From: Mike .
Hi Folks,
Into the third week now beginning Sept 14, 1999. The traffic is still quiet so all the chickens made it across the road without one being transformed into a chicken burger.
Stats-wise, 3 new posts and 13 replies with Sue and Les posting 10 replies between them. The longest thread had 7 replies. The Buy v Rent debate gets another working over with 2 threads and DHA pops up for the first time.
Just to give you an idea how slow the forum was in those days here are the post dates for one of the threads: 14/9/99, 19/9/99, 28/9/99, 3/10/99, 6/10/99, 7/10/99, 30/11/99, 4/4/00. No, that last date is not a typo. This was a late reply of 6.5 months after the first post! This was attentioned to Les who never replied, tsk,tsk. This fellow made the mistake of not posting his query at the top of the contents page or at least posting a "pointer" to the old thread. Of course, the new forum makes it easy to spot new replies to old threads with the New Messages and Todays Messages features.
Some notables: In hindsight, the DHA thread was the first in which a public company/org/group/club had unfavourable comments made about their product. So started a chapter in this forum's history which cast a large, dark cloud over it. The central issue was, of course, freedom of expression versus public slander (misrepresentation?), which was a moral versus legal debate. In the end, legal won the day. Remember that, newbies, when asking this forum to comment on a company or its product. Don't expect a candid response or any response, for that matter.
Susan made a brief appearance and said: "This is my first time checking in here and I really like the forum idea. I'll have to check in regularly in future." Well, I don't know why, but Susan never posted again. Did she join the legion of "lookers"?
Quotable Quote: "I've FOUND it - DON'T use the TAB key!!!" and, "Note to others - DON'T try to cut and paste from Word!!! And don't use Tab." This was quoted by Les, who didn't mention why but this became a running joke when people made multiple posts. By the way, this quote can be found in this week's Classic Post by Les. Enjoy. The question from Sue:
"Hi Les, I am interested in your comments about renting instead of buying first. I hear other people say this as well and wonder if you would mind expanding on this. I cant stop seeing renting as paying off someone elses mortgage (which of course as landlords we are happy for others to do for us) and in the long run even tho I know you are paying off your house with after tax dollars, it would be free from CGT and when you are ready to retire you can downgrade to something smaller and use the realised money to pay off some of your debts. Still as a lot of people espouse it, there must be some merit to renting yourself, I just need someone to explain it to me. Cheers Sue"
See the attached file for Les' reply.
PS: In another post, Les said, "When renting out your old home, CGT exemption CAN REMAIN while you rent it out for UP TO 6 YEARS - after which you must stop renting it (or lose CGT exemption)." I don't doubt you Les but this issue is important to my situation viz-a-viz relocating to London for ten years. I had intended to keep my PPR and rent it out, but that may not be wise based on what you said about CGT. It looks as though I would need to sell before 6 years is up to avoid CGT. Is that the case?
Regards, Mike
Hi Folks,
Into the third week now beginning Sept 14, 1999. The traffic is still quiet so all the chickens made it across the road without one being transformed into a chicken burger.
Stats-wise, 3 new posts and 13 replies with Sue and Les posting 10 replies between them. The longest thread had 7 replies. The Buy v Rent debate gets another working over with 2 threads and DHA pops up for the first time.
Just to give you an idea how slow the forum was in those days here are the post dates for one of the threads: 14/9/99, 19/9/99, 28/9/99, 3/10/99, 6/10/99, 7/10/99, 30/11/99, 4/4/00. No, that last date is not a typo. This was a late reply of 6.5 months after the first post! This was attentioned to Les who never replied, tsk,tsk. This fellow made the mistake of not posting his query at the top of the contents page or at least posting a "pointer" to the old thread. Of course, the new forum makes it easy to spot new replies to old threads with the New Messages and Todays Messages features.
Some notables: In hindsight, the DHA thread was the first in which a public company/org/group/club had unfavourable comments made about their product. So started a chapter in this forum's history which cast a large, dark cloud over it. The central issue was, of course, freedom of expression versus public slander (misrepresentation?), which was a moral versus legal debate. In the end, legal won the day. Remember that, newbies, when asking this forum to comment on a company or its product. Don't expect a candid response or any response, for that matter.
Susan made a brief appearance and said: "This is my first time checking in here and I really like the forum idea. I'll have to check in regularly in future." Well, I don't know why, but Susan never posted again. Did she join the legion of "lookers"?
Quotable Quote: "I've FOUND it - DON'T use the TAB key!!!" and, "Note to others - DON'T try to cut and paste from Word!!! And don't use Tab." This was quoted by Les, who didn't mention why but this became a running joke when people made multiple posts. By the way, this quote can be found in this week's Classic Post by Les. Enjoy. The question from Sue:
"Hi Les, I am interested in your comments about renting instead of buying first. I hear other people say this as well and wonder if you would mind expanding on this. I cant stop seeing renting as paying off someone elses mortgage (which of course as landlords we are happy for others to do for us) and in the long run even tho I know you are paying off your house with after tax dollars, it would be free from CGT and when you are ready to retire you can downgrade to something smaller and use the realised money to pay off some of your debts. Still as a lot of people espouse it, there must be some merit to renting yourself, I just need someone to explain it to me. Cheers Sue"
See the attached file for Les' reply.
PS: In another post, Les said, "When renting out your old home, CGT exemption CAN REMAIN while you rent it out for UP TO 6 YEARS - after which you must stop renting it (or lose CGT exemption)." I don't doubt you Les but this issue is important to my situation viz-a-viz relocating to London for ten years. I had intended to keep my PPR and rent it out, but that may not be wise based on what you said about CGT. It looks as though I would need to sell before 6 years is up to avoid CGT. Is that the case?
Regards, Mike
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