I used to work for Reader’s Digest. At the beginning of 2007 the boss, a charming southern USA patrician called Thomas O. Ryder arranged the sale of the company to a firm of venture capitalists for $2.4 billion, the debt secured against the company. Last September the company entered chapter 11, dragged down by this debt. The pension scheme has to all extents and purposes closed down, so the 400GBP a month (small, I know, but a nice addition) I was forecast to get upon retirement is now 8GBP. I’m lucky, some of my friends who worked there are in their 50s. Mr. Ryder walked away with $58million as his proceeds from the sale in 2007.
My business advice? Buy property and avoid all other long term investments. Some cunt will steal it from you, and he’ll be doing it totally legally. Any other investment advice is bollocks.
Tom: Property is hardly secure either. I’m sure others could add to this list, but in the very least, these things could destroy your investment’s value:
Someone could find toxic chemicals on the property next door/shifting water tables/some other potential catastrophe;
The government could decide to build a new freeway through your property (offering you much less than you think it’s worth)/rezone it for some other use/build a power plant next to it/flood the market with new land for building;
The government could increase rates/taxes, or in some worst, nightmare scenario, nationalise/outlaw private property;
Demographics in the neighbourhood could change dramatically;
You could buy a sure thing and find out it wasn’t such a sure thing and watch the price of your property stagnate or even collapse (after a bubble), meaning that not only would the property not grow in value in line with inflation (or much beyond it), but that you’d still have to pay rates/taxes, maintenance costs, etc., so you’d lose money. There are a lot of people in the U.S. suffering this fate right now.
Oof, Tom. I have my liddle work pension, but to be honest, I’m sure it’d be better spent on idle fripperies, like the rest of my cash.
Money. Meh, I just can’t bring myself to care. I try, I really do. My only saving grace is that I only ever spend about 2/3 of what I earn.
The way I see it is that any of my efforts aren’t going to result in life-changing amounts, and making those efforts would mean sacrificing a lot of my freedoms, so might as well just chill out about it. And someone will give me a house someday, I’m sure of it.
Off to consider the lilies, etc. Um, after I’ve written some stuff.
Buttercup: I believe you’ve written before that you’ll be okay because your family is okay. Fair enough. I’m basically in the same situation. For everyone else though, it does make a big difference, even in small amounts. You’d be amazed how little the difference is on a week to week basis in one’s youth between living a dignified life at seventy or not having the heating on and eating pet food.
Well, we ain’t ‘rich’, but we look after eachother. No-one in my clan is freezing their nuts off and cracking open the Pedigree Chum, nor ever will be in my lifetime.
[quote=“tomthorne”]I used to work for Reader’s Digest. At the beginning of 2007 the boss, a charming southern USA patrician called Thomas O. Ryder arranged the sale of the company to a firm of venture capitalists for $2.4 billion, the debt secured against the company. Last September the company entered chapter 11, dragged down by this debt. The pension scheme has to all extents and purposes closed down, so the 400GBP a month (small, I know, but a nice addition) I was forecast to get upon retirement is now 8GBP. I’m lucky, some of my friends who worked there are in their 50s. Mr. Ryder walked away with $58million as his proceeds from the sale in 2007.
My business advice? Buy property and avoid all other long term investments. Some cunt will steal it from you, and he’ll be doing it totally legally. Any other investment advice is bollocks.[/quote]
tomthorne, were you born in the year of the buffalo?
Your answer may help me with another thread.
Tom, sorry to hear about your bad luck. The magazine and newspaper business sure is bleeding money and jobs.
Another thing to consider with regard to pensions is whether longevity runs in the family. A few (un)lucky souls seem certain for an early exit, you know, some sort of Hound of the Baskervilles type curse.
Anyway, just popping out on a beer run, taking a short cut across the moors.
Just popping out with the dog, for some Pedigree Chum.
It’s a gamble: mother’s family, tall, thin, plenty of octogenarians, prone to Alzheimers and other geriatric care-heavy exeunt. Father’s family, short fat, no hexagenarians (? Hexed.), even. Hmm, looking at the family pictures, I’m not even sure whether I should leave it so long to book my holidays … Although I do have my mother’s nose, and the slight twitch at the left of her mouth when she concentrates.
Having some clever baybees might be a good plan, but they may very well end up slackers like me which is what happens to comfortable kids. Nothing to kick against, nothing to escape. I guess I’ll keep paying and see what happens.
[quote=“zender”][quote=“tomthorne”]I used to work for Reader’s Digest. At the beginning of 2007 the boss, a charming southern USA patrician called Thomas O. Ryder arranged the sale of the company to a firm of venture capitalists for $2.4 billion, the debt secured against the company. Last September the company entered chapter 11, dragged down by this debt. The pension scheme has to all extents and purposes closed down, so the 400GBP a month (small, I know, but a nice addition) I was forecast to get upon retirement is now 8GBP. I’m lucky, some of my friends who worked there are in their 50s. Mr. Ryder walked away with $58million as his proceeds from the sale in 2007.
My business advice? Buy property and avoid all other long term investments. Some cunt will steal it from you, and he’ll be doing it totally legally. Any other investment advice is bollocks.[/quote]
tomthorne, were you born in the year of the buffalo?
Your answer may help me with another thread.[/quote]
Year of the dog (although it might possibly be pig - March 29th, 1970, not sure how it works with the CNY). I assume that buffalo is bloody unlucky or often gets shat on?
