Cruise cancelled? Spending that elusive refund on another holiday or something special?

[Harry Peterson]

So you’ve managed to get that cancelled cruise refund - what to do with it?

 

Another cruise whenever that might be?

 

Another holiday somewhere else this year?

 

A project for the house?  Project for the garden?

 

Something else?

 

Or just take the sensible option and save it...........😁

[mercury7289]

2 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

So you’ve managed to get that cancelled cruise refund - what to do with it?

 

Another cruise whenever that might be?

 

Another holiday somewhere else this year?

 

A project for the house?  Project for the garden?

 

Something else?

 

Or just take the sensible option and save it...........😁

Put it back on the pile!😍

[Chrisdriving]

Toward a Tesla model 3 

Edited July 30, 2020 by Chrisdriving

[Windsurfboy]

Was hoping to go to Portugal and Tenerife in September  and November   both may be scuppered. UK  fully  booked over summer. Don't know when we can get back to south Africa,  visit to son in Australia is off, so playing everything  by ear.  Don't know when we can plan ahead with any certainty , so money doing nothing, if this goes on for years may have to leave it to kids

 

Only one definite,  No cruises till 2023

[Dermotsgirl]

When we stopped work five years ago, we toyed with the idea of moving to a bungalow, but in the end we decided to stay where we are. We’ve lived in this house for 31 years now, and we are very comfortable here. Over the last 3  years we’ve redecorated and updated, including the kitchen, bathroom and cloakroom

 

We weren’t going to do anything else for a while, but now that we have had a refund from Fred Olsen for our cancelled cruise in March, we are thinking about updating the patio and shed. The current patio and shed is 30 years old, and looking a bit tatty now.

 

We think we’ll be doing less cruising after this, so we may as well spend the money on making the garden a nicer outdoor space.  This will probably happen next year, to give us a chance to plan what we would like to do 

[Selbourne]

With refunds for 3 cruises and the money that we have been saving since March (not intentionally), we have already built up the funds for a fairly sizeable extension to our house! Even family and friends who still work, but have far less disposable income than us, have said they have been saving quite a bit due to savings on commuting, not spending money at lunchtimes and not going out generally, so you can see why the economy is in such dire straits. Lockdown happened virtually overnight but judging by the car parks at local stations and the lack of rush hour (still) it seems that people aren’t in a rush to go back to work. Then, of course, there are the potential millions who may never be required back at work, or whose jobs will sadly be lost once government support ends (which it has to, as we can’t afford it indefinitely). Anything those poor folk save now will need to be kept to help them through the inevitable challenging times that are ahead. Very worrying times.

Edited July 30, 2020 by Selbourne

[Selbourne]

2 hours ago, Chrisdriving said:

Toward a Tesla model 3 

I was on the verge of buying a very expensive car earlier this year but, much as I like nice cars, I couldn’t bring myself to splash out that amount of cash on a motor. Thank God I hesitated, as when the financial crash happened my investments dropped by around twice the price of that car in a matter of weeks! I’ve managed to claw back two thirds of my ‘losses’, but the car remains off the agenda. Funny how a financial crisis makes you reassess priorities 😂 

[ThomasBarrow]

Our bank balance looks healthier but dont want to spend it in case redundancy comes calling 

[Harry Peterson]

There's quite a lot of money floating around now thanks to earlier lost spending opportunities.  Ours will probably be going on a garden building. 

 

If I were still working and had any doubts at all about my job I'd be carefully saving it though. 

 

I think we're heading towards an even greater divide between those who have, and those who don't. 

[Britboys]

I've been thinking about replacing my front door. There's nothing actually wrong with it but it is solid - as in no glass in it - with only a small top-box to let light into the hallway. As I have lost my 18 night Med cruise on Aurora, I think I will go ahead with it and use any balance towards getting the dining room and spare bedroom painted.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I was on the verge of buying a very expensive car earlier this year but, much as I like nice cars, I couldn’t bring myself to splash out that amount of cash on a motor. Thank God I hesitated, as when the financial crash happened my investments dropped by around twice the price of that car in a matter of weeks! I’ve managed to claw back two thirds of my ‘losses’, but the car remains off the agenda. Funny how a financial crisis makes you reassess priorities 😂 

Blimey Selbourne,  I  obviously don't know what you invested in, but after the  initial crash, my investments are now within 10% of their initial value. 

At my age, I invest in defensive trusts with a good dividend history.  Obviously the dividends are down at the moment, but my capital is intact. I'm never going to make a fortune from my investments,  but I will get a reasonable income from them, even if there is not a great deal of capital growth. 

