Member Info for Gate13Boy

The Motley Fool ? Are you for real ?

You can do most banking online these days including banking cheques. Don’t blame Lloyds in the least. If you don’t need staff, get rid of them. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of non-productive public sector jobs available in the next couple of years with good pensions paid for by the shrinking private sector.

Traditionally September and October are bad months for the markets and then we get a good run up into the new year. That hasn’t happened this year so I’m going to trim some of my holdings especially US stocks that have been incredible and are trading on huge price earnings multiples now and stick the proceeds into bonds. I’ll come out if there’s a reasonable correction. Hope all’s well 88. The elephant in the room here is the budget next month 🙄

I don’t know how you guys have your platforms work but my SIPP is with AJBell and my stocks and shares ISA is with Barclays Smart investor. My most profitable holding in my SIPP is Nvidia (up 7 times) and in my ISA Rolls Royce (up 12 times) . I have trimmed my holding recently in both. They both show I still made a purchase at a price. Unless Troublesome was given free shares, I very much doubt he has zero paid shares. Perhaps he will explain to all of us how he has shares he acquired at 0p unless he works for Lloyds Bank.

“All my investment in Lloyds is pure profit, but I'm not embarrassed at all”

How did you buy the shares at 0p exactly ? Don’t remember them ever being that low.

I’ve always thought a “windfall tax” was a tax on profits that were over and above usual profits as a result of an extraordinary event. It appears they’re just a tax on profits these days. Let’s hope Lloyds have over-provided for the motor scandal and it keeps the Grim Reaper Rachel from the door.

The boss of AJBell has warned today that the Chancellor’s failure to dispel rumours of increased taxes to pensions through tax relief and/or reduction to tax free lump sums is causing instability and an exodus of money from the markets. The boss of Foxton’s has given a similar warning regarding the housing market with the market stagnating.

The damage this government is doing to the economy is frightening.

“Britain’s gold-plated public sector pensions bill will soar to almost £59bn next year after inflation remained stubbornly high at 3.8pc last month, analysis shows.

Retirees will net an extra £2.1bn from their index-linked pensions – more than double the previous year’s increase.

The latest rise is a “glaring inequality” that could add more than £52bn to taxpayers’ bills over the next two decades based on future inflation and the average length of retirements, former Bank of England economist Neil Record said.

It comes as Chancellor Rachel Reeves already faces pressure to plug a black hole in the public finances during her second Budget, which she will deliver on Nov 26.

Public sector pensions rise every April by the annual consumer price index (CPI) figure from the previous September.

According to Treasury forecasts, public sector retirees were already in line to receive £56.8bn during 2025-26. However, this will now increase to £58.9bn next year, according to Mr Record’s calculations.”

Were all going to pick up the tab for Labour’s inflation.

I have more faith in DCB coughing up than Lokiloo to be fair. He did honour his Mr Meerkat pledge to be fair to him. Lokiloo just ran off when you made him look stupid and he lost the bet.

Offer him a £100 charity bet Bloomers that inflation exceeds 4%. He needs to put his money where his mouth is.

Agreed Bloomers. Wonder how much Rachel’s budget is going to add to inflation this time round.

Let’s just hope the US ratings agencies and sub prime lenders aren’t up to their old tricks again. The world never seems to learn from previous mistakes.

I wouldn’t call 0.37p sizeable. I’m sure it will recover 😉

Virtually unchanged from 2024. Probably won’t stop Rachel Thieves eyeing the profits up mind 🙄

“The FTSE 100 plunged as trading got underway in London over concerns about the health of global lenders.

The UK’s benchmark index dropped by 1.3pc as banking stocks were hit hard, with HSBC down 2pc and Lloyds Bank down 2.4pc.

It comes after two US regional lenders triggered broader concerns about credit quality as they warned about bad loans.

Jim Reid, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, said: “While this was an ostensibly isolated story at two banks each less than $10bn market cap, the event drew inevitable comparisons to the regional bank stress that followed the collapse of SVB in March 2023 and raised broader questions over potential credit quality issues after a lengthy period of elevated rates and expansion in private credit, following also the bankruptcy of subprime auto lender Tricolor last month.”

*Doom Loop

British living standards are poised to improve at the slowest rate in the G7, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to raise living standards across the UK, the IMF warned that higher inflation and a weak economy meant real growth per person would be just 0.5pc in 2026.

That compares with 1.8pc in the US and 1.2pc in Japan. The eurozone will also outpace Britain, with growth in GDP per head of 0.9pc.

Just weeks before Rachel Reeves delivers another tax-raising budget, senior officials at both the IMF and the Bank of England issued a series of warnings about the UK economy.

Alan Taylor, a senior Bank of England official, said the economy was in danger of recession. He warned the risk was now of a “more forceful downturn, where recession dynamics start to kick in that can be very difficult to contain or even reverse.”

Official figures published on Tuesday showed that unemployment jumped to a four-year high of 4.8pc in the three months to August.

Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England Governor, said fears about the “softening” labour market were being increasingly raised by businesses across the country. He added that weak productivity growth had in effect created a “speed limit” for the British economy that would need to be kept in check by higher interest rates.

On Tuesday night, the IMF urged Ms Reeves to come up with a credible plan to reduce debt and grow the economy or face the prospect of investors dumping Britain’s debt.

Athanasios Vamvakdis, a deputy director at the IMF, said: “Clearly the markets are concerned about the UK economy. We have seen more volatility in the UK compared to other advanced economies recently.”

“The market is asking for more details on the fiscal plans in the UK. So yields as a result are higher in the UK compared to other advanced economies.”

Thanks Labour 🙄 The banks in turn will suffer.

Labour delivering on Chamge 👍

As long as they get paid, they don’t give a f*ck. My IFA used to park his car round the corner because he didn’t want me to see it 🤣

Pleasure fella. LTI pointed me in the direction of SMIFs and I am grateful to him. I came across TFIFs when I researched their website.

They’re about 114p gray and paid out 11.07p last year. They’re about to go ex Div (quarterly payments) so the price will drop about 2p.