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Pension Pain - 2/28/2009 6:52:41 AM

RealityLicks

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Halifax, the UK's biggest mortgage provider, has disclosed that one in six of their customers has a loan greater than the value of their home. The number of people in negative equity has soared from 0.1% a year ago to 17% today. The CEO of the group responsible for this little feat (the biggest loss of any company in any single year since UK records began) was pensioned off. Sir Fred Goodwin has retired, at age 50, with an annual pension of £700,000. He earns more in a week than someone on minimum wage earns in a year, simply for wearing unpleasant trousers to the golf club. What should we do?

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RE: Pension Pain - 2/28/2009 6:54:28 AM

UncleNasty

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Off with is head!

Uncle Nasty

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RE: Pension Pain - 2/28/2009 6:57:20 AM

YoursMistress

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Become a CEO and retire to wear strange pants. There is your incentive to be successful. Conversely, one could legislate that anyone making over 500K be made to give half to the poor. I suspect that there would be no CEO making more than 499K on paper. Pick another number if you like.

yours

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RE: Pension Pain - 2/28/2009 7:00:15 AM

RealityLicks

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Too quick!

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RE: Pension Pain - 2/28/2009 7:02:49 AM

RealityLicks

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Incentives to be successful are one thing. But this guy failed.

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RE: Pension Pain - 2/28/2009 7:19:31 AM

YoursMistress

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quote:

ORIGINAL: RealityLicks

Incentives to be successful are one thing. But this guy failed.

With £700K and a standing golf date, I'd say he's a raging success. Certainly it's not fair for the gentleman in question to walk away with a prize. But I think that there ought to be incentive to making more money, not an incentive to obfuscate real income to avoid an arbitrary ceiling. Chasing down every renegade executive with a golden parachute isn't going to save us from the consequences of the economic conditions. Rather it's a lesson for all who chased rapid home equity and risky mortgages for short term schemes. We all need to be better and smarter consumers as well.

yours

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May your service of love a beautiful thing; want nothing else, fear nothing else and let love be free to become what love truly is. -- Hadewijch of Antwerp

As a rule, I don't like to make general statements.

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RE: Pension Pain - 2/28/2009 7:28:01 AM

corysub

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£700,000.......788,208.84 EUR.......999,250.56 USD.....6,835,459.84 Yuan

Guess that's a lot..not matter what the currency. Does he also get National Healthcare..or is the company going to also pick up his tab for private insurance?

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RE: Pension Pain - 2/28/2009 9:18:14 AM

Jeptha

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quote:

ORIGINAL: RealityLicks
The number of people in negative equity has soared from 0.1% a year ago to 17% today.

I don't understand why this has reached "crisis" stature.
If you invest in something and the value goes down...well, I don't know what to tell you.
That's what often happens with "things" - the value fluctuates.
It's the nature of all markets since time immemorial, is it not?

If you thought your home worth the price when you bought it, you should remain happy with it.
If you bought it as an investment to turn around quickly, then you're not the investor you thought you were, and will take it on the chin or devise another strategy.

Crappy luck, but that's what sometimes happens.

I'm lacking sympathy because I live in a rathole because that's all I could afford and I knew that. I made a realistic assessment of the relative value of the property, its potential future, and my own ability to pay.

In my city, even with the market downturn, house values are still *grossly* inflated.
It could be that demand will keep prices high, but it's a risky market, as things could continue to go down.

What to do? Buyer beware.

I look all around me and see goods and services that aren't worth half the asking price.
(at least not to me at the moment; it depends on how much disposable income is coming in, of course...)

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