[hollyjess]

Just invested in decking and glass balcony on the front of our bungalow. With a little imagination we think we are sailing the high seas!

[Selbourne]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

Blimey Selbourne,  I  obviously don't know what you invested in, but after the  initial crash, my investments are now within 10% of their initial value. 

At my age, I invest in defensive trusts with a good dividend history.  Obviously the dividends are down at the moment, but my capital is intact. I'm never going to make a fortune from my investments,  but I will get a reasonable income from them, even if there is not a great deal of capital growth. 

To be clear wowzz, the value of the drop was around 20% of the total value of those specific investments from their all time highs (earlier this year, pre pandemic) and I have managed to recover two thirds of that, so am now down around 7 or 8% in total - so broadly the same as you.

 

My Financial Advisor describes my investment approach as ‘spicy’ 😂. I have made big gains over the years on ‘emerging markets’ and did well with specific funds such as Japan at times when they were in strong growth, getting out of them at their respective peaks. Even allowing for the 7 to 8% drop in recent months, the long term growth has still been phenomenal (even against just 12 months ago) and well ahead of any other type of investment product, so no need to feel too sorry for my recent woes 😂 

 

I generally begrudge the fees that financial advisors cream off investments, even though good ones gain you far more than they cost you, but mine has really earned his money in recent weeks. Once we had clawed back two thirds of the recent falls and got back to well over 90% of peak values (even though worldwide markets were still off by around 20% from peak), he told me that he was concerned about various economic data that was going to emerge over the next few months and that he thought it could be worse than predicted. Coupled with the fact that I was also bewildered by how much markets had recovered from recent lows when there was no substantial good news out there , and we were both of the view that the recovery would take much longer than predicted, he convinced me to massively de risk my portfolio and crystallise the recent gains, which we did some weeks ago.
 

Markets have fallen quite a bit since we made that move (proving that it was the right thing to do) and with second waves of the pandemic starting to emerge there is bound to be nervousness in the markets for some time. As mentioned earlier, the long term gains have been fantastic, so the easy option would be to not do anything from now on, but if there are more falls over the coming months and markets drop back to their lows of a few months ago (or worse), I think we will invest back in heavily with a view to gain from the upside over the next 5 years or so. I guess it’s all about calculated risks. The funny thing is that apart from the lottery (which annoyingly I have to do as I foolishly used the same numbers for years, so know that if I stop they will come up 😂) I never gamble as I feel it’s a mugs game with only one winner, but my investment instincts have served me well!

[Selbourne]

8 hours ago, hollyjess said:

Just invested in decking and glass balcony on the front of our bungalow. With a little imagination we think we are sailing the high seas!

Funny you should mention that as we are looking at doing a single story extension to our property and a friend has suggested that we create a balcony above it for the same reason 😂 

[Harry Peterson]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

Blimey Selbourne,  I  obviously don't know what you invested in, but after the  initial crash, my investments are now within 10% of their initial value. 

At my age, I invest in defensive trusts with a good dividend history.  Obviously the dividends are down at the moment, but my capital is intact. I'm never going to make a fortune from my investments,  but I will get a reasonable income from them, even if there is not a great deal of capital growth. 

Now there’s an interesting topic!  I’m not at all convinced by market levels at the moment, and in fact I moved the ISA to cash not long ago. I see a bubble yet to burst, but who knows. I’ll reinvest if/when the drop comes.

[Selbourne]

5 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Now there’s an interesting topic!  I’m not at all convinced by market levels at the moment, and in fact I moved the ISA to cash not long ago. I see a bubble yet to burst, but who knows. I’ll reinvest if/when the drop comes.

I think you posted this at the same time as my post Harry and it looks as though we are thinking the same. Some of the market movement during this pandemic has defied logic.

[terrierjohn]

9 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

To be clear wowzz, the value of the drop was around 20% of the total value of those specific investments from their all time highs (earlier this year, pre pandemic) and I have managed to recover two thirds of that, so am now down around 7 or 8% in total - so broadly the same as you.

 

My Financial Advisor describes my investment approach as ‘spicy’ 😂. I have made big gains over the years on ‘emerging markets’ and did well with specific funds such as Japan at times when they were in strong growth, getting out of them at their respective peaks. Even allowing for the 7 to 8% drop in recent months, the long term growth has still been phenomenal (even against just 12 months ago) and well ahead of any other type of investment product, so no need to feel too sorry for my recent woes 😂 

 

I generally begrudge the fees that financial advisors cream off investments, even though good ones gain you far more than they cost you, but mine has really earned his money in recent weeks. Once we had clawed back two thirds of the recent falls and got back to well over 90% of peak values (even though worldwide markets were still off by around 20% from peak), he told me that he was concerned about various economic data that was going to emerge over the next few months and that he thought it could be worse than predicted. Coupled with the fact that I was also bewildered by how much markets had recovered from recent lows when there was no substantial good news out there , and we were both of the view that the recovery would take much longer than predicted, he convinced me to massively de risk my portfolio and crystallise the recent gains, which we did some weeks ago.
 

