gift Cards can only be a good thing, so much easier to give knowing that it doesn't all have to be used in one go. Had an interesting run in with a couple of Tesco staff at the w/end. Arrived at the till with my trolley full of bottled beers - 4 for £5 - and a couple of litres of spirits on offer at £14 a litre. The till lady called the supervisor over who told me i couldn't buy more than six bottles of beer...What?? Asked for clarification from the store manager, whom he rang and told me "no only six bottles", which made no sense as i could buy a case of 24 cans!! So i stood my ground and demanded to speak to the manager - i had drawn quite a crowd by now as i can be quite big and shouty when it suits. The manager arrived and when confronted with the evidence on the check-out belt agreed there was no problem. The 6 bottle limit applied to the spirits on offer and NOT beers, of course by now the supervisor had walked away and the till operator was looking rather sheepish!! So i was right and they were wrong, a point i rammed home by asking the manager to ensure that all staff were properly briefed to avoid further confrontations. Am also rather miffed that i missed out on all the wrong coded chocolate they were selling the other week, Chocolate Oranges for about 30p and smarties etc for 10p, could have stocked up nicely. Still, i do have a mountain of beers and spirits, all cunningly bought in £50 parcels to maximise the 5p off petrol coupons. When it takes nearly 100 litres to fill my car and i can get 15p off a litre - by using 3 coupons at a time - it makes a big difference. And they do like to say "every little helps" lol!! With the MIL not sure how much is down to dementia and how much is pure stubborness - know where the wife gets it from!! She was adamant that she did not want us to 'look' after her cash, but we persuaded her to convert them to joint accounts as large sums of cash were being withdrawn with no obvious signs of how she could be spending £300+ cash a week!! When we later closed them and put them into our names we were dreading telling her what we had done. Eventually we plucked up the courage and said we had done it to more than triple the interest she was getting and that it would be easier to pay care home fees in the future than from her 6 month notice account paying 1%!! She was so pleased with us and kept thanking us for looking after her all w/end!!! Agree that in the great scheme of things you should go before your children, not sure i could cope if anything happened to mine. On that happy note i'll say bye for now. ATB.

Similarly nothing much to report from this end either, have been away in Devon for a fortnight having Solar panels fitted, and seem to have a lot on at the moment. What with arranging daughters 21st and chasing up to Yorkshire every other week as the M-I-L keeps going walkabout at night - loses track of time!! - and we have to get the Police out looking for her!! They usually find her asleep in the bus station, surprised that the shops are shut at 10pm and having forgotten which bus gets her home!! She then spends 3/4 days in hospital while they check she is OK, we arrange to be up there when she comes home, and then spend a couple of days trying to find out where she has been as she has no memory. The time before last they found her walking the wrong way down the local bypass with her clothes all ripped, Well she is 87, but it is now only a matter of months before she will have to go into a home. Before you attack me for not having her to live with us - she could have her own s/c downstairs flat with en-suite in sunny Devon - she is adamant that she wants to stay in Yorks. Although if i was a gambling man i would put a large wager on that as soon as we find her a nice care home she'll want to know why we don't want her to live with us!!! AARRGGHH!! As for takeovers, usually there is no choice, you just have to accept the cash or shares in the new company. As is the case with the Investec t/o of Evolution. I get Investec shares as there is no cash alternative, unfortunately the Inv sp has fallen since the t/o was agreed so will not get anywhere near what the deal was worth when first announced. As for Cadburys, i choose the cash alternative as i did not want to end up with Kraft shares. Due to bad experiences in the past i did not want another US stock, even if the sp increases 'Sods Law' says that the exchange rate will work in the other direction and wipe out any gain!! Don't know anything about EO or PMO so cannot offer any advice as to what is the best way to go. Once again 'Sods Law' says that whatever you choose will be wrong. Is a higher bid likely? How much would dealing and stamp eat into the extra profit you could make by selling out now? And of course you could diversify by selling out and then investing half back into PMO with the rest going elsewhere. But i wouldn't be tipping THT as a recipient for your cash any time soon. Sounds like you had a good time on your hol, and no i don't golf. Afraid my hand eye co-ordination never was very good so anything involving hitting a moving - or stationary - object with a stick was not for me!! And the last time i tried to play tennis with my son i snapped an achilles and was in plaster for 10 weeks!! Markets have picked up nicely this month, but i'm not convinced it will last. The next problem is surely only just around the corner. Still considering cashing it all in and hiding with it under the bed, will have to rely on you to tell me when it's safe to come out lol!! ATB.

Looks like you called this and the FTSE spot on, well done. As much i would like to think we have turned the corner and are on our way back to 7000+ i still think there is more bad news to come. Previously we have had small sticking plasters applied to a very serious ailment, yesterday we saw a sling applied, but is the problem cured?? I remain to be convinced!! With banks being forced to take a 50% write down on Greek debt, how long before another country tries to get a similar deal and have 50% of its debts written off?? Even 1 trillion won't go very far if the rest of the PIIGS follow suit. With the current wild fluctuations in the markets, think it might be time to throw all my certificates back into the bankers box, seal it up and mark it 'Do not open before 2020'!! ATB.