Finance Farm

Come on America

floxblox — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:49:29 +0000

Should we take the result of this Presidential race as a sign of good things to come? Mr Obama certainly seems to have the charisma to become a great leader.

Here’s hoping he can get you guys back on track!

Losing money hurts

floxblox — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:41:12 +0000

Hope you had a good weekend – I certainly did – that’s until I lost £40.00

What better way to ruin a lovely day Christmas shopping than to go and lose a wad of cash out of your back pocket? I was pretty miffed, it has to be said, especially as we discovered the loss after shelling out on a lovely lunchtime meal.

Anyway, I’m over it now . . . I just hope it went to a good home!

Japan cuts base rate

floxblox — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:46:24 +0000

Interesting to get the news that Japan have cut their base rate to just 0.30%. The Times reported today that cut is inline with growing concern that their economy may be falling into a recession. It also follows a 0.5point cut by the US Fed earlier in the week.

I wonder what knock on effect a recession in Japan would have on the rest of the world?

Hedge fund woes

floxblox — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:03:45 +0000

I won’t pretend to understand hedge funds . . . all I know about them is the rumoured wealth accumulated by their captains! It seems though that a few of them may have come unstuck at the hands of the VW as its share price rocketed & then collapsed in a bizarre twist of fate.

The Times reports it far more elequently than I ever could:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article5036543.ece

Mortgage securities

floxblox — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:19:46 +0000

Whhhooooooof . . . OK so all this mortgage securitization business goes way over my head . . . but I’ve just had a great PR pinged into my inbox which answeres some very interesting questions. You can see the original article here.

Let’s start with the basics; What is mortgage securitization?

Very simply, it’s when mortgages are stuck together, chopped into chunks and then sold on as bonds. This leads directly to mortgage backed securities . . . A bond repaid with the payments on the original mortgages.

Easy!

Credit crunch – SO WHAT?!

floxblox — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:42:34 +0000

I have to admit, all this talk of credit crunch, falling markets and housing crashes does my head in. Sure – it’s one of the biggest financial catastrophies ever, and I hope to God we’ll never see anything like this again, but I can’t help thinking SO WHAT?

Then I remind myself that:

Jobs are on the line
Savings are on the line
International economies are on the line
International relations are on the line
The value of my house is on the line
The value of my pension pot is on the line
My childrens savings are on the line
My JOB could be on the line

Scary stuff What will I do if everything I’ve worked for just falls apart at the seems?

Mortgage rate reduction – GMAC

floxblox — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:01:11 +0000

Nice to receive a letter from GMAC the other day informing me that my variable base aret has been reduced by 0.5% in line with that of last week BoE base rat cut.

Quick calculations revealed that that will save me about £60.00 a month – not to be sniffed at right now, I can assure you.

The most reassuring thing is to see that the big guys are at least trying to pass on some of the savings to the consumer, rather than just bolstering their profit margins.

Good work GMAC! Thank you!

Welcome to Finance Farm

floxblox — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:15:27 +0000

Hi there and welcome to FinanceFarm.Wordpress.com. I’m a personal finance industry insider and I’ve started this site so that I can give my thoughts and opinions on the world of personal finance. Don’t worry, this isn’t some mas expose or anything – I love the finance industry – it feeds my family and helps me to do the things that really matter to me in life.

I’ll be taking some time to write the occasional post about the usual mortgage, loans, personal debt and insurance info – but I’ll also be mixing it up with some personal posts and comments.

If you’ve got anything to say about the mortgage, loan, debt or insurance industry, feel free to drop me a line – I’m all ears