Markets have fallen quite a bit since we made that move (proving that it was the right thing to do) and with second waves of the pandemic starting to emerge there is bound to be nervousness in the markets for some time. As mentioned earlier, the long term gains have been fantastic, so the easy option would be to not do anything from now on, but if there are more falls over the coming months and markets drop back to their lows of a few months ago (or worse), I think we will invest back in heavily with a view to gain from the upside over the next 5 years or so. I guess it’s all about calculated risks. The funny thing is that apart from the lottery (which annoyingly I have to do as I foolishly used the same numbers for years, so know that if I stop they will come up 😂) I never gamble as I feel it’s a mugs game with only one winner, but my investment instincts have served me well!

Our FA switched us into some life strategy funds which allow you to decide how big a percentage exposure to equities you want, the rest being safer fixed interest stocks. 

We liked them so much we decided we no longer needed his annual input, so we now are saving his annual fees as well.

[wowzz]

15 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

To be clear wowzz, the value of the drop was around 20% of the total value of those specific investments from their all time highs (earlier this year, pre pandemic) and I have managed to recover two thirds of that, so am now down around 7 or 8% in total - so broadly the same as you.

Sorry if I misinterpreted your original post. Glad that things are generally OK.

When we lived in Spain we used an international financial specialist who set up a trust for our finances,  so as to mitigate our tax liabilities.  Since we've returned to the UK I've more or less looked after our investments myself. Given our ages I've gone mostly for the safer option, and whilst not setting the world on fire, we are generating an income of 3 or 4% plus some capital growth. 

I'm proud that I withdrew all our holdings in Neil Woodford's fund well in advance of his fall from grace.

[Harry Peterson]

2 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I think you posted this at the same time as my post Harry and it looks as though we are thinking the same. Some of the market movement during this pandemic has defied logic.

I completely agree.  There seems to be no logic to current prices, given that markets were already high pre-correction and that there must have been substantial structural damage to companies by what’s happened.

 

There aren’t many places now for money to go, given interest rates, and that’s propping things up, but I’m staying uninvested for now, despite the obvious risk.  I sold at a good point after the rebound.

[terrierjohn]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Sorry if I misinterpreted your original post. Glad that things are generally OK.

When we lived in Spain we used an international financial specialist who set up a trust for our finances,  so as to mitigate our tax liabilities.  Since we've returned to the UK I've more or less looked after our investments myself. Given our ages I've gone mostly for the safer option, and whilst not setting the world on fire, we are generating an income of 3 or 4% plus some capital growth. 

I'm proud that I withdrew all our holdings in Neil Woodford's fund well in advance of his fall from grace.

Did you have insider knowledge about Woodford, or was it a lucky premonition?

[Harry Peterson]

Sounds to me as if we might usefully have a separate thread for this!

[Selbourne]

11 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Our FA switched us into some life strategy funds which allow you to decide how big a percentage exposure to equities you want, the rest being safer fixed interest stocks. 

We liked them so much we decided we no longer needed his annual input, so we now are saving his annual fees as well.

Sounds sensible John. I had contemplated ditching my FA as well, as I begrudge paying a lot of money every year when I take an active involvement myself, but his recent suggestions have been extremely beneficial so I’m giving him a stay of execution 😂 

[wowzz]

12 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Our FA switched us into some life strategy funds which allow you to decide how big a percentage exposure to equities you want, the rest being safer fixed interest stocks. 

We liked them so much we decided we no longer needed his annual input, so we now are saving his annual fees as well.

I did the same. Took the profit from certain investments and put them into a mixture of 60% and 80% strategy funds. I  know my returns will be less, but at my age I'm looking for a little more security.

[wowzz]

3 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Did you have insider knowledge about Woodford, or was it a lucky premonition?

Mainly luck, although I'd like to pretend it was astute financial planning

In acctuality,  I'd made a reasonable return on his fund for a few years, but then other funds began to out perform his, so I got out and reinvested elsewhere. 

 

[terrierjohn]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I did the same. Took the profit from certain investments and put them into a mixture of 60% and 80% strategy funds. I  know my returns will be less, but at my age I'm looking for a little more security.

We are currently in the 40% equity fund so much lower exposure to equities, and despite recent ups and downs, it's not doing too badly at all.