Archive for » January, 2009 «

Can we fix it? Yes, we can. Well, let’s hope so.

drew
22
Jan 2009

I meant to blog about Obama’s speech the day he was inaugurated, but just haven’t had the time. I listened to it whilst driving home from work.

As speeches go I thought it was pretty good, though I bet he was a bit narked about fluffing his lines whilst repeating his oath of alligiance or whatever the Americans call it.

I liked the way he appreciated that there was a world beyond America’s borders, and that America had to regain the respect of others. He said the right things on the economic crisis, and the various wars ongoing in the world.

Of course, talk is cheap (well, that whole show wasn’t cheap, but you know what I mean). I hope the guy hasn’t been too overhyped. He seems genuine enough from a distance.

I’m not naturally a cynic, but it’s hard not to be sometimes. But here’s a cautious thumbs up Mr. Obama. Good luck.

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Favicons

drew
20
Jan 2009

Hopefully, when you’re visiting my site with Firefox or IE7, you should be able to see my ‘favicon’ in your browser address bar.

If not, it looks like this.

It’s a way to give your website the ability to show up more distinctively when bookmarked apparently, you’ll notice more and more websites using them (e.g. BBC News or Google).

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New cars….

drew
18
Jan 2009

Having been swanning around in a swanky new VW Eos for the last week and a bit courtesy of my local VW Dealer in lieu of my ancient Mk1 Golf GTI, I’ve had time to reflect on the pros and cons of owning a new car.

Comparing the Eos to the Mk1 Golf is a bit pointless, 25 years of age and 35 of design separate the two cars, and they have virtually nothing in common. I will mention the power-to-weight thing though. The Mk1 has a mere 112bhp from its normally aspirated 1.8 litre engine, the Eos 200bhp from a 2 litre turbo-charged engine, almost twice as much. Performance? The Golf manages 0-60 in 8.2secs, the Eos? 7.8. Not as much as you might suspect. Weight is the issue! The Eos is a convertible, so it’s heavily weighted down with extra strengthening, not to mention the satnav, mechanics, air-con, huge wheels etc.

Comparing the Eos to my 9 year old Audi A4 is more realistic. The Audi still feels modern, though having covered 160,000 miles, it’s close to the ‘old-banger’ stage of its life. However, it shares many of the same features. It’s got air-con, power steering, a modern dashboard design, airbags all over the place, high intensity lighting, large alloy wheels, excellent brakes. In fact the Audi has cruise control and a better stereo over and above the Eos. The Audi feels a little sloppier, but not much given its age and mileage.

A week with a brand new car was fun, but given that the Eos represents £24,000 and my Audi is worth about £2,400 I can’t quite understand what I would be paying £21,400 for. Even if I forego the fun of the Eos and get a sensible shoes new Audi A4 I’d be paying the same sort of money.

So, it was fun while it lasted, but having a new car for a week has only re-inforced to me how much money you can save by getting a decent solid example of a premium marque like Audi or VW and keeping it for as long as you can…

Category: Cars  One Comment

Base rate down again…

drew
13
Jan 2009

Another drop in the base rate, now 1.5%. This is the lowest rate since 1694, or to put it another way, the lowest level in the bank’s 315 year history. Wow.

My mortgage (0.95% base rate tracker) is now down to 2.45%, which is just crazy. I am not the ideal customer for a bank right now. It’s saving me huge amounts of money.

Will it drop further? I’m curious to see if it drops to 0%, will I have a mortgage of 0.95% in a few months time?

Category: Day to day  2 Comments

35 Years of ‘Golf’…

drew
12
Jan 2009

I took my Mk1 Golf GTI down to the local VW Dealership over the weekend, at VW’s request, so they could use it as part of their display whilst launching the Mk6 Golf. They had arranged a display of all the Golfs from 1 to 6.

Obviously not the best time to be launching a new Golf, but I suspect the Golf will sell well anyway, as it has a loyal following and many many customers who will always move to the last model from their previous Golfs.

The Mk1 looked slightly odd inside the showroom. I imagine it’s been a while since one was there, given that the car was launched in 1974 and went out of production in 1983!

The thing that strikes you the most is how small it is. The Mk6 is huge by comparison (even the mk3 dwarfs it).

Apparently it has been drawing bigger crowds than the Mk6, but I guess it’s a pretty rare car now, and people have fond memories of it.

VW is keeping it for a week, as it is going up another dealer in Medway for next weekend.

In return, VW has given me a VW Eos (a hard top Cabriolet) to play with. This is an interesting car, with the mechanical folding roof, heated leather seats, and last (but definitely not least) a 200bhp 2-litre turbo-charged engine.

A big hit with the kids, and definitely a fun car, but at £24,000 in this spec, it’s not a car I would buy. It’s almost as long as our Passat Estate, but you can barely get two adults and two kids in it, and forget any luggage, particularly if you fancy lowering the roof – a lifestyle car.

Trouble is, I’ve not got the right lifestyle! Maybe in another decade! :)

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Credit Crunch – Personal effects

drew
08
Jan 2009

I always do a round up of my personal finances at the beginning of the new year, checking mortgage levels, savings, pensions and so on.

It’s been an interesting year to say the least.

The Good:

Mortgage : I have an offset tracker mortgage set 0.95% above the base rate. At the beginning of 2008 I was paying 5.95%, it’s now down to 2.95% and looks like it may drop further. Unlike mortgagees at Nationwide Building Society, my bank (Barclays) doesn’t apply a ‘collar’, so I may benefit even more from a drop to a base rate of 1%, making my mortgage an almost ridiculous 1.95%.  At the current interest rate I am saving approximately £250 a month – which is very noticeable! I keep the same mortgage payment regardless of rate, so I’m effectively overpaying my mortgage rather drastically now.

Savings

Managed to keep these going, infact they were boosted by the drop in mortgage rates. Only one major expense last year to fix my car, so on the whole this wasn’t a bad year. Big ticket items on spending were a telescope, two laptops and family hols obviously.

The Bad:

Pension. Last Jan I was £11,000 ahead of target in my pension. This year due to the massive crisis in the stock market, I am around £20,000 behind target. I’ve effectively been set back two years at this point. It’s not quite that bad as I’m nowhere near retirement age and (hopefully) the stock market will have some ‘ups’ as well as ‘downs’ in the next 30 years. Food for thought though.

Investments. Figures not in yet, but expect to see a drastic drop in unit trust values. Again not all bad, as your investing money goes further, but will need to wait for the upturn to see how it looks.

On balance – good and bad for me. Short term effects are probably favourable due to the offset tracker mortgage – without that (e.g. if I’d been on a fixed rate mortgage, it would have been pretty much doom and gloom)

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