Snooze

That looks great. My boy would give his right arm for one of those.

Did you check for rats in the engine bay?

Well - you don't know that - but for Sony's sake, I hope so!

Problem is that they always argue that the price a car is advertised for is only a guide to how much they're worth. The actual value of the car can be very different. Same way that the average sale price of a house is considerably lower than the average advertised price.

Your personal circumstances are of no interest to them and do not matter. All they do is take all the data you give them: - how old you are, - what colour your car is, - whereabouts you drive it, - etc, etc, etc, etc and plug it into a mahooosive formula that calculates: a) the likelihood you are to have a claim (doesn't matter one jot if it's your fault or not - it costs them the same whether it's you driving it into a tree or someone randomly torching it) b) how much the claim will cost (not just the value of your car - also needs to worry about damage to property, legal claims for physical injury etc.) That is ALL they really care about. They then calculate three things: 1) How much they need to charge you for the year to stay ahead of the curve on probability and cost (based on the above) 2) Comparison with how much their competition are charging (may involve discounts for certain targetted demographics - eg. online discounts, girl-only insurance, 10yr+ no claims, etc.) 3) Markup based on how much they think they can get away with from YOU (usually based on new customer discounts or, counter-intuitively, increases for loyal customers - the "hassle" costs) And that's it. Simples.

Claim's all well and good, but if you really blame Sainsburys, the very best thing you can do is stop shopping there.

My brother owns a company which does track days with fully prep'd and crewed Radicals and single-seaters for around that money.

Well - after nearly a month laid up with turbo problems and a broken rad, we are back and running. I didn't realise how much I'd missed the power! After some amazing work custom fitting a radiator build and some new pipework for the turbo, the car is running better than it ever has. So - huge shout out to the guys at AFR Tuning - Simon, John, Matt et al. - thanks for a great job and also clearly explaining to my mechanically-challenged brain where things were at (Simon also did a very good job explaining what should be done next, and how to give you more money when I get it! )! Top notch work. I really couldn't be happier!

lol - you would have been ripe for the grooming!

You would have like to have been born in the 60's?? Why???

LOL - just as long as you don't get upset when Lord Myners and Lord Ashcroft get caught doing the same thing!

Ooooooh - it just makes me so angry thinking about what sort of damage that will do to the local wildlife and ecology!!!

Oh yeah - you're right. No income/capital gains on gambling/lottery. Still have to pay tax on the interest, though. Phew - should have £3k-ish per day to muddle through with!

How much winnings do you actually get after you've paid tax on it?! How much interest do you actually get after you've paid tax on it?! I suspect with the all the deductions you'd probably end up having to scrape by with less than half that - maybe closer to a meagre £2.5k per day?

Hi Luke. Based on my recent experiences with AFR Tuning, I'd say you couldn't have joined a better team.

The code looks like it's trying to turn an int (the percentage payout - I'm guessing intended to be between 72 and 98) into an enum. Becuase the enum is non-typed, the underlying implementation actually generates ints starting at 0 to represent the enumeration. The rewrite is taking advantage of this fact by implementing the conversion as a mathematical algorithm: (PercentagePoint - 72) divided by two, rounded down. (use of the bitshift is a fast way of doing divide by two, round down). To me - the bitwise shift is non-obvious, the ab(use) of the fact that the enum is actually an int is risky, and the edge/error cases (PercentagePoint98) are now handled differently, but the new implementation will be a lot quicker. It's a decision for absolute performance vs. defensive coding and maintainability, IMO

Only points I'd have is that: a) your version operates differently in the case where PercentagePayout >= 98 or b) your version relies on an assumption about the underlying implementation of a non-typed enum (ie. ints starting at 0). Might make the code confusing to maintain for the next person to look at it (using a bitshift is extremely geeky, btw! ) Whilst I started out as a C programmer, loving concise code, I have grown to appreciate the impact of it and the benefits of a more easily understood, albeit more verbose coding style.

And even more so with the amount of inflation that low interest rates and ongoing quantitive easing is going to create!

Good workaround. Round here, though, 15% would be at least £20k. That's money I'd rather spread out into stocks, precious metals and (if I'm feeling lucky!) soft commodities at the moment. The main problem with a property investment is that it's damn hard to get rid of quickly if things go pear-shaped. Ozz - great story and sounds like it worked out well for you. One of the big problems at the moment is there's an unrealistic number of property investment success stories (and poxy TV programs!!) because of the boom over the last 20 years. Good to see you recognising it as "taking a chance". Too many people these days see investing in property as a safe bet. Hope Geo has a similar success story to tell in another 5 years time!

Property is way too risky for my liking. There's still the possibility of things coming crashing down when the real recession hits. Property was good when you didn't need a deposit - you could just invest all the bank's money! These days you have to drop big deposits for BtL property - IMO money that could usually be better invested elsewhere. That said - if the BoE carries on with its ridiculous quantative easing then the £ is going to collapse through the floor. The more mortgage you can take on the better if that happens! Edit: PS. congrats on the hard work, though - if you can turn a profit from doing the properties up, that's money well earned!

A bunch of people I know are renting (they can't afford the £50k+ deposit you need for a London property), but are earning good salaries in the commercial sector. Where do they fit? And anyway - being on the property ladder is representative of wealth, not social status. Most new teachers/nurses/policemen/etc. these days don't earn enough to buy their first property, for example. We own (well - partly!) a house, but get some benefits. Does that make me lower class?

Not bad, Gaz, but I think there's still a "working class" inbetween your lower and middle definitions. They're not entirely the coal miner/factory workers of yesteryear, but anyone who's getting by with a wage that covers their rent, or theire living costs whilst under someone else's roof, but can't afford to buy their own home with today's ridiculously over-inflated prices. ....and your Lower Class definition should probably be "living solely off benefits" rather than just "claiming benefits"!

Apparently some pretty pictures of space are sufficient.......

French ducks. (or try looking up "dive planes")