Working from home on Wednesday and the phone rings – it is the BBC. Do I advise on mortgages and investments? Yes. They are doing a feature on the merits of renting versus buying and would I like to help? Two other professionals will be involved including an estate agent. They have a lady who has sold her property and wants to know if she should buy or rent. What are the pros and cons? It depends…
Starting at the beginning, to get a mortgage you need a deposit and a job in that order. Is it a good time to sell? Market is probably at or slightly past its peak so can see no point in delaying here. The researcher and I chat for about 15 minutes – am I available to record the item Thursday or Friday? The crew and I end up in Waterloo Place near The Mall and my thirty seconds of fame is all recorded in about 10 minutes. In spite of all the doom and gloom, there is no reason to put off buying a property if you can afford it. Lender’s interest rates are coming down, there is a lot of unsold property on developers’ books and if you rent for a long time, you are probably paying off the landlord’s mortgage. The difficulty here is that deposits now need to be around 10 per cent.
The feature goes out at about 6.30 p.m. Friday after the main news but a taster is shown at lunchtime and I get three phone calls – nice to be popular but haven’t reached my Andy Warhol 15 minute quotient yet.
The week started with a blitz on pension advice at a firm of management consultants where a lot of new guys have joined and in spite of a generous benefits package, no one has given them any advice. Eight people talk to me and all goes well except for one guy who wants to borrow against the value of his pension pot. This is not possible with the type of scheme involved and switching to a self-invested scheme (similar to a 401 (k) in the US) will involve much higher charges.
No point in reinventing the wheel, so here is a link from The Scotsman on the 10 Commandments of Pension Saving http://business.scotsman.com/personal-finance/10-commandments-for-pension-saving.4071211.jp
The Friday networking group BRX Bond Street http://www.brxnet.co.uk/bondstreet/index.html has a real buzz about it now with 3 new members in as many weeks. Visitors include a lady who makes chocolate, a jeweller who does bespoke jewellery and another lady looking for water- and energy-efficient products. Another lady visitor puts out request for the ladies only – can they help a journalist friend of hers who is doing a feature on gold-digging men!
My first podcast, a guide to the site, has been recorded and will be uploaded shortly – watch this space!
Out of the blue come two tickets for Tchaikovksy’s Eugene Onegin at Glyndeburne Opera http://www.glyndebourne.com/ courtesy of a lodge member who is a professional opera singer. As it is the final dress-rehearsal, smart casual rather than evening dress is OK.
Finally, a friend from Hollywood is in town and we end up putting the world to rights in Bayswater till past midnight. His film The Listening http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427461/ is doing very well and will available on DVD in the UK 28th May.
A good weekend to you all.